Card/Deck [MCD] Equipment

CML

Contributor
(Maybe we could turn this one into an article too, once I've synthesized all the smart things other people say with the better thoughts here...)

The original Mirrodin block had bad art, an ugly new card face with ugly gray mana symbols, bland flavor, bland flavor text, a cheesy plot, and development so thoughtless it led to bannings in Standard. And it was still pretty sweet! The draft environment MD5 -- with its zero- to five-color decks -- is a lot of fun, and a lot of the reason why is the new card (sub)type

EQUIPMENT

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"Woof."

Equipment is the perfect fix to the whole "auras either lead to quick death or ruinous blowout" problem, and in fact the only buffing auras I run in my Cube (cubetutor.com/viewcube/114) are Rancor and Angelic Destiny, both designed with that issue in mind. Equipment is sweet for two main reasons: it makes aggro more resilient, and it makes aggro more difficult to play. "Equip" is, after all, an activated ability ... and considering the upshot of NWO, it's a surprise SOM block had so much equipment at common (one of the few things I liked about that draft environment).

As is often the case with metallic worlds from Led Zeppelin to Los Alamos, there was trouble in paradise ...

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"I'm going to need to check your security credentials."

Skullclamp remains the best card printed since Mana Drain -- a raging adolescent boner, compared to the counterspell spit-up from the game's infancy.

In Mirrodin's checkered past Skullclamp is the felony. It is not something I would want to pass, be passed, or play with or against in Cube. Trying to fight the card advantage is like a tribe of Bushmen resisting a modern army -- you may kill one of their dudes, but there's always more ...

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Traditional Cube design (720, singleton) has difficulty supporting aggro, as control operates naturally off a number of one-of's and has far greater raw power and any number of other reasons covered elsewhere on this site. The typical solution is to include cards like Sulfuric Vortex and Black Vise (http://riptidelab.com/top-8-most-oppressive-cube-cards/) to "bridge the power gap between Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Jackal Pup." Most equipment does basically the same thing, so it's not considered "cuttable" as doing so would disrupt the flawed and fragile balance of these environments.

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"Respect the delicate ecology of your delusions."

All Cubes that maximize power level include the following "Power Eight" equipment (in descending order of unbeatable-ness):

Skullclamp
Umezawa's Jitte
Batterskull
Swords of X and Y

Umezawa's Jitte is banned in Modern and is making an annoying resurgence in Legacy, where the new legend rules now allow for dueling copies of the salad fork. Batterskull led to the other Modern-era Standard banning and is pure misery to play against. The Swords are very cool designs with bold flavors and beautiful art, but anyone who's played Modern Masters limited knows what a bummer it is to face one down.

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"Whosoever pulleth this Sword from this Cube and Cube pack will be rightwise born King of the Nerds."

My main objection to the Swords is this. The other day I was bitching about hexproof in my pretentious, crotchety, correct way: "It's the worst mechanic ever," I said. "No," my friend replied. "Protection is much worse." And he was right. Nothing could be less interactive than shutting off your opponent's deck with a "problem permanent." There is a case for including Protection in Constructed, but I find it to be as unsubtle a balancing tool as Black Vise and Sulfuric Vortex. The thesis-novel aesthetic of Great Sable Stag and the vestigial Pro-Blue on Goblin Piledriver bear me out.

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"I'm afraid I just blue myself."

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This brings us to the issue at hand. What equipment is worth including? The difficulty is that the power level on equipment drops precipitously after the "Power Eight." Here's a comprehensive list of equipment I've considered for my Cube:

Bonesplitter
Empyrial Plate
Grafted Wargear
Sylvok Lifestaff
Bonehoard
Lightning Greaves
Runechanter's Pike
Mortarpod
Basilisk Collar
Cranial Plating
Loxodon Warhammer and Behemoth Sledge

Plating requires a big artifacts theme, those artifacts probably aren't mana rocks, and one of the few failings of MMA was the unplayable Affinity deck, so that's out. Bonesplitter was a great card in MMA and looks good in theory, but in practice nobody ever played it. Mortarpod was a powerful card in Mirrodin Besieged Standard but here does worse without as much one-toughness fodder and/or targets. Loxodon Warhammer and its more restrictive cousin Behemoth Sledge are experientially not fun, and anyone who remembers the blight Butcher's Cleaver was on the otherwise-great ISD format can imagine why.

That leaves Plate, Wargear, Lifestaff, Bonehoard, Greaves, Pike, Collar. I love all these cards:

Empyrial Plate is a sweet design that excels in Caw-style decks (especially with the four Squadron Hawks!)
Grafted Wargear is easily the most powerful of these cards, and the drawback is surprisingly complicated to manage correctly.
Sylvok Lifestaff and Basilisk Collar appear to hose aggro, but they also work well in aggro and overlap with the Trinket Mage package. Plus, you haven't really lived until you've skydived I mean cast Panglacial Wurm from your library I mean suited up an Inferno Titan with a Basilisk Collar.
Bonehoard is an old Wrath-proof favorite, also from MBS standard, and I feel the strongest design out of all the Living Weapon cards.
Lightning Greaves is a little non-interactive, but drafting around it is difficult enough that it's worth it.
Runechanter's Pike is another interesting "build-around-me" exercise, has provided moments of gratuitous overkill when the suited-up creature is stolen (http://www.starcitygames.com/articl...--Week-In-And-Week-Out--Top-8-In-Seattle.html), and goes especially well with extra cantrips (http://riptidelab.com/cantrippin-balls-doubling-up-on-cantrips/).

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"Showtime."

Seven cards is a small theme, enough to support Stoneforge Mystic, but probably not a second tutor like Steelshaper's Gift. Though I wish they'd print equipment somewhere between Grafted Wargear and the Swords in power level, I'm proud of what excluding the "Power Eight" has compelled me to make of my aggro section. I've lowered the mana curve, removed chaff like Kor Skyfisher, eliminated M10 buddy-lands entirely, doubled up on Zendikar fetches and Ravnica shocklands, and even duplicated a few powerful one-drops. I like closely contested games that start on turn one, not "did he draw the Black Vise and/or does the Sword he drafted give Protection from all my spells and/or can I not cast spells until turn 4" lovefests. Don't you? And equipment can be a part of that, too.
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Feel even more incoherent than usual atm, so quick thoughts on each:

- Grafted Wargear > Swords and probably > Jitte imo as well.

- Batterskull is powerful and interactive without being oppressive: it's not like Baneslayer Angel where it just dominates the board on its own, and it often leads to interesting in-game decisions: do I equip away from the germ and onto a bigger guy, risking a massive tempo loss if that guy is removed? Do I try to equip or set up bounce + replay?

- Adventuring Gear is the best Bonesplitter of all time in Constructed; I'm not sure how fetchland-heavy your Cube has to be for it to be good/playable though, and it probably doesn't make it above 360.

- Runechanter's Pike is hilarious and fun.

- Haven't tried Empyrial Plate or Bonehoard in a while. Lightning Greaves is sick, especially if your Cube tends more towards Baneslayers than Mulldrifters.

- I think most of the Swords are ok: I like the subgame of trying to get through a hit with SoFaF to set up other plays, and I don't think SoWaP is oppressive as its power level fluctuates in a way that's at least semi-controllable from the other side (also red and white are two of the most natural aggro colours, and aggro doesn't take too much damage from SoWaP usually - I like that the two effects of SoWaP vary in importance based in what you're playing against). SoFaI comes closest to being too good, but in Cube nowadays an effect that costs 3 and then 2 and yet gets bodied by removal would have to be very strong to be oppressive. SoBaM and SoLaS don't even make the cut imo.

For Auras I also like Moldervine Cloak and Elephant Guide.
 

CML

Contributor
Man I also really love Cloak and both Guides (Griffin too!) but nobody ever played them. Cube design is so sensitive to any number of factors that individual card values fluctuate violently and unpredictably. For example Adventuring Gear is an awesome card that is unplayable in my Cube.

Part of the issue with Swords (and Bskull?) is that they're perhaps even better in control. As I remember it back in the era of Caw-Blade (for which I am nostalgic, because Standard actually is that boring right now) the SoFaF subgame was the only game and if they got a hit in you were FUCKED.

Dom -- Bskull has a bunch of activated abilities but it's so very hard to deal with that I group it in with JTMS i.e. cards that have lots of choices but are so powerful and resilient they're not difficult to play well.

That being said it's really interesting this forum has a big swath of Sword partisans. (Re. mana inefficiency -- Swords are all but unplayable in Modern, fwiw) -- can y'all describe the effect they have on games? I think this could be a fun part of a potential article, a pseudo roundtable on equips we love and hate. The whole point is that we'd disagree
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
That being said it's really interesting this forum has a big swath of Sword partisans. (Re. mana inefficiency -- Swords are all but unplayable in Modern, fwiw) -

I was about to make this point in an article a couple months back then scoured through some daily MODO results and found a bunch of decks with swords.
 
That being said it's really interesting this forum has a big swath of Sword partisans. (Re. mana inefficiency -- Swords are all but unplayable in Modern, fwiw) -- can y'all describe the effect they have on games? I think this could be a fun part of a potential article, a pseudo roundtable on equips we love and hate. The whole point is that we'd disagree


I'm not sure if things would go exactly as you are saying. Most people who plays swords are very aware of the impact they cause on games. The thing is:

a) Their impact is relegated because there are other powerful cards with swingy effects in their cube.
b) The environment they are played makes them not so overpowering (people maindecking artifact destruction, knowing how to play around equipment, etc).
c) People don't care about their effects because swingy cards are exactly what they want to be playing in their cubes.

I can safely say that swords in my list are between a) and b) and the only games that were actually lost solely to swords were because of bad gameplay choices.
 

CML

Contributor
vince -- you have a power cube, swords seem fun there!

on the topic of cubes that are not fun: i just had the joy of getting cataclysmed and verdicted, then land taxed for a cool dozen basics and verdicted and sphinxed and whatever else. so i hated myself some more once i realized that i'd done something roughly as degenerate the first match w/r/t what my opponent was doing. i think the whole point of the modo cube is to recreate the utterly awful gameplay and the rigid pecking order of childhood, with its gehry-like architects at the top.

i wanna get a mic so i can make a video talking about this
 
Im really glad you started this discussion because I was just talking about this with some players in my group. I honestly have not been impressed at all with the swords in my cube. I could very well be drafting wrong but I dont pick the swords as highly as everyone else seems to do and I haven't had a problem combating them. Most of the aggressive decks Ive played lately just dont want to be wasting time with the swords. Id rather play another threat, or remove one of their blockers. Id much rather pick up a Jitte/Clamp/Wargear before a sword because they are cheap to cast and cheap to equip. However, Midrange and Control seem to want swords the most. With that said my group and I were discussing going down to 2-3 Swords and adding other equipment. 3 that Im interested in that havent been mentioned are Shuko , Darksteel Axe , and Trusty Machete. Also I still have not seen Clamp be as overpowered as you make it out to be. Ive honestly see more players lose with a clamp than win. But we also havent seen any Bloodghast/Gravecrawler shenanigans either. Overall I see it as a very strong card but nothing too oppressive. Jitte on the other hand I consider to be one of the most powerful cards in my cube and I will NEVER pass it no matter what Im playing. If a cards was to come out of my cube for being too powerful that would be the first to go.

So if you were to run only 2-3 swords which would it be and why? Im leaning towards Fire/Ice, War/Peace, and Body/Mind.
 
@CML: Dude, drop that MODO cube! Drafting it won't make it any better and will only make you hate abusive cards more and more :p

So if you were to run only 2-3 swords which would it be and why? Im leaning towards Fire/Ice, War/Peace, and Body/Mind.


Maybe it's just in my list, but Body/Mind has been the one that always hits harder and ends game more consistently than any other swords, especially against control. With that said, my two favourites are Fire/Ice and Feast/Famine and if I were to cut some swords, those would be the ones remaining.
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
As obvious as it might sound, Jitte and Skullclamp are only OP in an environment where they're the most unfair things. They don't stack up well against the likes of Upheaval or Griselbrand.
 

CML

Contributor
dom -- i fully agree. in a 720/singleton swords probably help balance things (and not in the palsied gymnast / 1W sorcery sense). the same goes for powered cubes.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Maybe it's just in my list, but Body/Mind has been the one that always hits harder and ends game more consistently than any other swords, especially against control. With that said, my two favourites are Fire/Ice and Feast/Famine and if I were to cut some swords, those would be the ones remaining.


These were the ones I ran when I was running two. At one sword I toggle between them now and then.
 
The recent tezz thread made me examine my list and this forum a bit more so it's time for some good old necros!

I'm pretty sure both bonesplitter and mortarpod are a house, after playing with both for a couple years. I do this awful thing with my artifacts that I won't admit here but suffice to say I've gone through a lot of equipment; here's a few that have stuck and haven't been more than a footnote in this thread:



And some failures:


I had come to the same conclusions about a lot of what's been said in this thread over the likes of loxodon warhammer and similar cards, and I had my foot down about swords (not having them despite owning them) for the first year of my cube's existence, but I caved to my players' constant clamoring, and boosted my artifact hate to compensate.
 
I can't help but find myself wanting a card that is about half as good as a sword (well value wise) and costed about right for that, in quite a number of decks.

Does specter's shroud fit that description?
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Sure, if you like paying three mana for something that has no board impact and requires two connected hits to generate card advantage, assuming they have cards in hand.
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
How has O-Naginata been for you? At first glance, it seems like it'd be almost unusable in white or red aggro, which are two decks that generally appreciate having cheap equipment.
 
The nagi (accompanied by hand-chopping gesture and yodeling of its name at my LGS) was originally to let midrange and ramp decks push through token generators (no one likes swinging their briarhorn into a sorin token every turn), and after seeing it get cascaded into off a bloodbraid elf and equipped with his extra mana, I was convinced. White decks take it if they have enough anthems or +1/+1 effects, and red has a sprinkling of 2-drops with 3 power, but it's mostly for decks that don't typically take equipment, and they use it.
 
I ran sunforger for a while, hoping it would be able to do some deranged things, or whatever, but none of my players wanted to use it that way.
 

CML

Contributor
I have tried o-naginata to the contemptuous merriment of my cubers. even Bonesplitter was cut, but I do love equipment and hope that there's some way to get more playable equips in my cube if it gets crossed with the tezz theme.

how's haunted plate mail been for yall?
 
Anybody else played with haunted plate mail? I did get crushed by it in m14 but think the equip cost might be too much?

Would also like to like o-naginata but the restriction on equip just makes me shudder.

Does sylvok lifestaff just crush aggro decks?

Infiltration lens seems interesting?
 
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