If there’s one thing Magic players love, it’s equipment. Since its introduction back in the original Mirrodin set in the distant year of 2003, equipment cards have seen some major overhauls on how they’re designed. Originally, equipment was all colorless artifacts, before upgrading to specific colors and gaining all sorts of wild abilities.
With the evolution of equipment cards making huge leaps in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, now seems as good of a time as any to take a look at some of the best equipment in Magic and see how they hold up.
Swiftfoot Boots
Realistically this spot can be for both Swiftfoot Boots and Lighting Greaves. They both functionally do very similar things, but with some key differences. The Greaves are great if you’re looking to protect your commander at all costs, while the Boots are better if you’re looking to load up your commander in a more Voltron-style deck.
Luxior, Giada’s Gift
If you’ve ever wanted to smack your opponent with a planeswalker (that isn’t a Gideon), then you’ll need Luxior, Giada’s Gift. It is the only equipment which can be equipped to a planeswalker and when it does, it transforms it into a creature.
As a creature, it gets +1/+1 for each counter on it, but not just loyalty counters too, all counters of any type. This helps pump up your planeswalker/creature to higher stats. You can still activate your planeswalker’s loyalty abilities while it’s a creature, letting you keep ticking your planeswalker up while smashing face with it.
Sunforger
One of the strangest pieces of equipment ever made, Sunforger is less of an equipment card and more of a repeatable instant tutor effect. Sunforger does give the equipped creature +4/+0, which is a pretty beefy stat increase for a three-mana equipment.
Sunforger must be equipped to activate its ability since unattaching it is part of the cost. In exchange, you get to search your deck for a red or white instant card costing four or less mana. You can use this ability to tutor up a card like Gods Willing to give your creature protection from a removal spell, or even something like Settle the Wreckage to stop an opponent’s attack.
The Mirran Swords (Specifically Feast and Famine)
There is no bad Mirran Sword, there are just some which are better than others. Sword of Feast and Famine is often the best of them all. Giving a creature protection from black and green means you dodge most of the best removal spells, and can stop most of the biggest creatures in Magic with ease.
Even better, Sword of Feast and Famine rips apart your opponents hands and gives your lands a second chance to tap out for another spell, or to keep your mana open for some instant speed shenanigans. Any Mirran Sword is worth a slot or two in your deck if you have access to them, with Feast and Famine being one of the best.
The Reaver Cleaver
One of the more impressive pieces of equipment to come out in recent years is The Reaver Cleaver. This oppressive artifact gives the equipped creature +1/+1 and trample as well as the ability to create Treasure tokens equal to the amount of damage the equipped creature deals to a player or planeswalker.
Slap this on to pretty much any creature of your choice and rush down whichever opponent has the smallest defenses. You’ll not only take down their life total by a chunk, but also ramp you up with Treasure tokens. Combine it with the enchantment Aggravated Assault to keep taking extra combat steps with the Treasures you create for infinite combat steps.
Commander’s Plate
Commander’s Plate is a newer piece of equipment from the aptly named Commander Legends set. This one-mana equipment gives the equipped creature +3/+3 and protection from each color not in your commander’s color identity, which is absolutely wild in the right deck.
If you’re playing a mono-green deck for instance, the equipped creature gains protection from white, blue, black, and red spells and creatures. Sure, a board wipe can still take them out, but short of that there’s nothing your opponents can do. There is a bit of a diminishing return with Commander’s Plate in three or more colored decks, but it’s amazing in mono or two-colored decks.
Illusionist’s Bracers
One of the best equipment cards to combo off with, Illusionist’s Bracers enables all sorts of wild interaction by being equipped to a creature with an ability. Illusionist’s Bracers copies any non-mana ability you activate on the equipped creature, giving you two activations of whatever it is your trying to do.
One of the easiest combos to do involves Seeker of Skybreak equipped with the Bracers and Llanowar Elves. With Seeker of Skybreak equipped, you can tap it to untap both your Llanowar Elves and itself, generating one green mana each time. Do this as many times as you like to generate as much mana as you need.
Sword of the Animist
The stat increase from Sword of the Animist is nothing notable, but the amount of value you get out of it makes it an auto-inclusion in any deck with a lot of basic lands. Whenever the equipped creature attacks, you get to tutor up a basic land and put it directly into play tapped. It doesn’t even need to connect to a player like The Reaver Cleaver, it’s an attack trigger so it’ll happen once it’s declared as attacking.
In a mono-colored deck you can throw Sword of the Animist on a token or creature you don’t care about, attack whoever you like, and ramp yourself up in mana. You can also use Sword of the Animist strategically to trigger additional landfall abilities, or to shuffle away whatever is on top of your library in the hopes of getting something better.
Helm of the Host
While it is a hefty mana commitment, Helm of the Host is a wickedly powerful piece of equipment. At the start of combat on your turn, you get a token copy of the equipped creature with haste, and if it was a legendary creature, the token isn’t legendary. Attached to practically any commander means you’re getting twice the value.
Even if you don’t attach it to a legendary creature you can get massive benefits from it from a bevy of enter the battlefield triggers you might get from the copied creature.
Embercleave
One of the most brutal pieces of equipment printed in terms of raw power, Embercleave can turn nearly any commander with red in their color identity into an unstoppable terror. More often than not you’ll be casting this six-mana equipment for just two mana, since it costs one generic mana less for each attacking creature you control.
Even better, you can wait until the last second to cast it, since it both attaches to a creature you control when it enters the battlefield and has flash, letting you cast it after your opponent has already declared blockers. Once attached to a creature, that creature gets +1/+1, double strike and trample, letting you absolutely bully your opponent’s creatures with your own.
Ryan Hay (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over on Twitter where he won’t stop talking about Lord of the Rings.