Equipment Tier List | Commander Clash Podcast #26 

How do you feel about these semi-specific tier lists? Should we rank them in a general sense (it's possible that no card is S tier since these cards are niche), or should we rank them amongst themselves (this is S-tier equipment, but even the best equipment is mediocre). With a general list, most equipment are only good in Voltron giving them a B or C rating, but a specific tier list would put everything at S or A. Same question applies to card draw. Do you rank "white card draw" in its own category or against other card draw? Non-green ramp? Non-blue counterspells, etc etc. We try make the discussion engaging so you understand the nuances/caveats, but people still really fixate on a final letter grade, so we want to try to make it more accurate. Interested in your thoughts.

crim when he sees sword of body and mind: "I know i could just mill you into some insane cards but think of the EMOTIONAL DAMAGE if i mill your win cons.

I like sword of the animist because it is an attack trigger not a combat damage trigger, so you just attack and ramp regardless if there are blockers or not.

In defense of Explorer's Scope: the two big arguments they proposed against it is Sword of the Animist and Sword of Hearth and Home. In paper, Explorer's Scope is around $0.25. The two swords are about $9 and $14 respectively. The swords might be guaranteed ramp, but at a 4 and 5 mana investment. Explorer's Scope has about 33% chance of grabbing a land every turn at 2 mana investment while also not hurting your budget. Also, no one is going to bother removing your Scope whereas Hearth and Home is certainly going to draw some attention. At the end of the day, it's not an amazing card, but it's cheap, effective, and flies under the radar.

Skullclamp will never be a disappointing card to draw in a creature deck. In the decks that can abuse it, it is the best card in that deck.

"Only sword that combos into a win condition" Hearth and Home can go infinite with Aurelia

Inb4 dowsing dagger SS tier by richard

Surprised Sinew and Steel was so low on the board. Had good protections from red burn and black removal and it blows up any player’s artifacts/planeswalkers not just the person you swung at. Also odd they didn’t do Fire & Ice.

fully expected Tomer to pivot from "Swords, the most popular, iconic, and powerful equipment in magic the gathering" to "so we're going to start off with Sword of Kaldra"

The thing they didn't mention about sinew and steel is that the protection colors are extremely relevant. Black probably has the most spot removal, which protection blanks, and while red has less spot removal, most of it's board wipes are damage based. In addition to that, you can actually run it in the red decks to make creatures survive your blasphemous acts or even hour of devastation.

As a budget-conscious player, I love Explorer's Scope. I really like how it can take lands off the top of my deck, thereby ramping me and potentially letting me draw more gas.

So sunforger for one is always played with mistfield plains which let's you recurring the same spell over and over again. Also there is a great draw spell. Valakute Awakening, unexpected windfall, and heartwarming redemption. It can also get flicker spells to get more value out of your creatures. There is also token production. Its more useful then Richard gives it credit for. Also its 5 mana to tutor and cast a 4 mana spell. Thats essentially 1 mana tutor for an instant. Also there is a 4 mana instant called Master warcraft that let's you choose which creatures attack and which ones block. This can kill a player or just wrath 2 players boards. And with mistfeild plains you can do that once per turn cycle. Its insane and does win games

Sinew and Steel is the best sword for generic commanders because it offers removal in colors without access to it. The other swords just do things

Apparently none of the crew has seen what Sunforger does in a Feather deck.

Skullclamp is a must removed if someone has it. It's utterly broken. The fact it's basically a repeatable 1 colorless mana village rites is huge. 2 cards on a dying trigger is insane. If you have teysa karlov that's 4 cards when something dies. I've used this card with 5 mana to draw 12 cards in a turn. How is that not strong?

I would have loved to see Robe of Stars. I think if you are running white, this is a better version of greaves/boots (as long as you don't need haste). It offers more comprehensive protection.

Seth: Need a critical amount of creatures to run equipment One Creature Voltron: *laughs*

Skullclamp I think is an S. Not because it goes in every deck but because the decks Skullclamp is good in it becomes the best card in the deck by far. So completely deck warping that I think it carries specific archetypes by its self

Umezawa's Jitte is kinda missing, I would rate it as a A or B.

Skullclamp is 100% A-S as soon as someone gets on the field with any amount of 1 toughness creatures, they come dangerously close to winning the game on the spot from my experience. me and my brother agreed to sideboard it out against eachother because games often came down to who could get skullclamp out first.

One thing I don't see discussed about the Swords is in addition to protecting the equipped creature they also make it easier for the creature to deal dmg to the player which is required for the rest of the sword to matter. So the GW sword is not as good at saving your creature but it is among the best for allowing the equipped creature to connect. Imo, GW are the colors that tend to run the most creatures.

Agreed with Tomer on Skullclamp, grade A equipment, so sweet. Awesome discussion overall!

Skullclamp is insane. I think it's an A tier at least. Token decks love it, sacrifice decks can get rid of larger creatures and even in no synergy decks it's fine to equip it on a random beast within token and leave it as a blocker. So either noone attacks me on the ground or I draw 2 and equip it to the next creature. It gets 2 cards out of a lannowar elves after you have 12 mana, but no cards in the late game. It gets you 2 cards to rebuild after a boardwipe... So it's solid in most decks, but insane in some

I think sword of sinew and steel has the best protection duo though - red boardwipes and removal spells are mostly damage based and black has tons of spot removal too. Not to mention, I feel like I see a planeswalker every game at more casual tables.

The biggest issue with this list is how you describe the tiers at the start. There's no equipment that's an auto-include everywhere and realistically pretty much nothing outside of maybe greaves, clamp and the best swords would even be A. I think it would work better as ranked as equipment rather than ranked against all other magic cards (in the theoretical framework of the letters).

Yooo the slander on Sinew and Steel, run more Liquimetal Torque in your decks and you'll understand the power (Myr Landshaper is trying his hardest too)

Speaking of emotional damage, you can hear it in Tomer's voice as he admits the kaldra pieces aren't that good

Definitely agree on boots and greaves. I think that people are just overly afraid of their stuff getting targeted, especially their commander. Personally, I basically only run them in decks where the commander has an activated ability that requires tapping

I really like Sword of Truth and Justice in decks that use experience counters like Kelsien or Meren

Richard: Plays tons of Ardinn-Rogahk decks Seth: has been playing tons of Boros Tomer: Kaldra fanboy Crim: hey guys did you hear about this new artifact subtype?

Tomer is acting like a uses car salesman trying to sell us these bulk equipment. I love it, just subbed.

In the decks that want it, Skullclamp is S tier. Elves, aristocrats, vampires, zombies, etc.

I'm fine with A for the Boots and Greaves. They don't go in every deck. I have then in my Araumi deck because protection and Haste are very strong for her, but I don't run them in my Extus deck because I only cast my commander one game in three with that one, and they aren't even in my Cycling Zur deck because I only need him to get one Astral and the deck can function, and ramping him out on T3 is better than the Boots or Greaves.

"There's no boros instant to just randomly draw cards." Heartwarming Redemption, Valakut Awakening, Unexpected Windfall, Risk Factor, Cathartic Pyre, Thrill of Possibility, Electric Revelation. These cards may or may not be good, but they exist.

56:43 Sunforger is amazing with Feather, you tutor for a instant that then goes back to your hand

Sunforger finds Teferi's Protection, Settle the Wreckage, Boros Charm, Comeuppance, Chaos Warp, Reverberate/Fork, Debt of Loyalty as well as Swords and Path. If you can't survive the onslaught it brings, you're using it wrong.

I think Sword of Feast and Famine deserves to be S tier way more than greaves. It's the best card in your deck most of the time.

If you have two low-cost commanders like Rograkh and Ardenn, the value of Greaves goes up a lot. It’s easier to do the equip 0 dance between the two creatures you always have access to, and you always want to protect at least one of your commanders.

I think skullclamp and lightning greaves are just as good as people think they are. Clamp is the best card in the decks that want it and its wanted by at least 2 very popular archetypes (tokens, aristocrats, prob most tribal decks too). Greaves give you a surprise swing/tap and protection on a creature the rest of the table didn't know was there until right then. If you have an important creature you're planning to kill people with, greaves just makes that strat better.

I'm actually playing more 1 mana protection spells like Blacksmith's Skill over Boots. It costs less than the boots, it can protect more of your stuff (enchantments for example) en you can basically fizzle an enemy spell with it and in Blacksmith's Skill's case: protect against a boardwipe too. If the haste doesn't matter much, go for cheap protection spells I'd say.

I put lightning greaves in 9/10 decks. The only reason I wouldn’t put it in is if my creatures weren’t that important and I didn’t need my commander to win. But haste and shroud are such good keywords that giving a creature both for zero mana is super valuable.

Protection on the Swords are not just for targeted removal remember. DEBT Damage Equip/Enchant Block Target So basically white and green normally have the biggest armies. So GW sword is good for being unblockable

Weird how everyone (except Tomer) was kinda down on Sunforger, yet every time I can remember seeing a Sunforger in play on Commander Clash, the entire table was terrified that they needed to kill it.

"I only run 6-7 basics" well Crim, sword of hearth and home will actually let you DRAW those lands because we all know you can't do that on your own. Maybe not running ramp cards is why you're mana screwed so much :) (I hate how common and used ramp is in modern mtg personally, but this was a good chance for a little roast)

Richard: how does this card interact with a wrath Crim: How does this card play in a control deck Seth: How does this card interact with MDFCs Tomer: How does this card play un magical christmas land

Richard is making so many great points 31:30 dude really understands the strategy of equipment

With Skullclamp even if someone Wrath's the Board you are still drawing two cards, and odds are your opponents are not, if you can net 4 - 6 cards out of Skullclamp, I think it did it's job, anything above that is just bonus.

I think skullclamp is easily an A, either it creates evasion for a creature where they don't want it to die so you can swing freely, or it dies to removal and you get profit. Its like an upgraded Sad Robot death trigger.

Explorer's scope is solid B tier. In decks that are always attacking (like Marchesa of the Black Rose) it is actually a powerhouse.

Many players have the mindset of old commander rules. Skullclamp got a hell of a lot better now that your commander triggers it.

Skullclamp is interesting because it's probably a B; I'd only recommend playing it in certain strategies. But it is absolutely the best card in those strategies.

I think the percentage difference between swiftfoot boots and Sword of Feast and Famine is probably most to do with 3 dollar card VS 70 dollar card

The one equipment that I think can be S is Clamp, it's sooo good

Crim was texting the whole time Tomer was explaining the Kaldra pieces. That tells you everything about the equipment.

IDK why they were all so low on Skullclamp. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is the ONLY equipment to ever be BANNED

The fact that skullclamp isn’t an S Is giving me an aneurism

Skullclamp is a lot better since they changed the rule where your commander actually dies now before returning to the command zone. It used to be a B but is now an A.

Skullclamp is an S easy. It carries White outside of Stax and and can easy use in other colors as form of card draw that is sometime even more efficient than that colors own card draw. Obviously you won't play it in deck without creature but that can be said about most equipments.

Honestly sunforger gets incredibly good when you add a third color. Add green you can pop a creature tutor, add blue you can grab multicolor white/blue counter spells, add black you hit various removal spells, you can even get some decent card draw with blue as well. Its just a card yes you do have build to around but it can be a straight all star but requires more thought.

Your discussions get better and better every video. This was fantastic. :) I really enjoyed it.

I think you can argue having lighting greaves in every deck over swift foot boots and definitely not both. 0 mana haste is just so powerful it can’t be denied

Skullclamp is at least an A to me. Decks with enough 1 toughness creatures should consider it, and any aristocrats, self sac, or tokens decks can do great with it. Even something like Najeela, Beledros, or Adeline would like it I think since they basically guarantee making 1/1's. And the rate of 2 cards for 1 mana is better than just about any card draw spell.

Protection from green and white is great because those are the primary token colors, so your creature equipped with Sword of Hearth and Home can slip past opponents walls of chump blocking 1/1s. And same thing for big tall green creatures that would otherwise keep your Etali or Isshin or whatever from attacking.

Id like to debunk the "you need lots of creatures" argument. In commander, you will ALWAYS have a creature, and more than that, you will always have a creature you want to protect/use as soon as possible

No sword of fire and ice?

Greaves: A Boots: C The one additional mana is one full turn. Additionally, if you have multiple creatures with tapping abilities, that’s so many fewer chances to move them in a turn.

The only downside of Hearth and Home to Sword of the Animist is the casting cost? What about that combat damage triggers are worse than on attack triggers?

30:20 I want to talk about the ragavan. In that episode, they are referencing, it created like 5 treasures, exiled a couple cards, of which some were cast, generating card advantage, and dealt like 15 dmg. For 1 mana. I honestly think ragavan is very strong, even in commander.

Explorer's Scope is worth because when ever you hit that land you get to shout "LAND HO".

Interesting take on Sunforger. The way I see it is not just as a tutor. I agree it's inefficient as that. You need it in an aggro deck where the +4 power makes a creature very deadly. So you create a real threat while also having access to a toolbox in your deck. My favourite targets are not just "removal" or "board protection". I like Akroma's Will, Master Warcraft and Brave the Elements. Each of those can drastically change combat. I also think Hide/Seek is brilliant if you're in Mardu for stopping combos (either remove the artifact/enchantment or remove the combo piece they're tutoring from their deck). Ultimately, I think Sunforger is pretty game warping in practice and has a place in higher power games too, even if it appears pricey to work. In higher power you often want explosive mana and Sunforger excels when you're in a good position, with that mana.

Sword of the Animist and Sword of Hearth and Home are Orzhov cards, white has equipment and needs a different ramp package in the midgame, black has cabal coffers and "number of swamps" based effects.

A little sad that Elbrus, the Binding Blade isn't on this list, since it's one of my favorites, though I understand that it's both an underwhelming and a relatively unknown card. Good list overall though

I love how the alltime best equipment (Lightning Greaves) is actively the worst one for Equipment decks, because of the Shroud.

You don’t need to have lots of creatures to play boots. You just need a Commander you want to protect

Every Aristocrats player screams at there Screens when Team Goldfish says that Skullclamp ist just ok

"Would you play all three Kaldra or Sword of Body and Mind?" Me: Yes. I have a deck that has all 7 two color swords and (until Kaldra Compleat came out) all three Kaldra pieces.

Richard's sunforger analysis is so off. I usually run valakut awakening in boros colors for value, and it can be hit with the sunforger. That being said, when I run sunforger, I like to run it as a package with a few things. First off, fighter class. It can tutor the sunforger and make it cheaper to equip all on one card (you can also run bloodforged battle axe with it, it makes a really cool wincon) Then I have my toolbox of spells, which is generally: Valakut awakening Thrilling discovery Heartwarming redemption these are for value, you'd probably want these for added card selection in the deck anyway. For removal I usually just keep it brief: Generous gift Chaos warp Red Elemental Blast For protection: Teferi's Protection Deflecting Swat Wild Ricochet Boros Charm Flawless Maneuver Also, sometimes: Comeuppance Deflecting Palm You don't just jam sunforger in the deck, you want to bring all it's friends along. That list also expands with extra colors, allowing you to tutor things like dovin's veto and other goodies. The final card that makes the package good though is Mistveil Plains, which allows you to recycle your toolbox again and again. It turns the sunforger from a utility piece into an engine. Even slow and inefficient engines can grind games.

Richard is so much quieter than everyone else

You didn’t show sword of fire and ice and jitte. And I strongly disagree with the skullclamp ratings, that card is so busted, easily one of the best equipment cards.

Skullclamp a B for biased. Even accounting for their tier list guidelines for deck inclusion rates, I see it minimum as A. I will build around Skullclamp, like Richard builds around Dowsing Dagger. It is the first thing I tutor for. Doesn't he see the parallel between the mana value of dowsing dagger and card value of skullclamp? +They both have fairly easy requirements if even slightly built around (death v. combat damage), especially if you politic +once they've done their job, you are up in value. Sure Lost Vale may stick around longer, but you also keep the cards in your hand.

Odric or Master War craft and Junktroller or mistveil planes allow sunforger to go infinite. You can also cast chance for glory with a Gideon of the Trials or a Platinum Angel in play. You can also grab a settle the wreckage for an instant speed wrath out of nowhere. Sunforger is quite good, but only in the right deck with the right set up. It is very telegraphed and fragile.

2 things. The game does NOT end by turn six. Turn six is the start to game changing cards and plays. Also, turn 3 sword, equip turn 4 with a 2 cost spell thrown in. I'm chill with some of the comments by Richard, but equipment can be set up. But then again, he doesn't like artifact ramp, which is kinda similar to the swords.

53:06 Oblation! Also, the power in the combo of Ragavan+Explorer's Scope is not the equipment

I agree with the spooky boots. I have 2 very well played decks. One is Krenko, who is amazing when I have either on the battlefield. The second deck is Krav/Regna, with the main way of winning is either Felidar at 100 life or rogue's passage a beefy Krav, I generally find the boots make everyone aggro me before I can even beef him to where I need.

I think seth is forgetting that protection makes your creature unblockable and can block anything. So it gets through big green bodies.

Greaves can also become a sort of combo piece to give creatures haste for activated abilities. Example: mana dorks when cantripping through your deck with glimpse of nature (and similar effects), you can do it with boots but it's obviously an extra tax you have to pay. Similar situation, main phase coco into archdruid or priest of titania, slap on greaves and keep going. The difference between going off with greaves vs boots could be an entire turn cycle. Also, Tomer: You're a great mtg personality and I really enjoy your presence on the MTG crew, but your podcast intros are dodoo. Give a quick description of what you're going to be discussing, introduce everyone that's joining the discussion, let them respond, present a prompt to someone, then get into the discussion. That was a 4 minute monologue before anyone else joined the discussion!

Greaves and boots also not only shut off sorcery speed targeted removal/steal/bounce against your best creature. And those removal spells then get thrown against your opponents as if you had goaded your opponents to remove each others creatures. Sword of fire and ice and sword of feast and famine would absolutely be played close to as often as boots/greaves if they didn't cost so much money. Akroma's Will is proactive with and works as a finisher with Suforger. Orim's Chant can also make an opponent skip an attack or casting spells for the rest of the turn. Shadowspear is good in any deck with several destroy effects or which plan to be attacking with 4+ power creatures, especially if they do stuff by damaging players or if they have deathtouch. The life gain can matter too.

You guys miss the fact that sword of hearth and home flicker could be considered a vigilance on a creature if that makes the Crims B into an A

"feast and famine is the only sword that infinite combos" Aurelia and hearth and home are very sad that you chose to ignore them

Re lightning greaves and swiftfoot boots - Equip 0 is much better than having hexproof instead of shroud. Equip 0 means you aren't waiting a full turn cycle to be able to benefit from both the protection and haste effect. This is an enormous difference. Hexproof really only benefits strategies like voltron where you want to be targeting your own commander consistenty. Commanders like Zur who want protection haste also get around shroud since the ability isn't targeted.

Richard you are actually wrong about EDHREC. It's data only counts decks that were built or updated in the last two years, it does not count all time.

*Just realized I need to put Explorer's Scope in my Elsha build, to get lands out the way of my spellslinging. Used to run it in a mono-red attacky deck, & it's nothing but heartbreak without top-deck manipulation. Every time.

Sword of Sinew and Steel I believe was really underrated, it gets rid of everything on this list, and early it helps you keep a strong position destroying mana rocks. Plus, protection from black is good overall. Sword of Body and Mind, although Crim is overselling it, can snatch a kill on these self mill decks they mention, I believe this is more their pod's meta giving that low of a rating. Skullclamp is S tier, it's crazy good in Boros and Aristocrats sure, but worst case scenario you have it hanging on your creature for one mana and if it is destroyed, clamp will you net 2 cards.

Richard is great, knows his stuff. He has a tick where he says “right?”

I think Hearth and Home is #2 sword for me after Feast. Maybe even number 1 being able to ramp out lands and blink anything with an ETB is nuts. I run a small blink package in white decks with this card. Even just going Stoneforge find Hearth Home then equip something and blink Stoneforge to find another equipment is insane value. Also it's only a single card but Sunforger can also get things like Master Warcraft. I am always impressed with how good that card is

100% agree with tomer In a land-heavy deck with 41 lands After 2 attacks 16% you rampant growth twice. 48% of the time you hit one land If you run ornithopter, rograkh, or other tiny evaders, this card goes crazy.

I'm a big fan of equipment that does something even if it's not equipped, and I feel like Shadowspear is the best of the best there. Nullifying hexproof and indestructible is situational but powerful, and it can be somewhat political as well. The lifelink and trample also aid in helping mitigate the hate you might draw from the person who is punished the most from that. Obviously, the bonuses are nothing compared to loxodon warhammer, but it does the job. Granted, I'm also generally playing more removal heavy decks in a pod of people with boots and darksteel plate on their yennet and the like, so I value the activated ability a lot. This is generally the 2nd highest urza's saga tutor target for me (behind sol ring, but even that I won't bother getting late game sometimes). After this one, I'd probably grab a soul guide lantern (or relic of progenitus) graveyards might be a problem.

Sinew and Steel is an A sword. What? Reusable shatter and two top grade protections plus icing on 1-shotting planeswalkers which do see play like Oko, Elspeth, various Lilianas, etc. It might be more niche in removing them but it is far more than flavor text.

Liquimetal Torque, Liquimetal Coating, Mycosynthlattice makes Sinew and Steel great. You can turn creatures into artifacts and blow them up.

Am I crazy, or did you guys skip the best/2nd-best sword, Fire and Ice?