Some time ago I cutted Skullclamp and Jiitte because I wanted to lower the power of my environment. Yesterday night was the first time I tried Shadowspear and I was positively impressed by it. I equipped an Adanto Vanguard with it and I basically had a 4/2 trample indestructible. The trample ability it provides is underrated in my opinion.
Sinew and Steel is being heavily underrated here. It's honestly one of the better Swords, IMO. It's the only one worth playing in an aggro deck, because it allows you to kill Planeswalkers and sideswipe random artifacts without having to sacrifice pressure. Plus, once it's out and equipped, your opponent essentially can't play Planeswalkers or Artifacts unless it generates instant value or they can block with certainty.
Honestly, you're right! It really doesn't sound like much. I wasn't expecting very much from it when I first tested it. It just impressed me with how much impact it actually had. Downgrading Planeswalkers to a single activation or pricing the opponent into bad blocks to protect their permanents, without making you sacrifice pressure, changes the way your opponent is able to play the game. It has consistently done a lot more than I would've thought by reading the card, and in my opinion, it stands among the rest of the playable Swords of X and Y just fine.
I wonder if they gave it much weaker triggered abilities since it gives protection from red and black, the two heaviest creature removal colors. They had so many options to choose from. Opponent discards a card and you exile the top card of your library and can play it till end of turn. You get to look at their hand and choose a low cmc spell to discard, you shock a creature or planeswalker. They sac a creature, you rummage. Why they chose those two abilities is beyond me when in many games neither will even have targets.
I have cubed it before; it has never really impressed me. Probably because it is more niche’ and g/x midrange are the only decks that ever felt like they really wanted it. W and B aggro decks will play it, but I would frequently rather have bone splitter to hook on Thalia than greaves.
It's also amazing for reanimator or other cheaty decks. I'd have honestly mentioned it before the swords since those just feel too slow quite regularly.
Ancestral Blade is another living weapon-style equipment that I like. Requires white, but makes a 1/1 soldier. It gives +1/+1, making it a 2/2 for 2 that you can later equip for just 1 mana.
@@cubefortwo Now that I've played some jumpstart, I'm really starting to love Malefic Scythe. It's included in the aristrocrat decks and is a real bomb in those. 1 and a black to cast, 1 to equip, it comes with a soul counter and gains another each time an equipped creature dies. Each sould counter gives +1/+1, potentially making a something like a gravecrawler or reassembling skeleton which can be recast over and over a huge threat. Very fun option for a budget cube.
Have you tried sword of sinew and steel? Because it's much stronger than it reads and I'd go as far as rank it 3rd best sword of X and Y (excluding dungeons and dragons because I have never tried it). Killing Planeswalkers on hit is actually an insane reward.
No, I played the older ones and don't like the insta win when you are paired against the right colors. That said, if there is no walker on the field, 5 mana for +2 is not a great rate. You are right the ceiling where you murder a walker is sick, but so many walkers make tokens, and if you can't connect/ or there is no walker, it doesn't seem that great. Still, it is good to hear another opinion on it. Perhaps you run more walkers than I do.
missed lightning greaves and the "little" brother of batterskull ... kaldra complete ^^ .. and I have recently tested Maul of the Skyclave and it can hold it's own .. I realy don't like loxodon warhammer .... but several of my playgroup love the hammer and I had to put it back in .. still .. it is a powerfull equipment
Love your videos! I have learned so much from your quality of explaining each topic! One question I had while watching this video is how many equipments should I run? Equipments are great because you don't get two for oned like you do with auras but I don't want too many equipments in my non creature artifacts
What do you think of flying enablers for weaker environments? Wings of hubris seems quite strong for putting an evasive threat in the air, and when they finally find a reach/flying creature to block with you still get an extra turn of damage with the sacrifice ability
The only equipment I find worth including in Legacy+ cubes are Sword of Fire/Ice, Feast/Famine, War/Peace, Skull Clamp, Bone Splitter, Jitte and heirloom blade after Usman's recommendation. That said, they make for interesting gameplay and for fun games, adding to the 'cultural feel' of the cube.
I have cubed it, and no actually. Red aggro doesn't want it. almost everything has haste. It is more a midrange equipment. I would much rather shove more damage through, or make my opponents blocks bad.
Thought about it, but decided to keep it colorless on purpose, but you are right, Embercleave is excellent, as is Maul of the Skyclaves, and the new reconfigure critters from Kamigawa: Lion Slash, Blade of the Oni, and Rabbit Battery.
Love it! I've actually been working on a bit of a sub-theme for equipment matters, I'm calling it this as it's not really a true archetype. I have the cards highlighted in purple. cubecobra.com/cube/list/540cube The idea is a few ways to reduce the cost of equipment and then having some payoffs like Helm of The Host. Sunforger/Nahiri also signposts nicely that hey Boros might care about equipment in this cube more than other cubes. I hope to continue to expand this in the future. I know there are other effects like this, but I don't want cards to be so narrow they are only good in the equipment deck. Also, Embcleave is stupid good. I know some people hate this kind of effect, but dang it just ends games.
Trusty Machete and Darksteel Axe are playable in the lower tiers. I will pass on Mortar pod, I don't think the payoff is worth it. It is only for aggro decks, and they would much rather have the buff from a card like bone splitter than the defense buff from pod.
Talking about the powerlevels of these cards is really helpfull! I think it's a great new addition to the videos you make
This video was great. Thank you for making it. I learned a lot-especially when you got into the lower levels of equipment.
Heirloom Blade is a sweet addition to my cube as I have a ton of Humans and Zombies. Thanks for pointing it out to me!
Some time ago I cutted Skullclamp and Jiitte because I wanted to lower the power of my environment. Yesterday night was the first time I tried Shadowspear and I was positively impressed by it. I equipped an Adanto Vanguard with it and I basically had a 4/2 trample indestructible. The trample ability it provides is underrated in my opinion.
Sword and sinew has the best protection though, as far as removal is concerned
The removal is a lot more relevant than people think too
Sinew and Steel is being heavily underrated here. It's honestly one of the better Swords, IMO. It's the only one worth playing in an aggro deck, because it allows you to kill Planeswalkers and sideswipe random artifacts without having to sacrifice pressure.
Plus, once it's out and equipped, your opponent essentially can't play Planeswalkers or Artifacts unless it generates instant value or they can block with certainty.
So they can't play walkers... unless they can. Doesn't seem much of an upside.
Honestly, you're right! It really doesn't sound like much. I wasn't expecting very much from it when I first tested it.
It just impressed me with how much impact it actually had. Downgrading Planeswalkers to a single activation or pricing the opponent into bad blocks to protect their permanents, without making you sacrifice pressure, changes the way your opponent is able to play the game.
It has consistently done a lot more than I would've thought by reading the card, and in my opinion, it stands among the rest of the playable Swords of X and Y just fine.
I wonder if they gave it much weaker triggered abilities since it gives protection from red and black, the two heaviest creature removal colors. They had so many options to choose from. Opponent discards a card and you exile the top card of your library and can play it till end of turn. You get to look at their hand and choose a low cmc spell to discard, you shock a creature or planeswalker. They sac a creature, you rummage. Why they chose those two abilities is beyond me when in many games neither will even have targets.
I'm heart broken that you didn't mention lightning greaves, greaves is so good for white and black aggressive decks and for green midrange
I have cubed it before; it has never really impressed me. Probably because it is more niche’ and g/x midrange are the only decks that ever felt like they really wanted it. W and B aggro decks will play it, but I would frequently rather have bone splitter to hook on Thalia than greaves.
@@cubefortwo it's great before you hit Thalia, not on curve but for turn four when you double spell so you can push damage
@@leeroyjenkins552 I like having Greaves for decks with build around cards.
It's also amazing for reanimator or other cheaty decks. I'd have honestly mentioned it before the swords since those just feel too slow quite regularly.
I'm matching my equipment to the various options in the deck such as Leonin Bola, Thornbite Staff, Mirror Shield, etc. :-)
Sadness in embercleave
Ancestral Blade is another living weapon-style equipment that I like. Requires white, but makes a 1/1 soldier. It gives +1/+1, making it a 2/2 for 2 that you can later equip for just 1 mana.
card is very underrated.
@@cubefortwo Now that I've played some jumpstart, I'm really starting to love Malefic Scythe. It's included in the aristrocrat decks and is a real bomb in those. 1 and a black to cast, 1 to equip, it comes with a soul counter and gains another each time an equipped creature dies. Each sould counter gives +1/+1, potentially making a something like a gravecrawler or reassembling skeleton which can be recast over and over a huge threat. Very fun option for a budget cube.
Have you tried sword of sinew and steel? Because it's much stronger than it reads and I'd go as far as rank it 3rd best sword of X and Y (excluding dungeons and dragons because I have never tried it). Killing Planeswalkers on hit is actually an insane reward.
No, I played the older ones and don't like the insta win when you are paired against the right colors. That said, if there is no walker on the field, 5 mana for +2 is not a great rate. You are right the ceiling where you murder a walker is sick, but so many walkers make tokens, and if you can't connect/ or there is no walker, it doesn't seem that great. Still, it is good to hear another opinion on it. Perhaps you run more walkers than I do.
missed lightning greaves and the "little" brother of batterskull ... kaldra complete ^^ .. and I have recently tested Maul of the Skyclave and it can hold it's own .. I realy don't like loxodon warhammer .... but several of my playgroup love the hammer and I had to put it back in .. still .. it is a powerfull equipment
Heirloom blade is such a great equipment that is omitted from far too many cubes, it's a staple as far as I'm concerned.
I need advice for equipment in pauper. Do you think it's too powerful/format warping for pauper cube?
Bone splitter, Flayer Husk, Vulskok Morningstar, Leonin Bola are all fine.
I guess a better question is, what percentage of my pauper cube should be equipment?
Right now i have 13 equipment in a 561 card cube
Love your videos! I have learned so much from your quality of explaining each topic!
One question I had while watching this video is how many equipments should I run?
Equipments are great because you don't get two for oned like you do with auras but I don't want too many equipments in my non creature artifacts
cube size matters here. I am running 6 at 416, and I am thinking about trying to squeeze 1 more, if that helps.
What do you think of flying enablers for weaker environments? Wings of hubris seems quite strong for putting an evasive threat in the air, and when they finally find a reach/flying creature to block with you still get an extra turn of damage with the sacrifice ability
I run flying equipment in pauper, it is very strong there.
New video! Woop woop.
The only equipment I find worth including in Legacy+ cubes are Sword of Fire/Ice, Feast/Famine, War/Peace, Skull Clamp, Bone Splitter, Jitte and heirloom blade after Usman's recommendation. That said, they make for interesting gameplay and for fun games, adding to the 'cultural feel' of the cube.
I like Grafted Wargear, and Heirloom Blade too.
LOVED this video! But, no love for Lightning Greaves?
I have cubed it, and no actually. Red aggro doesn't want it. almost everything has haste. It is more a midrange equipment. I would much rather shove more damage through, or make my opponents blocks bad.
I like Kusari-Gama and Basilisk's Collar too
Hexproof greaves are also sweet
I've been wanting to try Sword of the Paruns in my Modern cube. Anyone had any experience with it?
I have not, but my gut says the cmc and equip costs are too high for not enough bang.
You should’ve talked about Embercleave, that card just ends the game when it hits the field.
Thought about it, but decided to keep it colorless on purpose, but you are right, Embercleave is excellent, as is Maul of the Skyclaves, and the new reconfigure critters from Kamigawa: Lion Slash, Blade of the Oni, and Rabbit Battery.
Love it! I've actually been working on a bit of a sub-theme for equipment matters, I'm calling it this as it's not really a true archetype. I have the cards highlighted in purple. cubecobra.com/cube/list/540cube The idea is a few ways to reduce the cost of equipment and then having some payoffs like Helm of The Host. Sunforger/Nahiri also signposts nicely that hey Boros might care about equipment in this cube more than other cubes. I hope to continue to expand this in the future. I know there are other effects like this, but I don't want cards to be so narrow they are only good in the equipment deck. Also, Embcleave is stupid good. I know some people hate this kind of effect, but dang it just ends games.
Embercleave is very good. I only didn't mention it because it red, so it is not exactly competing on the same axis as the others.
were are trusty machete and darksteel axe and mortar pod
Trusty Machete and Darksteel Axe are playable in the lower tiers. I will pass on Mortar pod, I don't think the payoff is worth it. It is only for aggro decks, and they would much rather have the buff from a card like bone splitter than the defense buff from pod.
3:24 pun intended?
So surprising he never broke 2000 subscribers