Equipment in MTG: Rules, History, and FAQs

Darksteel Axe | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

Equipment artifacts are pervasive in Magic. Sets like The Brothers' War have quite a few of them, while others may have just one, like Bespoke Battlegarb in Wilds of Eldraine, but it's really hard to find an expansion or supplemental set with none. And while not every deck will have room for them, there are competitive decks in nearly all formats that put equipment to good use.

Let’s dive into how equipment works, what their equip keyword ability does, and the mechanic's history. We'll also cover quite a lot of questions that usually arise, like under which circumstances you can activate the equip ability at instant speed, or what happens if a sneaky foe carjacks your equipped creature.

Let's jump in!

How Does Equipment Work?

Shadowspear | Illustration by Yeong Hao Han

Equipment is an artifact subtype, which clearly says “equipment” in its type line. Equipment spells are cast like every other artifact spell, and they enter the battlefield like any regular artifact.

Once on the battlefield, equipment cards have the equip activated ability, which lets them be attached to a target creature you control.

The equip ability works at sorcery speed, as explicitly stated by its rules. You can only activate the equip ability at times when you can cast a sorcery spell.

When an equipment becomes attached to a creature, two things happen:

• It's customary for the controlling player to place the equipment so that it’s physically touching the creature, and is usually placed below it (if you play in Magic Arena, the game does this automatically for you).
• Once attached, the equipment conveys to the creature whatever properties it describes in its rules text.

Notice that there's an important difference between the properties that the equipment has and the properties that it conveys to the equipped creature. For example:

• Mithril Coat is itself indestructible, and it also makes the equipped creature indestructible. Both the equipment and the equipped creature are safe from destruction effects.
• In Darksteel Axe‘s case, the Darksteel Axe is indestructible, but the equipped creature only gets a +2/+0. You can still destroy the equipped creature.
• Hammer of Nazahn, on the other hand, provides indestructible to the equipped creature, but isn’t indestructible itself.

Other general caveats and subtleties to keep in mind when playing equipment:

• The equipment enters the battlefield unattached (unless it specifically says otherwise. You can activate its equip ability right away if you want to, as long as you can pay the equip cost.
• By paying the equip cost, and always at sorcery speed, you can move the equipment from one creature to another creature you control; the equipment is now attached and convey the relevant properties to the second creature. As long as you can afford the equip cost, you can do this as many times as you want, even during the same turn.
• There are several effects that let you attach an equipment to a creature other than by activating its equip ability. For example, there are plenty of auto-attach equipment, like Mithril Coat. Once attached, all equipment works the same, regardless of how it got there.
• Equip is a targeted ability. If you can't target a creature you control (because it has shroud, for example), you can’t equip it.
• Once attached, an equipment doesn’t target its equipped creature. In other words, if an equipped creature later gains shroud, the attached equipment still works normally.
• An equipment’s controller isn’t the same as the creature’s controller. You can only equip a creature you control, but if your sneaky foe later steals your equipped creature, you still control the equipment.
• If the equipped creature dies or leaves the battlefield for any reason, the equipment remains on the field, unattached. You can equip it to another creature if you want.
• Last but not least, other activated abilities on the equipment work even if the equipment is unattached. For example, you can activate Shadowspear‘s second ability, the one that removes hexproof and indestructible, whether Shadowspear is equipped to a creature or not.

There's also a corner case that only applies to multiplayer games using the “Range of Influence” rule: An equipment can’t equip an object outside its controller’s range of influence. Let's say that Timmy equips a creature, then Laura steals Timmy's equipped creature, then Sammy steals said creature from Laura. In this scenario, if Sammy happens to be outside Timmy's range of influence, then Sammy keeps control of Timmy's creature while Timmy's equipment becomes unattached and remains under Timmy's control.

The History of Equipment in MTG

Equipment was introduced in Mirrodin (October 2003), which was the artifact expansion.

The equip mechanic was a smashing, immediate success. According to MTG's head designer Mark Rosewater, equipment was the highest-ranked mechanic in Mirrodin, and so flavorful and popular that Wizards of the Coast decided to make it evergreen.

“There are a significant number of Equipment that can be designed, and many of them can be reskinned with a new flavor again and again,” Mark wrote in 2018, in an article discussing equipment's placement on the Storm Scale. “The biggest issue we have with Equipment is that they sit in a space we sometimes want to allocate to other mechanical resources in certain sets. For example, a set with an Aura theme usually forces us to cut back significantly on Equipment.”

The main hurdle when designing equipment is their generic mana cost. “Over the years,” Mark wrote, “R&D has realized that we've underestimated the power of Equipment and have been pulling back. The fact that most of them require generic mana means that they are available to any deck that can take advantage of it. As such, R&D has scaled back a bit on how much we push Equipment. I believe the key to changing this is adopting R&D's new willingness to make colored artifacts more often. Once a card is restricted to a certain color, Play Design is freer to be aggressive with its costing.

“The other thing is that there's some rules baggage that come with Equipment. The rules are written on the card, but they're hard to parse and have some interactions that work differently than enchantments, which they most closely resemble.”

Equipment in Mirrodin and most later sets are colorless. In 2009, the Alara Reborn expansion introduced equipment with a colored casting cost, like Shield of the Righteous. In this case, the equip cost is still colorless. More than a decade later, Zendikar Rising (2020) added the twist of colored equip cost, like Maul of the Skyclaves.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty brought a handful of equipment that are also artifact creatures and introduced the reconfigure keyword. Unlike equip, reconfigure also allows the equipment to become unattached.

When Can You Equip?

Any time you could cast a sorcery.

In general, you can activate an activated ability whenever you could cast an instant… unless the activated ability states otherwise. And equip does state otherwise. Here's the exact wording from Magic's Comprehensive Rules:

702.6a Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate only as a sorcery.”

Is Equipping Sorcery Speed?

Yep, it is. You can only equip at sorcery-speed unless otherwise directed.

Can I Equip As An Instant?

Nope, you can't. You can only activate equip at sorcery speed.

But, some workarounds do exist. Cards like Forge Anew or Leonin Shikari specifically allow you to activate equip abilities any time you could cast an instant (although in Forge Anew's case, only during your own turn). In this case, one of Magic's Golden Rules applies: if a card contradicts the Comprehensive Rules, the card takes precedence.

Some equipment have both flash and an auto-equip ability: Embercleave, Mithril Coat, or Dueling Rapier can be played as instants and upon entering the battlefield you can directly attach them to one of your creatures. Effects like the For Mirrodin! keyword, which creates a 2/2 token and automatically attaches the equipment to it, also provides a form of auto-equip.

Lastly, there are effects on other cards that let you attach an equipment directly: Brass Squire‘s activated ability, for example, lets you bypass having to activate the equip ability.

What’s The Difference Between Equip And Attach?

Equip is a form of attachment, but not all attachments are equipment.

You can also attach auras, the subtype of enchantments that enchant permanents, like attaching Wild Growth by enchanting a land or Kenrith's Transformation by enchanting a creature. And you can also attach fortifications to a land, although that’s found on exactly one card, Darksteel Garrison.

According to Mark Rosewater, “Attach was first used to allow Equipment to target creatures when being ‘put on.' In trying to clean up Auras, it was important for enchantments to also have a word so it was decided to let Auras use the same word that Equipment used.”

That's why all equipment are attachments, but not all attachments are equipment.

Can You Unequip Equipment Mtg?

Not in the strict sense of “Can I unattach an equipment any time I want?” The equip ability doesn't have an “unequip” option, so to speak.

What you can do is pay the equip cost and move the equipment to another creature you control. In this case, your second creature becomes equipped, and for all practical purposes the first creature is now unequipped. But you need a second creature to do this: If you have just a single creature under your control, you can’t unequip it and “toss the equipment” aside, so to speak.

There are also other effects that can move the equipment to another creature (like Brass Squire‘s activated ability) or remove an attachment from your creature. But in all those cases the “unequipping” is a side effect, not the main mechanic.

The exception to the above is a very similar keyword, reconfigure, found on a handful of artifact creatures from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that are also equipment. Artifacts with reconfigure can indeed unattach themselves and turn into an artifact creature that isn’t attached to anything else. But that's a property of the reconfigure keyword; the equip keyword doesn’t provide this option.

Is Equipping An Activated Ability?

Yes! You pay the equip cost whenever you are willing and able, and an effect happens – the hallmark of activated abilities.

Are There Equipment Cards That Have Abilities Triggered When They Become Attached To A Creature?

Yes, there are a few; those are:

• Blade of Shared Souls
• Enormous Energy Blade
• Inchblade Companion (an Alchemy card)
• Killer Cosplay (from the Unfinity un-set)

By the way, there are a few equipment cards with triggered abilities when they become unattached:

• Captain's Hook
• Grafted Exoskeleton
• Grafted Wargear
• Stitcher's Graft

Bear in mind that, in these last cases, unattaching can prove very harmful for the unequipped creatures.

Can You Equip Enemy Creatures?

Yes, as long as they’re under your control when you equip them.

See rule 702.6a quoted above: As long as you control the target creature, you can equip it.

Can You Equip Shroud Creatures?

No. Equip is a targeted ability, and shroud creatures can’t be targeted by any player, including the creature's controller.

Can Tokens Be Equipped?

As long as they’re creatures, yes they can!

Can You Equip More Than One Equipment?

Yes. You can attach as many pieces of equipment (and other forms of attachments, like auras) as you want to a single creature.

In fact, it's common enough that the strategy has a nickname in Commander: Voltron commanders, who love wielding equipment and/or auras to one-shot foes.

How Many Equipment Can You Put On A Creature In MTG?

As many as you want!

There may be specific effects that prevent you to do so. For example, if you equip your creature with Lightning Greaves, it gains shroud, and then you can’t target it anymore. And since equip is a targeted ability, you can’t equip a creature if you can't target it. In this scenario, you won't be able to add any more equipment to this particular creature.

As long as there are no cards in play that specifically stop you from doing so, there’s no such thing as “equipment that broke the creature's back” in Magic!

Can I Equip Equipment Cards To Creatures That Are Already Tapped?

Yes.

Whether the creature is tapped or untapped (or has summoning sickness) has zero effect on when you can activate the equip ability of your equipment.

Can Equipment Cards Be Tapped?

Yes, they can.

Any effect that can tap a permanent, or specifically an artifact, can tap an equipment, whether it's attached or unattached.

As a general rule, though, there's not much point in doing so. A tapped equipment works exactly the same as an untapped one.

The only exception is equipment with reconfigure. Tapping a creature (to attack with it, for example) doesn't cause any equipment attached to it to become tapped. Therefore, if you've just attacked with a creature equipped with a reconfigure equipment, you can now reconfigure said equipment and it turns into an untapped artifact creature that can block. In this case, tapping this equipment may be useful.

But, in general: Yes, equipment cards can be tapped.

Can You Equip If Your Equipment Is Tapped?

Yes, you can.

Whether the equipment (or the target creature, for that matter) is tapped or not has no effect on when you can activate the equip ability.

Do Equipment Cards Have Summoning Sickness?

No, they don't, unless they also happen to be creatures.

Only creatures have summoning sickness; non-creature artifacts don’t.

Does Equipment Stay On The Field?

If you mean “after the equipped creature leaves the battlefield”, then yes.

Unless the equipment itself is removed (by destroying it, exiling it, bouncing it to hand, etc.), it stays on the battlefield after the equipped creature is gone. In this case, the equipment becomes unattached; it remains on the side of the field until you equip it to one of your creatures.

That's one big difference with auras (that's to say, enchantments that enchant a creature): in this case, if the creature leaves the battlefield, the aura is put in the graveyard.

But equipment are sturdier and can withstand their wielder dying!

What Happens To Artifact Equipment When My Creature Dies?

The equipment staunchly stays on the field, all by itself, attached to nothing. If you’re the equipment's controller, you can equip it again to any of your creatures.

What Equipment Gives Indestructible And Hexproof MTG?

From a Scryfall search, there's only one equipment that can grant both indestructible and hexproof, and you need to jump through quite a lot of hoops in that case: Eater of Virtue.

General's Kabuto can provide something down that alley: it grants shroud to the equipped creature and prevents all combat damage that would be dealt to the equipped creature. Not the same thing as hexproof and blanked indestructibility, but it’s something along those lines.

There are a few cards that can provide either indestructible or hexproof. Here are the ones granting unconditional, unlimited hexproof:

• Swiftfoot Boots
• Mask of Avacyn
• Mirror Shield

These grant hexproof under some condition, or for a limited time:

• Champion's Helm
• Bilbo's Ring
• Giant's Amulet
• Ring of Evos Isle

And here is the bunch that grants indestructible:

• Darksteel Plate
• Hammer of Nazahn
• Mithril Coat
• Kaldra Compleat
• Shield of Kaldra
• Darksteel Axe
• Bladed Battle-Fan

And, by the way, there's one equipment that does the exact opposite, and removes both indestructible and hexproof from your opponents' creatures: Shadowspear.

What Happens If My Equipped Creature Is Stolen By An Opponent?

Your thieving foe gets to control the creature, but you’re still in control of your equipment.

You can activate the equipment's equip ability (at sorcery speed) and equip a different creature you control. Your sneaky foe still controls your creature, but without the equipment.

Furthermore, any other activated abilities on the equipment are still under your control. You can still activate Shadowspear‘s second ability at any time, even while your opponent is in control of your creature.

On the other hand, all activated abilities that your equipment grants to the creature are now under your opponent's control. For example, Umbral Mantle gives the equipped creature the ability to provide a +2/+2 buff. Whoever controls the creature (not the equipment) is in control of this ability.

Does Equipping My Creature Count As Modified?

Yes, it does.

Every equipped creature under your control counts as modified. That includes equipped creatures that you steal from your opponents: they count as a modified creature under your control even when you only control the creature and not the equipment.

Can Legendary Equipment Be My Commander?

As long as it's also a creature, yes it can.

Thing is, there’s a single card that fits the bill. The Reality Chip fits the requirement to be a commander by being a legendary creature, and it's also an equipment. The only one of its kind in all of MTG!

If you search in Scryfall, you’ll see two other cards that kinda fit the bill:

• Halvar, God of Battle / Sword of the Realms
• Toralf, God of Fury / Toralf's Hammer

These are modal dual-faced cards (usually known as MDFC). Their god side is a legendary creature which could be your commander, while the other side is an artifact.

Best Equipment Cards

There are tons of good equipment cards, too numerous to go through here.

Decklist: Wyleth, Soul of Steel

Wyleth, Soul of Steel | Illustration by Tyler Jacobson

Here's a deck with Wyleth, Soul of Steel at the helm and some of the equipment that I’ve mentioned, and it’s chock-full of equipment-matters or attachment-matter cards. Equipment-heavy decks tend to be fairly modular, so if you have other pieces of equipment lying around that you'd rather include, feel free to go wild!

Wrap Up

Blackblade Reforged | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Well, then! I hope you know feel equipped with everything you need to put attached artifacts to good use.

Equipment is an evergreen mechanic, so we’re nearly assured that Wizards of the Coast will keep 'em coming, and personally, I'm all for it: I love the amount of flexibility they provide!

If this mechanical deep dive is the type of article you'd like to see more of, please drop a comment below, or stop by the Draftsim Discord and let us know.

As William Wallace would say: “They may take our creatures, but they will never take OUR EQUIPMENT!!”