The 21 Best Automatically-Attaching Equipment Cards in Magic

Last updated on December 2, 2024

Embercleave | Illustration by Joe Slucher

Equipment are fantastic MTG cards that provide steady value over the course of a game by turning creature after creature into a scary threat, but they have a moderate weakness: They can be rather slow since you need to pay to cast the equipment, then invest additional mana into equipping it. It’s always a shame to play an equipment, then lose your creature before equipping it.

That’s where automatically-attaching equipment shine: They skip over that awkward adolescence where you wait to equip your card and get straight to the good bit where your creature is great. Some even function as combat tricks or bring in their own threat, so let’s check Magic's best!

What Are Automatically-Attaching Equipment Cards?

Nettlecyst | Illustration by Vincent Proce

Automatically-attaching equipment cards (henceforth referred to as auto-equip) are equipment cards that attach themselves to a creature the moment they enter the battlefield. These are often—but not always—colored cards. Auto-equip cards are worth playing because they provide immediate value. Unlike, say, a Sword of Fire and Ice, you don’t need to pay for the equipment, then pay to equip it. The second part’s free!

Given that these artifacts are good because they automatically attach to a creature, thus impacting the board, I’ve included cards with living weapon, For Mirrodin!, and similar mechanics that create the creature they auto-equip to.

#21. Sword of the Meek

Sword of the Meek’s primary claim to fame is the infamous combo with Thopter Foundry to create a swarm of Thopter tokens. While it’s certainly best alongside cards like Foundry or Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter that sacrifice it to make tokens, decks interested in sacrificing artifacts could make it work with various forms of token production. Breya, Etherium Shaper comes to mind.

#20. Blade of Shared Souls

Blade of Shared Souls offers a unique spin on your typical Clone. Given how it functions, you don’t get to copy a creature's enters triggers, so this blue artifact works best with strong static or triggered abilities like Silent Hallcreeper and Esper Sentinel.

#19. Tangleweave Armor

Your commander must be large for Tangleweave Armor to be worth playing, but it’s an effective threat so long as your commander costs 6 or more mana. It’s excellent with green card draw spells like Rishkar's Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker that exploit a large, cheap creature.

#18. Phantom Blade

Five mana to kill a creature at sorcery speed is mediocre Limited removal in many contexts, but Phantom Blade is a fantastic iteration of it. Killing a creature and giving something menace can result in a creature becoming unblockable, plus just having a kill spell that leaves something behind is quite valuable.

#17. Hidden Footblade

Hidden Footblade provides a reasonable combat trick that blows out plenty of players for as little mana as you could hope for. Giving haste to future equipped creatures looks pretty appealing as this card already wants to see play in an aggressive deck. It clears out a blocker while enabling future attackers, so it has a home in quite a few Cubes and EDH decks.

#16. Hunter’s Bow

Rabid Bite is a fine if unexciting removal spell. Hunter's Bow tricks this green artifact out with additional upside and artifact synergies, tipping it towards exciting.

#15. Dissection Tools

Dissection Tools aids graveyard decks by milling you and sacrificing creatures, which works with a variety of synergies. I’m always interested in free sacrifice outlets since they enable about a billion infinite loops, with this one being notable as a threat and card you can tutor up with Stoneforge Mystic.

#14. Mjölnir, Storm Hammer

I’m fascinated by Mjölnir, Storm Hammer. My first inclination would have included damaging creatures a la Lightning Bolt (although there’s still time for that with the Marvel Universes Beyond crossover), but I really like this.

The auto-equip ability’s a little restrictive, but it doesn’t matter much as I imagine this primarily sees play in Commander. It works best with aggressive decks since it clears away blockers while pressuring your opponents and pairs surprisingly well with blue due to mass tap effects like Sleep and Opposition.

#13. Pre-War Formalwear

I might be stretching the idea of auto-equip cards with Fallout‘s Pre-War Formalwear, but what’s the difference between recurring a creature and creating a token to attach it to? It’s great with creatures that sacrifice themselves for an effect such as Selfless Spirit and Sakura-Tribe Elder, but you can also just run it as a great, grindy white artifact.

#12. Batterskull

The classic living weapon, Batterskull and Stoneforge Mystic has been a reliable combo since both cards were printed. But you don’t have to play the Mystic for this to be playable; bouncing and replaying this eats up a lot of mana, but it’s a near-unkillable threat that excels at offense and defense.

#11. Celestial Armor

Protection spells are fantastic in Commander since everybody plays a billion board wipes. While nobody can accuse Celestial Armor of efficiency, leaving behind an equipment that provides evasion more than makes up for the mana cost. I like it best with commanders that want to attack or deal combat damage like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale or Aya of Alexandria.

#10. Nettlecyst

Construct tokens—lovingly dubbed “Karnstructs” due to their debut with Karn, Scion of Urza—have proven to be lethal threats given how quickly players accumulate artifacts.

With this in mind, Nettlecyst would be a fine threat as a 3-mana Karnstruct, but counting enchantments makes it stronger and you get the value of an equipment hanging around if they handle the Phyrexian Germ.

#9. Kaldra Compleat

Stoneforge Mystic players rejoiced the world over when Kaldra Compleat came out as a threat that power crept old Batterskull. It’s not as flexible as Batterskull since it works in fewer decks, but anything interested in cheating big artifacts into play should consider this as a nasty, hard to deal with threat.

#8. Hexplate Wallbreaker

In the right deck, an extra combat phase is nearly as impactful as an extra turn, which gives Hexplate Wallbreaker plenty of homes. You want this in aggressive decks that make extensive use of the combat step to win, plus to generate value from cards like Professional Face-Breaker and Toski, Bearer of Secrets.

#7. Hammer of Nazahn

Hammer of Nazahn’s often one of the first cards in any EDH deck that cares about equipment since it extends the auto-equip value to everything in your deck. The indestructible keyword is essential since this naturally encourages players to load a bunch of cards on a creature and you don’t want it to die to Murder after paying a bunch of equipment costs.

#6. Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus

Sword of the Animist sees lots of play as colorless land ramp for colors that don’t get that kind of effect. After the Phyrexians compleated Nissa, they extended the blessings of Phyrexian oil to her blade, transforming it into Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, which grants all the ramping value without requiring you to pay the first equip cost.

#5. Silver Shroud Costume

Silver Shroud Costume saves your Voltron commander from spot removal, but it shines with the unblockable text. You don’t necessarily need to be a Voltron deck to make this work; anything that’s interested in attacking or dealing combat damage enjoys the Constume.

#4. Mithril Coat

Mithril Coat provides far better protection than Silver Shroud Costume since it gives you protection from most of the same removal spells plus board wipes, which are often more prevalent than spot removal in the kind of casual pods Mithril Coat shines in.

#3. Maul of the Skyclaves

Maul of the Skyclaves gives the equipped creature a ton of stats for a mere 3 mana. The combination of first strike and flying makes blocking a nightmare and the power buff shouldn’t be scoffed at.

#2. Glimmer Lens

Once upon a time, white was memed on for its lack of card draw but the times are changing, with Glimmer Lens demonstrating a common template for white’s card draw: attacking with multiple creatures.

The fact that it adds a creature to attack with and get that extra card makes it a formidable inclusion to any white deck’s card draw suite, at least those interested in attacking instead of casting Wrath of God.

#1. Embercleave

I remember the days of Embercleave making me sweat through every combat step in Standard and it retains that instant lethality. The trick lies in the combination of trample and double strike; the first strike damage clears away the blocker, then trample lets your creature deal full damage for the regular combat damage. It’s possible to survive an Embercleave, though it often eats an opposing board—but it’s much harder to survive it if you don’t see it coming.

Best Auto-Equip Payoffs

Cards that reward you for having equipped or modified creatures are excellent payoffs for auto-equip cards. They save you the trouble of waiting for value from Kodama of the West Tree and Akki Battle Squad.

With living weapons and For Mirrodin! cards specifically, ways to flicker or recast them can be useful. Cards like Fear of Isolation and Kor Skyfisher that bounce them allow you to create new tokens. Sure, the Phyrexian Germs don’t stick around, but getting a fresh creature after the token dies is helpful.

What Other Ways Are There to Equip for Free?

Magic has plenty of ways to cheat equip costs without the cards themselves having the text. Sigarda's Aid has seen plenty of play in Modern to equip Colossus Hammer to Ornithopter (perhaps the funniest image you can come up with).

You can also lean on creatures that allow you to equip cards; Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist is a popular white commander for such an ability, but Brass Squire and Puresteel Paladin fit in the 99 of any equipment deck.

If you’re really desperate, Magnetic Theft and Resolute Strike can attach equipment in a pinch, but I generally wouldn’t recommend equipping a creature at the cost of a card.

Wrap Up

Batterskull | Illustration by Igor Kieryluk

Auto-equipping has been a largely positive mechanic in my experience, especially in Limited, where many of these equipment shine. These cards serve as anything from combat tricks to protection spells to removal spells, so I’m excited to see where the mechanic develops as Wizards creates new entries.

What are your favorite auto-equip cards? Do you want to see more of the mechanic? Let me know in the comments below and on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe and keep your equipment handy!