Puresteel Paladin | Illustration by Jason Chan
Though equipment cards haven't been around since the start of Magic, they’ve become a staple of the game, powering up all kinds of creature- and artifact-based decks. They offer everything from simple stat boosts to game-warping abilities.
But equipment decks would be nothing without support cards that make those artifacts or the creatures that wield them more powerful. These support cards are critical to building a well-rounded equipment deck, and they’re what I’m looking at today.
What Are Equipment Support Cards in MTG?
Sigarda's Aid | Illustration by Howard Lyon
Equipment support cards are any cards that give you a reason to fill your deck with equipment. They might reward you for controlling equipment or equipped creatures, give you a reward whenever your equipped creatures do something, draw/tutor equipment, or simply make casting equipment easier. These don’t have to be equipment themselves—most of them aren’t. These cards are payoffs for running 20 equipment in your EDH deck; in fact, the list includes prominent equipment commanders.
The list only includes cards that care about equipment/equipped creatures, so it doesn’t have cards that generally care about artifacts. These effects are largely concentrated in Boros () with an emphasis on white, though green crops up here and there.
#37. Axgard Armory
Axgard Armory gives your mana base just a little more flexibility. Flooding out becomes much harder when one of your excess lands turns into Sword of Forge and Frontier or something similarly powerful.
#36. Leonin Shikari
Leonin Shikari makes your equipment into combat tricks, if you squint at it. This is particularly useful with defensive equipment like Mithril Coat and Lightning Greaves to ward off interaction, but there’s plenty of value in switching swords and other combat damage related equipment to your unblocked creatures.
#35. Kaldheim Runes
Kaldheim introduced a cycle of Runes—cantripping enchantments that can go on your equipment to add color-appropriate keywords, and maybe stats. They are:
As a whole, these are fine. Flight and Speed are the best as they provide the most relevant keywords, but none are unplayably bad. Something that really helps them is their ability to go on any permanent, even lands, so they effectively have cycling.
#34. Zamriel, Seraph of Steel
Equipment decks often need some form of protection, which Zamriel, Seraph of Steel does… okay. The lack of indestructible on opposing turns leaves you uncomfortably vulnerable to sweepers, but it makes it hard for your opponents to profitably block or interact on your turn. Just make sure you have additional protection spells; Zamriel isn’t enough alone.
#33. Barret, Avalanche Leader + Chishiro, the Shattered Blade
Barret, Avalanche Leader and Chishiro, the Shattered Blade are effectively the same card: They’re legends that reward your equipment with creature tokens, a relatively tame but effective way to make a green commander that cares about equipment.
Barret’s free equip each combat makes it the more impressive of the two, but both are great support pieces if you feel the urge to go wide with your equipment.
#32. Weapons Vendor
Weapons Vendor definitely trends towards being a Limited card, but it has utility. You’ll play it later in the game, draw a card, and equip your Argentum Armor for . And it’ll be fine. You won’t be sad to topdeck it since it replaces itself, which makes it similarly unaffected by board wipes. You have better options once you branch out to multicolor decks, but this looks right at home in casual mono-white equipment lists.
#31. Forging the Tyrite Sword
If your equipment deck leans into historic synergies, Forging the Tyrite Sword could be really good. But equipment decks are spoiled for choice when it comes to tutors, so one that takes three turns to reach the payoff isn’t particularly enticing. Without a reason to care about the saga or Treasure specifically, this card is pretty weak.
#30. Red XIII, Proud Warrior
Red XIII, Proud Warrior feels like more a support piece than a legend worth building a deck around, but it’s solid. Trample is far from irrelevant, and buying back your best equipment is handy in a format flush with Vandalblast and other artifact destruction spells. It’s easy to get lost in the sauce of protecting your creatures and neglect to protect your equipment.
#29. Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale could be exceptional, but it’s just… a little too much. Six mana is so expensive, and only cheating equip costs for knights is a little too restrictive. It has this weird tension where the draw ability wants you to have a wide board with lots of creatures and equipment, but the equip cheating makes stacking Syr Gwyn with equipment ideal. If you really want a knight typal deck, it’s decent, and I like the card draw. It just isn’t amazing.
#28. Danitha, New Benalia’s Light
Danitha, New Benalia's Light is a great support card. The triple keywords make it an excellent target for equipment and auras while the recursion ability gives it utility beyond a stat stick. It’s another handy recursion piece to give your deck some resiliency.
#27. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal
Dogmeat, Ever Loyal fetches a delightful stream of card advantage between the enters ability and the constant piles of Junk. Of the legends we’ve looked at so far, Dogmeat has the most potential as a commander, but I’m happy to toss it in the 99.
#26. Brass Squire
Getting around equip costs is invaluable; strong equipment are often gated behind high equip costs. That’s especially true in Commander, a good home for big, flashy equipment like Argentum Armor and Hexplate Wallbreaker.
Brass Squire cheats equip costs simply and effectively. It can be rather slow, since it gets summoning sickness and has a relatively unimpressive body, but it does the thing well. It also isn’t restricted to sorcery-speed activation, so your equipment cards become on-board tricks that occasionally eat a surprise attacker or blocker.
#25. Astor, Bearer of Blades
Astor, Bearer of Blades is a fine value card. Reducing equip costs to isn’t as good as making them free, but it’s close enough to be worth running. The enters ability offers decent utility, especially if you build around it with flicker effects like Teleportation Circle to continuously dig through your library.
#24. Akki Battle Squad
Akki Battle Squad provides equipment decks with a fine finisher, though it might be a little win more. It needs a wide board; if you don’t have modified creatures, it does nothing.
On the other hand, equipment are often combat-oriented. Even if the extra combat doesn’t kill a player, additional triggers from cards like Sword of Forge and Frontier, Glimmer Lens, and The Reaver Cleaver provide plenty of gas to grind through the game.
#23. Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER is excellent equipment commander material. I especially appreciate that while it wants you to equip it, it rewards you for going wide rather than just the usual Voltron nonsense.
It’s a similar impactful threat in the 99. It works especially well as a way to bounce back from a board wipe; Wrath of God leaves plenty of equipment littering the field, and Cloud provides a huge burst of resources to rebuild with.
#22. Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith provides a decent tutor that becomes quite impressive as long as you have Hammer of Nazahn in your library—which you often will, in EDH.
The attack trigger becomes a useful tool to bust through a stalled board state, either by preventing your opponent’s best creatures from getting in the way or tapping random mana dorks and stuff to make them chump with real cards.
#21. Kami of Celebration
Kami of Celebration provides a useful burst of card advantage. I like that it modifies creatures for its card draw; that gives it play in Voltron decks that want to put all their equipment on one creature. This is definitely closer to a cast-from-exile card than an equipment support card, but can you ever have too much card advantage?
#20. Stonehewer Giant
Stonehewer Giant creates a massive mana advantage; not only do you get the equipment of your choice into play for , but it also equips for free. For a card like Argentum Armor, that practically generates 10 mana!
Since it isn’t restricted to a sorcery-speed activation, it’s an excellent combat deterrent. How are you meant to attack into a creature that threatens the best equipment in your opponent’s deck at any time?
#19. Bureau Headmaster
Bureau Headmaster isn’t anything flashy, just a cost reducer. But a cost reducer that hits both equipment and their equip cost is exactly what an equipment deck wants. This is your classic glue card—it’ll never be the flashiest or coolest play in the deck, but it holds everything together with a rock-solid floor.
#18. Armory Paladin
Look, more card draw for your equipment deck!
Armory Paladin is super useful in coordination with cards like Cloud and Kami of Celebration. While those cards reward you for equipping creatures, this makes the equipment themselves generate additional card advantage. It’s a one-two punch that extracts the max value from your cards.
#17. Brotherhood Outcast
Brotherhood Outcast is great for its flexibility. Equipment recursion is super useful, but so is the shield counter. Equipment decks need ample protection for their creatures so they aren’t blown out by removal, so a card that doubles as protection for both your equipment and your creatures gives you a huge edge. The shield counter lets you exploit modified synergies, which often comes up in these decks.
#16. Armored Skyhunter
Armored Skyhunter is a fantastic little threat for Commander decks. You often hit when you dig six cards deep, and you get both the equipment and a free equip! Though that’s often on the flying Skyhunter itself, it can be anything.
So many cards in equip decks end up being reliant on being equipped or exist only to make equipment better that I appreciate having a single, compact threat like this one.
#15. Battlefield Improvisation + Magnetic Theft
Battlefield Improvisation and Magnetic Theft are both combat tricks for your equipment and are incredibly useful ways to destroy your opponents. These are highly flexible as their true impact depends on the equipment you control. Do you have Mithril Coat? Then they’re protection spells. Sword of Fire and Ice makes them into card draw, while changing who holds Maul of the Skyclaves gives you a surprise flying blocker.
#14. Hammer of Nazahn
Hammer of Nazahn greatly outstrips its creator. It’s a solid source of protection, especially for the Voltron deck, and the equip cheat gives you lots of power quickly. It falls off a little bit since it only cheats the equip cost of equipment that come into play, so it’s awfully vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares but still worth playing.
#13. Sephiroth, Fallen Hero
While plenty of equipment provide stats to make your creatures strong, Sephiroth, Fallen Hero gives them even more power and toughness. A base 7/5 is an incredible stat line before we even consider +2/+2 or whatever your equipment offers.
The recursion ability ices the cake: It makes it awfully hard to keep this threat down in the 99, and it cheats the command tax if you let it lead your cell into battle.
#12. Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Nahiri, the Lithomancer provides solid equipment support. Depending on the ability you use, you can cheat on equip costs or the cost of an equipment. Personally, I prefer the first; making tokens into significant threats taxes your opponents’ removal. You don’t really want to kill some random Kor Soldier token, but how many triggers of Umezawa's Jitte can you give your opponent?
Don’t worry about the ultimate on this one. The Stoneforged Blade isn’t bad, per se, but your deck should already have plenty of impactful equipment in it.
#11. Akiri, Fearless Voyager
Akiri, Fearless Voyager takes a novel approach to protecting your equipped creatures by adding a genuine cost. It can be expensive, but it’s often worthwhile, especially with creatures like Esper Sentinel.
The card draw is the biggest strength of this creature. In Commander, you can draw up to three cards if you attack all your opponents, which is pretty impressive from a 3-mana creature.
#10. Codsworth, Handy Helper
Equipment decks become choked on mana pretty easily. You need to cast creatures, cast equipment, and pay to equip them. That’s why effects that cheat on equip costs are so valuable.
Codsworth, Handy Helper doesn’t help with the creatures, but it handles everything else as a mana dork for your equipment, plus a way to get past equip costs. It even provides subtle protection for your commander—it’s kind of insane to compare this to Brass Squire.
Overall, Codsworth is an invaluable support piece that belongs in virtually every white equipment deck in EDH.
#9. Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain
Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain has the stats for Commander. Creating copies of equipment gives you the tools to overwhelm your opponents, especially since they come into play attached to the creature they were copied from. The ability is only okay with equipment cards that use attack triggers like Sword of the Animist, but it excels with anything that provides a combat buff or has a combat damage trigger. Equipment like Thran Power Suit and Machinist's Arsenal are especially valuable since they scale with all the copies.
Arna is also novel as an Esper commander () in a classically Boros () archetype.
#8. Nahiri, Forged in Fury
Nahiri, Forged in Fury is just a draw engine, but it’s a powerful one. You can theoretically draw a card for each creature you control, and you even get some free spells since you don’t have to pay for equipment, which makes it stronger than, say, Armory Paladin.
While you could argue that the Paladin is cheaper, Nahiri’s affinity means you’ll rarely cast it for the full 6 mana, and it does an exceptional job cheating command tax since every turn you control Nahiri increases the number of equipment you control.
#7. Forge Anew
We’ve looked at many recursive support pieces today, but Forge Anew is easily the best of the bunch because it does much, much more than simply recur an artifact. You get instant-speed equips on your turn, and your first equip is always free. While it isn’t ideal to play this enchantment without getting another card back, it pulls its own weight well enough that it’s not impossible for it to be a good play.
#6. Kodama of the West Tree
Who would win? A 20/20 commander, or a 1/1 Human?
With Kodama of the West Tree, the answer’s not even close. Trample is an invaluable keyword to prevent chump blocks and give your buffed creatures the impact they deserve.
Even better is the combat trigger. Getting land ramp for playing the game is so incredibly broken. This card is almost worth going into green all on its own.
#5. Steelshaper’s Gift + Open the Armory + Kellan, the Fae-Blooded
Tutors are always powerful for consistency, and looking for a specific card type often gives you tutors that are slightly above rate compared to generic ones. Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory, and Birthright Boon (Kellan, the Fae-Blooded’s adventure spell) are all incredibly efficient means to find the perfect equipment for any situation.
#4. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
At a glance, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary looks like it belongs alongside other tutors, but this card is significantly stronger. You just get more from it. Those cards give you an equipment while this gives you an equipment and Magic’s only equipment trigger doubler, even if the equipment have to be on Cloud.
Additionally, you’re in white! You can easily flicker Cloud with cards like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Sword of Forge and Frontier to get even more cards from it. It has excellent baseline value and the foundations of a powerful card advantage engine.
#3. Puresteel Paladin + Sram, Senior Edificer
Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer are incredible card draw engines. While plenty of other equipment support cards draw cards, none do it as reliably and efficiently as these two.
The Paladin is absolutely the better card due to the absurd metalcraft ability, but both should be in virtually all your equipment EDH decks.
#2. Sigarda’s Aid
Flash equipment and cheating on equip costs? That's nice and all, but it’s really the mana cost that makes Sigarda's Aid a powerhouse in multiple formats. This card would be good at 2 mana and EDH-playable at 3. To have it for a single white mana is… amazing. This is the backbone of Hammertime decks in Modern and one of the first cards you should reach for when you build your equipment deck.
#1. Stoneforge Mystic
What could top Stoneforge Mystic? I’ve exalted the value of tutors plenty, but that goes double for a card that puts the tutored equipment into play at a fraction of its mana cost at instant speed.
You often see this creature alongside equipment like Batterskull and Kaldra Compleat that are disgusting threats when you play them for . That’s a stellar strategy in Constructed and Cube. Even though those cards lose some their luster in Commander, that format has enough big equipment like Worldslayer and Argentum Armor to be worth its inclusion.
Wrap Up
Hammer of Nazahn | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez
Equipment decks are some of the most popular in EDH, with plenty of support that comes out each year. But a few shiny artifacts aren’t enough to truly dominate your pod; you need support cards to hold everything together and provide invaluable resources like mana and card advantage.
What’s your favorite equipment support card? How many do you include compared to the amount of equipment you run? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!
Stay safe, and thanks for reading!
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