The 34 Best Legendary Equipment in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 12, 2026

Every good sword needs a name. The same is true for every good bow, axe, spear, staff, maul, mace, scythe, ring, throne, chainmail armor, crown, shovel, and the occasional computer chip. Throughout the history of fantasy literature, hundreds if not thousands of heroes have named their weapons, solidifying them as legendary in status and marking them as the finest examples of their type. Magic is no exception, with dozens of named weapons, armor, and other equipment drenched in history and lore. With the Universes Beyond MTG sets, we get to see MTG interpretations of the most famous equipment from Lord of the Rings and Assassin’s Creed, as well as Fallout and the Forgotten Realms.

Each of these pieces of equipment has a storied past or is wielded by a famous hero from Magic's or another universe’s history. Today, we’re throwing all of these mythical weapons into the forge to see who comes out on top!

What Are Legendary Equipment in MTG?

Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang | Illustration by Martina Pilcerova

Legendary equipment are any equipment spells with the legendary supertype. This means that you can only ever control one of these equipment with the same name, and whenever you control two with the same name, you must choose one to keep and one to sacrifice. This legendary restriction is in place mostly for flavor reasons, but also helps to balance these powerful permanents; can you imagine how broken multiple copies of Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus would be?

#34. The Reality Chip

Listen, I love The Reality Chip’s design. I truly do. There’s just no reason to run this over Future Sight.

#33. Unscythe, Killer of Kings

Unscythe, Killer of Kings is a cool and undeniably badass weapon built for reaping the weakling creatures your opponents summon. +3/+3 and first strike is already a fair buff for its investment, and the option to turn anything it kills into 2/2 Zombie tokens is icing on the cake.

#32. Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang

Hats off to WotC for releasing a card dripping with as much flavor as Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, but shame on them for making it so expensive to activate. Six mana to cast and another 6 mana to actually create the 5/5 Dragon Spirit token is a hard sell, especially when the only other option is to pay 3 to attach it to any ol’ creature that’ll die to removal.

#31. Sting, the Glinting Dagger

Sting, the Glinting Dagger is the perfect goblinoid killer, granting its wielder +1/+1 and first strike so long as it’s blocking or blocked by an orc or goblin creature. You’ll have a lot of opportunities to block with the creature, since Sting untaps it at the beginning of each combat, but this still has a fairly narrow range of uses compared to some of the other legendary equipment we have.

#30. Lost Jitte

Lost Jitte is reminiscent of Umezawa's Jitte in that it creates charge counters which you can then use for various activated effects. The best use of these in my opinion is to get a single charge counter on Lost Jitte and use proliferation effects to double or triple the number of charge counters you have available, before dumping them all into untapping your lands for a massive Fireball, or putting so many +1/+1 counters on the creature it becomes a must-kill situation.

#29. Helm of Kaldra

The original Mirrodin block pieces of Kaldra are a fun trio of equipment, but the strength of the finished Helm of Kaldra is a bit lackluster compared to modern day Magic’s payoffs. Helm of Kaldra grants all the fun evergreen mechanics and has the actual effect to summon Kaldra, but that’s still 12 mana and three cards away from hitting the field.

#28. Shield of Kaldra

Shield of Kaldra grants the equipped creature indestructible, as well as to the other two pieces of the Kaldra set. It’s a bit of a step down from Darksteel Plate, though, so you’ll probably skip this in favor of something simpler unless you’re specifically looking to summon the Kaldra token.

#27. Sword of Kaldra

Sword of Kaldra gives a huge buff of +5/+5 and guarantees the equipped creature exiles whatever it damages, but at 8 total mana to cast and equip, this legendary blade isn’t as hot as it once was back when Mirrodin was released. It’s still worth a laugh to try to assemble all three pieces of Kaldra, but don’t expect it to win you the game anytime soon.

#26. Eater of Virtue

The NEO legendary equipment Eater of Virtue is a great way to maintain the advantage you had on the board from a creature’s keyword abilities. It’s cheap to cast and cheap to equip, which you’ll be doing a lot since it requires the equipped creature to die for its second ability to matter. Once that creature dies, its keywords are applied to any creature Eater of Virtue equips. This makes it an effective weapon for passing hexproof, indestructible, or protection from your Gladecover Scout onto something more important.

#25. Caduceus, Staff of Hermes

Caduceus, Staff of Hermes is an excellent card for Commander, or any other Magic format where you start with more than 30 life. Once this legendary staff comes online, you’ll not only gain life whenever that creature deals damage, you’ll find it easy to maintain your 30+ life superiority as the equipped creature enjoys +5/+5, indestructible, and the prevention of all damage that would be dealt to it. I’ve always found that second effect to be a bit redundant; wouldn’t indestructible already prevent most of the negative outcomes of damage to the creature? If there’s a situation where this matters, please let me know in the comments!

#24. Andúril, Narsil Reforged

Andúril is so cool that it got two printings in the LOTR set. Andúril, Narsil Reforged uses the ascend mechanic from Rivals of Ixalan: It counts the number of permanents you control to determine if you have the city’s blessing. Once you do, it’s twice as effective at buffing your board with +1/+1 counters. I like a card that rewards you for “playing the game,” granting you a benefit that gets better the more creatures (and thus, permanents) that you control.

#23. Drach’Nyen

Drach'Nyen is 6-mana removal spell from the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks that gives the equipped creature menace and a power boost relative to the exiled creature’s power. This legendary daemon sword has a very high ceiling for effectiveness, granting the evasion effect it needs for a creature with such huge power to become a true threat.

#22. Bilbo’s Ring

Bilbo's Ring is costly to attach to anything but a halfling, but the protection and value it creates can’t be denied. Pinging yourself for extra cards is well worth it, especially in a 40-life format like Commander. Plus, the protection from hexproof and its inability to be blocked means you’ll be able to swing in all day and night with that halfling without fear of repercussion.

#21. Crown of Gondor

Crown of Gondor follows a line of equipment that each give +1/+1 for each creature you control, growing the creature’s power in proportion to the size of its court. Reminiscent of Pennon Blade, Crown of Gondor scores better than the blade in that it introduces the monarch effect as soon as you play a legendary creature, and that reduces the equip cost to 1 generic mana.

#20. Glamdring

Any time you can cast something for free in Richard Garfield’s Magic: The Gathering, you should do so. Glamdring lets you cast instants and sorceries from your hand for free, making this an ideal piece of equipment in spellslinger decks. As you cast more and more spells for free, your creature grows ever stronger, allowing you to cast larger spells for free. I doubt anyone’s ever cast Worldfire for free off Glamdring, but now I desperately want to.

#19. Hand of Vecna

Hand of Vecna is a fun, flavorful legendary equipment from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, representing one of the three legendary artifacts needed to summon Vecna alongside the Eye of Vecna and The Book of Vile Darkness. Together, the three artifacts can summon the 8/8 indestructible Vecna token, which is honestly overcosted as a 13-mana combo. The Hand itself isn’t too bad, but it both rewards and punishes you for the number of cards in your hand, making it difficult to balance between value and the life you’d lose.

#18. Mask of Griselbrand

Mask of Griselbrand is a cute reference to Griselbrand, scourge of Avacyn Restored and banned-in-Commander monster. It requires the creature to die, and has no innate way to increase its power to the point where we’d want to trade it for card draw, so you’ll have to rely on other means of buffing it up. Flying and lifelink aren’t so bad, though.

#17. Luxior, Giada’s Gift

I love Luxior, Giada's Gift for the weird interaction it has with planeswalkers, making them able to attack and block in combat as creatures. I don’t really think it has much actual competitive use outside Devoted Druid combos, as you typically want to keep your planeswalker safe outside of combat so you can consistently activate its loyalty abilities. It’s a fun trick for your planeswalker Commander decks, in case you wanted to find a way to win with commander damage from your Dihada, Binder of Wills.

#16. Mithril Coat

As if we needed more ways to instantly save our commanders from removal, Mithril Coat does just that for 3 mana. Mithril Coat is easily one of the best options for commander protection, granting indestructible to the equipped creature as soon as it comes down. By virtue of being indestructible itself, your opponents can only use exile effects like Dust to Dust or Shattering Blow.

#15. Wand of Orcus

The Wand of Orcus is a must-have for any zombie deck. Besides its anthem effect giving each of your zombies deathtouch, you can rest assured you’ll always have some zombies around to turn into lethal blockers as you swing in uncontested with your deathtouch-ified creature.

#14. The Reaver Cleaver

Possibly the best card to come out of the Dominaria United Commander decks, The Reaver Cleaver is the third-best way to ramp with a legendary equipment behind Sword of the Animist and Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus. The number of times I’ve sunk a bunch of mana into getting The Reaver Cleaver attached to a creature, only to swing in, generate a ton of Treasure, and play out another full turn’s worth of spells is innumerable. It’ll keep generating value as long as you keep swinging and, hey, you’re playing red! That’s what it does best!

#13. Tarrian’s Soulcleaver

Pauper heads know how powerful a Sadistic Glee can be, so having a persistent source for that effect that also hits artifacts and grants vigilance is a no-brainer. Tarrian's Soulcleaver does just that. While it doesn’t buff the attached creature immediately, you’re more than likely to see a ton of +1/+1 counters hit that creature before long. Besides the obvious free creature sac outlets like Viscera Seer, Tarrian's Soulcleaver also benefits from those Treasure, Clue, and Food tokens you can make and sacrifice at a moment’s notice.

#12. Konda’s Banner

Konda's Banner is best used in a deck that's centered around a single creature type, to get the maximum benefit from its dual anthem effect. It can only be attached to a legendary creature, making it one of the best equipment pieces for a Lathril, Blade of the Elves deck.

#11. Kaldra Compleat

Kaldra Compleat is what happens when the mythical Mirrodin creature Kaldra has a run-in with the Phyrexians. Kaldra Compleat comes into play ready to go as a 5/5 Germ token with all the goodies promised by the Helm, Shield, and Sword of Kaldra, plus haste to boot. All I’m saying is with a 7-mana casting cost, it better come into play ready to go. Assuming it survives a rotation, which it most likely will with access to indestructible, Kaldra Compleat can then be attached to anything your heart desires, making even the lowliest Birds of Paradise into a monster in the combat step.

#10. Godsend

Godsend is the perfect card for killing the Theros gods, exiling them from the battlefield after they block or become blocked by the equipped creature, and preventing your opponent from recasting that Iroas, God of Victory permanently. It’s relatively expensive to cast and equip, but the value it provides the equipped creature can’t be denied, as it not only becomes a massive attacker, but also nearly impossible to block favorably. Since it lets you exile one of the blockers/blocked creatures before combat damage takes place, you can effectively remove two or more blockers by spreading that damage between whatever little guys your opponent has thrown to the fire.

#9. Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound

Elbrus, the Binding Blade was one of the first mythic rare cards I ever pulled from a pack. It’s definitely not the best mythic to pull from Dark Ascension, but I loved it just the same as though I’d pulled Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Elbrus is one of the only equipment in the game that transforms into a creature, and what a creature it is.

It’s backside, Withengar Unbound, is a 13/13 flying, intimidate, trampler creature that gets 13 +1/+1 counters “whenever a player loses the game,” something which we’d never seen before on a Magic card. I immediately slammed it into any EDH deck I could, hoping without hope that someday I’d be able to flip Elbrus, and Withengar wouldn’t immediately die to removal, and I’d get the final blow on an opponent with it and get to put all 13 of those +1/+1 counters on my transformed demon. As far as actual utility for this blade goes, it's fun to pay 7 mana for the gimmick, but you shouldn’t expect this sword to go off super consistently.

#8. Blackblade Reforged

Ah, Blackblade Reforged, or as I like to call it, “the perfect control win condition.” Blackblade Reforged gives the equipped creature +1/+1 for each land you control (basically making it into Dakkon Blackblade). This is the ideal late-game legendary equipment: You drop this after spending seven or more turns controlling the board and denying your opponents access to their threats or blockers, then swing in with an uber-sized creature of your choice. It turns anything into a huge threat, so long as you haven’t missed a land drop yet!

#7. Embercleave

Embercleave is the ultimate aggro equipment. The perfect game-ender to your Red Deck Wins deck, a surprise Embercleave that hits the field after your opponent has passed on blockers can make a moderate attack into a game-ending haymaker. The fact that it both attaches itself for free and grants double strike and trample, with the potential to be cast for just , makes Embercleave undoubtedly one of the best legendary equipment in the game.

#6. Shadowspear

Elspeth is two-for-two on insanely powerful legendary equipment. Her second piece of epic loot is Shadowspear, a cheap to cast and easy to equip weapon that grants trample, lifelink, and +1/+1. Where Shadowspear really shines is with its activated ability to remove hexproof and indestructible from your opponents’ permanents. There are only a scant few other cards that can remove hexproof, and none as cheaply as Shadowspear’s 1-mana activation cost.

#5. Helm of the Host

Helm of the Host is another top-tier piece of legendary equipment essential for the Voltron commander player. Getting multiple copies of your souped-up commander to wipe the entire pod out all at once is the best way to go about seizing that sort of aggro victory. I make frequent use of Helm of the Host in my Dakkon Blackblade Commander deck, where a 10/10+ Dakkon can be thrown around the board willy-nilly alongside its token counterpart. Or, if I’m feeling like playing it safe, I can always throw my token copy around at my opponents without fear of losing my expensive commander in combat. Either works!

#4. Sword of the Animist

I feel like I’ve seen Sword of the Animist so much in my recent games that I forgot it was legendary. There’s only one other legendary equipment that I think can ramp you better than this card, and it’s the compleated Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus. Sword of the Animist can hit the field on turn 2, attach itself to your mana dork, and start ramping you immediately. Any deck that looks to attack every turn with something should be running this, and indeed you can run this colorless card in any deck thanks to its colorless color identity. The land-fetching ability is so strong that the +1/+1 stat boost feels like an afterthought, honestly.

#3. Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus

Those madmen at R&D actually did it, they made a Sword of the Animist somehow better by giving it the living weapon effect. At 3 mana, getting to fetch a land whenever the equipped creature attacks is more than fair, especially when you consider that you can begin attacking immediately with that Germ token it creates. This is by far one of the best equipment in Magic, let alone one of the best legendary equipment. It benefits almost every possible playstyle; since it’s colorless, it can slot into any deck as a ramp piece, and it just gets better the more focused on lands or equipment your deck gets.

#2. Umezawa’s Jitte

The value generated by Umezawa's Jitte is unparalleled. So much so that it’s been banned in Modern, an MTG format known for high power interactions. This Jitte just does so much for so little investment: Any creature-based deck will have to answer Umezawa's Jitte if they hope to win. You can just do too much with it too quickly, and there’s almost never an instance where you’ll run out of charge counters before you run out of targets.

#1. Hammer of Nazahn

Hammer of Nazahn is the best legendary equipment in the game, and I don’t think it’s even close. This 4-mana hammer comes into play and can attach itself immediately to a creature you control, and it grants that effect to every other equipment spell you cast as well. This means the expensive equip costs of your Colossus Hammer, Batterskull, and Kaldra Compleat are null and void, making them instant threats on the field for your large creatures to pick up and bonk your opponents on the head. This is all in addition to the indestructibility granted by Hammer of Nazahn, which comes at a comparable rate to Darksteel Plate, costing only 4 mana to get onto the field and attached to a creature.

Best Legendary Equipment Payoffs

There are several legendary creatures that care about the number of legendary permanents you control, and many of them make for an excellent commander for a deck built entirely around legendary permanents. Kassandra, Eagle Bearer is a great start, and it even tutors up The Spear of Leonidas when it enters the battlefield. Gandalf the White can help you double up on those historic ETB triggers, and Sisay, Weatherlight Captain can tutor up whatever legendary permanents you need at the moment. Yomiji, Who Bars the Way keeps those artifacts on the battlefield whenever an opponent tries to remove them, too.

Can Non-Legends Carry Legendary Weapons?

Yes! In most cases, any creature can be the target of a legendary equipment’s equip effect, but some may have other stipulations that prevent them from being attached to certain creatures. For example, you can only equip Excalibur, Sword of Eden to legendary creatures. You can equip any creature with Blackblade Reforged, but it’s cheaper to equip to a legendary one.

Wrap Up

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus | Illustration by Titus Lunter

No fantasy world is complete without meeting a certain quota of legendary weapons, armor, and other equipment complete with names, backstories, and powerful blessings and curses. Throughout the years, Magic: The Gathering has filled the multiverse with tons of special equipment that brings us into the fiction and makes us ask things like “how did this sword get this name?”, “Who was Umezawa?”, and “How was Elbrus bound to the blade?” These sorts of cards are the best for environmental storytelling, giving us just enough but not too much of a peek inside the lives of the characters that the Magic story revolves around.

Let me know what you think of this list in the comments or over on the Draftsim Discord! Have I overvalued the ramp provided by Sword of the Animist? Am I blinded by my nostalgia in ranking Elbrus, the Binding Blade too high on the list? Roast me!

Thanks for reading!