Top 10 Equipment Cards of 2024

If you know me you know I love a good sword. There’s something badass about tooling up your favorite creatures with weapons of warfare. What were the best ones of the year? Well, let’s get stuck in.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

First up, we have two honorable mentions.

Chainsaw is really neat, but the relative groundedness of it being a literal Chainsaw still has me recoiling a little. It doesn’t quite pass my vibe check. That said, it’s a removal spell, and it also gives a progressively bigger buff as the game goes on. It’s decent for two mana, and provides Equipment decks with an “on-theme” spell type for their removal early game.

Secondly, I can’t not mention Cranial Ram. It was pre-banned in Pauper ahead of the release of Modern Horizons 3, and for good reason. It’s another Cranial Plating, and it can do serious numbers. Is it an Equipment of the Year? Not quite. But these next ones are.

TOP 10 EQUIPMENT CARDS OF 2024

10. CRYPTIC COAT

At number 10 is Cryptic Coat. Cryptic Coat is an inspired iteration on True-Name Nemesis and similar effects. This one is a lot of fun with ways to manipulate the top of the library or flicker your creatures, namely because it can allow you to cheat mana in blue decks. It’s seen some play in Standard and of course Commander, but also in Legacy in Jeskai and UW Stoneblade builds, which is neat.

9. PRE-WAR FORMALWEAR

Next up, we have another cool “this is an Equipment, but it does something your deck already wants to do, usually in other card slots” kinda card. Pre-War Formalwear brings back all sorts of key creatures from Sram, Senior Edificer to Puresteel Paladin, and returns a bunch of popular Commanders, too. This would be good with just the +2/+2 buff, but the Vigilance on top is excellent.

8. CELESTIAL ARMOR

Coming in across the finish line are the next two Foundations cards, starting with Celestial Armor. Another in the trend of Equipment-that-do-things-Instants-and-Sorceries-normally-do, Celestial Armor is your one-time protection spell that also acts somewhat as a Maul of the Skyclaves, as it leaves behind a buff with Flying. If you’re in white I don’t see why you don’t want to play this, especially if you’re going for Voltron kills. 

7. LEYLINE AXE

Leyline Axe is maybe lower in this list than you want it to be, but that’s because I’m still undecided if this is amazing, or not worth going a card down in your opening hand only to have it eat an early shatter. Still, maybe going down a card to rip removal out of an opponent’s hand isn’t such a bad thing if you have other powerful artifacts to follow it up.

I think I like this one a lot in decks where the Commander reduces equip costs or draws/digs for cards. I like it a lot less when you’re relying on other cards outside of your CZ to do this. Essentially, that means you’re hoping for three lands and card draw AND Leyline Axe in your opener, which is a big axe. 

6. SWORD OF WEALTH AND POWER

A card I have gotten to play with a lot this year is Sword of Wealth and Power. First up, if you’re playing Sunforger in your deck, why aren’t you playing this too? It’s another card that synergizes with running a Sunforger Suite. 

Protection from common ways your creature can be removed, with a buff, and making treasure? That seems worth the entry cost, even knowing you only have a 1 in 10 chance of getting that sweet double spell.

When the creature has double strike and you have an extra combat spell, that’s when you really get to enjoy this card.

5. PIP-BOY 3000

A whole 1000 better than the Broomstick you got for Christmas, the Pip-Boy 3000 is a bit of a do-it-all sidearm. Looting and putting counters on creatures are both fine, but it’s the untapping two lands, and doing so for a cheap investment, that really makes the card good. It’s a mini-Feast and Famine untap, and that can be incredible in the right build. Hell, in an Isshin deck, that’s FOUR lands. 

4. THE SPEAR OF LEONIDAS

The Spear of Leonidas brings serious pain and serious card draw, partly because a good amount of the time it will come after Kassandra, which grants the card draw for hitting with Legendary Equipment ability to your creatures. So, if you look at it as a reverse Faithless Looting, or drawing two cards most of the time you choose Double Strike, then it’s really two ways to draw cards and one Horse. 

The fact this is tutorable by either a Commander or by a card in the 99 for free in a RW/x deck makes it a stellar addition to the year’s cards. If you’re in Red, this is better than Fireshrieker most of the time, especially as you can’t be “gotcha’d” by someone killing you with your own creature, as you’ll control the ability while you control the equipment. So you can make a Horse and block with it. 

3. EXCALIBUR, SWORD OF EDEN

Blackblade Reforged was starting to look a bit long in the tooth, with the average deck running it not getting as many lands into play as it used to. Enter Excalibur, a card that is not only cheap to equip but also cheap to cast. Yes, it says 12, but a lot of the time? Well, it’s going to come down as a free or close to free play. Vigilance is always good, and a hefty +10 means if you can equip it using another ability or spell (like Inventory Management) to Inkmoth Nexus, you get a free player-kill. 

2. THE KEY TO THE VAULT

Sure, I’m a Boros player at heart, but I can’t deny when a blue card knocks it out of the park. Key to the Vault is seriously good, and I respect the card a lot. In fact, in some decks, I’m likely to shoot this on sight. Casting a nonland card for free is good, sure… but digging to find the strongest and best suited for the current board state? That’s wild.

Sometimes I get sad I can’t play this in non-blue decks.

1. BROTHERHOOD REGALIA | SILVER SHROUD COSTUME

The equipment card of the year is Brotherhood Regalia, with a special shout out to Silver Shroud Costume, as they mostly fulfill the same role. Trailblazers Boots was a staple equipment for a long, long time, and it’s taken an equally long time to powercreep it. Bilbo’s Ring in Tales of Middle-Earth was the first card to encroach on that space, and now in 2024 we had two excellent contenders. 

Unblockable is music to any equipment deck’s ears, but it’s also just an incredible ability on anything from Blightsteel Colossus to a creature with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it. 

Getting to have some Ward with it, or using a combat trick to grant Shroud that leaves your creature unblockable afterwards is really the best thing Equipment has given us this year.

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Did I miss your favorite new equipment? Am I sleeping on Lost Jitte? Let me know on BlueSky.