The Best Equipment for Commander

Playing and sticking equipment is always super satisfying, but what are the best equipment in Commander? How do you build the ultimate arbiter of justice? Let’s take a look at the answers today.

THE BEST EQUIPMENTS ARE FLEXIBLE

Before we get onto the list proper, it’s only fair to point out the metric I am judging the best equipment on: flexibility. While some equipment may well win the game in conjunction with certain effects and creatures, they are less impactful outside of these interactions and won’t serve your collection quite as well.

That said, there are some less flexible options that deserve a mention. The above equipment are great combo pieces and slot into countless decks. 

Helm of the Host is perhaps the most flashy and impactful of the three outside of a combo situation, but its relative cost can make it difficult to include without dedicated, free-equip abilities. It can go infinite with creatures like Godo, Bandit Warlord and Aurelia, the Warleader, who are generally pretty attractive options for equipment decks in general. 

Thornbite Staff has more than 200 combos to try out with it — everything from infinite Goblins in Krenko, Mob Boss to, well… all of this in Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter.

To find out the extent of ways to combo off with these equipment, check out Commander Spellbook. 

Paradise Mantle has game winning combos, but also ways to generate infinite mana or infinite tokens in the right deck. It’s a valuable piece whenever you play with creatures that have the Inspired ability, like King Macar, or abilities that trigger when the creature untaps.

These are three great equipment for unlocking flexible combo wins, and are valuable additions to your collection. 

The other equipment that are a little less impactful than the best of the format are the color restricted ones. While there are some Commanders who can include black equipment in their lists, they are far fewer than the other predominantly white decks. 

That said, in those builds, these are excellent options. Lucille helps with voltron wins by removing blockers and requiring two blocks, all while also dropping blockers for the crack back or for when your Commander is eliminated. Drach’Nyen exiles a creature and leaves behind a chunky buff, again granting menace to make getting through with damage easier.

Red equipment decks, on the other hand, are far more ubiquitous, so Two-Handed Axe is pretty close to the upper echelon. I’ve often found that its buffs can lead to damage that outstrips the average Blackblade Reforged. Granting double strike at instant speed is a neat combat trick that’ll blow out attacks and blocks more often than you’d think. 

So, with that out of the way, let’s get stuck into the most valuable equipment in the format. These weapons and tools see the widest play, have the highest impact across different situations and are generally irreplaceable with other options. That said, great budget equipment also exists. Check out our Best Budget Equipment article if you need some quick, cheap upgrade ideas. 

THE BEST EQUIPMENT FOR CARD DRAW

First up, card draw. Skullclamp is hands down one of the most efficient ways to draw cards in Commander that doesn’t involve some kind of infinite combo. At its floor, you can stick it on an important creature to ensure it replaces itself. 

The ceiling is far higher, though. A token outlet or a free sacrifice outlet is the key to unlocking more card draw than you can shake a stick at. There’s a reason this thing was banned in Standard.

Mask of Memory made it to the top 5 in the Budget Equipment article for a reason: it draws multiple cards. You can also make the discard matter less pretty easily.

You could opt for a reanimator approach, using Mask as a way to drop creatures into the bin. Alternatively, just make sure you’re utilizing as much double strike as possible to make that total four cards drawn and two to be discarded across both triggers, which can make for easier decisions.

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING (AND EQUIPPING TO QUADRUPEDS WITH COMPLETE SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF)

I bet y’all thought Lightning Greaves would be next, right? Well, not quite. First up, Trailblazer’s Boots. Nonbasic Landwalk in Commander is basically unblockable, and it’s these shoes you’ll want to try on when going for Voltron kills or getting attack triggers from fragile creatures. 

While a Rogue’s Passage in the mana base is still going to be useful, you want backups, especially when trying to aim for Commander Damage knock outs as quickly as possible. I prefer these to Whispersilk Cloak for the same reason I prefer the following card to Lightning Greaves.

Swiftfoot Boots are better than Lightning Greaves in most circumstances when you’re building around an equipment strategy, or when playing predominantly white interaction like Blacksmith Skill (as opposed to say, a Swan Song to counter a wrath instead). They’re also better when you want to further suit up a creature than merely protecting it. That one mana barely ever matters. 

Greaves might well take the crown when it comes to comboing with a free equip ability (looking at you, Crackdown Construct), but otherwise, I go for Boots first every time. 

LAND AHOY

If there’s one thing that’s great in Commander, it’s ramping your mana. Accelerating to bigger spells is something every strategy wants to do, and Sword of the Animist is the premier card with which to do so. It’s cheap to play, cheap to equip, grants a small buff to the creature going into the redzone and gives you a Rampant Growth when you attack. 

It’s a brilliant, little card. When I play an equipment deck and I get an early game tutor, this is usually the card I go for unless I have enough mana to comfortably grab the next card on our list. 

Sword of Hearth and Home shot straight to the top end of my rankings of the best Swords of X&Y. Not only is it effectively a second copy of one of the best equipment of all time (the aforementioned Sword of the Animist), it does so much more. 

First, the land comes in untapped, which can be a big boon. It also gives you the chance to flicker one of your creatures, reusing an enter-the-battlefield effect, like on Stoneforge Mystic or Solitude. On top of that, it comes with protection from the two most ubiquitous colors in the format: white for removal and green for blockers. 

Once you’ve got your lands, where do you go from there? Well, Sword of Feast and Famine isn’t a bad place. In fact, it’s phenomenal. 

It’ll give you the ever-coveted land-untap trigger, which essentially doubles your mana. While it also forces a discard, what we’re most hyped about is the mana. 

To truly take advantage of this Sword, it’s best to have some activated abilities in your deck, even if only in the manabase. When you have War Room, Arch of Orazca and the like to activate before you untap, you’re always at the least guaranteed to get a bonus card even if you have no spells to cast. 

This sword wins games. 

CLOSE COMBAT

Umezawa’s Jitte is a truly powerful magic card. What makes it so strong is that the equipment gets the counters when the creature deals damage — and yes, you don’t have to hit a player. Just a creature. If you can ever stick this card, it takes over games. 

The ability to make combat a cinch, remove utility creatures and even gain life is unparalleled. You know what they say: “Talk s***, get Jitte.” 

A new contender from Modern Horizons 2, Kaldra Compleat is the kitchen sink of equipment cards. Sure, it’s expensive, but if you’re playing an equipment deck, there’s no way you’re not finagling this into play at a reduction. 

By equipping this, you get a laundry list of the best keywords for a voltron creature to have, barring doublestrike and lifelink. But when you get a massive +5/+5 and get to exile their chump blockers? It may as well have those keywords for the impact it has. 

What takes it over the top is Living Weapon. You don’t even need a creature in play to benefit. 

CONTROL IS THE GREATEST WEAPON

Sometimes there’s a problem that ordinary measures can’t deal with. Most of the time when I’m playing an equipment deck, I like to use player removal for those instances. When that’s not an option — or in the meantime — you can rely on Shadowspear to fix problems for you. 

For a measly one mana, you can remove Hexproof and Indestructible from all permanents your opponents control until end of turn. That’s some serious shield-blasting energy, and it’s packaged on a one mana equipment that also gives trample, lifelink and a small buff to your creature. 

There’s no way they could fit more text on such a cheap to cast card. 

Finally, today, let’s look at the recently reprinted Conqueror’s Flail. Until Double Masters 2, this hadn’t seen a reprint since 2016. I’m glad it has, though, because it’s a key piece in the arsenal of “fair” combat decks and combo-oriented decks alike. 

Any time I run a reasonable suite of equipment and a strategy that’s all-in, I love to take this card. While it doesn’t do all of what Grand Abolisher does, it does enough — usually, to help you close a game with minimal interruption. The buff is nice, too, if you’re in multicolor decks like Syr Gwyn or using partners. 

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This was a collection of the best equipment for Commander. If you’re looking to find more great equipment, head over and check out my article on the Best Budget Equipment. 

When building an equipment deck, I look at these cards first. Do you have a trusty blade or shield you rely on? Let me know what it is on Twitter.