Ranked for EDH: The Swords Cycle
If you were to ask Magic players about their biggest pet peeves regarding the design and release of new cards, incomplete card cycles would probably rank fairly high among the responses. We’ve seen this happen time and time again with rare lands, exciting creatures, and various other cards that make up cycles that still remain unfinished. This is why the recent completion of a cycle that began back in 2004’s Darksteel is such a big deal. After all, it took over 19 years for this cycle to finally come to a close.
I don’t think that the cycle of Swords would ever have been completed were it not for consistent fan demand, so I commend Magic players for continuing to ask for them for such a long period of time. I attribute the popularity of these requests to the evocative nature of the cards themselves. It’s easy to see why a colorless equipment cycle that showcases the contrasts and synergies between different colors while affording any color to access unique and powerful abilities is so beloved by players of all stripes.
While I think that every single one of the Swords has something to offer in the right deck, some of them are just more exciting and powerful than others. In this article, I’m going to share my rankings for all 10 of the Swords based on my experiences with them in Commander. Okay, let’s do this!
10. Sword of War and Peace
Even though Boros is my absolute favorite color pair, I have to admit that it was very easy for me to rank this one at the bottom of the list. While extra damage and life gain can sometimes be valuable, this card doesn’t offer anything that isn’t readily available to most decks based around equipment. It simply isn’t that hard to find damage and life gain elsewhere when playing this type of strategy.
While it’s certainly nice to be able to dodge efficient white targeted removal such as Swords to Plowshares, I’ve also been in circumstances where the protection afforded by Sword of War and Peace creates complications. I do have to wonder whether it’s worth finding yourself unable to equip something such as Embercleave on your commander. My experience with this one tells me that it usually isn’t.
9. Sword of Body and Mind
I think that this card hasn’t aged as gracefully as some of the others in this cycle. Milling someone for 10 cards almost always seems to help them out because almost every single Commander deck has ways to abuse the graveyard nowadays. Even in circumstances where that isn’t the case, it’s unlikely that you will actually fully mill your opponent by hitting them with this equipment.
You usually wouldn’t want to mill someone who was playing a commander like Muldrotha, the Gravetide, because you’d almost be doing the same thing as letting them draw 10 cards! This means that it can be dicey to equip this one because there are so many popular commanders that love the graveyard. If you still want to play it, having a backup plan such as Dauthi Voidwalker wouldn’t be a bad idea.
8. Sword of Truth and Justice
This is a great example of something that’s likely to overperform in specific decks while not being very impactful in most situations. I feel like you’d almost have to be building around counters in order to get much use out of the abilities on this card. It is worth noting that this card doesn’t only work with +1/+1 counters, meaning that there are uses for it outside of equipment decks that might not seem immediately obvious.
Equipping a commander such as Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice with Sword of Truth and Justice and give her some good protection while also allowing her to keep growing and proliferating even more. It should be easy to get extra loyalty counters for planeswalkers or stretch your toxic and infect creatures further in a deck like this. The new Commander precon led by Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos also feels like a great home for this card.
7. Sword of Sinew and Steel
If planeswalkers were more widely played in Commander, I’d probably rank this card higher on the list. You’re less likely to get consistent value out of the planeswalker removal unless an opponent is playing a superfriends strategy or a planeswalker commander. In either of these situations, I’d view this more favorably. This card still offers decent protection and solid artifact removal that’s easily repeatable.
There are almost always powerful artifacts to destroy in Commander. Being able to turn sideways and remove something like The Great Henge feels very satisfying. It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to destroy things that are controlled by the person on the receiving end of your combat damage. This means that you can destroy planeswalkers that protect themselves—such as Archangel Elspeth—with relative ease.
6. Sword of Light and Shadow
As one of the original cards in this cycle, this card still manages to feel flavorful and powerful today. You can get so much value out of recurring creatures in Commander, so this is a great option for decks that want to see creatures hit the graveyard or those looking to reuse enters-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities after creatures have died. The life gain isn’t too valuable, but it might be relevant for some decks.
The first thing that comes to mind with this card is how easy it is to utilize creatures like Ranger-Captain of Eos to get tons of repeated ETB value and slow down opponents who rely too heavily on noncreature spells. A unique commander like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale that blends equipment and go-wide strategies can also benefit from both the recursion and the life gain on this card.
5. Sword of Once and Future
Information is power. Being able to surveil 2 when you connect is actually a lot stronger than it initially seems, whether you want to filter away unwanted cards or want to load up your graveyard. This card also allows you to stretch targeted removal and other low-cost instants and sorceries by letting you flash one back for free whenever you deal combat damage. This is a valuable ability that not all colors can easily access.
Being able to reuse that Demonic Tutor can completely change the game by allowing you to find a key card at just the right time. You might also be able to flash back Reanimate in order to get back something scary that you surveiled into your graveyard. While this equipment’s utility will depend on the number of cheap instants and sorceries in your deck, it offers a lot of powerful possibilities for a variety of decks.
4. Sword of Hearth and Home
There are more and more creatures printed nowadays with powerful ETB abilities. This card is equipped to capitalize on those creatures. In addition to flickering a creature, you’ll also be able to search your library for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield untapped! When it comes to pure value, it’s hard to beat a card that’s so functional. This is a triumph of recent card design.
One of my favorite things to do with Sword of Hearth and Home is casting Stoneforge Mystic in order to find it and then flickering Stoneforge Mystic to find other equipment! This can quickly get you ahead. Some creatures like Agent of Treachery are bad enough when you get hit by their ETB once, but you can easily use them again and again while also jumping ahead on lands to drop other powerful cards!
3. Sword of Forge and Frontier
We’ve been seeing a lot of impulse draw in the past few years and it’s definitely been a highlight. Giving every color access to that ability on an equipment that also allows you to play an additional land makes this into a no-brainer for decks that care about equipment, card selection, and playing lands. We’ve even been seeing cards that reward you for casting spells from exile, so a repeatable enabler is always going to be desirable.
Prosper, Tome-Bound is a commander that loves to see cards being played from exile. It’s easy to create treasure tokens multiple times per turn with Sword of Forge and Frontier, since it can be difficult to block Prosper because he has deathtouch. It’s also very cool to play a land from exile and still be able to use that second land play with a card like Serra Paragon to replay a valuable land from your graveyard.
2. Sword of Fire and Ice
This card has been impactful on multiple different formats and it remains quite popular in Commander as well. This is actually my favorite card in the cycle, because the one-two punch of pinging something for 2 damage and drawing a card is hard to beat. While I don’t think that it’s actually the strongest of the cycle, I consider it to be the most generally useful. I find myself adding it to almost any deck that cares about turning sideways.
These days, I associate this card with Esper Sentinel. Not only is this one of the best creatures to kill with Sword of Fire and Ice, but you can always equip it on your own and draw even more cards. I’ve enjoyed doing this many times. There’s no doubt that commanders like Halvar, God of Battle that can easily give themselves and other creatures double strike are also great with this and any of the other Swords.
1. Sword of Feast and Famine
While many of the other Swords could reasonably be the top choice in certain decks, there’s little question that this one is the strongest overall. Being able to untap all of your lands is just incredibly strong in almost any deck because you’re effectively doubling your mana. There are also plenty of reasons to be excited about having access to discard in decks that aren’t running black.
This card excels with aggressive commanders such as Pako, Arcane Retriever because it allows you to cast more spells in the beginning of your turn before untapping your lands and allowing you to continue to cast your own spells or those exiled by opponents. It’s also not an uncommon sight to see Sword of Feast and Famine paired with Aggravated Assault to take combat steps until all opponents have been eliminated.
Conclusion
Don’t worry. I didn’t forget about Sword of Dungeons & Dragons. This is a fun card design from Unstable. Had this card come later on during Unfinity, there’s a strong likelihood that they would have made sure that it doesn’t create a token in a color that doesn’t exist in Magic. That said, I don’t think that it would compete with any of the Swords that are already legal in Commander.
Well, what do you think? Did you agree with my rankings for this awesome cycle of cards? Let us know on Twitter! Join our automated, curated, webcam EDH pods on our Discord. Articles like these are made possible and kept ad-free by our amazing Patreon supporters.
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