It shouldn’t be too surprising that Final Fantasy MTG is bringing a lot of equipment support to the table. After all, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary wouldn’t be the same without his trusty Buster Sword.
One of the major downsides to equipment in Magic, however, is that they can be rather inefficient. Not only do these cards often fail to immediately impact the board, but equipment is often reined in by expensive Equip costs. This makes these cards difficult to utilize without some way to cheat them out early.
Fortunately, this set features a plethora of ways to attach even the gnarliest of equipment to your creatures on the cheap. If you’re a fan of equipment strategies, we’ve got some strong spoilers to share that should give a variety of decks a nice boost.
Stolen Uniform
Stolen Uniform is a wildly efficient spell for the effect it provides. At first glance, it might look like the best use for Stolen Uniform is to gain control of an opponent’s equipment and use this powerful instant as a combat trick. This definitely can come up in an EDH setting, depending on the strategies of your opponents, especially if you have a way to sacrifice the equipment you steal.
Despite what the name and strange wording suggest, however, Stolen Uniform is best used targeting your own equipment. We’ve seen similar effects like Magnetic Theft make an impact in Modern Colossus Hammer shells already. Stolen Uniform does exactly the same thing, letting you bypass Colossus Hammer’s massive Equip cost.
While Stolen Uniform is basically identical to Magnetic Theft when played on your own equipment, it does have a notable upside. In Modern, this new card lets you splash for blue, rather than red, which allows you to play more disruptive spells. While you will miss out on playing Cori-Steel Cutter, getting access to Spell Pierce and Consign to Memory is a huge upside.
As if this wasn’t enough reason to be excited about Stolen Uniform, it’s also great in Pioneer. Currently, neither Magnetic Theft nor Puresteel Paladin is Pioneer legal. While there are alternatives in Kemba, Kha Enduring, this card is rather susceptible to removal.
Being able to play Colossus Hammer and have the luxury of equipping Hammer at will with Stolen Uniform puts decks that rely on damage-based removal in a bind. Finally, you get the most important upside of Resolute Strike, but you aren’t forced to utilize a Warrior subtheme. Add in some copies of Stubborn Denial, and you’ve got a solid game plan.
Weapons Vendor
At four mana, Weapons Vendor is a bit too slow for most Constructed decks, but this card does have some upside to it.
In Limited, having a card like Weapons Vendor at common makes it more possible for equipment to play an important role in a Draft environment. Not only does it replace itself immediately, but you get to dodge potentially hefty equip costs once per turn. This should work especially well with Job Select cards, since their equip costs tend to be on the higher side.
Outside of Limited, Weapons Vendor is a consideration for Nahiri, Forged in Fury EDH decks that reward you for having a lot of different equipped creatures at once. Weapons Vendor makes it trivial to attach an equipment every turn, leaving plenty of mana available to play non-equipment spells you exile with Nahiri.
Aettir and Priwen
Finally, things wouldn’t be complete without a flashy Equipment that pairs nicely with Stolen Uniform or Weapons Vendor. Aettir and Priwen is a devastating Equipment in Commander, as a 1/1 can become a 40/40 in the blink of an eye!
The caveat, of course, is that playing and equipping Aettir and Priwen like normal costs 11 total mana. Well, getting to attach Aettir and Priwen for free is half the battle.
Imagine combining Stolen Uniform, Aettir and Priwen, and Gregor, Shrewd Magistrate in Commander. If your opponent doesn’t have a creature with power one or less to block with, you get to use Stolen Uniform to suit up Gregor mid-combat, deal a boatload of damage, and draw that many cards.
The reality is, Aettir and Priwen fits alongside a lot of different Commanders, especially those like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale that let you get around the tough Equip cost themselves. The power boost is enormous in a 40 life format, and one-shotting opponents with this card is not out of the question.
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