Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Throne of Eldraine! Today I’m going to be talking about one of the subthemes from the new set, Equipment. With multiple Knights shown in the set, it only makes sense to have some nice Equipment that they can use. Today I’m going to be talking about two such Equipment and two creatures that make it easier to equip. I’ve always been a fan of equipment as I see them as better offensive enchantments. The drawback sometimes comes with the Equip cost of the Equipment or a high casting cost.
First off, lets talk about an Equipment that is suited for Knights. Here is Steelclaw Lance.
Having a permanent source of an additional 2 power and toughness will allow your creatures either to get through unblocked or be able to trade up with your opponents’ creatures. When it comes to equipping Knights, you can cast it straight from your hand and equip immediately for only three total mana. Usually equipment this cheap doesn’t provide any boost in toughness which means your creature will survive more often then not. The main drawback is that you need to play black and red to be able to use it. I think this is a reasonable drawback and I look to be playing this card in Limited and a Standard Knights deck.
Next up is an Equipment that has a chance to be cast for only two mana! Here is Embercleave.
There is so much to take in when first looking at this card, so let’s review it one bit at a time. What you notice first is that it costs 6 mana to cast, which is expensive for an Equipment. Hold on though, it has Flash which means you can cast it at any time. It gets even better when you realize that when it enters the battlefield, you can attach it to a creature. This can be used in defensive and offensive situations. Best part is, you can cast it for as low as two mana if you have four attacking creatures. The equipment itself gives +1/+1, double strike and trample. Just so you know how powerful double strike is, its only ever showed up on two other Equipment cards before. Neither of those gave power and toughness bonuses or additional abilities like trample. Embercleave can be used like a combat trick the turn you cast it to surprise your opponent and even perhaps win some games.
Now that we have a few fun Equipment cards, we need some creatures to use them with that will take advantage of their power. Low and behold, Fervent Champion.
Don’t worry, nothing to see here except a 1/1 creature for one mana. It also has a few nice abilities like first strike and haste. It pumps up other attacking Knights, so you have more combined power heading towards your opponent. The best ability on the card though is that any equipping it costs 3 less to activate. Why don’t you look at the two Equipment I talked about above and you will see that there Equip cost is 3 or less. That means it is free to Equip those weapons onto Fervent Champion. A 3/3 first strike, haste thanks to equipping Steelclaw Lance sounds much better than a 1/1 attacking in. There are some other nice Equipment options left in Standard as well, including giving it +10/+10 with Colossus Hammer. A few more sweet Equipment cards printed in this set and this card will rise in value.
Finally, is a Knight that appears in the Knights Charge Brawl deck. Here is Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale.
Something that not everyone might realize is that all the cards from the Brawl deck, including Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale will also be Standard legal. At six mana it's a late game threat. However, it can have an impact the turn it enters the battlefield. All your Knights will be able to Equip any of your Equipment at no cost. Can anyone say, Colossus Hammer or Embercleave? For every equipped creature you attack with you get to draw a card at the cost of 1 life. When you do get to attack with Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale, it is a threat as a 5/5 Vigilance, Menace creature.
Hopefully these cards will get you excited to build a Mardu Knights deck and make good use of these new artifacts and creatures. It would be nice to see a few more Equipment being printed in the set that can especially be used with a card like Fervent Champion. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Throne of Eldraine. Join me again next week as we kick off with some of the new Legendary creatures in Throne of Eldraine.
