Swords of X and Y have certainly suffered from the blazingly fast cards that MTG has gained over the years. Newer swords, such as Sword of Truth and Justice and Sword of Hearth and Home, have suffered a lot from being printed as synergy cards.
However, this sword offers proper card advantage, or at least as proper as red and green can offer. I'm sure that midrange decks will appreciate getting to dig deeper into their deck, and getting to play more lands is also something that they probably appreciate as well.
The question, then, is whether this effect is good enough for other decks. Aggressive decks probably don't want to spend 5 mana to maybe get an effect, and control will dislike this effect with their counterspells.
I think that if large cubes tested Sword of Sinew and Steel, which has a more conditional ability but better protection colors, they can probably give this sword a whirl.
What do you think?
Sword of Fire and Ice is by far the best sword because regardless of other game conditions, it always generates card advantage, usually a 2-for-1. In my experience second best was always Sword of Feast and Famine because although it wasn't always a 2-for-1, it's really good early game and can at least make up for the lack of guaranteed value in it's swingy-ness. We cut Sword of Feast and Famine maybe a year ago though since it was't particularly useful in late game situations and to make space for new cards, but this card can actually net a consistent card or two per hit, and is great early for the ramp or late for the dig. As far as I'm concerned this is definitely the second best sword. Probably going to test this.
The protections are great (R & G) and the abilities are consistently good.
The same can't be true for most other swords. Their abilities are almost all conditional in some way.
I'd rank color protection G >> W > B >= R >= U
Overall the swords have unimpressed me in my cube. SoFI is the best by leaps and bounds and even that one is a meh playable in my cube.. It's the only one I currently run and it's mostly there for stoneforge value or sideboard tech. I predict this is the #2 sword available but still a clear notch below SOFI.
In an unpowered cube with less plentiful and powerful artifact destruction than mine I'd definitely be testing this one.
Edit:
The difficulty playing anything off the trigger the turn you equip made me re-evaluate it. I think the sword is still a mid-high tier sword but not #2. Uncertainty is high enough that I’d test it in an unpowered.
This sword is pretty feast and famine (no pun intended) in the sense that sometimes its trigger will do stone cold nothing. Granted, that probably won't be the majority of times. I can see an argument for this being the #3 sword at best after Fire and Ice / Body and Mind. In terms of swords, I think Feast and Famine is generally overrated and Body and Mind is underrated. Body and Mind has always consistently been the second best sword for me, it's pretty hard to lose if you hit your opponent twice with it. Hard to say that about any other sword besides Fire and Ice.
My current sword tier list (not really ordered within the tiers)
IMO white is by far the best color to have protection from. It can go just as wide on defense as green can, but white also excels in targeted removal and can also block in the air.
This sword is pretty feast and famine (no pun intended) in the sense that sometimes its trigger will do stone cold nothing. Granted, that probably won't be the majority of times. I can see an argument for this being the #3 sword at best after Fire and Ice / Body and Mind. In terms of swords, I think Feast and Famine is generally overrated and Body and Mind is underrated. Body and Mind has always consistently been the second best sword for me, it's pretty hard to lose if you hit your opponent twice with it. Hard to say that about any other sword besides Fire and Ice.
My current sword tier list (not really ordered within the tiers)
IMO white is by far the best color to have protection from. It can go just as wide on defense as green can, but white also excels in targeted removal and can also block in the air.
Recently I added Sword of Dungeons & Dragons in my cube that performs really well. I understood that it is UN-card and many cubes do not will play UN-cards, but for others I recommend it. Thus, I will rank it along with other Swords in the following:
Fire and Ice >= Body and Mind >> Forge and Frontier >= Feast and Famine >= Dungeons & Dragons >> Light and Shadow >= Truth and Justice >> Sinew and Steel >= Hearth and Home >> War and Peace.
I guess I'm the odd man out here because I don't like this sword much at all. I currently run 4 Swords of X and Y and was going to cut that to 3 soon. This doesn't make the cut for me. I prefer Fire & Ice, Light & Shadow, and Body & Mind. Probably even Sinew & Steel.
I guess I'm the odd man out here because I don't like this sword much at all. I currently run 4 Swords of X and Y and was going to cut that to 3 soon. This doesn't make the cut for me. I prefer Fire & Ice, Light & Shadow, and Body & Mind. Probably even Sinew & Steel.
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I'm with you. Impulse draw means the turn you play it an equip it you will, at best, be up a land (as you won't have the mana to play the card) in a lot of situations. I am down to 2 swords (fire and ice and body and mind) and they are both fine, not great, in the cube.
This sword is pretty feast and famine (no pun intended) in the sense that sometimes its trigger will do stone cold nothing. Granted, that probably won't be the majority of times. I can see an argument for this being the #3 sword at best after Fire and Ice / Body and Mind. In terms of swords, I think Feast and Famine is generally overrated and Body and Mind is underrated. Body and Mind has always consistently been the second best sword for me, it's pretty hard to lose if you hit your opponent twice with it. Hard to say that about any other sword besides Fire and Ice.
My current sword tier list (not really ordered within the tiers)
IMO white is by far the best color to have protection from. It can go just as wide on defense as green can, but white also excels in targeted removal and can also block in the air.
I agree sword of body and mind was #2. Unfortunately, the mill enabled too many decks in my cube.
Those are all good points RE: G vs W, but functionally it doesn’t work that way in my cube.
White is by far the most likely base color to play swords, and green is its toughest matchup since green goes over the top of it and blocks well.
Evasion is critical to getting “under” green.
Green is the second most likely base Color to play swords, but it’s strategy isn’t to race or beat down white but go over the top of it.
It’s obviously still a useful protection, but less central to its core strategy in the matchup.
due to color cannibalism, main color creature based mirror matches are rare.
I don"t understand why some are not sold on this sword, potential EI on each turn is pure value, pretty powerfull effect
Well, what I mostly dislike is that it's not exaclty drawing you cards.
2 card isn't very deep. Unless you hit lands, you're not getting immediate value since you have to pay for the cards as they don't carry over to the next turn.
Turns where you pay for its equip cost makes it awkward to get value out of it.
Its fine, I guess. But I prefer several other swords that net immediate value.
I also don’t this is too hot. I want a sword where you can play 5, slam in, and feel okay if you don’t connect again. UR and GB easily top for me based on immediate impact, then this would probably be like 5th/9?
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
I've only been running the one sword for quite a long time. If I were to add a second, it would likely be Body and Mind. This is far enough down the ranks that I'm not too interested - the protections are OK, but the equip + swing combo is quite poor here.
It's interesting to see how people value the swords after Fire&Ice differently. I never considered running Feast&Famine at all, and the only other sword next to Fire&Ice that I'm running is Sinew&Steel, because I like that it solves the problem of deciding whether to attack a planeswalker or a player.
The closest comparison to this sword is Feast and Famine, which I think is generally better than this sword.
- Both swords provide ramp and card advantage, but in a different way. Feast and Famine forcing your opponent to discard a card and untapping your lands will generally be more consistent than Forge and and Frontier's two YOLO draws + extra land for turn, especially when you're tapped out. Forge and Frontier is much more powerful in the late game though.
- Both swords give protection from green, but I think protection from black is generally better than protection from red. A sword giving +2/+2 to the equipped creature often takes that creature out of burn range, kind of making the protection from red a bit redundant.
The closest comparison to this sword is Feast and Famine, which I think is generally better than this sword.
- Both swords provide ramp and card advantage, but in a different way. Feast and Famine forcing your opponent to discard a card and untapping your lands will generally be more consistent than Forge and and Frontier's two YOLO draws + extra land for turn, especially when you're tapped out. Forge and Frontier is much more powerful in the late game though.
While they both generate advantage, in many ways Feast or famine is like the opposite of this sword. Feast and famine is better the earlier the game and it’s advantage reduces with each subsequent hit.
This sword is better the more mana you have and it’s ability makes that more likely to be true. This sword snowballs, feast of famine doesn’t.
untapping your lands is the most powerful thing sword of feast of famine does.
It’s very powerful when you have things to do, but is occasionally a waste.
On successive hits it gets less and likely you’ll have use of the mana.
The discard is unimpressive a lot of the time. From discarding an opponents reanimation target to doing nothing to a hellbent opponent.
Not disagreeing with your conclusion, but highlighting they play out quite differently.
This is definitely one where the 2nd and beyond hits snowball with each other the problem is that getting more than 2 sword triggers is pretty win more regardless of the sword.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Swords of X and Y have certainly suffered from the blazingly fast cards that MTG has gained over the years. Newer swords, such as Sword of Truth and Justice and Sword of Hearth and Home, have suffered a lot from being printed as synergy cards.
However, this sword offers proper card advantage, or at least as proper as red and green can offer. I'm sure that midrange decks will appreciate getting to dig deeper into their deck, and getting to play more lands is also something that they probably appreciate as well.
The question, then, is whether this effect is good enough for other decks. Aggressive decks probably don't want to spend 5 mana to maybe get an effect, and control will dislike this effect with their counterspells.
I think that if large cubes tested Sword of Sinew and Steel, which has a more conditional ability but better protection colors, they can probably give this sword a whirl.
What do you think?
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The same can't be true for most other swords. Their abilities are almost all conditional in some way.
I'd rank color protection G >> W > B >= R >= U
Overall the swords have unimpressed me in my cube. SoFI is the best by leaps and bounds and even that one is a meh playable in my cube.. It's the only one I currently run and it's mostly there for stoneforge value or sideboard tech. I predict this is the #2 sword available but still a clear notch below SOFI.
In an unpowered cube with less plentiful and powerful artifact destruction than mine I'd definitely be testing this one.
Edit:
The difficulty playing anything off the trigger the turn you equip made me re-evaluate it. I think the sword is still a mid-high tier sword but not #2. Uncertainty is high enough that I’d test it in an unpowered.
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My current sword tier list (not really ordered within the tiers)
TOP
Fire and Ice
HIGH
Body and Mind
MID
Feast and Famine
Forge and Frontier
Truth and Justice
Light and Shadow
LOW
Sinew and Steel
BOTTOM
Hearth and Home
War and Peace
IMO white is by far the best color to have protection from. It can go just as wide on defense as green can, but white also excels in targeted removal and can also block in the air.
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Recently I added Sword of Dungeons & Dragons in my cube that performs really well. I understood that it is UN-card and many cubes do not will play UN-cards, but for others I recommend it. Thus, I will rank it along with other Swords in the following:
Fire and Ice >= Body and Mind >> Forge and Frontier >= Feast and Famine >= Dungeons & Dragons >> Light and Shadow >= Truth and Justice >> Sinew and Steel >= Hearth and Home >> War and Peace.
Cheers,
rant
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Aged poorly though. I don't run any swords, will not run this one for sure.
I'm with you. Impulse draw means the turn you play it an equip it you will, at best, be up a land (as you won't have the mana to play the card) in a lot of situations. I am down to 2 swords (fire and ice and body and mind) and they are both fine, not great, in the cube.
I will pass on this.
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I agree sword of body and mind was #2. Unfortunately, the mill enabled too many decks in my cube.
Those are all good points RE: G vs W, but functionally it doesn’t work that way in my cube.
White is by far the most likely base color to play swords, and green is its toughest matchup since green goes over the top of it and blocks well.
Evasion is critical to getting “under” green.
Green is the second most likely base Color to play swords, but it’s strategy isn’t to race or beat down white but go over the top of it.
It’s obviously still a useful protection, but less central to its core strategy in the matchup.
due to color cannibalism, main color creature based mirror matches are rare.
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Well, what I mostly dislike is that it's not exaclty drawing you cards.
2 card isn't very deep. Unless you hit lands, you're not getting immediate value since you have to pay for the cards as they don't carry over to the next turn.
Turns where you pay for its equip cost makes it awkward to get value out of it.
Its fine, I guess. But I prefer several other swords that net immediate value.
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- Both swords provide ramp and card advantage, but in a different way. Feast and Famine forcing your opponent to discard a card and untapping your lands will generally be more consistent than Forge and and Frontier's two YOLO draws + extra land for turn, especially when you're tapped out. Forge and Frontier is much more powerful in the late game though.
- Both swords give protection from green, but I think protection from black is generally better than protection from red. A sword giving +2/+2 to the equipped creature often takes that creature out of burn range, kind of making the protection from red a bit redundant.
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While they both generate advantage, in many ways Feast or famine is like the opposite of this sword. Feast and famine is better the earlier the game and it’s advantage reduces with each subsequent hit.
This sword is better the more mana you have and it’s ability makes that more likely to be true. This sword snowballs, feast of famine doesn’t.
untapping your lands is the most powerful thing sword of feast of famine does.
It’s very powerful when you have things to do, but is occasionally a waste.
On successive hits it gets less and likely you’ll have use of the mana.
The discard is unimpressive a lot of the time. From discarding an opponents reanimation target to doing nothing to a hellbent opponent.
Not disagreeing with your conclusion, but highlighting they play out quite differently.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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Interested in Custom Card Creation.
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A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).