MTG Salvation

Sword of Sinew and Steel - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from black and from red.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy up to one target planeswalker and up to one target artifact.
Equip 2


This one seems wholly underwhelming... Need to temper my hopes for the rest if/when they arrive.

This has good protections and relevant built-in removal. Good but not great. I'll at least test it in the cube though, since the removal potential is pretty decent.

I'm always looking for more cubeable answers to 'walkers, and some decks are actively looking for artifact hate. This should be a welcome card for both of those scenarios. Sometimes it won't find a target, but there's other cases where the trigger can be pretty devastating. I think this card's pretty decent.

I like it. I feel like having to choose between face and a threatening planeswalker is a frequent choice for aggressive decks, and being able to destroy artifacts with what is primarily creature-pump can streamline deckbuilding. I think I prefer this to the WU sword.

This will make my 540. Deciding how many swords to keep is tricky. Leaning toward 5 or 6. Going to cut War and Peace for sure.

Coolest looking sword? I don't have many planeswalkers so this would be a silver-bullet sword in mine. But I could see it getting there in most cubes with a healthy amount of walkers. Oddly the abilities seem best suited for taking out a blue-white strategy, but either way this will really poop on the right control decks.

I adore this. It's not for everyone, mostly because it doesn't guarantee any additional goodies. BUT two sour spots in my cube meta right now are lack of PW destruction and artifact destruction for particularly dominating artifacts, the kinds that shut you down so hard you can't cast your hate the next turn. This sword, if already on the field, cuts through that, and even popping a single planeswalker in a game will make the base sword cost worth it.

I've only just recently moved up to all 5 swords in my cube, so I plan to fit in my top 5 overall swords. Good thing I didn't buy many yet!

My planeswalker selection is fairly high and I do try to support the artifacts deck so I'm already liking this. Funny enough, the most common artifact deck we get is at the very least UR, and occassionally grixis-both of which have become super friends heavy.

It also gives a solid threat against the more aggressive wildfire match ups, by having pro red and the ability to knock out artifsct ramp/sarkhan while attacking the face.

I think this is a very effective pairing of protections and abilities.

Quote from Jebadiah_Jones »

My planeswalker selection is fairly high and I do try to support the artifacts deck so I'm already liking this. Funny enough, the most common artifact deck we get is at the very least UR, and occassionally grixis-both of which have become super friends heavy.

It also gives a solid threat against the more aggressive wildfire match ups, by having pro red and the ability to knock out artifsct ramp/sarkhan while attacking the face.

I think this is a very effective pairing of protections and abilities.

Agreed. This just craps on the artifact deck. I'm fine with having a bullet for that purpose, too.

Yea, I’ll give this a spin and see how it performs. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get a rummage or loot but I’ll hold my breath for the Gruul Sword.

Rummaging does feel very Gruul. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the cycle. Swords are cool.

Quote from Blue_Oneironaut »

...having to choose between face and a threatening planeswalkers is a frequent choice...

This is a great point, and something I didn't consider at first. I'm constantly having to decide between attacking 'walkers (and giving up my Sword triggers) or going face. Now I don't have to! Being able to apply pressure to both a 'walker and a player at the same time almost effectively doubles your attacking power when the opponent has a 'walker out.

As others have said, being forced to choose between the trigger and killing a walker with other swords suuuuuucks. This is a pretty solid trigger, maybe the 3rd or 4th best is my guess.

I like this Sword, but I want to point out that this doesn't totally fix the "pick PW or trigger" problem because a potentially interesting trigger effect has been replaced with the killing of the PW... What that means is that you can get more aggro and get a PW off the board, but it isn't insane or anything. I love the artifact destruction mode though. This is sort of a better Sword of War and Peace in that it is a great aggro equipment against the control decks.

I don’t know where this stacks up with the other swords but it does suck that it completely blanks sometimes. That said, removal is removal and it’s pretty cool to have double removal on a sword.

I will collect all these swords and put 5 in my main cube and the rest (as of now, 2) in my artifact cube.

So right now the first 5 goes in classic cube and these 2 new ones in artifact cube.

Good protections. Better than Sword of Truth and Justice by a mile, imho both due to the protections and better activated trigger.

I feel like these swords may be a bit unfun given that players are significantly more likely to be in allied color combinations, and if you are a Rakdos deck facing this you will be quite unhappy.

Glad I'm running at 720 and can probably play all ten Swords when the cycle finally finishes. This one looks fun, though it's at best in the middle of the pack. It does provide an effect an aggro deck wants, and two very good protection colors.

In my 480 card cube, it hits 94 other targets, or about 1/5 of all cards. Given that most decks play both, and some heavily feature either, this sword will probably connect in quite a few situations. I think it will be a pretty strong card.

I like this a lot. I think it’s in the top echelon of swords. The protections are probably the best and if it kills one permanent in a game on average I’d say it’s the best trigger too. I might just be way off here but this is a slam dunk for me

This wins swords wars!

(by destroying your opponents swords)

Should always have a target in powered cube. I'm in.

I was quite low on this card when I saw it first since this is the only sword (WaP, whose triggers do nothing either if both players are in topdeck mode, is has a similar problem for me) whose triggers are completely depeding on the board-state. The fact that it helps aggro-decks to keep pressuring life-totals and don't have a need to focus on walkers first made it quite a bit better, but I'm still not totally sold on the card. If I open one, it goes in, otherwise I prioritize other singles from the set.
The protections are very solid, but I think the best protections will always be ensured by Sword of Light and Shadow, since the +2/+2 technically puts many creatures out of red-burn range either way, and white has so much premium removal.