[SCD] Sword of War and Peace

[perm]

Sword of War and Peace
Myth.
Artifact – Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and white.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, Sword of War and Peace deals damage to that player equal to the number of cards in his or her hand and you gain 1 life for each card in your hand.

Not exactly sure what to think of this in the context of legacy. Hand sizes at turn 4-5 aren't that big, so these effects might pack a punch depending. +5 damage could be absurd.

[Solar Ice]

Not sure what to think of it either, seems it could be OK-ish against control, forcing them to dump cards or if the opponent is mana screwed, it could be a beating. Imo, this sword overall feels weak. It's also the only sword that doesn't provide a Card Advanage effect.

[Barook]

It's the sword with the best protections, yet the one with the worst effects, even beating Body & Mind.

I guess no one expected them to go for the Sudden Impact + crappy Gerrard's Wisdom route. Whoever designed that sword did a terrible job imho. It's a conditional, worse Sword of Fire and Light that can't generate card advantage.

It will still see play play due to its protections, but other than that, it kinda sucks.

[Angelfire]

For decks like Chalice Aggro, your opponent will have a tough time dumping their hand and will take an absolute beating when this connects. Gaining even a few life makes this thing very hard to race.

Pro red/white is easily the best. Immunity to the commonly used removal. Zoo will not enjoy facing down against this thing.

Despite being the only sword that doesn't grant card advantage, it does provide the highest total mana in effects.

[Gui]

It's a good sword for aggro decks. Single handed accelerates the kill and protects your threats from StP/PtE/Firespout vs control.
That said, SoLaS does a better job with protections, and generate card advantage. I think this will see low play in legacy, target for Stoneforge .

[RexFTW]

IT seems much better than sword of light and shadow, and that swords was commonly played just for its protections. Not in legacy though.

[perm]

IT seems much better than sword of light and shadow, and that swords was commonly played just for its protections. Not in legacy though.

I play SoLS :(

[nwong]

SoLaS is better by far.

The pump from the sword makes your creature bolt-proof anyway. Plus you get protection from black removal.

[Greenpoe]

Black removal will get more popular with MM, so this sword will get worse after the set gets released. Decks might even grab a singleton black dual so they can run Snuff Out, since StP is going to get much worse with MM, which thus makes SoLS better anyway. Zoo is probably on the decline with MM, so the pro-red won't matter as much.

[android]

I don't know, I'm going to say that an equipment that give your attacker a virtual +2 to +9 damage is pretty significant. Life swing blah blah blah. With infect blah blah blah. Potential for explosiveness but no real utility outside of protections.

[Justin]

Seems like it's worth fitting into a deck that runs Stoneforge Mystic. There will be times when this is the best option to fetch and times when it won't. Overall, Sword of Fire and Ice is still the best overall sword because it creates card advantage by removing creatures and drawing cards.

[Clark Kant]

It's the sword with the best protections.

The +2/+2 puts most creatures out of burn range already. Thus I think the best protection colors are white, green or black and then red in that order.

White for StP. Green for goyf, Knight etc. Black for Tombstalker, Nighthawk, Obliterator, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out etc.

[paladin3056]

Quite weak compared to it's predecessor's, most especially SoBaM and SoFaF. But the Sudden Impact ability can be quite useful. It would create a better clock to kill any opponent, so say you are fighting control with a rather full hand then this would hurt then A LOT. The life gain is meh, but when I look through again it might be relevant due to the ever prevalent Phyrexian mana/pay 2 life costs which I would probably running together with Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, Surgical Extraction and Mental Misstep. I think I would kill myself first before my opponent ever does.

[Richard Cheese]

Best sword ever. I'm already buying up staples for Howling_Mine_Font_of_Mythos_Jace_Beleren_Temple_Bell_Runeflare_Trap.dec

[Koby]

For Legacy, Jitte works well enough with lifegain. SoLS gives a decent buffer too.

SoWP gives too conditional of a life-gain for use of Phyrexian mana. If you're aggresively using these spells where your life total is in jeopardy, then you're very likely not holding onto many cards in hand, which defeats the purpose of the sword's life gain.

Catch 22.

[GGoober]

This sword is designed for Standard, to kill Jaces/Planeswalkers more easily. I would only play this sword in Legacy for its flexible Pro-colors, but even then, it's not worthwhile in a SFM deck. I might be proven wrong.

[Justin]

Sword of War and Peace is probably the best sword against red-based aggro decks such as Zoo, Sligh, and Burn. The life gain is huge against them, and it gives your creatures protection from their burn spells as soon as you successfully equip it, which SoLaS and Jitte do not. However, if you aren't expecting to see those kinds of decks, you probably don't need to play it.

[Koby]

Nothing stops Zoo/Sligh/burn from killing your creature in response to equipping. This has always been true, and pretty much renders equipment a futile effort against such decks. This hasn't changed since Jitte became legal.

[Amon Amarth]

By the time you can realistically get this card out and equipped onto an attacker they (aggro decks) might not have any cards in their hand at all.

[Jabari]

Is this sword design confirmed? Where was the info leaked, I never saw it on the Mothership?

If this is the sword though, I am a little surprised they decided to go with life-gain and burn after they already used them on the other swords. That is really lame.

[Draener]

Agreed. It, unfortunately, looks pretty legit. I was hoping for so much more.

[Tim the Enchanter]

I think this could see some play in SFM/Vial decks, at least in the SB. Those decks get wrecked by Firespout and being pro-Swords is obviously good. The creatures in those decks are usually hate bears that are great at stalling the game but give your opponent ample time to find a sweeper. This lets you hold cards back to avoid sweepers and still apply a tremendous clock thanks to the grip full of cards they have.

It also helps these decks against their worst MU: Zoo. Yes I know it's not gauranteed to stick to anything but if/when it does the life gain and protection are tremdously relevant.

IF you can get this onto a creature against a Tendrils deck you're in great shape as well. Swinging for at least 10 AND gaining a decent bit of life seems pretty good there. I know it's slow and Tendrils is fast, but the decks that would play it are good at slowing combo down especially post-board.

Is it the best sword ever? No. Will it see some play? Yes

[FieryBalrog]

Power level is whatever, but the sword is pretty lame from a design perspective, lifegain and burn were already used and neither effect provides any CA, breaking the symmetry of the cycle. Boring design. Could have had more interesting effects for sure.

[Octopusman]

I'm surprised there isn't more discussion. This was a card that has been hyped and drooled over for a long time. Personally, I think it is amazing because of the potential damage that you can achieve with one attack. the lifegain isn't useless... especially since people are going to be at lower life totals because of Mental Misstep.

Seriously though, this makes stuff like Cloud of Faeries a lot strong. I think it's worth it to potentially do more damage per attack, gain life, and protect my creature from being STP/PTE (the most important thing!) by giving up protection from blue and a card for each attack.

Automatic purchase of at least 1 of. Thank you Stoneforge Mystic.

[Kich867]

I was thinking of how this card would interact with Mirran Crusader. As a 2/2 Double strike for 3, in and of itself that's pretty solid, having Prot Black and Green makes him unblockable by almost every popular creature in the format: Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Dark Confidant, Tomb Stalker, etc. Putting Sword of War and Peace on him would then make him a 4/4 Double Strike: Prot black, green, red, white, making him nearly unkillable by spot removal.

On top of that, since he has double strike, if I'm not mistaken he triggers the effect twice: in the event that they have 3 cards in their hand, he'll swing unblocked for 4 + 3, and again for 4 + 3, dealing 14 damage in a single swing (while healing you for X life).

[paladin3056]

Probably worst of the 5 Swords with it's very mediocre effect. But still it's protection is quite relevant, and has a greater interaction with Mirran Crusader giving it 4 protections except from Blue. The only problem I see is that would you run this over SoFI, SoLaS or SoFaF? Probably not, maybe in the SB if I can see any space to put this at all.

[Rizso]

While jitte is by far the most flexible of all the swords and Jitte. This one does something Jitte doesnt. Gaining life while still being on the offensive. If you have a creature with active sword with 7 cards in your hand at the start of the match. Probly refilling your handseze with Dark Confidants, Stoneforge, Jace etc. Then it will give way stronger lifegain. But cos we have the luxery of playing stoneforge we dont need to dedicate much spaces for a strong life recuperation. Stoneforge also allows for us to search for jitte when jitte is gonna give more life then the sword.

I think the card has to be tested to see how strong it is, theory can just go so long.

[TsumiBand]

You can't really mitigate the life loss effect as that's cards in *their* hand, not yours. So in order for this Sword to do what it's supposed to do, both players need to have a bunch of cards in hand.

I'm trying to imagine a match-up where this would be the Sword to send Stoneforge Mystic after. Maybe something dumb like Spring Tide? It's not going to be anything aggro that runs W/R; while their removal may no longer work on that dude, chances are it just goes to your face while they puke their hand on the table, and then you're in a position where you probably have to start playing cards too (instead of just holding them like the Sword seems to want both players doing) so inevitably the Sword gets worse unless neither player is doing anything. And if my opponent really wants to try and puke their hand out I probably want SoFI or Jitte anyway.

I expected a lot more out of this Sword; namely, actual card advantage. I dunno, maybe it's attractive if you're playing dumb things that lock people out, like Trinisphere and/or Ethersworn Canonist.

[perm]

I'd say this is better than body and mind by a big margin, just by virtue of the great protection effects. Even the connection trigger can be good in certain decks, though in legacy people get rid of their hands rather fast, at least interactive decks. The problem is, the decks that do keep big hands near 6 cards or so can get rid of them if they really need to, without a huge detriment to their gameplan.