This can turn absolutely any creature into a
"must-answer". The +2/+2 is nice, and the
protection from red and blue is quite nice
against the right deck. The real sell here is
the "hit a player" trigger. You draw a card, and
you can either deal more damage or you can kill
a small creature, which is another card's worth
of advantage in your favor. Even one hit with a
creature wearing this is a huge swing. Multiple
hits heads into "can't recover" territory-- even
if they Shatter the Equipment, you've drawn so
many extra cards and they've taken so much
damage that winning should be easy.
I can't help but wonder if there's a chance of
seeing the Sword cycle again in expert
expansions. Mostly I want to see who they draw
holding them the second time around, as there's
a lot of unexplored flavor space in Magic for
characters riffing on the Lady of the Lake and
the craftsmen of Svartalfheim. Until then, Sword
of Fire and Ice stakes a great claim to be one
of the best, if not the outright greatest,
equipment card in Magic. Red and blue are
relevant colors to have protection from, making
you immune to damage spells and annoying bounce
and flash blockers. But it's the saboteur
abilities that are really crippling.
Dramatically speeding up a clock and/or killing
smaller creatures occasionally or providing a
hard-to-stop source of extra cards would each be
worth deck space on their own. Having both of
them together is beyond amazing.
Today's card of the day is Sword of Fire and
Ice which is a three mana equipment with an
equip cost of two. The effects of +2/+2 with
protection from Red and Blue are solid and
relevant against many forms of removal. The
dealing combat damage to an opponent triggering
direct damage to a player or creature with the
added bonus of drawing a card is dramatically
improved when combined with an evasive target.
Overall the card advantage, useful protection
colors, and burn make this one of the best
swords in the series and a favorite for designs
that can utilize it.
In Limited formats where this is available it
is a major threat that can easily win games when
combined with an evasive creature. Being
colorless and only costing two mana to equip
gives flexibility both in adding it to any and
every deck as well as switching targets after an
attack. An easy first pick in Booster and
automatic inclusion for any Sealed deck.
