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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Lightning Greaves
Image from Wizards.com

Lightning Greaves
- Journey into Nyx

Reviewed June 24, 2014

Constructed: 4.38
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 4.63
Multiplayer: 4.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Lightning Greaves
 
This card was clearly the inspiration for yesterday's, though their original releases were separated by more than ten years. Lightning Greaves was a powerhouse right from its first day in action, as it deprives your opponent of not only the time to deal with a threat, but also, more often than not, the opportunity to do so at all. As you've probably figured already, I don't consider shroud to be a "downside" mechanic, unless you mean a downside for your opponent.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Lightning Greaves which is a two mana equipment with zero equip cost that gives Haste and Shroud.  This is one of the top equipments in the game as once it is in play it effectively gives Haste to a newly played creature each turn and can protect your most valuable creature from most forms of removal. This is a low cost and flexible card for nearly any deck and will remain a staple in Commander as well as a frequent sight across other formats.
 
In a Limited format with this it is basically Haste for your entire deck and high end protection for your top threat.  This belongs in any deck in Sealed and is well worth taking first in Booster over many rares, but should be a second or third pick nearly every time. There is no drawback aside from the decision of focusing on Haste instead of Shroud and risking removal, which is purely psychological and in no way a negative inherent to the card itself.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4.5

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Lightning Greaves
 
I'm not generally a fan of equipment that doesn't give a power/toughness boost or do something super powerful. Lightning Greaves is probably the biggest exception to that rule. In my opinion, it's the second best equipment out there after last week's stupid-good Jitte. True, it might not be as blatantly powerful as some equipment, but it's low cost and ease of use make it better in my book.
 
But what's so good about this card? It does the two best things for your big threat that you're about to put out onto the battlefield - gives it haste and protects it from targeted removal. And the best part is that once you pay the small cost of 2 to get the equipment onto the battlefield, it never costs you again! I like putting it on my best creature for the shroud, then moving it over to another creature I just put out for the haste, then moving back to the original creature in the second main phase.
 
Probably the best use for this is in some combo deck where a creature is the main and most important part. If your opponent can't counterspell your key creature, once you equip this on it, they can't touch it and your combo is nearly home-free!
 
The only potential snag with this is that it gives shroud, not hexproof, meaning that you cannot even target the creature with your own spells. But, with the ZERO equip cost, you can just move the equipment elsewhere for a moment, target your guy with the pump spell or aura, then move it back after the spell resolves. Equipping does come at sorcery speed, so your opponent could target your creature in response to you equipping, but every card has it's weak spot.
 
If your deck has creatures, there's little reason not to play this.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4.5


Michael Sokolowski

Oh man.
 
Lightning Greaves.
 
It's hard to do this card justice and explain just how powerful it really is. Just how USEFUL it really is. There are some who consider this one of the best pieces of equipment ever printed, and they are not wrong to think so.
 
The real jewel of this card is the equip cost of 0. You thought Chariot of Victory was easy to move around? Lightning Greaves can be cast pretty early on into the game... and then pretty much remains useful forever. For a mere one-time 2 mana investment, practically EVERYTHING you cast for the rest of the game will have Haste. For free. And the most important of these things will have Shroud. What does that mean? That means that every time you've heard somebody say "This dies to Doom Blade," they are now WRONG. Your strongest or most important guy is now untouchable by kill spells, burn, anything that targets. For free.
 
Back in the day, everyone used Lightning Greaves. Even in decks where it wasn't really necessary, sometimes you'd still see people playing Lightning Greaves. People would use Oblivion Ring on Lightning Greaves when that card came out, it was that much of a threat. Having a Lightning Greaves on the field was like constantly being 1 turn ahead of your opponent in terms of attacking, and also your opponent couldn't really respond and destroy your guy because the Greaves protected him. It was frustrating to be against such a powerful and fast tempo card with few responses available.
 
After Mirrodin was over and the dust had settled, Wizards realized that the 0 equip cost they had unleashed was simply too powerful. Lightning Greaves was revised years later into the toned-down-but-still-useful-maybe Swiftfoot Boots. The lessons had been learned, and the addition of a mere 1 mana to the equip cost was enough to drastically reduce its power. But many veterans remember well the power of Lightning Greaves. It dominated casual. It was super useful in limited and even multiplayer. It even found itself getting a lot of play in constructed. It was and is so good that almost any format and many many decks could find some way to benefit from it.
 
Take a second to imagine your biggest, strongest, coolest most favourite creature card in Magic.
 
Now give it Haste and Shroud... but don't increase its mana cost.
 
How good is it now?
 
Yeah.
 
That's what I thought.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 5


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