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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Hero's Blade
Image from Wizards.com

Hero's Blade
- Fate Reforged

Reviewed Jan. 27, 2015

Constructed: 2.65
Casual: 3.88
Limited: 2.75
Multiplayer: 3.25

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

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Deck Garage

Hero's Blade

When it comes to Equipment, equip costs are almost (if not more) as important as the actual casting cost when determining the value. Four mana for a mere +3/+2 is a disappointment, something you'll only bother equipping when it's late game and you're out of cards to play anyway but still have bodies on the field. But legends can pick up the sword for free, which is pretty huge.

I suspect that this card is Fate Reforged's token bone to throw at Commander format. In any Commander deck, this card is basically "your commander gets +3/+2" and any rumors you may have heard about other creatures wielding it are unsubstantiated at this time. In any other format, you'd need quite a few legendary creatures to make this a worthwhile inclusion, but if you've got them, this could be an excellent addition.

Constructed- 2.5
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 3
Multiplayer- 4.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Hero's Blade
 
This is the most recent incarnation of the "equipment that wants to be used by a major character" concept, and while it's perhaps not the most spectacular version, I wouldn't say it's a disappointment. It seems like overkill to argue that it should grant abilities, considering how many abilities legends tend to have in recent sets, and it's hard to argue with attaching it to a creature for free. That may not quite be enough for competitive play, but it's not nothing.
 
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Hero's Blade which is a two mana equipment that gives +3/+2 for an Equip cost of four and whenever a Legendary creature enters play under your control you may attach it to them.  This is a bit too situational for most formats, but will be an absolute staple of Commander as a Legendary will almost always be available.
 
In Limited this is quite weak without some Legendary creatures to reliably use it as the zero cost effect only kicks in when one enters play and there are only fifteen currently in the block with all of them Rare or Mythic.  It is safe to pass in Booster even though it can be used in every deck it is a weak pick and terrible topdeck.  For Sealed it is usually best to have it in the sidedeck, but if the pool is off balance it can be played to help fill the deck and has at least some use as a power increase for an evasive threat.
 
Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 3.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Hero's Blade
 
The benefit of equipment is that they stick around even after the creature wielding it is gone. The drawback is that you have to pay both its casting cost AND its equip cost before you can ever use it. A lot of times, this is just too much mana to invest before you actually see a benefit.
 
This difficulty has been addressed in a couple ways - living weapons from New Phyrexia, was one - and the other is like this: to make the equip cost cheaper based upon some criteria. Ghostfire Blade has seen some play because of it's cheap cost with colorless creatures, and Hero's Blade may see some play with a deck of lots of legendary creatures. The truth is, it's just not an efficient cost to put this on a non-legendary creature, so you want to make sure you have plenty of legendary targets. The Commander format comes quickly to mind, where you know you'll always have at least 1 legendary creature to attach it to, and you could certainly add a lot more if you wanted to.
 
Once you get it equipped (hopefully for free), how useful is it? +3/+2 is pretty nice, but is it valuable enough to jump through the hoops needed to get it on the cheap? I think that's questionable, but it might be. 
 
You're unlikely to have enough legendary creatures in limited to use this efficiently, but its cost isn't quite as far out of the reasonable range if you have to use it on non-legendary creatures.
 
Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 2.5


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