Getting protection from two colors at once is
usually pretty good. Sadly, green and blue are
probably the worst two colors to have protection
from. Pro:blue protects a creature from being
bounced or blocked by a random 1/4, but a blue
mage will likely just bounce the Sword itself.
If the blue mage didn't have a bounce spell, it
likely didn't have a way to deal with the
creature wielding the Sword anyway, so pro:blue
didn't really save it from anything except maybe
being blocked. Pro:green is equally useless, as
green doesn't typically have any answers to
creatures either outside of combat, and usually
has Naturalize or other artifact destruction.
But being blocked really is the most important
thing you can protect the equipped creature
from. Because when you attack and make it
through with a SoBaM-equipped creature, you get
a 2/2 creature token, and you mill the opponent
for 10. The milling effect probably isn't that
interesting unless you're running a milling
deck, but the 2/2 Wolf is very interesting-- if
the equipped creature dies, the Sword supplies
its own future wielders.
I know people who have been waiting literally
since the first Mirrodin block (five years, for
those who were counting) to see what the green
member of the Sword cycle was like. I imagine
few of them are disappointed right now. Like the
other two, it is powerful enough to make any
creature into a real threat and any opponent
take notice. Like the other two, it leaves an
impact on the battlefield that lasts the rest of
the game. Like the other two, its appeal is
nearly universal and its effectiveness is nearly
unequaled. Play it early, play it often.
Today's card of the day is Sword of Body and
Mind which is a three mana equipment that grants
a +2/+2 bonus and Protection fro Green and Blue
for an equip cost of two. That alone is
quite decent plus add in the creation of a 2/2
Green Wolf token whenever it deals combat damage
and you have an impressive item. The
milling of the top ten cards of the library
probably won't be a factor for most deck
designs, but it is there and generally not a bad
addition. Overall this is a very good card
and excellent if the opponent is running those
colors and can't stop the artifact itself.
For Limited the above holds true with the added
benefit of the smaller deck and slower format
becoming a bit more vulnerable to the ten card
milling aspect. Starting with a seven card
hand and then losing ten cards around the third
or fourth turn is a third of the remaining deck,
so it doesn't take long for this to become a
viable win condition even with just a basic 1/1
creature swinging. Aside from that the
other effects are quite nice in the setting as
2/2 tokens and +2/+2 are a bit ahead of the
curve and double Protection should offer
something against most decks. Being an
artifact lets it work in any deck, plus support
Metalcraft, so it works very well as a first
choice in Booster and an easy choice for any
Sealed build.
