Of the five Mirrodin "Swords", War and Peace is
probably the simplest-- all it does is create a
massive life swing. Yes, that's "all" it does.
Red and white is a very good combination to have
protection from, as they are two of the three
colors best at killing creatures. Keeping your
swordsman protected from kill spells and red or
white blockers, while still boosting them by
+2/+2 to add to its odds against other blockers
or sources of damage, is nothing to sneeze at.
But when the wielder connects with an opponent,
it deals extra damage based on your opponent's
hand and you gain life equal to your hand size.
That's an incredible life swing, especially
given that most players want to have cards in
their hands anyway. If your opponent empties his
hand, he can minimize the damage but now he's in
topdeck mode. Even on such a humble creature as
a Birds of Paradise (and you'll want your
sword-carrier to have flying or some kind of
evasion) that's a threat that can end a game in
surprisingly few hits.
I like how the names of each of the
five Mirrodin swords involve things that are
sort of "fundamental forces" in fantasy canon.
Certainly as names, each of them beats "the
red-white sword" or "the one that was the
second-best in Caw-Blade." The life-gaining
effect of Sword of War and Peace may be less
consistent than something like Loxodon Warhammer,
but that's only a bonus when you're playing with
it: giving any creature +2/+2 and protection
from both red and white means that a lot of
decks in any competitive format can't touch it.
Ever. That's definitely worthy of being on our
top ten list.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day
kick starts our countdown of the top ten cards
of 2011 and todays card of the day is Sword of
War and Peace. The swords ever since their
inception in the original Mirrodin have been
immensely popular and while these newer swords
are not on the same power level as the
original’s they are still immensely powerful.
This sword provides protection from white and
red, red being the more relevant color but both
colors see a ton of play. In standard this can
punish control decks and other decks hellbent on
drawing cards as well as providing a way for you
to win wars of attrition this fact is what makes
this card exciting. In modern and extended the
same concept applies winning attrition wars
while also providing relevant protection not
much more to bed said here. In legacy this card
can be fetched by Stoneforge Mystic making it an
interesting tool box choice although I think the
other swords would see more play then this in
that regard. In vintage I don’t see it being
good.
In casual and
multiplayer life gain is always awesome and
combined with the ability to deal even more
damage to players is pretty fantastic, the
protection is also relevant as it prevents
popular removal such as Swords to Plowshares. In
limited its solid reusable boosting and has a
extremely powerful effect and goes into any deck
draft highly. Overall this sword is not as
powerful as most of its partners but it does
give you inevitability and allows you to win
wars of attrition making it a worthy addition to
the top ten cards of 2011.
Welcome to the
countdown of the best cards of 2011. We begin by
looking at a piece of equipment that when first
printed was called “weak” compared to the other
swords, yet now we see it makes an appearance in
our countdown. Of course I am speaking of Sword
of War and Peace. Sword of War and Peace is a
mythic rare artifact equipment that costs three
generic to get out and three generic to equip.
Once equipped the equipped creature gets +2/+2,
protection from red and protection from white.
Whenever the equipped creature deals combat
damage to a player, you gain life equal to the
number of cards in your hand, and they take
damage equal to the number of cards in theirs.
The Sword of War and Peace gained a lot of
ground in anti-vampire decks, or in decks that
use things such as Squadron Hawks to keep their
hands full. It is also nice in decks that force
draw on your opponents to keep a full hand.
Cards such as Blue Sun’s Zenith could force some
heavy draw right before damage is dealt, dealing
even more damage.
When used with the other swords, you gain
protection from all colors, and deal a massive
amount of damage, and gain tons of fun
abilities.
Definitely one of the better swords, and no
wonder it made it to our top list of the year,
it rightfully belongs there.
Today's number ten on the 2011 countdown is
Sword of War and Peace which
is a three mana equipment with an equip cost of
two that gives a
creature +2/+2, protection from Red and White,
deals additional damage
and life gain based on cards in hand. The
last effects are fairly minor
compared to the power of the other swords, but
protection from Red and
White which have a large collection of single
target creature removal is
quite nice. Overall this is a bit weaker
than Sword of Feast and Famine
or Sword of Body and Mind as it doesn't quite
give you the same
potential advantage when the creature actually
deals damage to the opponent.
In Limited any of the swords make for a good
choice to equip to a
creature and this one is no different. The
small damage and life gain
effects aren't likely to make a big difference,
but the protection may
be a benefit if the opponent is using one of the
colors. Easily worth
including in any Sealed and an effective first
pick in Booster to be
played alongside any color deck.
