I wish we hadn't reviewed this the day after the
Sword of Fire and Ice review-- there's a lot
similar between them, it's hard to come up with
a new review. Black and white is a slightly
better pair of colors to have protection from
than red and blue, since you're saving yourself
from a wider selection of removal. But the real
difference here is the triggered ability. Unlike
Fire and Ice, both halves of Light and Shadow's
trigger are a direct benefit to you. This is an
advantage in multiplayer, as you're generating
advantage without drawing the ire of a specific
opponent. Shadow's recursion ability, however,
is much more likely to fail to find a target
than Fire's damage... unless your opponent(s)
keep killing the creature wielding the Sword,
which they may want to. Ice's card draw is a
much better boon then Light's 3 life, but Shadow
gives you back a card anyway, so if Shadow is
compared to Ice, then Light pales in comparison
to Fire.
Both swords generate advantage with every swing
and should be shut down ASAP, but I think Fire
and Ice is the slightly stronger of the two.
This card used to be thought of by some people
as the "lesser" of the Darksteel expansion's
swords, back when they were only a pair and not
a cycle. It's important to note, though, that
"lesser" in the context of the Darksteel
expansion's swords is still more powerful than
about 90% of all other cards in Magic. Maybe I
exaggerate, but only a little. If you manage to
attack with someone carrying this sword even
once or twice, it can easily make racing a
futile effort and killing your other creatures
even worse. And that's assuming your opponent
even notices over their distress at being unable
to target the wielder with almost anything that
would help them get back in the game.
Today's card of the day is Sword of Light and
Shadow which is a three mana equipment with an
equip cost of two. The effects of +2/+2 with
protection from White and Black are solid and
relevant against many forms of removal plus the
popular Orzhov builds. The dealing combat damage
to an opponent triggering life gain of three
isn't negligible with the added bonus of card
advantage from retrieving a creature from your
graveyard is dramatically improved when combined
with an evasive target. Overall this isn't the
strongest sword as the life gain pales next to
direct damage, but the card advantage and useful
protection colors make it quite playable and it
retains usefulness against many popular decks.
In Limited formats where this is available it
is a considerable threat that can easily win
games when combined with an evasive creature by
widening the life point gap by six or more each
turn. 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.
