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Armory Automaton its fine, but there are enough other free equip creatures now that this one no longer makes the cut.
2.Silverblade Paladin used to be a mainstay of the deck. Double strike with swords is great, but a lot 2 of mana creatures now out class silverblade. Its still very playable but no longer best it slot.
3.Prophetic Flamespeaker this card has gained a ton of value in the deck because many of the new cards from 2020 and commadner legends have lowered the mana curve pretty dramatically. Flamespeaker is able to fill 2 roles in that both generates value, and can also bring damage with double strike in trample built in. Its not a leader in either category, but being able to do both makes it a powerful option that I have brought back into the deck.
4.True Conviction this is one of my favorite cards, but its hard to justify at 6 mana and a low creature count. In slower metas, or if you plan to run a high creature count its still an unbelievable finisher though.
5.Worn Powerstone was a staple of this deck for years, but has finally been outclassed in particular with creatures like Dockside Extortionist and Treasure Nabber but also recasting WP after a cyclonic rift is a major problem and ive shifted to skyclave relic or hedron archive for most of my decks.
6.Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum both are great ramp. the question is how long do you expect the average game to go in you meta. If it is slower you can justify both. For faster meta's I run without them, but solemn does have the ability to really smooth things out in your mid game.
7.Swiftblade Vindicator very good on turn 2, seems to lose value as the game rolls along. There are many other powerful options available at 2 cmc now, but if you're goal is just to be proactive with sword value its still a possibility.
8.Ugin, the Spirit Dragon All Is Dust fantastic inclusions. the deck will ramp so as long as you can force the game to turn 7 both of these will do a lot of work.
9.Inspiring Statuary its actually really bad for this deck. you cant cast your equipment, and cant use it for mana to equip your equipments. A regular mana rock like worn power stone or hedron archive are better for this deck.
10.Memory Jar its good if you want to do the smothering tithe wheel thing, but its a little slow and clunky, and now tome of legends is a thing. Wheel of Misfortune has replaced memory jar.
11.Leonin Abunas just ran out of room. protection is good.
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Backdraft Hellkite Ive tried to make this work but its always a little slow and not enough spell density to get great value.
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Tectonic Giant This is another card that is able to fill 2 roles, generating extra cards or bringing the damage. The card exile is not always the best as sometimes you have to exile sunforger pieces or other things you dont want to give up, but there is still a lot of strength in that flexibility. As more and more equipment centric creatres get printed it will be tough to keep this in, and its already been teetering on the way out, but its still a very powerful card.
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Ugin, the Ineffable lots of great modes, cost reduction, removal and card advantage. The 6 mana does make it a little clunky and slow for the fast metas, but if you ever get a it online casting your swords is a breeze.
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Sword of Sinew and Steel this is now my second favorite sword overall after feast and famine. blowing up key mana rocks and planeswalkers is huge, plus protection from blasphemous act. Just becareful if you plan to run bruse tarl or embercleave as they are both red.
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Underworld Breach its a crazy card but it is a little awkward for this deck. some games its better than others.
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Argentum Armor this gets more playable with every free equip creature that they print, but it is still immensely clunky to hard cast and equip. With a free equip its game winning, without one its almost unplayable. Risky card to play so overall I've like Embercleave better for this big CMC equipment slot.
Fervent Champion
Its been incredible. Begs the question if you want to run Final Fortune and Angel's Grace combo. I dont currently, but you could.
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Heliod's Intervention Insanely good. I cut wear/tear for this but still kept my return to dust slot.
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Hate Mirage Very good in a small sample size. Theres always a mana creature to copy. Copy something big late with Aurelia in play. Sometimes you have to wait a little bit for the right moment with this card, but not only is it very fun, its very powerful.
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Mana Geyser older card, but really shows where the format is at and how important bursts of mana are. might come back in as there are a lot more red cards than there used to be.
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God-Pharaoh's Statue its a nasty card. this one is used to fight combo. Slot in a board wipe if you dont need the stax right here.
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Cavalier of Dawn this is a great good stuff card. Kill a target, decent size vigilant attacker, and gets back equipment plus you can target it self as 5 mana get something back. Everytning you want in this deck.
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Tome of Legends its an incredible source of card draw for this deck. pair it with Manifold Key to draw more, or make your creatures unblockable as needed
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Sevinne's Reclamation is just incredible with this deck, gets back half of the deck. can ramp with a fetch in a pinch. Makes me wonder if i should be running Underworld Breach
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Dockside Extortionist probably the best red creature ever printed now. Run Treasure Nabber if you need a budget version
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Shadowspear It has been surprisingly medicore for this deck. The +3/+0 on loxodon warhammer just seems to matter so much more than shadowspear.
