Sword of War and Peace

Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and from white.

Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, Sword of War and Peace deals damage to that player equal to the number of cards in their hand and you gain 1 life for each card in your hand.

Equip

Discussion (50)

Neotrup on Equipped creature question

1 week ago

Yes. Protection means that the permanent can't be damanged, enchanted/equipped/fortified, blocked, or targeted by objects of those characteristics. DEBT for short. So Sword of War and Peace prevents Curse of Chains both from from being targetting the equipped creature and from being enchanted by it. In this case, it would remove the enchantment, but it also prevents the enchantment from entering the battlefield attached to the creature if it enters through a means other than the stack.

Wbg1415 on Equipped creature question

1 week ago

If I play enchantment Curse of Chains on an opponent creature the color of enchantment is white. Can my opponent play Sword of War and Peace which states equipped creature has protection from red and white, will this remove my enchantment thats already attached to creature because its a white enchantment?

DadHumanPraetor on Switch<->Blades

1 month ago

Adding Sword of War and Peace and cutting a creature, probably Hero of Oxid Ridge, but idk maybe something else gotta think about it.

DadHumanPraetor on Syr Gwyn Equipment Fun

1 month ago

Sword of War and Peace is tek lol. Knight Exemplar Kinsbaile Cavalier Valiant Knight Vanquisher's Banner

The new guy Armored Skyhunter is pretty deece.

Sigiled Sword of Valeron is one of my favorite equipments in this deck, because you can swing out and replace your knights with new ones every time if they get blocked. Changeling Outcast is also pretty good since hes an unblockable knight.

BladeSwinga on Does protection from [color] remove …

2 months ago

I recently came up with the problem; Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh has Maul of the Skyclaves equipped, and then has Sword of War and Peace attached. Since the sword gives protection from white, does that make the maul fall off in the same way an enchantment would? If so I may need to make some changes to my deck.

LunoStarlyght on My Kingdom for a Horse

2 months ago

A few things:

To start, love the concept! Was always a fan of medieval times and concepts.

Second, I think Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, or any other Gideon planeswalker would fit nicely here! Ajani is another good planeswalker for the theme!

Lastly, these valiant knights must be fighting with their bare hands here, because I do not see any weaponizing equipment! Embercleave, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace, and Blackblade Reforged are all good blades to give these great knights! (Plus, how can you have Elspeth without Godsend?)

Tzefick on Sword of Life and Limb

2 months ago

I find it a bit amusing how not two months ago there was posted a thread specifically dedicated to brew card ideas for the remaining 3 Swords of X and Y and then this shows up.

DemonDragonJ I would agree that having three abilities would break the pattern.

Personally I think the life gain is already covered by Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of War and Peace. One static, one dynamic.

There is already token generation with Sword of Body and Mind.

Personally I think the Sword should do something a bit different than that. Please keep in mind that the Swords have generally been designed to be beneficial to most colors and multiple strategies - hence why a Sword like Sword of Body and Mind is generally considered the worst/most niche, closely followed by Sword of War and Peace. The latter because it doesn't affect the board and lifegain is... only relevant in certain situations. If you make a token generator + Populate effect, it works by itself but is generally not useful for many decks.

Take a Sword like Sword of Truth and Justice. It plays well by itself by enabling its own scaling when you have multiple creatures. However you can also utilize the Proliferate on poison counters, -1/-1 counters, planeswalker loyalty counters. It has built-in support for multiple strategies.

A card like Sword of Sinew and Steel is more niche, but it has some very powerful removal effects to compensate. In addition the protections are very on-point in protecting against most targeted removal and all of red's board wipe repertoire.

Tokens for the sake of tokens is often not that impressive. That's why I would suggest to aim for something else than basic token generation.

If you are hellbent on the token generation I would consider granting a different incentive:

---

Alternative A Show

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may create a 1/1 green saproling creature token. If you do, then create a copy of a token you control. If you don't, create a Treasure token."

Hmm... I checked the wording on Populate, and for some reason WotC opted to make it copy only creature tokens. The word does make more sense to be used in tandem with creatures but this feels like a missed opportunity.

This grants purpose outside token strategies by giving you the option to opt for just a Treasure token and the swing after, if you kept the Treasure token, you can get another with the copy effect. Because there's a condition on getting some of the effects, I think it'll pass the "only allow 2 effects".

---

Alternative B Show

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token. Until the beginning of your next turn, the first spell you cast has Convoke."

This effectively grants you a mana dork (with indirect haste) AND it plays well with broad strategies that is not necessarily token strategies. It grants potential chump blockers to certain decks that can double as mana - alas only for the first spell after the trigger. The card could be buffed a bit by granting convoke to the first spell each turn until your next turn - granting you more flexibility and use of its ability.

I don't think it has the same power level as Sword of Feast and Famine but it is somewhat closer to its power level, which I don't think is a bad place for a Sword to be in.

---

If we're being honest, most of the swords don't see play and those that do are mostly Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice. I've seen a fair bit of Sword of Truth and Justice as well. I think hitting around that spot would be ideal.

---

---

If we aim for something else than basic token generation, we could aim for some tech options.

Delve deeper Show

Scout ahead

Green has the ability to look at what's to come and grab specific cards, with cards like Commune with the Gods, Commune with Nature, Commune with Dinosaurs, and many similar. White has had this effect as well, as seen in Acclaimed Contender, Board the Weatherlight, Courageous Outrider, and Militia Bugler. White's piece is more conditional and limited, whereas green is more flexible.

---

Treasure generation

White has had treasure generation through taxing with Smothering Tithe. Green is the ramp color. The Sword could possibly create a treasure token.

---

Keyword hoarder

White is usually the keyword hoarder, so what if they started being generous? With the introduction of keyword counters from Ikoria with something like Crystalline Giant, the Sword could have a trigger that spreads its keywords to another creature.

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, if equipped creature has flying, you may put a flying counter on target creature. Do the same for deathtouch, double strike, first strike, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance. The rest of the ability..."

By itself this doesn't do anything, and usually that would be a deal-breaker as an effect on this card. However I think there are enough Swords that are conditional on something else to get their effect. Usually not something that is particularly difficult to attain. Like Sword of Light and Shadow require a creature card in your graveyard to make use of half its effects.

This ability would also make it stronger in White, as White already has keyword soup creatures where this effect would be very strong, and even more so in Boros. You could use cards with the keywords themselves, equipment or auras that grant it or use buff cards that grant it temporarily. The latter can even be used in tandem with the Sword to permanently grant the equipped creature those keywords.

There are a few evergreen keywords missing, most notably indestructible. But there's also defender (could be used in a Arcades, the Strategist or similar deck to dish out defender counters) and haste (usually wont make a difference after combat step) - yes yes, there's also Flash but who cares when it's on the board. So a way to increase this ability's power could be to include indestructible at the very least.

---

Enchantment removal

I went in a big fat circle around this one, as I really don't think enchantment removal should be given on a repeatable colorless source like this. I know Sword of Sinew and Steel does it against artifacts and planeswalkers, and if I'm being frank it would be pretty easy for WotC to throw a Demystify on a Sword and something else and call it a day. However I really hope that wont be the case.

---

Brought back

Brought Back but as a delayed trigger without target (to enable that you get back something you lost during combat damage step).

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, at the beginning of your end step you may return a permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield if it was put there from the battlefield this turn."

It can be utilized much in the same way that Brought Back can. For instance to get back fetching lands or ETB-heavy creatures.

---

Land ramp

This one kinda feels like it's impeding on Sword of the Animist's territory, but it is part of green's color pie. It could be differently implemented like:

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal up to one land card and up to one creature, aura, or equipment card from among them and put them into your hand. You may play an additional land this turn."

This is more a soft-ramp that can fail. Instead of granting additional land drops it could just put a found land onto the field tapped.

"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land card from among them and put it onto the battlefield tapped. You may reveal a creature, aura, or equipment card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order."

---

---

Anyway, that's at least a little brainstorming on what else those two colors have to offer.

Tzefick on None

3 months ago

Ah... so we're back with the Swords :)

If you feel like snooping on the last round, feel free to check it out link.

Feedback on Deino Show

Dimir Sword

The player exile from hand ability is very reminiscent of Sword of Feast and Famine. I would suggest something different. I know Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of War and Peace both grant the controller life, but then again Sword of Light and Shadow is a bit boring and War and Peace is not much better. Perhaps yours could be messing with someone's graveyard?

The token copy is a bit tricky as it can either be incredibly powerful or rather weak depending on what creatures that player has available.

Gruul Sword

This card is interesting. It's borderline OP by playing both swarm control and land ramp. Clearing the path to keep hammering in the damage and ramp by getting rid of chump blockers and making the equipped creature buffed enough to content with anyone else.

I like it and it seems controlled and fair. It'll be a bitch to fight against for token decks in multiplayer, as one hit to one of the neighbors (willing or unwilling) is likely going to clear your army.

Selesnya Sword

I'll pull the plug on a 3rd Sword granting life... that's not very interesting.

The exile all graveyards is a tech option but one that is generally only applicable once, and then it's rather mediocre. Additionally both white and green has options to bring stuff back from the graveyard, so getting rid of their own seems a bit counter productive.

I feel this suggestion is definitely lackluster.

Feedback on Labrador64 Show

Gruul Sword

Straight land destruction on a repeatable trigger is spelling trouble. If you restricted it to non-lands AND replaced it, it could possibly be balanced - ala Ghost Quarter.

In OG Magic, land destruction was seldom a 3 CMC mana spell with Molten Rain and delved more into a 4 CMC mana spell for the most time like Craterize. I don't think that should be the precedent to set for these triggers.

Returning a land card from graveyard to the hand is nifty but does kinda target a niche of players - those that can afford fetch lands. Most players don't have lands in their graveyard as a rule, except those that plays fetch lands and those that mills - either by their own hand or by an opponent's.

I do hope WotC prints more functional reprints of Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse that are slow fetch lands but affordable. However so far they have been playing coy with granting these cards at common / uncommon. And the Prismatic Vista which only fetches basic lands but does it untapped is just as expensive as the fetch lands - despite the latter's ability to grab Dual lands or Dual land-esque cards with subtypes.

I feel like this should be considered when designing these cards. How easy is it to get the benefit of these triggers? How niche is this effect?

Dimir Sword

Simple and useful. The token effect is a little niche but if it can copy any creature of 3 CMC or less on the board (and not just that opponent's creatures) I think it should be possible to find some value somewhere.

And forcing a Cruel Edict on the defending player is quite powerful. In most colors it would make more sense to block the attacking creature, but in Dimir colors your creature is likely to have evasion - thus granting it flavorful more power to Dimir creatures.

I like it.

Selesnya Sword

This went pretty much where I would expect it to go. One upping Sword of Body and Mind by giving the token a keyword and providing creature removal instead of mill.

I can't really say I disapprove of it, but it does feel "safe". Not particularly interesting.

The fight ability would seem more flavorful on the Gruul sword (and it's also where I placed it when I made my attempt) but it is interesting when you can combine Selesnya's ability to make their creatures indestructible and fighting without losing. Fight also makes a keyword like deathtouch very interesting as a removal option for other colors.

Again it's not bad, it's just a bit safe.

Feedback on StasisAbuser Show

Dimir Sword

Isn't it a bit backwards to exile an opponent's graveyard and THEN create a token of a creature in a graveyard? I suppose it's a way to force a choice.

It is however a bit broken on turn 4 to get a token of Agent of Treachery after you just discarded it yourself.

Either a CMC restriction or just granting you the ability to cast a creature from a graveyard with "You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell." to fix the balance on that a little.

Or it exiles a single card from a graveyard, if a creature you create a token of it. That means it's a single use. You can still set it up, but it's not repeatable.

Gruul Sword

I'm a bit confused that there's no may trigger here. This sword basically begs to never be used against an opponent with less than 6 cards in hand - or a way for you to utilize them being forced to draw cards (Notion Thief, Underworld Dreams).

The ability to snatch a creature card from your entire library and Pod that right into play also seems really broken.

I don't think the drawbacks on this when it's good (5 to 12 cards discarded) outweighs or equals the benefits. However when it's bad (like 0 to 3 cards bad) you really don't want to attack.

That's a really awkward spot for a Sword to be in. And as you said yourself it is likely OP.

Interesting design though. Alas a bit too scalable.

Selesnya Sword

Creating 2+ tokens with relevant subtypes AND fetching any land from your deck onto the field tapped... I foresee that a lot of Gaea's Cradle players and Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth players will be sure to get a copy or two.

Well you're not wrong on your own assessment :)

If you want to make an attempt that could more realistically see print, I would suggest you look through the existing Swords and try to limit the abilities to something that is not that scalable and more constant. Instead of being variables that can scale, make it do this particular thing and nothing more, nothing less.

Keep in mind that the ability should be useful and beneficial for most colors. It's okay if it fits better into one color or color pair than others but all should have some benefit of it. Like Sword of Fire and Ice grants card draw, which White and partially Red hungers for, especially in Commander, and is usually seen as "better" in those colors because it covers a weakness that color / color pair has.