5c Zirda equipment dudes brainstorming

[pokken]

So I've almost always had a heavy equipment deck floating around. I've been thinking about doing something with tymna and oakhame adversary type guys but it occurred to me this might be a fun way to approach making a zirda companion deck since cheaper swords are a sweet side effect.

I'm thinking stuff like stonehewer and stoneforge and similar

Not getting to play almost any of the saboteur guys opens up a lot of real estate for interesting activates ability guys that work with combat.

While golos or kenrith and sword of feast and famine do have a certain appeal I'm wondering if maybe ramos would be more fun since he's super huge.

Any good ideas for cards in such a deck?

[darrenhabib]

If you've not built a deck around Sunforger before then you are in for a treat. It has the right mix between power, but still harder to setup, so not too obnoxious.

The main sticking point is that normally you have to spend 3 to equip and wr to activate each turn.
With Zirda equipping only costs 1 so is much more manageable.

Obviously depends on what colors are going to be available to you but instants (4cmc or less) that contain White or Red are pretty limitless really.
But I really like to have a silver bullet of everything that deal with opponents cards.

With Zirda as your companion you want at least one way to bring it back from graveyard
Kolaghan's Command, Brought Back, Darigaaz's Charm, Naya Charm.
Overall protection is good Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm.
If you have access to blue then a counterspell or two Dovin's Veto, Ionize for example.
Creature removal, Fire Covenant, Swords to Plowshares.
Artifact/Enchantment removal Wear // Tear.

I find that with equipment decks that you want to have access to creatures to actually equip, so I think technically speaking Kykar, Wind's Fury would be the best option, as you can equip a spirit and it feels soooo bad if opponents have to use creature removal on the spirit token so that you don't get Swords triggers, etc.
Breya, Etherium Shaper would also be a great option, maybe even better with access to Black as well.
I guess Zirda can take that role, as equip target, but still its nice to have sacrificial creatures for equipping.

[pokken]

Man kykar is a sick idea. Thanks.

[DirkGently]

I was thinking it might be cool to do a voltron-ish Sisay with Zirda. A lot of the better non-SoXaY equipment is legendary (blackblade, jitte, shadowspear, nazahn, kaldra set...i just now noticed that sword of the animist is legendary, how have I never noticed that...), and gives an alternative way to pump up Sisay. And you could easily throw in some legendary recursion tools to grab Zirda out of the GY if it gets removed. Or maybe Nahiri to recur any destroyed equipment.

Ramos seems like kind of a nonbo since most equipment is colorless (in addition to not benefitting from Zirda, although tbh most reasonable voltron choices don't directly benefit from Zirda). Plus he's expensive to cast. Idk, seems like a pretty meh choice for voltron to me.

I'm glad you're enjoying some companion brewing :D

[pokken]

I was thinking it might be cool to do a voltron-ish Sisay with Zirda. A lot of the better non-SoXaY equipment is legendary (blackblade, jitte, shadowspear, nazahn, kaldra set...i just now noticed that sword of the animist is legendary, how have I never noticed that...), and gives an alternative way to pump up Sisay. And you could easily throw in some legendary recursion tools to grab Zirda out of the GY if it gets removed. Or maybe Nahiri to recur any destroyed equipment.

Ramos seems like kind of a nonbo since most equipment is colorless (in addition to not benefitting from Zirda, although tbh most reasonable voltron choices don't directly benefit from Zirda). Plus he's expensive to cast. Idk, seems like a pretty meh choice for voltron to me.

I'm glad you're enjoying some companion brewing :D

I try pretty hard to stay away from repeated tutors in the command zone--even my Golos army got really stale after a while I've played against the Sisay voltron deck and it's super annoying, you just have to keep killing him or someone loses every turn.

Ramos does seem pretty iffy with probably 15-20 colorless cards automatically in your deck though there are some fun equipment with colors (Behemoth Sledge, Embercleave and Godsend for example).

I won't deny that companions present very interesting design space.

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So what kinda cards do people like?

I'm excited about the UWR stuff, specifically things like:

• Goblin Welder
• Goblin Engineer
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Stonehewer Giant

But would love to hear cute ideas for cards, pieces of equipment you like, etc.

My equipment hotlist starts with:

• sunforger
• sword of feast and famine
• sword of light and shadow
• sword of fire and ice
• umezawa's jitte
• shadowspear
• sword of vengeance
• embercleave
• godsend
• skullclamp
• dowsing dagger
• sword of the animist
• basilisk collar
• Batterskull

[Rorseph]

I'm a sucker for Grafted Exoskeleton in equipment decks. Also, the previously mentioned Sunforger is a perennial favorite. Scrap Mastery is an excellent recursion piece, as is Scrap Trawler in conjunction with Goblin Engineer and Goblin Welder. I'm used to a Boros (Aurelia, the Warleader) or Izzet (Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders) milieu for equipment so a lot of the other stuff I'd normally suggest (Spine of Ish Sah, Bosh, Iron Golem, etc.) is probably less desirable, but I'm really keen on this deck idea!

[pokken]

Can't play scrap trawler or spine or any of that stuff with zirda mostly, but Sunforger was amazing in my Kenrith-Zirda removal.dec build. Definitely should be there.

[Segrus]

Colossus Hammer for another equipment? Also if you're going for a Sunforger plan, maybe Bösium Strip wouldn't be too bad with Zirda out.