"Ekthi, Contaminator Priest: Give Your Equipment a Life of Its Own."

by:

Virgilio F. De Leon Jr., MD

The Mystery Boosters Commander Edition doesn't just give us Planeswalker Commanders. It also introduces a whole lot of Legendary Creatures that can support some very interesting and specialized builds.

Someone in Wizards R&D must have taken a look at all the Equipment cards available to players and thought, "We have a lot of weapons. But what happens if the weapons could fight on their own?"

Because that's the thing about Equipment: if you don't have a creature to equip it to—to wield it, so to speak—it is basically just a very expensive piece of metal taking up space on the battlefield.

Since their introduction in the original Mirrodin block, Equipment has become a favorite tool for many Magic players. And then the Phyrexians came along and, naturally, decided that perfectly good artifacts weren't horrifying enough. They corrupted them, twisted them, and turned them into Living Weapons.

Living Weapons are essentially Equipment that come with their own creature to wield them.

They can be used for the glory of Phyrexia!!!

Sorry. My Phyrexian is showing.

Or, if you prefer, they can be used for your own personal glory.

Now, what if those Living Weapons had a Lord?

Enter Ekthi, Contaminator Priest.

Obviously, Ekthi appears to be aligned with Elesh Norn's faction, and she seems to believe that purification comes through the corruption of the vessel. Maybe that vessel is an Equipment. Maybe it's a person.

Potatoes, potahtoes.

This four-mana creature does what Lords have traditionally done best: she gives her chosen creature type a +1/+1 boost. And yes, Phyrexian is now a creature type, so there is plenty of room to build around that.

But Ekthi isn't just a Phyrexian Lord.

She is the Lord of Phyrexian Living Weapons.

And she creates those Living Weapons as they enter the battlefield under your control.

Think about all those Swords that already come with Protection and a variety of useful abilities. Now imagine them coming to life, ready and willing to serve. Swords, armor, cloaks, daggers, spears—pretty much anything you can imagine turning into a creature as soon as it enters the battlefield.

Imagine something like Blackblade Reforged becoming a Living Weapon.

Not only would you get its power and toughness based on the number of lands you control, but that creature would also receive an additional +1/+1 from Ekthi because it is now a Phyrexian Germ.

That opens up a lot of possibilities.

There are so many interesting pieces of metal sitting in my collection just waiting to be put to use.

With Ekthi around, they don't have to remain pieces of Equipment anymore.

They can become an army.

And I think this is going to be fun.