Lightning Greaves
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has haste and shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Equip 
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- special
- Set
- Kaladesh Inventions
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #13
Lightning Greaves is in over half of all Commander decks for a reason: zero equip cost means the turn you play your commander is the turn it attacks, activates, or triggers — no waiting, no tax. The one real trade-off is the shroud clause, which locks you out of targeting your own creatures with Auras, buffs, or activated abilities like Monk Gyatso's, and makes The Tenth Doctor // Rose Tyler's triggered pairing awkward if you're not sequencing carefully.
Where It Shines
Where the extra mana on turn one matters most
Combos featuring Monk Gyatso
Monk Gyatso needs to tap and be targeted to fire its combo, so Lightning Greaves has to come off Gyatso before the line goes live — but the zero equip cost means you can suit up, swing in for the first hit, then re-equip the Greaves onto another creature for free on the same turn you're going off. Gyatso is free of shroud at no mana cost.
Combos featuring Temur Sabertooth + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
Temur Sabertooth loops demand your pieces survive long enough to untap, and Lightning Greaves on Sabertooth the turn it enters means a removal spell doesn't simply end the game before it starts.
Big-mana shells like The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon costs nine mana and dies to everything, so the first thing most pilots want to do is shroud it for free — Lightning Greaves turns what would be a sitting-duck turn into an immediate threat that demands an answer before the next combat.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Lightning Greaves is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its real home is Commander — singleton formats where protecting a single high-value permanent is worth a dedicated slot. In Legacy and Vintage, faster combo and interaction make a two-mana artifact that doesn't immediately affect the board a tough sell against Force of Will and Pyroblast. Modern has more viable homes, particularly in equipment-tribal or Stax builds that want cheap protection pieces, but the card rarely makes lists there either. Commander is the format where Lightning Greaves is simply correct: one commander, high replacement cost, and a table full of opponents who all want it dead.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Temur SabertoothSelvala, Heart of the WildsLightning Greaves
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite storm count; Infinite blinking
View combo details →
Crackdown ConstructLightning Greaves
Infinitely large creature until end of turn
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Emry, Lurker of the LochDisplacer KittenLightning GreavesLotus Petal
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite storm count
View combo details →Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Lightning Greaves has been reprinted aggressively across precons and masters sets, which keeps the price accessible — expect to find a copy for well under $5 at most local game stores or major online retailers. Given the reprint history, there's no urgency to speculate on copies; if you need one, just buy the cheapest version you can find.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.