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Sparring Collar

Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature has first strike.
{R}{R}: Attach this Equipment to target creature you control.
Equip {1} ({1}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
R
Rarity
common
Set
Fifth Dawn
Price
$0.13
EDHREC rank
#24400
Buy on TCGplayer
Sparring Collar card art
Sparring Collar gives a creature deathtouch and first strike for one mana to equip — a combination that effectively locks out most combat for the opponent. The catch is the two-mana equip cost means you're spending three mana total on the first creature, so it rewards decks that can move it around cheaply or abuse it with enter-the-battlefield triggers.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

In Commander, Sparring Collar is a budget enabler for deathtouch-ping combos and a cheap way to make any creature a combat deterrent, though the two-mana equip cost keeps it off the staple list for most builds. In Pauper, it's more interesting — the format's lower power ceiling makes a repeatable deathtouch-plus-first-strike creature genuinely threatening, and the one-mana cast cost fits easily into aggressive equipment strategies. Legacy and Vintage have zero interest in it; those formats have access to far more efficient ways to generate the same effects. Oathbreaker follows the Commander read: niche, not broken, but a legitimate budget option for the right signature spell or commander pairing.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.13 bulk tier

At $0.13, Sparring Collar is deep bulk — you can throw it in a trade binder or grab a playset for pocket change without thinking twice. It won't appreciate; this is a card you run because it fills a role cheaply, not because it holds any financial weight.

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Sources

Mentioned

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    Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.