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Sword of Light and Shadow

Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and from black.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you gain 3 life and you may return up to one target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Equip {2}

CMC
3
Mana cost
{3}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Judge Gift Cards 2012
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2178
Buy on TCGplayer
Sword of Light and Shadow card art
Sword of Light and Shadow earns its slot the moment it connects — protection from white and black blankets two of the most common removal colors in Commander, and the triggered ability staples a free Raise Dead onto every combat damage trigger. The three-mana equip cost is the real tax, but in any deck that wants a recursive threat engine on a stick, this Sword is close to mandatory.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

34.6% of decks · synergy 0.33

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton wants to attack, and Sword of Light and Shadow rewards every attack with a creature returned from your graveyard — which feeds right back into the attack-trigger engine Ratonhnhaké꞉ton is built around.

02
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

29.9% of decks · synergy 0.27

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary equips Equipment for free or at a discount, which immediately dodges the Sword of Light and Shadow's punishing three-mana equip cost, and the protection keeps Cloud alive long enough to keep triggering his ability.

03
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale

Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale

24.8% of decks · synergy 0.23

Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale lets every knight in play wield equipped weapons for free, so Sword of Light and Shadow's equip cost disappears entirely — and the lifegain and recursion compound fast when you're swinging with a full knight board.

04
Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

20.5% of decks · synergy 0.20

Ezio Auditore da Firenze kills a creature the first time he deals combat damage to a player, and Sword of Light and Shadow makes him immune to the most common answers while returning any creature that falls before he swings.

05
Balan, Wandering Knight

Balan, Wandering Knight

20.5% of decks · synergy 0.18

Balan, Wandering Knight equips every piece of Equipment in play to himself for two mana as a single activation, collapsing Sword of Light and Shadow's equip cost into a bulk payment and stacking protection layers fast enough to make Balan nearly impossible to block profitably.

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 not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Sword of Light and Shadow does its best work — games go long enough that the recursion trigger fires repeatedly, the protection from white and black dodges Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Go for the Throat, and most of the format's premier spot removal, and the lifegain adds meaningful padding against aggressive tables. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but rarely played, since those formats move too fast for a five-mana investment to reliably connect before the game is decided. Oathbreaker sits closer to Commander's pace and can support the Sword in creature-heavy builds, though the smaller deck size makes the recursion trigger marginally less impactful. Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper don't have access to Sword of Light and Shadow, so Commander is where you should be thinking about it.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Sword of Light and Shadow has been reprinted several times across premium products, which has kept copies available, though foil and original-frame versions carry a significant premium over the cheapest printings. Check current listings before buying — prices vary enough across editions that shopping around is worth the two minutes.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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