Sword of War and Peace
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and from white.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, this Equipment deals damage to that player equal to the number of cards in their hand and you gain 1 life for each card in your hand.
Equip 
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Arena Anthology 1
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #2676
Sword of War and Peace hits the board as a protection piece and a life-swing engine simultaneously — the creature carrying it dodges red and white removal while dealing damage scaled to hand size and draining life equal to cards your opponents hold. The three-mana equip cost is the real friction point, but Captain America, First Avenger eliminates that tax entirely, which is why the two are nearly inseparable in the data.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Captain America, First Avenger
Captain America, First Avenger lets you equip Sword of War and Peace for free whenever Cap attacks, collapsing the three-mana equip tax to zero and turning every combat step into a protected, hand-size-scaled drain trigger.
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary wants as many equipped-creature payoffs as possible, and Sword of War and Peace delivers protection from two of the most common removal colors while adding a life-drain trigger that compounds with Cloud's combat-focused gameplan.
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale draws a card whenever a Knight equips, so Sword of War and Peace pulls double duty — it replaces itself on entry while giving the equipped Knight blanket protection from red and white.
Balan, Wandering Knight
Balan, Wandering Knight can attach every Equipment in play to itself for two mana at instant speed, so Sword of War and Peace becomes one more piece of the pile Balan stacks before swinging through a cleared board.
Ashling the Pilgrim
Ashling the Pilgrim runs Sword of War and Peace specifically for the protection from red clause — it lets Ashling survive her own repeated activations and continue growing while opponents take the combat damage and life-loss trigger.
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 |
Commander is unambiguously where Sword of War and Peace does its best work: multiplayer tables mean opponents consistently hold more cards, inflating the damage trigger, and the life-drain compounds across three opponents rather than one. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but rarely played — Stoneforge Mystic decks tend to reach for Batterskull or Sword of Fire and Ice first because card advantage matters more than life totals in those formats. Modern is the same story; the Sword cycle sees occasional fringe play there, but the current equipment landscape favors cheaper threats. Oathbreaker is legal and small-hand environments can dilute the trigger value, but any aggressive Oathbreaker build that wants protection from red and white has a legitimate reason to run it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't currently available for Sword of War and Peace here, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before buying. As a heavily reprinted Sword with broad Commander demand, it's historically been one of the more accessible entries in the cycle — worth cross-referencing across printings since art treatments vary significantly in price.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.