Executioner's Hood MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact — Equipment
Abilities	Equip
Released	2012-02-03
Set symbol
Set name	Dark Ascension
Set code	DKA
Number	148
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Anthony Palumbo

Key Takeaways

Boosts creatures’ evasion through intimidate, an impactful effect to bypass enemy defenses and maintain board control.
Low equip cost facilitates quick play, allowing for effective mana management and flexibility in deploying strategies.
Instant-speed equip option provides tactical advantages, giving players the ability to adapt to battlefield changes on the fly.

Text of card

Equipped creature has intimidate. (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.) Equip (: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Executioner’s Hood might not directly draw you cards, but it can tip the scales of combat in your favor. By giving a creature intimidate, it often allows them to bypass blockers and get in for damage, maintaining pressure and indirectly impacting the state of your hand by drawing out removals from your opponent or diminishing their resources.

Resource Acceleration: While Executioner’s Hood doesn’t offer traditional mana acceleration, it does equip for a low cost, enabling a swift enhancement of your board without heavily investing resources. This means you can deploy other threats or answers alongside it without falling behind in the mana race.

Instant Speed: Although the Executioner’s Hood itself isn’t an instant, it can be attached at instant speed, assuming you have another equipment-friendly spell or ability. This flexibility allows you to adapt to combat surprises, equipping a creature in response to blockers being declared or after your opponent has committed to their plays.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Executioner’s Hood requires a player to factor in the additional action of equipping the artifact to a creature. This essentially functions as a discard requirement, tying up resources that could be used elsewhere.

Specific Mana Cost: The cost of equipping the Executioner’s Hood is not color specific but it does require a setup of two mana. In decks where mana efficiency is crucial, this cost might be too restrictive, limiting the card’s inclusion only to decks that can afford such spendings.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although the cost to cast Executioner’s Hood is low, the cumulative cost of equipping it, especially multiple times in a game, can be high compared to other equipment cards that offer more significant benefits. This can make the card less appealing when building a mana-efficient deck.

Reasons to Include Executioner’s Hood in Your Collection

Versatility: Executioner’s Hood is a flexible equipment card that can be included in a variety of deck types. Its ability to grant intimidate can make any creature a more threatening attacker by limiting the pool of potential blockers.

Combo Potential: This card works well with creatures that have damaging effects upon dealing combat damage to a player. Equipping Executioner’s Hood increases the likelihood of those effects triggering by making the creature harder to block.

Meta-Relevance: In game environments heavy with creatures, giving your creature intimidate can be crucial for ensuring your key attackers connect with your opponent. This can alter the tide of the game and increase your win rate against creature-dense decks.

How to beat

The Executioner’s Hood is an equipment card that can be quite the nuisance due to its ability to grant intimidate to the equipped creature. This trait allows the creature to be blocked only by artifact creatures and/or those that share a color with it, which often means it can evade many blockers effortlessly. To tackle creatures equipped with Executioner’s Hood, players should consider keeping a versatile range of blockers in play, including artifact creatures which are not impacted by intimidate.

Another reliable strategy includes the use of removal spells that can target the equipped creature directly, such as Path to Exile or Doom Blade, bypassing the need to block it altogether. Lastly, enchantment destruction or artifact hate cards like Disenchant or Naturalize offer a way to directly deal with the Executioner’s Hood itself, rendering the creature it was enhancing vulnerable once again. These tactics are particularly crucial if your opponent relies heavily on turning a single creature into an unblockable threat.

By analyzing your deck and considering the inclusion of these types of strategies, players can prepare themselves to face any creature decked out with the intimidating Executioner’s Hood. Planning ahead is key; ensure your deck has the tools to address such threats before they can dominate the battlefield.

Cards like Executioner's Hood

Executioner’s Hood is a notable equipment card in Magic: The Gathering that shares similarities with various other equipment cards within the game’s vast library. Much like the Executioner’s Hood, cards like Ghostfire Blade can also equip creatures to give them an edge in battle. The distinction comes with Ghostfire Blade slightly increasing a creature’s power and toughness, without the intimidate ability that Executioner’s Hood provides, which can be crucial for bypassing blockers.

Another card in the same vein is Prowler’s Helm, which ensures equipped creatures can only be blocked by Walls. Like the Executioner’s Hood, it aims to facilitate successful attacks, though the Helm is more specialized. Alternately, Whispersteel Dagger adds a different flavor by granting not just the unblockable trait but also delving into graveyard mechanics by allowing its wielder to cast creatures from opponent’s graveyards.

In assessing the utility and examining each card’s specialty, Executioner’s Hood stands out by offering a straightforward and resource-efficient way to help creatures avoid being blocked, without providing a boost in power. This can be particularly potent in decks where evasion is key for victory.

Cards similar to Executioner's Hood by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Executioner's Hood MTG card by a specific set like Dark Ascension, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Executioner's Hood and other MTG cards: