Slayer's Plate MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Slayer’s Plate is a dynamo in generating card advantage, particularly in decks revolving around creature strategies. Once equipped, it not only boosts one of your creatures substantially but also has the potential to create more threats upon the equipped creature’s death. This ensures that even if the creature is dealt with, you continue to apply pressure on your opponent with the newly-created Spirit token.

Resource Acceleration: Although Slayer’s Plate doesn’t directly increase your mana pool, it accelerates your board presence, a resource of its own right. By augmenting your creature with a significant power boost, it enables faster clock against your opponents, turning each creature into a larger threat. Moreover, the resulting token can be pivotal in maintaining momentum after a board wipe or removal spell.

Instant Speed: While the act of equipping is not at instant speed, Slayer’s Plate shines in decks that can manipulate and create openings at instant speed. It’s about finding the opportune moment during your turn or right before your opponent’s end phase to equip a creature and swing the game in your favor. This strategy can be devastating in combination with creatures that have flash or instant speed spells that return creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield for a swift equip.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Although Slayer’s Plate doesn’t require discarding as a direct condition of its own, equipping it on a creature can make you a target for opponents’ discard strategies, potentially forcing you to lose valuable cards from your hand as they attempt to reduce the threat level.

Specific Mana Cost: Slayer’s Plate comes with a colorless mana cost, which is generally universal, but it still requires three mana to cast and a substantial additional three mana to equip, which can be a sizeable investment in terms of resources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The combined six mana to both play and equip Slayer’s Plate can hinder your game pace, especially since there are other equipment cards available that provide beneficial abilities to creatures at a lower mana cost, increasing your deck’s overall efficiency.

Reasons to Include Slayer’s Plate in Your Collection

Versatility: Slayer’s Plate is an equipment card that can turn almost any creature into a substantial threat, boosting power and toughness significantly. It can be included in various deck archetypes, enhancing your board presence and overall strategy.

Combo Potential: When the equipped creature dies, you get a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying, which offers synergy with strategies revolving around creature tokens and sacrifice mechanics, adding another layer of potential plays.

Meta-Relevance: With many decks focusing on creature-based strategies, having Slayer’s Plate can give you an edge by making your creatures more resilient threats while providing additional value upon their death, keeping you relevant in a constantly evolving competitive landscape.

How to beat

Slayer’s Plate is a powerful artifact in the realm of MTG, equipping creatures with a significant power boost and a dread-inspiring ability to create Horror tokens upon the creature’s demise. Combat strategies can be seriously upended when facing a creature adorned with this formidable piece of equipment. When contemplating counterplay, consider artifact removal spells such as Naturalize or Disenchant, which dismantle the Plate’s threatening presence from the battlefield. Alternatively, creature removal that doesn’t destroy, such as Path to Exile or Unsummon, can neutralize the equipped monster without triggering the creation of Horror tokens.

It’s also worth plotting a strategy around non-targeted mass removal spells like Damnation or Wrath of God, which can sweep the board clean without having to individually target the armored threat. Utilizing these methods, one can dismantle an opposing strategy reliant on the Slayer’s Plate and maintain a stable ground on the battlefield. By focusing on adaptive tactics and a keen awareness of your arsenal, overcoming the obstacle posed by Slayer’s Plate becomes a manageable feat for any seasoned player.