Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Firion, Wild Rose Warrior!

Firion is a three mana 3/3 that gives equipped creatures you control haste and whenever a nontoken Equipment you control enters, you create a token that’s a copy of it except is that “This Equipment’s equip abilities cost 2 less to activate.” Sacrifice that token at the beginning of the next upkeep.

Game Plan

A solid take to have on an Equipment Commander in that you probably don’t want a lot of Equipment that run a high equip cost and cheat them onto a creature, and rather you would want solid Equipment that may be a bit pricey in mana value but have a decent equip cost normally to them have the token copy attach for cheap or even free.

It is also helpful that Firion gives equipped creatures haste because it allows you to attack with a variety of creatures or even just Firion in order to get some additional damage, protection, or abilities depending on the Equipment that you use.

Support

There are plenty of Equipment that not only provide a boost for the equipped creature, but also have a enters the battlefield effect that we can make use of, especially if we make a copy of it.

When Gold Pan enters, for example, we create a Treasure token and it gives the equipped creature +1/+1 and an equip cost of 1. Not only do we essentially get refunded from casting the Gold Pan by making two Treasure tokens, but we can equip both to Firion for only one mana between the both of them for a one turn +2/+2.

This can be paired Gilded Pinions, which also enters with a Treasure token and gives the equipped creature flying for an equip cost of 2, Infantry Shield to give the equipped creature mobilize X where X is its power with an equip of 2, and even Nettlecyst to give the equipped creature +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment we control with an equip of 2.

Coral Sword is an interesting cheap Equipment we can use really effectively because we can cast it at instant speed because of flash, and when it enters it attaches itself to target creature we control and gives it first strike until end of turn and gives a +1/+0 with an equip of 1. This means it becomes an Equipment combat trick that gives +2/+0 and first strike until the end of turn, with one staying on until the next upkeep, all for one mana.

Even more expensive to cast Equipment becomes better for us to use for value like Swordsman’s Steel which when it enters let’s us draw a card for each Equipment we control and gives the equipped creature +2/+2 for each Equipment we control and has an equip cost of 3. Double draw and a strong buff for just one mana from the token copy is perfect for us.

Every single one of the Sword of cycle also happens to be perfect for us because they all equip for 2, give the equipped creature +2/+2, protection from two colors or two card types in the case of Sword of Wealth and Power, and provide generally useful abilities when you deal combat damage to a player. Sword of Feast and Famine gives protection from black and green and when you deal combat damage to a player you have that player discard a card and untap all lands we control.

We also have cards that benefit from artifacts and Equipment like Goldwardens’ Gambit which has affinity for Equipment and makes five 2/2 Rebel creature tokens that gain haste until end of turn and for each of those tokens we may attach an Equipment we control to it.

Reckless Crew also works in a similar vein where we create X 2/1 Dwarf Berserker creature tokens where X is the number of Vehicles plus the number of Equipment we control and for each of those tokens we may attach an Equipment we control to it.

Even something as simple as Reckless Fireweaver gains us a lot of value because whenever an artifact enters under our control it deals 1 damage to each opponent, and since we are getting at minimum two artifacts out from Firion, that’s two additional damage for each Equipment.

Setbacks

The issue comes when those Equipment are to be sacrificed at the beginning of the next upkeep. It allows you to get any potential end of the turn effects or artifact sacrifice outlets you have, of which there are many in red, but the problem remains the same, you lose out on Equipment that is easier to use.

There are a couple of ways we can cheaply equip things onto our creatures like Magnetic Theft or conditional cheap ways to do so like with Kazuul’s Toll Collector, but losing out on cheaper to attach Equipment is generally not ideal.

This also puts us in an awkward position of being an aggro deck that has spots of danger, but can also have spots of being a threat on the table to immediately not be a threat at the end of your turn or even for a few turns.

There also is unfortunately a lot of ways to interact with your artifacts. There are a lot of artifact board wipes and cheap removal for the Equipment you play that most decks have at least one way to deal with a problematic artifact or artifacts depending on the colors.

Firion also leaves awkward interactions with Legendary Equipment, which isn’t to bad if they have an enters ability, but do become more awkward if they don’t have an enters ability like Sword of the Animist or Shadowspear, which are really good Equipment to have but only if they stay in play.

Bracket Rating: 2

Equipment strategies are one some of the more difficult ones to get working well in Commander, and while I do think that Firion has a decent chance when compared to some other Equipment Commanders, I don’t think that he breaks the ceiling.

Firion is great when you can cast a lot of Equipment, get their enters effects or cheaply attach them to Firion or other creatures you control and swing in for a lot of damage, but if you can’t seal the deal and make use of those Equipment or eliminate a player, you’re gonna have a hard time.

A solid lower bracket Commander that can potentially win games, but may have a hard time doing so consistently.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual