Bloodforged Battle-Axe - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist

The Commander 2017 pre-constructed decks for Magic the Gathering introduced a number of strong cards for the Commander format. One of these is a one-mana Equipment called Bloodforged Battle-Axe. It's like an improved version of Bonesplitter, except that this axe can actually copy itself!

At only 1 mana to cast and 2 mana to equip, Bloodforged Battle-Axe gives the equipped creature +2/+0. Also, whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, you create a token that's a copy of Bloodforged Battle-Axe! That's a pretty awesome way to stack up Equipment in a hurry!

This Battle-Axe offers a very minor initial investment that can copy itself many, many times over. Also, the tokens then can copy themselves. So, if a creature has multiple Bloodforged Battle-Axes equipped, it can create a whole token of Battle-Axe tokens in a hurry.

Another great thing about the way Bloodforged Battle-Axe is worded, a creature with double strike that successfully deals damage to a player can cause this Equipment to be copied twice! On the second trigger, you can end up with three total Axe tokens, because the first token will copy itself, as well! If you have something like Parallel Lives or Doubling Season in play, it becomes all the more ridiculous.

Plus, there's another Equipment in  Commander 2017 called Hammer of Nazahn. This legendary artifact allows you to immediately attach an Equipment that comes into play to a creature. That means all of those tokens can be equipped right away for free! It also doesn't hurt to play something like Puresteel Paladin to make equip costs cost zero mana instead, allowing you to use these tokens quickly.

Imagine a deck that plays Hellkite Tyrant having a card like this. With the Tyrant's instant win condition of having 20 artifacts in play, you may be able to automatically win a lot of games just having a bunch of copies of this Axe in play! Interestingly, as of late 2019, we still haven't seen this really happen.

There are many advantages to having a card like this, especially in decks that care about how many artifacts you have in play. There will be plenty of Commander decks that will find a slot for this one-mana artifact, even some that may not be 100 percent Equipment based. Any deck that benefits by having a lot of artifacts in play can find a home for this unique Equipment.

Unsurprisingly, the Commander who uses Bloodforged Battle-Axe the most is the very Legendary creature that you would most expect: Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith. Not only can the Cat Artificer fetch the Hammer of Nazahn and put it straight into play, but it can get other Equipments to your hand. The Battle-Axe also sees a lot of play in Akiri, Line-Slinger decks - who loves the additional artifacts that the Battle-Axe creates, and other Equipment-happy Commanders such as Balan, Wandering Knight, Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale, Valduk, Keeper of Flame, Sram, Senior Artificer, Kemba, Kha Regent, and more.

How would you use Bloodforged Battle-Axe?

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