Living weapon
| Living Weapon | |
|---|---|
| Keyword Ability | |
| Type | Triggered |
| Introduced | Mirrodin Besieged |
| Last used | Modern Horizons 3 |
| Reminder Text | Living weapon (When this Equipment enters, create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this to it.) |
| Storm Scale | 7[1] |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
Living weapon is a keyword ability for equipment cards introduced in Mirrodin Besieged.[2][3][4] It was reused in New Phyrexia, the Commander series, Modern Horizons 2, and Modern Horizons 3. The idea was later adapted for Phyrexia: All Will Be One, yielding a similar keyword ability For Mirrodin!.
Description
When a card with Living weapon enters the battlefield, it creates a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token and attaches itself to it.[5][6][7] Thus Living weapons are themselves creatures until they die or their controller chooses to upgrade a different creature, with the detaching of the equipment and killing the Germ, as it is now a 0/0 creature. Due to state-based effects it is put into the graveyard and ceases to exist.
The mechanic leans towards making an artifact creature on rate, which consequently makes for high equip costs as trading off the germ is otherwise "free", and the equipment grants much higher stats than conventional equipment. As colorless "creatures", the lower-rarity ones are also weaker than other creatures on curve. Some trade off a cheaper equip cost for a much higher casting cost for rate, like Necropouncer.
History
Living weapon debuted in Mirrodin Besieged, discussed on rules card 3 of 5, and then returned in New Phyrexia, discussed on rules card 2 of 4. It would be eight years before Design began mining the rich space in the equipment-with-a-creature premise. The mechanic itself would make one-off appearances in Commander 2013, Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander, and March of the Machine Commander. Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 3 featured several Living Weapons, most of which were callbacks to previous cards, with the latter featuring the first colored ones.
Originally, Living Weapon created 0/0 black Germ creature tokens. Starting with Modern Horizons 2, these were errataed into Phyrexian Germ tokens.[8]
Future derivations
With colored artifacts becoming more often used, equipment design space slowly expanded as of Core Set 2020. Three pieces of equipment - Ancestral Blade, Wolfrider's Saddle, and Mask of Immolation - had the Living Weapon text, but on tokens that were otherwise functional creatures. The equipment hence did not need to grant an on-curve enhancement, expanding design options for the enhancement and equip costing. For Mirrodin! follows Wolfrider's Saddle's template of using a 2/2 creature token base, and Job select follows Ancestral Blade's 1/1 base. As both these equipment mechanics use colored costs, they read as stronger than most Living weapon designs.
Kaldheim brought forth a cycle with another variation, with a quasi-kicker cost to create a token and attach it. This opens many gameplay decisions based on the casting, equip, and "kicker" costs. All five tokens were of different creatures.
Another similar equipment design was printed in Commander 2021 with Fractal Harness - the equipment itself does not grant toughness, resulting in a cost that resembles an Ivy Elemental on free equipment with equip 
. Goblin Morningstar has another design where the equipment comes with a token (potentially) unattached.
The term "living weapon" is taken to its logical conclusion with Reconfigure cards, which are equipment that are typed creatures while unequipped, and can pay their reconfigure cost to equip other creatures. They would lose the creature type when equipped.
The Fallout card Pre-War Formalwear is a new twist in that the spell is functionally a creature but returns a creature from the graveyard rather than creating a token.
Rules
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)
- Living Weapon
- A keyword ability that creates a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token and then attaches the Equipment with the ability to that token. See rule 702.92, “Living Weapon.”
From the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)
- 702.92. Living Weapon
- 702.92a Living weapon is a triggered ability. “Living weapon” means “When this Equipment enters, create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this Equipment to it.”
Rulings
- Like other Equipment, each Equipment with living weapon has an equip cost. You can pay this cost to attach an Equipment to another creature you control. Once the Phyrexian Germ token is no longer equipped, it will be put into your graveyard, unless another effect raises its toughness above 0.
See also
Examples
Example
Flayer Husk 
Artifact — Equipment
Living weapon (When this Equipment enters, create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this to it.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Equip
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (2019-04-27). "Storm scale rating on one of my personal favorite mechanics, Living Weapon?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 17, 2011). "Under Besiege, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-03-07.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 7, 2011). "What Do You Do for a Living Weapon?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Tom LaPille (March 11, 2011). "Confessions in an Armory". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (March 8, 2011). "The Germ in Charge". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (March 9, 2011). "Germ Warfare: The Flavor of Living Weapon". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (March 16, 2011). "Six Secrets Behind the Sets". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Jess Dunks (June 18, 2021). "Comprehensive Rules Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-06-18.
External links
- A Planeswalker's Primer to Mirrodin Besieged: Living Weapon (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube.