by Can Tran

Created on: October 31, 2009

"Deathrender" is a colorless equipment artifact printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Lorwyn." In a sense, this card is like some sort of inherited trait or ability. If you have creatures on the battlefield, you can get the most out of the Deathrender. This could perhaps be one of the most valuable artifacts that a player could have in a creature deck. Aggressive players could make great use out of the Deathrender.

The converted mana cost for Deathrender is four. You will need four mana of any color to bring Deathrender from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what Deathrender can do, the casting cost is pretty much worth it. It costs two mana of any color to equip Deathrender to any creature. Keep in mind that you cannot equip it on creatures with Shroud or Protection from Artifacts. Since this is an artifact, Deathrender can be affected by anything that targets artifacts.

What does Deathrender do in the first place?

In a sense, it seems to be the predecessor to the equipment artifact from "Zendikar" called "Trusty Machete." Trusty Machete costs one colorless mana to cast and two colorless mana to equip on a creature.

The creature that gets equipped with Deathrender will get +2/+2. If you equipped it to a creature that has 2/2, Deathrender will make it into a 4/4 creature. However, that is not the main ability of Deathrender. Deathrender does have another ability. The main ability of Deathrender is quite interesting.

Should the equipped creature get sent to the graveyard, you can play a creature card from your hand. In this respect, you can play a creature from your hand and not have to pay the converted mana cost. Then, you attach Deathrender to it. That is if you want to. Think of this as being able to bring out a high costing and powerful creature without having to pay the casting cost.

You can equip Deathrender to a 1/1 token creature and make it into a 3/3 creature for the time being. You can do whatever it takes to send it into the graveyard. Then, you can pick any creature from your hand and play it. Afterwards, you equip it with Deathrender. Make sure you do not pick a creature with Shroud or Protection from Artifacts.

Overall, Deathrender is a handy artifact to have. It would not hurt to have means to spit out 1/1 creature tokens that can be "sacrificed." Think of this as an easy way to bring out powerful creatures early into the game.

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