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Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER strategy guide

Cloud is a Naya voltron commander whose entire job is to die holding a sword. Read his text once:

• Haste. He attacks the turn he lands.
• ETB: attach up to one Equipment you control to him. Free, but only once, only on entry.
• Combat: whenever he attacks, draw a card for each equipped attacking creature you control. If Cloud has power 7 or greater, also make two Treasure tokens.

So the ETB free-equip is a one-time staple. Every other equipment after the first has to be hard-equipped, cheated in with ETB auto-attach (Hammer of Nazahn, Sigarda’s Aid), or free-equipped through a separate engine (Puresteel Paladin, Stonehewer Giant, Balan, Forge Anew). Treat the ETB attach as your priority stat-stick: usually Hammer of Nazahn (indestructible while equipped) or Buster Sword (scales with equipment count). The deck is built so the next swords stack fast.

You don’t pick a wincon at sleeves-on. You pick it at the point of attack, based on what’s already on board.

Wincon 1 · Voltron one-shot

Cloud + 3 to 5 stacked equipment, swing into the player with the lowest life. Sword of Feast and Famine + Embercleave + Buster Sword is the textbook line. Embercleave’s cost reduction plus double strike turns Cloud into a 10-power double striker = 20 commander damage in one swing. Backup line: Aettir and Priwen sets Cloud’s base power and toughness to your life total, so at a healthy life total he kills in one unblocked swing without the full sword stack. When a single swing is not safe, Helm of the Host grinds instead: each combat it makes a non-legendary hasty copy of Cloud that attaches an Equipment as it enters and draws when it swings.

Wincon 2 · Triple combat via Full Throttle

Full Throttle costs {4}{R}{R} and gives two extra combat phases this turn. Three swings, three sets of damage triggers, three sets of card draws. With Cloud at 7+ power, that is two Treasures and a draw per equipped attacker per swing. Pick the right attack order and you can take two opponents in a turn.

Wincon 3 · Skullclamp card-draw engine

The B2 engine isn’t Treasures. It’s Skullclamp on small bodies: equip a 1/1 Rebel from Barret, a Spirit, a Germ, sacrifice into it, draw two. Sram, Senior Edificer turns every Equipment cast into a card. Esper Sentinel taxes opponents or gives you a draw. Three independent draw sources running in parallel outpace a casual pod and find your kill pieces.

Wincon 4 · Hellkite Tyrant 20+ artifacts

Hellkite Tyrant wins the game at upkeep if you control 20 artifacts. With no Tithe in this build the artifact count grows slower (Treasures come only from Cloud’s 7+ trigger and Professional Face-Breaker), so this is a later-game alt-win, not the headline plan. Still hits when the table racks up answers to Cloud but leaves the equipment stack alone.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary (different card, not the commander) is a cheap {W}{W} 2/1 second copy of the gameplan. He tutors any Equipment from your library on ETB. The second clause reads ‘As long as Cloud is equipped, if a triggered ability of Cloud or an Equipment attached to it triggers, that ability triggers an additional time’, that doubling only applies to Equipment attached to this Cloud (Midgar Mercenary), not to your commander Cloud or to other creatures. He’s a second Cloud body. If your commander gets countered, exiled, or eats Swords twice in a row and the recast cost is unbearable, this is the line that keeps the game on rails.

The doubling matters when you stack Equipment on Cloud Midgar himself: Sword of Feast and Famine’s land-untap, Sword of Fire and Ice’s ping+draw, Skullclamp’s draw on death, all fire twice as long as the Equipment is attached to Midgar.

Snap keep

Two-to-three lands + ramp + a body. The classic opener: Sol Ring or a 2-mana ramp piece (Arcane Signet, Cultivate, Nature’s Lore) plus Esper Sentinel, Sram, or Stoneforge Mystic on the play.

Sigarda’s Aid or Puresteel Paladin in hand. Either one before T4 lets you stack equipment without paying equip costs for the rest of the game. With no Tithe in this build, the free-equip enablers are the engine.

Sword of the Animist in hand and a body to attach it to cheap. Land per turn off combat damage is how the curve keeps moving. Two-mana equip on a Sram or a Stoneforge body is fine.

Sylvan Library. Two extra cards per turn, 4 life per kept extra. Free if you don’t keep extras. Snap.

Ship back

One-land hand without Sol Ring or a 2-CMC rock. You will not curve. Mulligan.

All five+ CMC. The deck wins through curving into Cloud on T4, not through topdecks.

All interaction, no threats. Two removal spells and zero creatures is a losing hand here. You can’t stop them all and you have nothing to apply pressure with.

Cloud in hand but no equipment, no ramp, no draw. A naked Cloud is a 4/4 with haste. Without follow-up he eats a removal spell and you’ve spent a turn.

Sword protection lines

Sword of Feast and Famine gives Cloud protection from black and protection from green. That has three effects you want to read in order: (1) black or green creatures cannot block Cloud, (2) any black or green spell or ability that targets Cloud fizzles, (3) all black and green combat damage to Cloud is prevented. Against a green commander pod, Cloud holding F and F walks past most of the table’s defenders.

Sword of Fire and Ice gives protection from red and blue. Same three effects against red and blue. In practice the right swords to stack are the ones that lock out the opponent’s blocker colors, not just the ones with the prettiest stat lines.

You arrive at this state on T6 or T7 in B2, not T5. Without the Tithe Treasures behind every turn, the equipment stack assembles slower and Cloud usually has to swing once or twice before he holds the full kit. That’s fine. The math doesn’t change. The clock does.

Berserk math

Berserk at instant speed doubles Cloud’s power for the turn and grants trample. A 6-power Cloud becomes 12 power double strike on the swing trigger. Even Cloud bare with one stat-stick becomes lethal: 7 power + Berserk + double strike = 28 trampling damage. Berserk also reads ‘at the beginning of the next end step, destroy that creature if it attacked this turn.’ Cloud dies after the swing unless he is indestructible (Hammer of Nazahn equipped, or Shadowspear’s lifelink keeping him alive through the swing does not save him, but Hammer does).

Dominion Bracelet math

Dominion Bracelet gives the equipped creature +1/+1 and a Mindslaver-style activated ability that costs {15} minus the equipped creature’s power, with activation exiling the Bracelet. At Cloud’s 7 power, the activation costs {8} (sorcery speed, you may not respond to it). At 15+ power, it’s free. Activating exiles Bracelet, so this is a one-shot play, not repeatable. Sequence: load Cloud with stat sticks to push power to 15 if you want it free, then a sorcery-speed activation on your main phase to seize target opponent’s next turn. Use the Mindslaver turn to set up your kill: tap their blockers, cast their counterspells on their own boardwipes, kill their commander, then untap and one-shot them.

Full Throttle math

Two extra combat phases on the turn it resolves. Three swings, three rounds of damage triggers, three rounds of card draw. Cloud at 7 power across three combats = 21 commander damage exactly. Lethal on a single target without any pump spell. Two combats are usually enough if Embercleave is in the mix. This is the most common kill pattern in B2: assemble across T5 and T6, fire Full Throttle T7 or T8.

1. Robe of Stars. {1}{W}, repeatable, phases out the equipped creature (and whatever else is attached to it). Self-target only: to save a different creature, re-equip Robe first (equip {1}, sorcery speed). When Cloud’s wearing Robe he survives Wrath of God, Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, exile, theft, and counterspells targeting him. The best protection card in the deck because Cloud is the target.
2. Lightning Greaves. Shroud + haste, 0 to equip. Can’t be re-equipped if needed, but the cost is zero so you don’t care most games.
3. Swiftfoot Boots. Hexproof + haste, 1 to equip. Re-equippable. Swap onto a second creature when you Berserk or commit to a swing.
4. Champion’s Helm. +2/+2, and the conditional hexproof clause is satisfied because Cloud is legendary. While equipped he has full hexproof. The B2 replacement for the lost Jeska burst.
5. Hammer of Nazahn. ETB attaches to a target creature. Equipped creature is indestructible. Pairs with Robe of Stars: indestructible body and a phase-out button.
6. Clever Concealment. Instant-speed phase-out for your permanents. Best response to a board wipe. Hold mana up on the kill turn.

Recursion

Forge Anew has two abilities. The first is the free-equip enabler everyone reads. The second is the one people miss: when Forge Anew enters, return target Equipment card from your graveyard to the battlefield and attach it to a creature you control. If a sword eats removal, replay Forge Anew and bring it back.

Samut’s blocking line

Samut, Voice of Dissent untaps Cloud after he attacks. He can block on the way back. Combined with Shadowspear (trample + lifelink + strips hexproof and indestructible), Cloud attacks, comes home, gains life, and blocks the counter-swing. The full “attack and live through the next turn” sequence requires Samut on board.

If you’re sleeving up before a session, throw these in:

• Treasure (2-3). No Tithe, so the Treasure economy is small. Just Professional Face-Breaker hits and Cloud’s 7+ power trigger. Three is plenty.
• Rebel token (1-2). Barret, Avalanche Leader makes equip-target Rebels. Also primary Skullclamp food.
• Germ (1). Kaldra Compleat’s living weapon.
• 3/3 Elephant (1). Generous Gift gives the target’s controller one.