Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER leads an equipment-voltron deck. It tutors up and cheaply attaches powerful Equipment, then swings with haste. Every equipped attacker draws a card off Cloud's attack trigger, and once Cloud reaches 7 power it also makes two Treasures. Equip-cost reducers and free-equip effects let multiple creatures carry gear each turn. Equipment that turns combat damage into cards, Treasures or free spells snowballs into extra combats and overwhelming damage. How it wins: It connects with heavily equipped, double-striking or trampling attackers, often Cloud himself, and can go infinite by putting The Reaver Cleaver on a creature that deals enough damage to fund Aggravated Assault's untap-and-extra-combat activation repeatedly. Key roles: - Equipment tutoring: Many search effects find the right Equipment, or creatures that fetch it, so Cloud reliably enters and attaches something immediately (Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper's Gift, Enlightened Tutor). - Cheap equipping: Cost reducers, zero-cost equips and auto-attach effects let several creatures be equipped in one turn, multiplying Cloud's per-equipped-attacker draw (Puresteel Paladin, Bruenor Battlehammer, Forge Anew). - Power stacking: Large stat boosts and double strike push Cloud past 7 power for Treasures and threaten commander-damage kills (Colossus Hammer, Embercleave, Swordsman's Steel). - Combat-damage value: Weapons and creatures that reward connecting refill the hand, untap lands or pull free spells and Equipment off the library (Sword of Fire and Ice, Buster Sword, Nahiri, Forged in Fury). - Treasure and extra combats: Treasure makers and doublers fuel repeated Aggravated Assault activations, creating the infinite-combat loop (The Reaver Cleaver, Aggravated Assault, Xorn). - Haste and protection: Haste enablers and protection pieces keep equipped threats attacking safely, while one opponents-can't-cast effect locks out interaction during combat turns (Mother of Runes, Firion, Wild Rose Warrior, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar).

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER decklist

• Abrade
• Aggravated Assault
• Arid Mesa
• Armored Skyhunter
• Avacyn's Pilgrim
• Birds of Paradise
• Bloodstained Mire
• Boseiju, Who Endures
• Bountiful Promenade
• Brightglass Gearhulk
• Bruenor Battlehammer
• Brushland
• Bureau Headmaster
• Buster Sword
• Cavern of Souls
• City of Brass
• Clifftop Retreat
• Colossus Hammer
• Command Tower
• Commander's Plate
• Deflecting Swat
• Delighted Halfling
• Eladamri's Call
• Eldritch Evolution
• Embercleave
• Enlightened Tutor
• Esper Sentinel
• Exotic Orchard
• Finale of Devastation
• Fire-Lit Thicket
• Firion, Wild Rose Warrior
• Flooded Strand
• Forge Anew
• Fortified Village
• Fyndhorn Elves
• Gemstone Caverns
• Giott, King of the Dwarves
• Giver of Runes
• Goldspan Dragon
• Heroic Intervention
• Karplusan Forest
• Kellan, the Fae-Blooded
• Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
• Kíli the Resourceful
• Legolas's Quick Reflexes
• Mana Confluence
• Mana Vault
• Marsh Flats
• Misty Rainforest
• Mother of Runes
• Nahiri, Forged in Fury
• Nature's Rhythm
• Needleverge Pathway
• Old Gnawbone
• Open the Armory
• Path to Exile
• Plains
• Plateau
• Plaza of Heroes
• Professional Face-Breaker
• Puresteel Paladin
• Rugged Prairie
• Sacred Foundry
• Samut, Hazoret's Champion
• Savannah
• Scalding Tarn
• Shadowspear
• Sigarda's Aid
• Skullclamp
• Skyclave Apparition
• Slash the Ranks
• Sol Ring
• Spire Garden
• Steelshaper's Gift
• Stomping Ground
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Sunforger
• Sword of Feast and Famine
• Sword of Fire and Ice
• Sword of Hearth and Home
• Swords to Plowshares
• Swordsman's Steel
• Sylvan Library
• Taiga
• Temple Garden
• The Reaver Cleaver
• Umezawa's Jitte
• Urza's Saga
• Verdant Catacombs
• Windswept Heath
• Wooded Foothills
• Worldly Tutor
• Xorn
• Yuffie, Materia Hunter
• Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
• Flawless Maneuver
• Sram, Senior Edificer
• Lavaspur Boots
• 3× Lightning Greaves