Price$5.24 – $72.96
Buy on TCGplayerSkullclamp
Artifact — Equipment
LegalCard DrawRank #42
Equipped creature gets +1/-1.
Whenever equipped creature dies, draw two cards.
Equip
KeywordsEquip
Why is this card good?
Skullclamp is one of the best card-draw engines in the format, and it's colorless, so any deck can run it. The trick: equip it onto a 1-toughness creature, that creature dies instantly from the -1, and you draw two cards. For one mana of equip, you turn any expendable body into two cards.
It's absurd in token decks (especially 1/1 generators) and aristocrats, where you're flooding the board with cheap or disposable creatures anyway. Pair it with a sacrifice outlet or token engine and you generate cards faster than almost anything. Mono-white, Golgari, and any go-wide strategy adore it; it's banned in Legacy and Modern for a reason.
Skip it if your deck runs few small creatures—a beefy stompy or spellslinger deck without expendable bodies won't get the loop going. It's also a non-engine in heavy control shells where you'd rather not feed your own creatures to it. But if you make tokens or sac creatures, it's near-mandatory.
Related cards
Bastion of Remembrance
Aristocrat draw/drain engine triggering off creature deaths like Skullclamp's payoffs.
Grim Hireling
Generates value when creatures die, similar token-sacrifice synergy.
Midnight Reaper
Draws cards whenever your nontoken creatures die, similar repeatable draw engine.
Endless Atlas
Colorless repeatable card draw available in any deck.
The Ozolith
Colorless artifact that banks counters, pairs with token/sacrifice strategies.
Mind's Eye
Colorless repeatable card advantage engine fitting any deck.
Welcoming Vampire
Draws cards off small creatures entering, similar token-payoff engine.
Printings (25)
Show all 25 printingsShow fewer
Played by these commanders
Inquisitor Greyfax100% of 2
Caesar, Legion's Emperor100% of 1
Meren of Clan Nel Toth100% of 2
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER100% of 2
Krenko, Mob Boss100% of 1
Rin and Seri, Inseparable100% of 1
Jirina Kudro100% of 1
Ghave, Guru of Spores100% of 1
Zurgo Stormrender100% of 1
Nahiri, the Lithomancer100% of 1
Combos (8)
- The Locust God + Skullclamp + Ashnod's Altar
→ Infinite card draw, Near-infinite colorless mana, Near-infinite creature tokens with haste
- The Locust God + Skullclamp + Cryptolith Rite
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite colored mana
- The Locust God + Skullclamp + Phyrexian Altar
→ Infinite card draw, Near-infinite death triggers, Near-infinite ETB
- Myr Battlesphere + Eldrazi Displacer + Ashnod's Altar + Skullclamp
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite colorless mana, Infinite death triggers
- Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter + Dross Scorpion + Skullclamp + Liquimetal Torque
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite death triggers
- Myr Battlesphere + Eldrazi Displacer + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Skullclamp
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite colorless mana, Infinite death triggers