Stack equipment on a single hasty commander, draw cards and gain board through Skullclamp, swing for the kill. Zero Game Changers. Fair-feeling kill turn: 7 to 9.
Cloud has haste. On ETB he attaches one Equipment for free, exactly once. Every attack draws a card per equipped attacker, and at 7+ power he also makes two Treasures. With no Tithe in this build, the engine is Skullclamp + free-equip enablers. You stack swords, draw cards, swing again. The third or fourth swing ends a player.
Cloud is a Naya voltron commander whose entire job is to die holding a sword. Read his text once:
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.
Cloud + 3 to 5 stacked equipment, swing into the player with the lowest life. Sword of Feast and Famine + Embercleave is the textbook line: Embercleave’s cost reduction + double strike turns Cloud into 8+ power double striker = 16 commander damage in one swing. Backup line: Genji Glove + Cloud as the only attacker = double strike + extra combat = the player dies twice over.
Full Throttle costs 5 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.
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.
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 the most expensive card in this 99. He tutors any Equipment from your library on ETB and doubles your equip triggers. 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 doubled equip triggers also matter when you’re stacking equipment that has triggered abilities on equip (Sword of Feast and Famine untaps lands; Sword of Fire and Ice pings + draws). Two triggers per equip, so two free equip resolutions worth of value.
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.
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 3/3 with haste. Without follow-up he eats a removal spell and you’ve spent a turn.
Sol Ring, Esper Sentinel, or Stoneforge Mystic. Esper Sentinel on the play taxes every opponent for the rest of the game. Stoneforge Mystic immediately tutors your best equipment to hand for T2 cheat-into-play.
Don't lead with a tapped land if a real fetch (Ash Barrens cycle) gets you a Plains for Sol Ring + Esper.Cultivate, Nature’s Lore, Arcane Signet, or Sram / Puresteel Paladin if you have the equipment ready. Nature’s Lore grabs Stomping Ground or Temple Garden untapped. Stoneforge Mystic’s activated ability ({1}{W}, tap) puts any Equipment from your hand straight onto the battlefield, so the Buster Sword you tutored on T1 hits the board for two mana on T2 instead of its full {3}{R/W}{R/W} cost.
Sigarda’s Aid, Sylvan Library, or Sword of the Animist on a body. Sigarda’s Aid is the priority here: every equipment from T4 onward auto-attaches on ETB. Sword of the Animist on a Sram body turns every land-ramp into a draw trigger too.
Skullclamp on a 1-toughness creature is also live on T3. Equip for 1, sacrifice the body to a Barret rebel token later or a Spirit, draw two. Two cards for two mana plus a body is the rate the deck needs.Cloud with at least one piece of protection ready. The ETB free-attach goes on the equipment that matters most this turn. Hammer of Nazahn if you have it: indestructible while equipped. Buster Sword if you have a board of equipment to scale off. Champion’s Helm if the table is running targeted removal: hexproof from non-legendaries means most of their removal can’t even pick him.
Samut, Voice of Dissent in play means every creature on your side has haste, including Cloud on every future recast.Stack equipment using your free-equip enablers (Puresteel Paladin’s metalcraft, Sigarda’s Aid, Hammer of Nazahn’s ETB attach, Stonehewer Giant’s tutor-and-attach, Forge Anew’s free first equip, Balan’s mass attach). Swing into the lowest-life opponent. Card draw from Cloud’s attack trigger feeds the next swing, but there’s no Treasure burst behind it.
Without Smothering Tithe, the deck wants more reps. Land Cloud, swing, recast through Command Beacon if removed, keep the pressure on. The kill turn is the 3rd or 4th swing, not the 1st. Plan for T7 to T9.You arrive at this state on 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 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.
Dominion Bracelet gives the equipped creature +1/+1 and a Mindslaver attack trigger: if equipped Cloud attacks at 7+ power, you control target opponent’s next turn. Colossus Hammer alone (+10/+10) pushes Cloud past 7. Use the Mindslaver turn to feed your kill: tap their blockers, cast their counterspells on their own boardwipes, kill their commander, then untap and one-shot them.
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.
Forgetting Cloud’s attack trigger. Draw a card for each equipped attacker, and two Treasures at 7+ power. This trigger fires every combat. If you Full Throttle, it fires three times. Stop the swing, announce both triggers, then move to damage.
Not sacrificing into Skullclamp early. Skullclamp’s value is sac-fodder. Don’t let a 1/1 Rebel from Barret sit on the board; Skullclamp it for 2 cards. Don’t let Stoneforge sit around after she’s tutored; clamp her too. The deck has no other repeatable sacrifice payoff. Use every body.
Sword of the Animist only triggers on combat damage. If the equipped attacker gets blocked and doesn’t connect, no land. Pick the attack target that won’t block: a tapped-out player or one with no creatures. Don’t waste the ramp trigger swinging into a wall.
Forgetting Esper Sentinel triggers on opponents’ turns. Sentinel reads “whenever an opponent casts their first non-creature spell each turn”. They pay 1 generic or you draw. Players forget and you forget. Watch every spell on every opponent’s turn.
Not using Robe of Stars to dodge a board wipe. 1W to phase out target permanent, repeatable. Phased-out permanents are not affected by anything. Robe of Stars beats Wrath of God, Cyclonic Rift, Farewell, exile effects, theft effects. If you’re tapped out and they have 1W untapped, your stack survives.
Genji Glove only triggers when the equipped creature is your only attacker. If you have any other attacker, you don’t get the extra combat. Swing solo with Cloud holding Genji.
Vandalblast overload also kills your own artifacts. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, equipment, Treasures, everything you don’t control with another player on your side of the table goes. Re-read the targeting before you fire: it destroys all artifacts your opponents control, not all artifacts. Safe to overload. But the non-overload cost only targets one opponent’s artifact, not yours, so the trap is being too cute with the regular cast.
Treating Full Throttle like extra turns. It’s extra combats, on this turn only. You still pass to the next player after. Don’t tell the table “extra turn” or the rules conversation gets weird.
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, 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:
Three Game Changers carry the curve. Enlightened Tutor, Smothering Tithe, Jeska's Will. Kill turn 5 to 6.
Mana Vault and Crop Rotation join the deck. Five Game Changers. T2 Cloud lines are live. Kill turn 4 to 5.
All 100 cards with live Scryfall prices, the sideboard, and a bracket toggle that shows the swap diffs in place.