That's a quite versatile card. Either simply bounce your opponent's creatures, or use the effect on your own (preferably cheap) creatures to trigger their (or other permanents') cip/"enter the battlefield"-effect once more.
TreeTrunkMaster
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(10 votes)
One of my all time favorite cards in casual play. It's really fun to return a creature with Equilibrium when casting Meddling Mage and name the bounced creature.
This card is filthy... it has so many applications and can be incredible frustrating for your opponent. With allies emerging as a viable creature type, this card keeps getting better with age.
5/5
Crabotage
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Really good.
DayeV
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Such a brutal card... always has been. Used with Vedalken Orrery or any kind of flash creatures, and this is SO broken.
Cyberium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Question: Does this card works with Evoke creatures by returning it to your hand before the sacrifice takes place?
channelblaze
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
shrieking drake FTW =)
Baconradar
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Shrieking drake indeed
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Portcullis. If you can maintain creature advantage this can allow you some freedom in switching around your creatures, and basically puts an unsummon kicker on every creature you play. Beautiful. Need something to give that deck some extra oomph.
Lord_Gravesmythe
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Use it with Shrieking Drakes and Man-o'-Wars to bounce your opponent's creatures or your own Mystic Snakes/Spellstutter Sprites.
Just make sure you (and more importantly your opponent) is playing the card correctly as it cannot target the creature being played.
"Triggers when the spell is announced, which is before responses to that spell can be announced, and always before the creature it triggers on is put into play. You cannot use Equilibrium on the creature being played. "
No. First, you'd need two priests, since Equilibrium triggers when the card is played, not when it resolves; since your first priest is a spell at the time, it's not yet a creature and can't be bounced. Second, you're paying 2B to put him down, getting BBB, then paying 1 to put the other one back in your hand. In other words, you've spent 3B to get BBB. You're now down one mana. There are ways to get infinite combos going with this card, but that's not one of them.
If you added two Cloud Keys and chose creatures, you could get an infinite mana combo going. Or this plus Priest of Gix x2 plus Aluren.
infernox10
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
All functionality aside (great card),
That flavor text is pretty impressive.
scumbling1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I've played with this card a lot, and in my experience, it really doesn't make things equal.
Quite a useful and powerful card. It will certainly shift the board to your favor if you can bounce an opponent's creature every time you play one of your own.
Can also be used to re-use enter the battlefield effects of your own creatures, as others have mentioned.
parsifal59
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hi guys, first post. I have a question regarding this card. Is it legal to pay the mana cost to return more than one creature once you have successfully cast a creature spell. Example....I cast one creature spell, and have 3 unused manna remaining. Can I activate equilibrium three times, or just once?
shotoku64
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Storm Crow {1}{1}{U} Flying When you cast Storm Crow, return target creature to its owner's hand.
The first rare I ever drew and still one of my favorites. Combos incredibly well with Aluren.
I built a deck around that combo utilizing cards with ETB card draw effects that cost 3 cmc or less, like Carven Caryatid, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Omens, and Coiling Oracle. Since it is already a defender heavy deck, I use Overgrown Battlement for mana-ramp. I use Sterling Grove to tutor and/or protect the key enchantments. Lightning Greaves allows for infinite mana abuse by after I pop the Battlements in and out of play with the Aluren/Equilibrium combo.
The great thing about this deck is, while it sounds needlessly complex, the combo works well with just a few pieces and gets better with each piece added to it.
Comments (28)
5/5
Just make sure you (and more importantly your opponent) is playing the card correctly as it cannot target the creature being played.
"Triggers when the spell is announced, which is before responses to that spell can be announced, and always before the creature it triggers on is put into play. You cannot use Equilibrium on the creature being played. "
Other than that, can still be a useful card.
"Infinite mana with Priest of Gix"
No. First, you'd need two priests, since Equilibrium triggers when the card is played, not when it resolves; since your first priest is a spell at the time, it's not yet a creature and can't be bounced. Second, you're paying 2B to put him down, getting BBB, then paying 1 to put the other one back in your hand. In other words, you've spent 3B to get BBB. You're now down one mana. There are ways to get infinite combos going with this card, but that's not one of them.
If you added two Cloud Keys and chose creatures, you could get an infinite mana combo going. Or this plus Priest of Gix x2 plus Aluren.
That flavor text is pretty impressive.
Can also be used to re-use enter the battlefield effects of your own creatures, as others have mentioned.
Flying
When you cast Storm Crow, return target creature to its owner's hand.
See? Equilibrium makes ANY card a decent card!
I built a deck around that combo utilizing cards with ETB card draw effects that cost 3 cmc or less, like Carven Caryatid, Wall of Blossoms, Wall of Omens, and Coiling Oracle. Since it is already a defender heavy deck, I use Overgrown Battlement for mana-ramp. I use Sterling Grove to tutor and/or protect the key enchantments. Lightning Greaves allows for infinite mana abuse by after I pop the Battlements in and out of play with the Aluren/Equilibrium combo.
Typical result, anywhere from turn 5 to turn 8 I'm able to go through my deck at will to drop my win condition: an unblockable (due to either Venser, the Sojourner or Jhessian Balmgiver) Primalcrux with a couple Khalni Hydras and/or an arbitrarily large Omnath, Locus of Mana.
The great thing about this deck is, while it sounds needlessly complex, the combo works well with just a few pieces and gets better with each piece added to it.