The first thing every self-respecting warrior of shadows does in the morning is get dressed. Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves are often seen as auto-includes, essential protection for your commander and creatures in any mid- to high-powered EDH pod. Darksteel Plate finds its way into most high powered pods, and rightly so. It’s an indestructible suit of armor! It might seem like the obvious choice, and that’s because it is.
Dakkon needs to accessorize. The Ring of Evos Isle and the Ring of Xathrid come from a cycle of equipment in the 2013 Core Set; each is relatively cheap to cast and equip and puts a +1/+1 counter on the equipped creature during your upkeep if it matches the required colors. In addition, each has an activated ability for two mana. Evos Isle grants the creature hexproof, while Xathrid regenerates it. These are leftovers from my original incarnation of this deck, they’re not competitive choices, but another flavor choice. Dakkon’s only got two hands, we can’t expect him to hold every sword in the deck simultaneously! The rings are a fun and cheap way to give Dakkon some protection and some power, and he looks blinged out while he wears them.
The Inquisitor's Flail is a unique piece of equipment from the original Innistrad set. The euipped creature deals double combat damage to creatures and players, but also receives double combat damage from other creatures. This is a swingy card; while the Flail can end games immediately with Dakkon, it can leave you open to a punishing punch-back if an opponent can trick you into committing to combat with him. That said, it all-but guarantees at least one player kill before the game ends.
I’ve been waffling on Lashwrithe for a few months now. In its current form, my deck only runs six Swamps, seven if you count the Sunken Hollow. Lately I’ve been dropping Lashwrithe too early, only to make a nonthreatening 1/1 Germ token. More expensive builds can make good use of Lashwrithe, though; Bumping up the number of two-color lands with the Swamp subtype helps, while Tomb of Yawgmoth fixes the problem completely. Take this into consideration when building with this card.
Sword of the Animist is one of the real work horses in Dakkon Blackblade. At just two mana to play and equip, the Sword can come down early and change a game for you. Remember all those creatures just dying to throw themselves into the fray for Dakkon? They make perfect early game wielders of Animist’s blade. Even in the late game, the Sword of the Animist makes a great weapon for Dakkon, granting him a flat +1/+1 and then bumping his power even more whenever you swing with him. Note that this sword can also help mitigate our Swamps problem!
Dowsing Dagger is a casual, semi-political card I like to drop in the early game. Toss a couple 0/2 Plant tokens at the slow player, or trade them to the aristocrats player for a promise of loyalty.
The Obsidian Battle-Axe is a sleeper threat in this deck. Dakkon gained the Warrior type in the Grand Type Update of 2008, and hence can make amazing use of the Battle-Axe. Giving him haste on the turn he drops is just too good to pass up when you’re win condition demands you connect with Dakkon. A sweet surprise for your opponents.
Helm of the Host makes your voltron deck a threat in multiplayer games. Without access to Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar, summoning these permanent reflections of Dakkon is the best way to end two or more players in a single combat.
Of course, there's a ton of other choices for any Voltron-style Commander deck when it comes to powerful equipment. Veteran players will notice I haven't included any of the Swords of X and Y; these cards are almost never a bad choice, but for this deck I try to keep it at a middling-power level. (Whatever that means, I'd like to go into more detail some day on why the "Rule 0" and power-level ranking of EDH decks is useless and ultimately harmful to the format, but not here at the end of a deck tech).
Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out with suggestions, comments, or hate mail.
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