A-Plate Armor

The Arena-only rebalance (the "A-" prefix) is the whole story: the paper version grants only +3/+3, while this digital variant staples ward onto that boost. That single addition shifts where the equipment's value lives. Equipment carries a persistent two-for-one problem: you invest mana suiting up a creature, and once it is geared, a single removal spell walks away with both the body and everything you spent dressing it. Ward taxes that answer, forcing the opponent to pay one more mana or watch the removal get countered. It does not save the creature from every threat, and it never demands a second card from the attacker; it just raises the price of the kill by a mana, which is frequently enough to buy the extra combat step you were paying for. Note the protection only applies once the equip has resolved and the aura of ward is attached, so a creature is still exposed while the equip ability sits on the stack. The equip cost carries the rest of the design intent: it opens at but drops by for each other Equipment you control, pricing the card as a payoff for a board already stacked with gear rather than a standalone threat. It is a coherent way to charge for a stat swing this large, and a tidy example of how a digital-only version can explore protection space a paper printing left untouched.