Companions have been nerfed with todays new banned and restricted announcement Companions, introduced in the latest Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set, were a way to play with commanders without playing in the Commander format
Using tokens to damage opponents to steal an Instant or Sorcery and cast it for free is powerful but requires a ton of build-up
Sure, it costs five mana and trades down with an Orcish Spy (which might sound like a joke, but as we continue our countdown, you'll see this actually was relevant back in 1995), but you could argue that Deadly Insect was the original Carnage Tyrant
Checking real sales first is the single best habit for not overpaying
The latter piece of equipment is a 2 drop 2 equip +1/+1 granter, both twice as expensive as Short Sword, but when it swings you can ramp out a basic land from your library tapped and that's good for the mana needs of this brew and double triggers is nice
It takes a lot of setting up, yet it's in the tradition of really powerful cards that offer similar versatility