Shagrat, Loot Bearer - Intelligence

Shagrat is strongest when the deck develops Equipment first, gives him haste or protection, and turns each attack into both commander-damage pressure and a growing Orc Army.

Shagrat triggers when declared as an attacker. It does not trigger when Shagrat merely enters attacking, and it does not require combat damage.

The trigger says up to one target Equipment, so choosing no target is legal. If no target is chosen, the Amass portion still counts Equipment already attached to Shagrat.

If a target was chosen and that Equipment is illegal when the ability resolves, the whole ability is countered by the game rules, so no attach and no Amass happen.

Shagrat attaches Equipment directly. It does not activate equip, pay equip costs, use sorcery timing, or trigger effects that say whenever you equip.

Only Equipment permanents on the battlefield can be targeted. Attaching an opposing Equipment does not change who controls the Equipment or its controller-sensitive abilities.

Shagrat's ability targets the Equipment, not Shagrat. Shroud or hexproof on Shagrat does not inherently stop the attach, but protection, reconfigure status, type restrictions, or other attachment rules can still make an attachment illegal.

X is calculated during resolution after the attachment attempt. Count every Equipment actually attached to Shagrat then, regardless of controller; do not count Auras, ordinary artifacts, Equipment on the Army, or cards outside the battlefield.

After X is determined, Amass Orcs X puts +1/+1 counters on an Army you control and makes it an Orc. If you control no Army, the token is created first; Amass 0 can still create a 0/0 token that normally dies.

Token doublers, counter doublers, copied attack triggers, and additional combats are different roles. Copied triggers resolve separately and recalculate X from the current Equipment state.

Blinking Shagrat creates a new object and unattaches Equipment from the old one. Do not assume a blinked Shagrat preserves the Equipment stack.

Use high-impact Equipment and protection so Shagrat attacks with enough power, evasion, or double strike to threaten commander damage.

Let Equipment grow Shagrat while every attack builds a separate Orc Army.

Use Shagrat to move Equipment already on the battlefield, including opposing Equipment when it is a legal target.

Use Equipment tokens, Treasures, and artifact recursion as a secondary value shell.