Equip Card

Equip Cards constantly target the monster they are equipped to; even while negated, Equip Cards remain equipped and continue to target the monster. If the equipped monster is no longer face-up on the field, or is no longer a valid target, the Equip Card is immediately destroyed.

Equip Cards can be equipped to monsters controlled by either player, and changing control of a monster does not cause control of an Equip Card to change. While the equipped monster can be the opponent's, the Equip Card's controller is the one referred to "you" in the Equip Card's card text, not the controller of the equipped monster.

Equip Spell Cards are the most common type of Equip Card; they are both Spell Cards (for purposes such as "De-Spell") and Equip Cards (for purposes such as "Gearfried the Swordmaster").

Treating cards as Equip Cards

Cards other than Equip Spell Cards may be treated as Equip Cards through card effects, like with "Sword Hunter" or Union monsters' effects.

If a Monster Card is equipped to another monster, it is treated as an Equip Spell Card and is moved to a Spell & Trap Card Zone. While treated as such, it cannot be destroyed by card effects that destroy monsters, but can be destroyed by effects that destroy Spell/Trap Cards. And if a monster that is treated as an Equip Card is sent to the Graveyard, it is treated as being sent as a Spell Card, but becomes a monster again when it is in the Graveyard.[1]

A monster treated as an Equip Card cannot have its equip target changed by other card effects,[2] except Union Monsters equipped by their own effects.[3]

If a Trap Card is equipped to a monster, it is treated as both an Equip Card and a Trap Card; unlike Monster Cards, equipped Trap Cards are not treated as Equip Spell Cards. For example, an equipped "Blast with Chain" can be destroyed by "Remove Trap" (since it is a Trap Card) and by "Gearfried the Iron Knight" (since it is an Equip Card), but not by "De-Spell" (since it is not a Spell Card). This type of Trap may be thought of as an "Equip Trap Card", but this is not an official term.

However, equipped cards are still on the field, so effects or conditions that rely on a card "being sent from the field to the Graveyard", such as "Felgrand Dragon", still apply. (This is because they activate in the Graveyard, where they are monsters now, and not on the field.) Despite this, unless stated otherwise, Monster Cards cannot activate or apply their effects while treated as Equip Cards, as they are not monsters.