It doesnt matter which tier or where you sit within the rank, even if you simply just get promoted before the season ends, youll earn the rewards for that rank
I would play it in a deck that sacrifices its own creatures a lot so that I can add rev counters, and Id want some way to get around the relatively high equip cost
This time last month, before the sudden surge in interest, near-mint copies of Equinox were only $1.43
I dont think Protection Magic is going to be the best option for every deck, but in decks that can proliferate counters this one is going to do a surprising amount of work
If you are running up against a deck you can't fight, or there is a person or two who have really nasty Commander decks and their attitude is sort of "Stop us if you can!" then you can
Pair it with cards like Propaganda and Crawlspace, and youre going to be awful hard to kill with combat damage