Hello and welcome back! We are well into the thick of Final Fantasy spoilers and not only that, early this week Wizards of the Coast spoiled the all four lists for the Commander decks coming with set.
Unlike my normal articles where I’d go over every new card, I’m instead going to suggest some cards to add to make the decks a little more consistent, power it up, and get rid of some cards that don’t quite synergize enough. This isn’t as easy as it usually is. These new decks are well built, so if maybe I missed some cards that you think would be better inclusions, let me know in the comments below.
REVIVAL TRANCE (FF VI)
The first deck I’ll discuss switching out cards for is Revival Trance, which focuses a lot on graveyards, rummaging and milling cards into them, and recurring threats to grind opponents down and gain value. There are even some theft effects involved.
As I alluded to just prior, the deck is actually well built and finding cards to improve on wasn’t the easiest. However, some cards jive better than others in the deck. To begin, here are the cards I’d remove, add, and the reasons why.
Out: Cyan, Vengeful Samurai // In: Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
I can see the synergies of why Cyan is in the deck, but he doesn’t seem to do anything besides being a big beater. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes that’s all it takes to win a win, but I feel the deck can be better serviced with some a bit more aligned with the deck strategy. Alesha Who Laughs at Fate will serve the deck a bit better I think, with her being able to trigger whether she attacks or not, and since you want to be attacking with Terra, you can get back 2 creatures instead of one. Alesha herself also gets bigger when she attacks and has first strike to help her survive combat. If she does, she gets you back bigger and bigger things.
Out: Setzer, Wandering Gambler / In: Dihada, Binder of Wills
Stezer here likewise doesn’t do much for the deck overall outside of the occasional treasures. Unfortunately they depend on hitting an opponent with a vehicle and winning a coin flip. Good flavor, but a bit inconsistent. Instead I’d choose Dihada. While she isn’t a creature herself, she supports the many legends in the deck well and can act as card draw, discard, and treasure producer all in one go. She also helps the theft theme of the deck if you can get to her ultimate.
Out: Morbid Opportunist / In: Grim Haruspex
One thing this deck doesn’t have a lot of is regular card draw. A ton of rummaging and looting, but not straight draw. This particular card is fine, but Grim Haruspex draws more than once for the same price. We also want to keep the deck creature heavy, so no enchantment replacement here.
Out: Tragic Arrogance / In: Cataclysmic Gearhulk
They are exactly the same card, except one is a creature and the choice moves from you to your opponents. In this deck however, being a creature can make a difference. I decided to keep the effect because you should be able to recover more quickly than your opponents with the recursion in the deck and you’re commander’s ability to get stuff back on their own.
Out: Night’s Whisper / In: Village Rites
This is pretty straight forward. Sometimes you need a creature to die. Sometimes you need cards. This covers both, costs one less mana and at instant speed.
Summary:
I really tried not to include Syr Konrad the Grim in the chosen cards, but here is a mention of him. The deck itself seems solid, and can be seasoned to taste ( I know some don’t like the Gearhulk). While I think there are some misses here, the deck seems solid, but definitely takes on a certain style of play that might not fit into everyone’s wheel house. Solid pickup and you really only need some minor adjustments to make it a smoother experience. I hope my suggestions do that.
LIMIT BREAK (FF VII)
Limit break is a deck that is definitely a 7 and largely cares about equipment and the power seven and up with a modify subtheme. It looks to arm up or power up to power seven and gain effects from hitting with or having that power.
Out: Inspiring Statuary / In: Hammer of Nazahn
Okay, I know this one might sound off the wall, but hear me out. It’s a one-of effect in the deck and while it works great if you draw it, it doesn’t if you don’t. If the deck had doubled or tripled done on it, sure, I’d leave it in. Instead the deck is looking to reduce equipment costs more and this can’t even help summon out artifacts. Instead, I’m going to double down on attaching and protecting our creatures with Hammer of Nazahn.
Out: Chaos Warp / In: Generous Gift or Beast Within
While I do love me a good Chaos Warp, if you have White and Green in the deck there isn’t much reason to run that over something like Generous Gift or Beast Within, each of which can also hit lands that may trouble you like Maze of Ith, Spires of Orazca or Glacial Chasm.
Out: Secret Rendezvous / In: Sram, Senior Edificier or Esper Sentinel
There is always something to be said for flavor, but unfortunately that’s all this card gets. The card draw it offers unfortunately isn’t the best by the standard of White can offer us now. Initially I was going to go with an Esper Sentinel replacement here since we have equipment to increase its power, but prices being what they are, Sram will serve just fine as a card draw effect. If you can pick up a Sentinel, it might be the better choice unless you add more equipment.
Out: Vandalblast / In: One Last Job
Something I find a lot in these decks is a lack of recursion. While most of the time having some isn’t necessary if your creatures are well protected enough or your opponents are already defeated, I still like to hedge my bets. I’m taking out Vandalblast here for One Last Job. Vandalblast can be amazing, but most times I’ve found it a dud I’d rather have for something else outside of those amazing circumstances. One Last Job, while not as good as Unfinished Business, does a decent impression of it and is good redundancy.
Out: Harmonize / In: Rishkar’s Expertise
I went through a few different choices here, but I took a queue from another card in the deck, Lifestreamer’s Blessing. Harmonize isn’t a bad card, but at the cost it is you could drop a Guardian Project or Beast Whisperer. Here I opted for the more expensive Expertise because of the power matters theme of the deck and you get to cast something for free afterward, giving us some extra incentive to use this particular draw spell.
Summary:
Simple game plan here, and we’ve already had some other Red Green and White equipment decks come out for Commander. Really you just need to put in an equipment package you prefer, and away you go breaking stuff. Creatures are largely solid.
COUNTER BLITZ (FF X)
About every three sets or so we probably get something that includes +1/+1 counters in it. It’s very popular, and this deck makes good use of them, makes more of them, and tries to keep them or switch them around. Then it tries to hit like a train.
Out: Altered Ego / In: Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
I actually really like clone cards. They’re really flexible and and can turn the tide (my favorite is Dack’s Duplicate). However they can also be dead cards in hand, especially with how many legends are in this deck. So, we’re going to double down a bit on the proliferate since our commander does such on our turns. Also, the Dominus can become indestructible easily in this deck, making it a good blocker and potential attacker with Flying.
Out: Tireless Tracker / In: Sab-Sunen, Luza Embodied
An indestructible god creature that can smash face and give cards? Of course why wouldn’t we want that here. Manipulating the counters should be easy enough with the commander and various other effects in the deck, so being able to attack or block and getting those cards shouldn’t be a problem once the board is decently developed. Taking out Tireless Tracker seems like a good trade, though it does raise the curve a bit on mana.
Out: An Offer You Can’t Refuse / In: Decisive Denial or Repulsive Mutation (OR Mutational Advantage)
I really dislike when they add countermagic to a preconstructed deck and don’t commit at least six pieces. Sure it feels great and clutch in the moment, but it kind of stinks if you’re really wanting that for some protection and you have two in the whole deck. So, while I kept the counter something around I added some oomph to help the rest of the deck do something for the times you don’t care to counter. Decisive Denial will let you creatures fight and get something out of the way, or if you choose Repulsive Mutation, just make your guys bigger and swat something aside. Both depend on the size of your creatures in a way, but it definitely seems like that wont be much of a problem.
I’m kind of cheating here, but I wanted to mention Mutational Advantage instead of the single counter magic spell in the deck. I separated it because it’s another IP entirely and if you’re wanting to keep the deck more Final Fantasy, it might not jive for you. However, it protects your board and proliferates. If it doesn’t bother you to have it in the deck, this is my actual pick for a replacement card in this slot.
Out: Pull from Tomorrow / In: Open into Wonder
I’ll admit this switch isn’t quite one for one. Having to hit with creatures means the card draw isn’t guaranteed, BUT having a clear path to someone face is a decent trade off. With the other draw in the deck I figure that the evasion is worth it in the mid to late game when your creatures should be fairly big and you need to either close the game or draw something to help you get there on the next turn or two. Plus, it adds a little more redundancy to other effects already in the deck.
Out: Generous Patron / In: Orzhov Advokist
Alright, I’m iffy on this one. I keep going over the cards so I might be missing something, but it seems that rarely would we want to give counters, if able, to our opponent’s creatures. Stun counters would be a different story, and we do give some vow counters, but I just don’t think there is enough here to warrant this inclusion. To keep things a little political, I instead would add the Advokist. You still get two counters for yourself, and potentially give your opponents incentive to leave you alone or hit each other. Again, if you want to keep the Patron there are a few ways in deck to give your opponents counters, but it seems we have a good amount of draw to start with and I don’t know how dependable this card would be game to game.
Summary:
This deck seems really good out of the box, so a lot of these changes are maybe only slight improvements without going into a fine tune up with cards like The Great Henge. Even then, the card draw is there, the counters are there, and the evasion is there. Outside a suite of protections and personal touches I’m not sure it needs help.
I had also considered each Ozolith for the deck, but I’m not sure it needs them at all.
SCIONS AND SPELLCRAFT (FF XIV)
This deck focuses on noncreature spells and casting more than one spell a turn. It also has a life draining subtheme across some of the cards.
Out: Rite of Replication / In: Mirror Room // Fractured Realm
Rite of Replication is a very good card, depending on what you are going to get copies of. As far as the deck is concerned, almost everything you can copy with it is legendary, so that’s a no go. Instead I’d add Mirror Room // Fracture realm. It’s pricey for the side I want at seven mana, but as a noncreature spell you’ll get some value up front out of it if you cast it outright and it will give double triggers to everything that will be triggering after. The other side makes a copy of a creature, so we retain some of the copying with this replacement.
Out: Hypnotic Sprite // Mesmeric Glare / In: Giant Killer
Something I’ve noticed about the deck overall is that our creatures aren’t very big or do much flying, so instead of the countermagic we have a meager dose of in the deck I opted for more removal since we don’t depend on a combo to win and need to protect our face. Enter Giant Killer, who we can cast the adventure side of to get rid of a big threat, and then cast the creature side and keep something at bay, fits that nicely.
Out: Final Judgment / In: Winds of Abandon
While the deck has a few mass removal spells, not on of them specifically helps the deck keep its position on the board. Winds of Abandon, for the same cost on Overload as Final Judgement acts as a one-sided board wipe, even if it gives basic lands to you opponents. This allows you to keep you creature around and get more triggers as they go to set up. It also removes a single target if not overloaded, so it has some added flexibility.
Out: Sublime Epiphany / In: Debt to the Deathless
As I said prior for the Hypnotic Sprite, I’m fine with the inclusion of counter magic if there is enough of it. Two spells in the deck is not enough to warrant the inclusion in my opinion, even if it is really flexible. Instead I opted for something the can just straight end the game and let you trigger most of your abilities. We already have Exsanguinate, so let’s add another mass drain spell.
Out: Tome of Legends / In: Twilight Prophet
As much as I like Tome of Legends, I don’t think we want to necessarily attack with Y'Shtola that much, and having to recast her to get more counters on the artifact probably isn’t doing us any favors. To keep with the card draw a bit and add more to the life drain subtheme, I’m going to suggest Twilight Prophet. It takes a little to come online, but it gives some incremental life drain to help trigger Y'Shtola and draw you that extra card on your turn.
Summary:
Honestly, there is a lot more I’d change, but these selections will help it function better out of the box I feel. Creature base is solid, but the other spells need some work. Some don’t make sense to include at all in my opinion.
IT’S THE FINAL FANTASY
Overall the care with the deck design are great to good (eyeing you Scions and Spellcraft), but I think out of the box they all hit a wide breadth of strategy. The Counter Blitz deck in particular was hardest for me to pick some cards for, while Scios and Spellcraft I want to change more. Alas, only so much time to ponder these things before we’re on to the next shiny object to grab our attention.
Until that happens though, I hope whomever grabs these enjoys them and gets some great stories! Until next time!
