We’re barely halfway through the preview season forMagic: The Gathering’sEdge of Eternities, but one legendary creature has immediately capture the attention of fans. Is it a Spacecraft, which are new to the set? No. How about a Kavu, returning for the first time in forever? Also no. An Eldrazi? Nope.
A Lobster - specifically the first Lobster ever seen in black-border Magic - has proven such a hit with players that it’s managed to oust one of the most popular and heavily-played cards from the recent Final Fantasy crossover, despite not being available until the end of this month.
Ragost, Deft Gastronaut Is Cooking Up A Meal
According toEDHRec’s weekly rankingsof the most popular Commanders on its site, Edge of Eternities' Ragost, Deft Gastronaut has beaten the new landfall-matters darling Tifa Lockhart, meaning more people have submitted decklists with the crustacean in the last week than her.
At the time of writing, he sits as the 22nd most popular Commander in all of Magic, and by far the most popular from Edge of Eternities. That puts him between Commander mainstay Kaalia of the Vast and Lord of the Rings' Sauron, the Dark Lord, a whole three slots above Tifa Lockhart.
As mentioned, Ragost is the first time we’ve seen a Lobster creature in Magic, but his abilities don’t feel particularly Lobsteresque. A 2/2 Lobster Citizen that costs one red and one white, Ragost is actually an artifact-meets-lifegain deck, turning your artifacts into Food, and letting you sacrifice them to deal damage to opponents.
While Ragost is the first card with the creature type Lobster, they’re not the first lobster in general. Up to now, they’ve all come under the Homarid creature type.
Most of the popular cards submitted for Ragost aregeneral artifact deckstaples, like Ichor Wellspring, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, and Myr Retriever. The funnier play, however, may lie in abusing Ragost’s ability to untap on your endstep.
Give them lifelink somehow and enchant them with a Burning Anger, and you could be dealing damage to your opponents and gaining life every turn. Or have a card like Ajani’s Welcome or Soul Warden in play and put a Splinter Twin on Ragost. On your opponent’s turn, copy something like Filigree Familiar or Atsushi, The Blazing Sky, and enjoy repeatable death triggers every single turn.
Is This The End Of Final Fantasy?
While Tifa being beaten by a Lobster might be seen like the end of times for Final Fantasy, just take a look atthe top commanders. Seven out of ten are Final Fantasy, with the only other card printed this year being Teval, the Balanced Scale from Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s Commander decks. The other two are long-time staples of the format, with The Ur-Dragon and Edgar Markov both still being popular.
Final Fantasy isn’t going anywhere, and even Edge of Eternities isn’t likely going to completely supplant the set in popularity. The next Edge of Eternities card isn’t even in the top 100 Commanders, with Hearthhull, the Worldseed sitting at 101, with just 325 decks. We can expect this to balloon as the set actually launches and more people have cards, but, for now, Final Fantasy still has its grip on the community.
Edge of Eternities, and Ragost, launches on August 1.
