As with every major set release,Magic: The Gathering’sFinal Fantasy set includes ten different archetypes for its Limited formats. Both Draft and Sealed involve playing with cards exclusively from a respective set, with every color pairing being represented with its own unique archetype.

An important thing to note is that Limited archetypes are just recommendations for the kind of deck to build with those colors, but not necessarily a requirement. You can build a Draft or Sealed deck any way you want, including a deck that plays more than two colors. However, if you want a guideline for what kind of cards to look out for, it’s good to refer to the Limited archetypes available.

Artifacts (White/Blue)

TheAzorius (white/blue) color pairing for Final Fantasy is built around artifacts. The blue half of the color in particular has thebest benefits from artifactswith cards like Valkyrie Aerial Unit and Rook Turret both being solid payoffs for playing artifacts.

As for thewhite side, they tend to help you find artifactsdirectly from your library. If you have multiple copies of Magitek Infantry, you can flood the battlefield with artifact creatures for just three mana. Ashe, Princess of Dalmasca and Delivery Moogle both help you to find artifacts to ensure you never run out of steam.

Control (Blue/Black)

Dimir (blue/black) is the simplest archetype in Final Fantasy which is simple control.A control deckcounters spells as they’re being cast and removes and problem creatures that hit the battlefield. It’s a slow grind, trading resources and playing your big threats to close out the game.

Theblack half handles removalwith cards like Overkill and Sephiroth’s Intervention, with theblue half having counterspellssuch as Syncopate and Louisoix’s Sacrifice. With Dimir in Final Fantasy Limited, it’s all about putting early game threats on the battlefield while keeping your opponents off of their best cards to slowly but surely win the game.

Black Mage Aggro (Black/Red)

As advertised by its archetype name, theRakdos (black/red) archetype is about creating Black Magesto do burn damage with. In Magic, a Black Mage is a creature (often a token) that will deal one burn damage whenever you cast a noncreature spell.

The idea of Black Mage Aggro is tomake a ton of Black Mage tokens and cast multiple noncreature spellsto make them deal damage, so you never even need to attack your opponent to beat them. It pairs well withburn cards found in red(such as Choco-Comet), while theblack half of the archetype can handle taking care of problem creaturesthrough removal or forced sacrifice (such as Cornered by Black Mages).

Landfall Aggro (Red/Green)

For Gruul (red/green) in Final Fantasy, it’sall about landfall. Landfall is an ability that triggersany time a land enters the battlefield. This helps to make it so even if you draw a land late-game, it’s not a dead card as it can trigger your landfall abilities.

If you obtain a Chocobo Racetrack in your pool, you’ll likely want to try and make your deck landfall-themed as it’s one of the best cards for Limited in the whole set.

Notably, there are only eight cards with landfall in the set. The only card above uncommon is Tifa Lockhart, so you’ll still be able to draft the archetype despite its limited amount. The landfall cards areprimarily green, with red cards like Call the Mountain Chocobo able to create Bird tokens with landfall abilities.

Go Wide (Green/White)

Selesnya(green/white)is the primary aggressive archetype built solely off of cheap creatures and tokens. It wants you to cast a ton of creature spells to attack with before your opponent can stabilize a battlefield of blockers.

If you opt to play Go Wide, battle tricks such as Auron’s Inspiration, Tifa’s Limit Break, and You’re Not Alone are all especially helpful for ensuring your creatures don’t trade and you deal large amounts of damage. There are multiple cards that care about the number of creatures you control such asRiona Heartilly and Snow Villiers to encourage you to go into Selesnyaif you get them in your pool.

Artifact And Creature Sacrifice (White/Black)

Orzhov(white/black) is the archetype thatwants your own creatures to be sacrificed. There aren’t actually a ton of sacrifice outlets, with Ahriman and Phantom Train being the two cards you’re likely to see in your pool. Judge Magister Gabranth is the best payoff for creatures dying as it’ll slowly gain stats whenever creatures or artifacts die.

Artifact and Creature Sacrifice is one of the weakest archetypes since you need a lot of high-rarity cards to make it worth playing. Black and white have solid cards without the theming of sacrifice, so don’t feel like you have to try and make sacrifice work if you opt to play Orzhov.

Many artifacts sacrifice themselvesto gain effects like Instant Ramen and World Map to trigger the effects of your permanents easier. While there aren’t a ton of sacrifice payoffs available at lower rarities, the high rarity has cards like Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER and Zodiark, Umbral God as fantastic top-ends.

Big Noncreatures (Blue/Red)

As is Izzet (blue/red) tradition, the archetypeis about casting noncreature spells. This time, it wants you to be casting noncreature spells that cost four or more mana to trigger effects of various permanents. There is no shortage of expensive noncreature spells, making it easy to proc these effects. Thedownside is your turns will often consist of just playing one spell a turn.

Cards with “X” in their casting cost have mana value equal to the X paid (along with any other mana cost). For example, Choco-Comment costs X and two red mana, so if you pay two for X, its mana value is considered four.

A lot of Equipment costs four or more mana, and often creates a token when they enter the battlefield. Lion Heart, Warrior’s Sword, and Ultima Weapon are all great Equipment to cast that’ll trigger your permanent. The best payoffs are ones that put counters on themselves (like Tellah, Great Sage and The Emperor of Palamecia) for casting expensive noncreature spells to make them bigger combat threats.

Graveyard Value (Black/Green)

Golgari(black/green)is the graveyard-focused archetypeof Final Fantasy. It actively wants cards in the graveyard to trigger effects of various permanents. Afterward, you can recycle them since many cards within the archetype have flashback or other ways to get put back into your hand.

Thepayoffs for permanents in graveyards are a bit slim, with Cloud of Darkness, Diamond Weapon, and Exdeath, Void Warlock being the only payoffs.Recursion is rather easywith Summon: Titan being able to put all lands into the battlefield from the graveyard, Evil Reawakened able to put any creatures back onto the battlefield, and Fight On! returning any two creatures to the hand.

Equipment Aggro (Red/White)

Final Fantasy has a ton of Equipment, withBoros(red/white)being the primary color pairing for Equipment. The primary way to get aggressive is byplaying cards with job select,such as Dragoon’s Lance, Monk’s Fist, and Red Mage’s Rapier. Youwant to constantly be casting job select cardsto build up a battlefield quickly and start swinging.

Boros hasaccess to a ton of support for Equipment,with cards such as Freya Crescent acting as a mana dork, Adelbery Steiner getting a stat boost from all Equipment, and Firion, Wild Rose Warrior giving equipped creatures haste as well as a copy of any Equipment entering.

Town Ramp (Green/Blue)

Simic(green/blue)is built around the new Town land type. It wants you to ramp by using cards like PuPu UFO and Reach the Horizon to quickly put as many Towns as possible onto the battlefield. Therearen’t actually too many Towns, especially if you’re just playing a two-color deck. The big payoff is Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy which can transform into a useful Vehicle

Town Ramp pairs well with landfall, something that plenty of green cards have. Generally,it’s not worth putting a ton of Towns into your deck just to get the minor payoffs. It’s best to just play Simic as landfall, and in some cases,it is a better landfall archetype than the advertised Gruul landfall archetype.