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Choco, Seeker of Paradise is one of the many legendary creatures inMagic: The Gathering’sFinal Fantasy set as a part of its Universe Beyond product line. Choco appears in Final Fantasy IX, being the chocobo used in the Chocobo Hot and Cold mini-game (which is depicted in the art for Choco) and the primary Chocobo used to traverse the world map.
In Magic, if you are looking to build a Chocobo Commander deck, then Choco, Seeker of Paradise is the go-to Commander. Choco supports everything that Chocobo cards want to do, which is putting lands onto the battlefield to trigger landfall abilities.
Bartz and Boko
Watcher of the Spheres
x8 Forest
x5 Island
x4 Plains
Unclaimed Territory
Yavimaya Coast
The decklistcontains 28 creatures, nine sorceries, six instants, nine artifacts, seven enchantments,and40 lands. Since the deck needs constant landfall triggers, it runs a higher number of lands than most decks to ensure you’re able to always play a land.
Key Cards
Choco, Seeker Of Paradise
The commander of the deck, Choco, Seeker of Paradise acts asboth card advantage and a way to quickly ramp into a ton of lands. You only get one card from the number you look at into your hand, with every nonland card going to the graveyard. It isoptional to put a card into your hand, but you do have to put all cards into the graveyard that aren’t lands.
Choco doesn’t need to attack for its effect to trigger, just one or more Birds. If attacking would put Choco in danger, it’s better to hold it back so you don’t lose access to its effect.
With how many landfall effects are in the deck, Choco can trigger them multiple times in just one attack.Landfall triggers off of every land entering, so if four lands enter at the same time, then four landfall triggers will happen.
Tawnos, The Toymaker
Nearly every creature in the deck is a Bird, allowing Tawnos, the Toymaker to make copies of them so you candouble up on your best Bird creatures. Whileyou can copy legendary Birds, you can only keep one of them,as the legend rule will still apply. However, if they have an enter-the-battlefield trigger, youwill still get the triggereven if the creature has to be removed.
Thecopy that Tawnos makes is also an artifact. While this can be positive, it’s unfortunately a downside in a Choco deck, as it makes the copies susceptible to artifact removal such as Vandalblast. Luckily, these situations are fairly niche, so you shouldn’t have to worry about this too much in most games.
Murmuration
Murmuration is a great way to not only boosts the stats of your Birds, but create even more Birds. Themore spells you cast, the more copies of Storm Crow tokens you get. These tokens are simply 1/2 Birds, but you want as many Birds on the battlefield as possible.
One of the best parts of Murmuration isgiving your Birds vigilance. This allows them to attack while still being able to block with them. There aremultiple ways to give Birds stat boosts, and with how easy it is to flood the battlefield with Birds, Murmuration makes them extra dangerous.
Kastral, The Windcrested
With Choco, it’s very possible you may be forced to put your best Bird cards into the graveyard. Kastral, the Windcrestedis the primary way to get Birds back from the graveyard. They do come back with a finality counter on them,so if they get removed, they’ll be exiled.
Kastral triggers whenever combat damage is done to a player. If you hit your three opponents with Birds, you’ll get three effect triggers. However, if you attack one opponent with three Birds, you’ll only get one effect trigger as only one player was dealt damage.
If you don’t need to reanimate Birds, then Kastral comes with other fantastic effects. It caneither draw you a card or spread +1/+1 counters to all your Birds. The counter effect, combined with other permanents that give stat boosts, can make your Birds into terrifying threats in combat. Generally, youwant to use the counter effectunless your hand is low or you need to reanimate a specific Bird.
How To Play The Deck
General Gameplan
A Choco, Seeker of Paradise Commander deckconstantly places Birds onto the battlefield and ramps you multiple lands when you attack, triggering all your landfall abilities. The deck consists of nearly all Birds, or cards that have powerful landfall abilities. Thebest landfall permanentsare ones that make tokenssuch as Chocobo Racetrack and Felidar Retreat.
If multiple permanents have landfall triggers at the same time, you can choose the order in which they resolve. This can be relevant as some landfall triggers create tokens and others will put +1/+1 counters on your creatures, so you’ll want to stack it so the tokens are made before the counters are put on all your creatures.
The deckis a very aggressive one,flooding the battlefield with various Birds and giving them stat boots to deal large amounts of damage. Youwant stat-boosting permanents on the battlefield as quickly as possiblesuch as Soulcatcher’s Aerie, Murmuration, and especially Coat of Arms which is the best typal-based stat boosting permanent in the game.
Win Conditions And Weaknesses
Theprimary win condition is winning through combat. With how quickly you may amass a large and wide battlefield, you can start getting in for damage before your opponents have a chance to set up.Most Birds have flying,making it even harder for your opponents to block them. Once you get permanents that give keyword abilities on the battlefield, victory becomes even easier.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is itself.Choco’s effect is required, so if you attack with a lot of Birds, you’ll be forced to put most of those into the graveyard. If you attack with fifteen Birds, that’s fifteen cards out from your library. It isvery possible to accidentally mill yourself out of the gameif you’re not quick enough in taking all of your opponents out.
