Summary
When you think of Final Fantasy, you probably think of its iconic characters, monsters, and technology. Cloud, Squall, Tera, Noctis, Clive, and Tifa. Moogles and Chocobos and Cids and Cactuars and summons. Buster blades and gun swords and crystals and l’cie. The list goes on and on.
But there is one thing that Final Fantasy is known for that may not immediately spring to mind: its job system. Where other games have classes, Final Fantasy has jobs like Black Mage, and Dragoon. It’s in the jobs that we find our exclusive reveal forMagic: The Gathering’supcoming Final Fantasy crossover set when it launches on June 12.
Paladin’s Arms Give You An Equipment And A Body
Paladin’s Arms reminds me of a few similar mechanics in Magic’s history. There’s been a few times where an Equipment has made a token creature when it enters, and then attached to it, such as Living Weapon and its Germs, or cards like Fractal Harness, Headsplitter, or Elven Bow.
These kinds of cards have always proved particular popular in limited environments, which love two-for-one bargains like an Equipment and a token.
However, the more interesting part of Paladin’s Arms is that it gives the creature it’s attached to the Knight creature type. Equipment adding types isn’t unheard of - Brotherhood’s Regalia makes the creature an Assassin, for example - but it is uncommon enough to mean this could well see some play beyond Final Fantasy’s Limited environments.
Using Paladin’s Arms In Commander
There are a fair few Knight commanders that could get some use out of Paladin’s Arms. Haytham Kenway gives them a tasty +2/+2 buff on top of the +2/+1 Paladin’s Arms gives, while any attacking creature with it attached would trigger Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir’s eminence ability too.
Paladin’s Arms doesn’t work as well with the traditional go-to Equipment-and-Knights commander, Syr Gwyn. At best, you’re able to use this as a way to cheat free equipping of other Equipment onto whatever Paladin’s Arms is attached to, but there’s otherwise not a whole lot of synergy there.
One of the most fun commanders for it has to be a partner deck using Sylvia Brightspear and Khorvath Brightflame. With Khorvath out, anything you equip with Paladin’s Arms will get flying and haste on top of the +2/+1. Have Sylvia out, and those Knights even get double strike. Equip Khorvath with it with Sylvia out, and you could easily be dishing out tencommander damageeach attack.
Even if you ignore the Knight aspect, don’t sleep on the ability to make a token when it enters. Three mana for an Equipment and a token is always good, but it’s even better if you double it up with something like Panharmonicon or Annointed Procession to get more bang for your buck.
