Summary
Magic: The Gathering’sCommander preconstructed decks often come with new, exclusive cards that would be the perfect inclusion to your existing builds. I know I’ve been wanting a Renewed Solidarity ever since the Aetherdrift decks came out, and now it might be joined on my watchlists by these cards from the Final Fantasy precons.
Whether it’s protecting your creatures, cheating finality counters, or just smashing with big green creatures (my favourite thing to do), these are definitely good excuses to splash out on a precon or two.
This list is only featuring new cards from the four Final Fantasy commander decks, not reprints. It also excludes legendary creatures who would be great commanders, but not necessarily work as one of the 99.
10Protection Magic
Save Your Most Important Pieces
Someone just cast a Wrath of God. Your first thought is wondering why they’re playing a Wrath of God and not a better board wipe, but then your second thought is how you’re going to save your most important creatures from the devastation. Enter Protection Magic.
Just two mana for three shield counters is excellent, and in counter-centric decks you’re likely also going to be running things like Doubling Season to make those shields last even longer. You don’t even need to target just your own things, turning this into a rather handy politicking tool as well.
9Summon: Esper Valigarmanda
Is This What Convinces Me To Make A Saga Deck?
On its own, Esper Valigarmanda is a solidly okaySaga enchantment. It exiles a card for you to play, and then gives you a ramping amount of red mana for the next three turns. Add that on to a 3/3 with haste and flying and it’s easy to imagine this will see play in mono-red aggro decks that otherwise would keep their mana cost on the floor.
But I want to run this with a card from the main Final Fantasy set, Esper Terra. Esper Terra makes a token copy of a Saga and puts three Lore counters on it. This means you’ll be triggering the first three steps straight away, netting you an exiled card and six red mana to play with. Keep copying it on future turns for even more profit, and it suddenly becomes very frightening.
8Hermes, Overseer Of Elpis
Don’t Murmur, Say It With Your Whole Chest
As a commander, Hermes hasn’t got a whole lot going for him. He makes Birds and lets you scry, but that just isn’t enough in the format for it to be a worthwhile card to build around; especially when they’re mono-colour, which inherently limits your deckbuilding options.
But in the 99, Hermes slaps. He’s almost a strictly better Murmuring Mystic, with a higher power and the Birds he makes having vigilance. When you consider him as a part of your deck and not its commander, the value he offers is off the charts. That scry turns from a ‘sure, okay’ to an effect you’ll likely be wanting to trigger as much as possible
7Ultimate Magic: Holy
Divine Intervention
Let’s go back to the Wrath of God scenario. Your opponent has cast a weirdly outdated board wipe, and you’re busy wondering why it isn’t a Vanquish the Horde. But instead of protecting just three of your creatures, you’re able to save all of them instead.
It’s not quite on the level of Teferi’s Protection, but saving yourself from an opponent swinging out can turn the game in your favour no matter what. Not to mention that, because Ultimate Magic: Holy prevents damage and not just your life total changing, you can’t even be knocked out with commander damage.
6Summon: Valefor
Soul Shatter For Blue Players
Though it doesn’t see a whole lot of play, Soul Shatter is one of the most dread-inducing cards in Magic. The black spell can force you to sacrifice your creature with the highest mana value, which is often either going to be your commander or game-winning piece. With that in mind, Final Fantasy has given blue its own take on it with Summon: Valefor.
Bouncing back to your hand isn’t as bad as sacrificing a creature, but the effect still sets you back in a big way and can be followed up with a nasty counterspell. To add insult to injury, it’ll then keep creatures tapped down with stun counters for the next three turns.
5Summon: Yojimbo
Showing What Saga Creatures Can Do
Final Fantasy introduced Saga enchantment creatures, but none of them showcase just how powerful that is better than Yojimbo. This mono-white enchantment exiles permanents, and becomes a pillowfort piece, before a rather disappointing final chapter makes you potentially a total of… three treasure tokens.
But this is a creature. There are easy ways to blink creatures and retrigger the first three chapters over and over again. Use a Conjurer’s Closet, Ephemerate, or just about any other flicker spell to keep Yojimbo from triggering that final stage, and you’ve got a rather gnarly 5/5 and other, oppressive effects all in a single package.
4Sphere Grid
Green Stompy Decks Are Feasting
Green and +1/+1 counters go together like blue and being annoying, and Sphere Grid really leans in to the stompiness that makes the colour so much fun. Its ability is simple, but powerful: deal combat damage, get a +1/+1 counter. Anything with a +1/+1 counte also gets reach and trample to help make getting yet more +1/+1 counters easier.
Giving everything trample is the big deal, here. We’ve seen abilities like it before on cards like Gnarlid Colony, but having it as an enchantment that also gives the counters needed to enable it push it up to a potential green stample for a good while to come.
3O’aka, Traveling Merchant
Finality Counters Don’t Have To Be So Final
Like Hermes, you’re not going to be running O’aka as the commander. The ability is simple and doesn’t give you a whole lot of value to play with. But in just about any deck with a different commander, it can be brutal.
The most useful thing to use O’aka for is to either remove lore counters from Sagas, keeping them from finishing and sacrificing themselves, or removing finality counters. In Final Fantasy, this meansNoctis, Prince of Luciscan bring back artifacts permanently, or Relentless X-ATM092 can return from the battlefield hangs around forever.
2Lifestream’s Blessing
Return Of The Return Of The Wildspeaker
Lifestream’s Blessing feels like a mashup of two of my favourite mono-green cards: Return of the Wildspeaker and Inscription of Abundance. Like Return of the Wildspeaker, you’re able to pay five mana (if you foretell it) to draw a ton of cards if you have a big enough creature, and like Inscription of Abundance you can gain lots of life while you’re at it.
You’re never going to want to cast this without foretelling, but that’s not a bad thing. Keeping a card in exile means you’ll always have it available when you need it, while keeping your hand free for cards you’re more likely to use. I can see this being run in a lot of green, stompy decks.
1Tataru Taru
Turn White’s Biggest Weakness Into A Strength
For a long time, white has been the colour of ‘symmetrical draw’. It can’t draw cards on its own, but it is happy to give other players cards as well. This has long been seen as a downside for the colour, but Tataru Taru turns it into a big upside by having you make a tapped Treasure token whenever someone draws and it isn’t their turn.
Cards like Secret Rendezvous and Wedding Ring now turn from cards that benefit opponents more than yourself into a quick way to build up Treasure tokens. Even though it’s only once per turn, if you play your cards right you could be getting three Treasures before the turn comes back to you.
