Hey all. Standard and Pioneer are going to look a bit different this year, because starting with the release of Final Fantasy, Universes Beyond sets will be Standard, and thus Pioneer, legal. While they dipped their toes with this by making The Lord of the Rings set Alchemy legal, a lot more players are going to be experiencing Universes Beyond in 60 card formats for the first time.
With that in mind, we got our first look at the Final Fantasy set on Tuesday, and there are a lot of interesting and fun cards in both the regular set and commander set. It might be a bit early, but while we wait for the Pro Tour to play out this weekend, I figured it would be a good time to look ahead and evaluate the cards, and mechanics, that have been revealed so far.
Funnily enough, Final Fantasy isn’t even the next set that will come out. We will first get our return to Tarkir in April, followed by Final Fantasy in June. That might seem like a quick turn around, but another change they are making is to release six full size sets a year, all of them Standard legal, so that means a new set every two months.
So let’s dive in, and take our first look at some sweet new cards.
Sidequest: Catch a Fish
Our first card is a look at a new mechanic called Sidequest. While this is our only Sidequest card that we have seen so far, it does let us know that transform cards are returning in the set (and we’ll see plenty more of them later on) and flip cards that transform into lands are always fun for adding extra utility into your mana base in the mid to late game.
Sidequest: Catch a Fish seems a bit slow for a format like Standard, as a three drop that doesn’t impact the board the turn you play it, and isn’t guaranteed to impact the board for several turns is usually a non-starter.
I do think it is going to be a fun limited card, as once it flips you do get a food token, letting you activate it at least once to pump up your team.
Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant
Stilzkin, Moogle Merchant is a cute little one drop that can donate things to your opponent to draw some cards.
My immediate thought is to donate tokens to your opponent such as a map token or food token. Something that will give them a bit of value but isn’t quite worth the card that you will generate by doing so.
The other thing to do with this is give your opponent problematic permanents such as Greed’s Gambit or Demonic Pact.
So we’ll see if this little guy makes a splash as either some sort of value engine or as a combo piece in donate decks.
Summon: Shiva
Summon: Shiva is our first look at another new mechanic: saga creatures. So you get both the effects of the saga and a creature to attack and block with. The only downside is that you do sacrifice the saga like normal after putting the last lore counter on it, so you really only get one turn to attack with it on chapter two.
This is a really interesting design space and I can’t wait to see what they do with it, like will they create one that has haste, or one with many chapters so you have more chances to attack and block with it?
Summon: Shiva itself is mostly a limited card, because five mana for a 4/5 creature that locks down an opposing creature isn’t usually going to make the cut. Although perhaps in Dimir Tempo decks, locking down two opposing creatures and drawing some cards along with the 4/5 body could be something they want access to.
Cecil, Dark Knight
Wow Cecil, Dark Knight seems powerful in the right deck. A 2/3 Deathtouch for one mana is really strong, as it can attack or block into anything, but it does come with a condition. Whenever Cecil does damage you lose that much life, however, once you get down to 10 or less life, he flips and gives you a 4/4 lifelink that can make your other attacking creatures indestructible.
In a black aggro deck Cecil can come down and start attacking, lowering both your life total and your opponent’s, and then once you get low enough it flips into a powerful must answer threat that can regain some of that life back.
There are a couple of possible synergies in Standard with this card. The first is The Last Ride which wants you to get your life total low so it can attack as a big vehicle. Once you get low you can use Cecil to crew it so you are no long lowering your life total by attacking with him.
The other synergy could involve a card like Lunar Convocation, which wants you to both lose and gain life on your turn, and attacking with Cecil and then using a lifelink creature or other cheap way to gain life, you can meet that condition and trigger Lunar Convocation.
Powerful or interesting one drops are always going to be contenders to see play, and one as sweet as Cecil is one I will definitely be trying out.
Tonberry
Tonberry is another interesting one drop. You can’t attack with it on turn two, thanks to that stun counter, but once you can attack with it, it is always going to get in for damage or eat a blocker.
First strike and deathtouch is a very powerful combination, because unless your opponent has a creature with first strike, this creature will always win combat. To kill this, you have triple block, and you’ll still lose two creatures.
This type of creature is going to be nice if you are trying to do something like get max speed, since your opponent is not going to want to block it, or if you are trying to consistently trigger raid or some mechanic that cares about your opponent losing life.
Obviously Tonberry is bad on defense, and I would think of it similarly to a creature that cannot block like Forsaken Miner as it is such a bad top deck.
Jumbo Cactuar
Jumbo Cactuar is just a classic fun silly card. 10,000 power is a very large number, and there are very silly ways to kill your opponent with that.
While Jumbo Cactuar does not have trample, you can easily grant it trample with a card like Monstrous Rage, or use the adventure from Callous Sell-Sword in Standard or Thud in Pioneer to shoot that power at your opponent.
At seven mana, unless you are cheating this into play, it likely isn’t going to be worth going for in Standard, but maybe there will be some silly way to get into play early and then one shot your opponent.
Regardless, what a silly and fun card that really captures the magic of Magic.
Sazh’s Chocobo
Sazh’s Chocobo is a straightforward creature, but by turn four it can be a serious threat. Throw in some lands like Fabled Passage and you could be attacking with a 4/5 on turn four.
I think this little guy is comparable to a card like Evolving Adaptive, which is likely to grow by one each turn as well.
If this thing started as a 1/1 it would be a real contender for Standard, but as a 0/1 it might be just a little bit too slow, as attacking for one versus attacking for two on turn two is a big difference.
Emet-Selch, Unsundered
Emet-Selch, Unsundered is a good card on rate, that can easily flip just by playing a normal game, but can flip very quickly with a bit of building around.
A 2/4 Vigilance that loots when it enters and attacks, is totally fine for a three drop, as he will be able to both attack and block profitably in most parts of the game. In most games of magic, you can pretty effortlessly flip Emet-Selch just by casting removal spells, playing creatures, and using his loot ability.
However, with a bit of building around, such as self-mill, or more ways to draw and discard like Kiora, the Rising Tide, you can quickly flip Emet-Selch and then the real party starts.
A 6/6 Vigilance is a powerful creature to both attack and block with, but then getting to play cards from your graveyard is going to quickly take over the mid and late game with all that value.
Yes it does cut off future plays from the graveyard as all of your cards will get exiled instead of going there, but by the time you have that many cards in the graveyard you are going to have plenty of fuel for the flames.
It is possible that Dimir Midrange could want this card as a solid early play that takes over the mid to late game, but I like the potential build around aspect of the card as well.
Sephiroth, Planet’s Heir
Sephiroth, Planet’s Heir is a sweet reanimation target, sweeping out your opponent’s small creatures and growing large in the process.
While you could reasonable just work your way up to six mana and cast Sephiroth, right now Harvester of Misery is doing the same thing for one less mana and with the early game flexibility, and honestly Harvester of Misery is a better reanimation target since it has a built in way to discard.
So I kind of think that Sephiroth is just going to be beat out by Harvester of Misery for the foreseeable future, but perhaps it can find a home as a big finisher in a control deck, as vigilance makes it great on both offence and defense, helping you close out the game before your opponent can rebuild their board.
Garland, Knight of Cornelia
Garland, Knight of Cornelia is a nice aggressive two drop as a 3/2, with a nice built in ability that adds a boost to your noncreature spells. In a Rakdos midrange deck, this adds some nice value to your removal spells, helping you find what you need, and fill up the graveyard.
The other ability is very unlikely to come up in most games, but having the ability to turn your early play into a 5/5 with flying in the late is going to win some games that go long.
I’m not sure that Garland has a home in Standard right now, but you never know how Standard is going to evolve, so we’ll see where he lands.
Cloud, Planet’s Champion
Cloud, Planet’s Champion is a nice top end for an equipment deck and can easily win the game the turn you play him.
There is a ton of support for equipment decks in Standard right now, and solid equipments to attach to Cloud. To start, any equipment that has an equip cost of two or less is free to equip on to him. If we have a Bladehold War-Whip in play, to reduce our equip cost by one, then we can also equip cards that has an equip cost of three to Cloud.
So the key is to have a Lavaspur Boots in play to give Cloud haste, and then just go to town equipping other various equipments, and using that double strike that Cloud will naturally gain to kill your opponent in one swing.
I feel like equipment decks have been close to being there for several sets, and the addition of Leyline Axe from Foundations has gotten us closer than ever to it being a real contender in the format. With Cloud now giving us a way to one shot our opponent in the mid to late game, the deck should be more powerful than ever.
Sin, Spira’s Punishment
Sin, Spira’s Punishment is a powerful top end card or a fun reanimator target, giving you a lot of value and tons of combo potential.
The key to playing a card like Sin, is curating your graveyard so that you are reducing the randomness of the effect, and hitting specific cards that you want. For example, if you have a way to discard Sin and Omniscience, then when you reanimate Sin on turn four with Zombify, the only permanent in your graveyard will be Omniscience, giving you a token of the powerful enchantment and letting you combo off from there.
This can be difficult to do, because magic happens and maybe you’ve milled over some other permanent cards, but the nice thing is that if you hit a land you get to repeat the process. So maybe you can build a deck where your only nonland permanents are Sin and Omniscience to guarantee that you aren’t missing.
It could also just be a sweet top end to a Sultai midrange deck, giving you good value in the late game.
Wrapping Up
Final Fantasy is a huge franchise that spans across tons of games and is beloved by tons of fans. It is going to be a very exciting set and I’m glad that we got a nice little sneak peek to let us know what is coming up.
Until then though, I am more excited for the upcoming return to Tarkir, one of my favorite planes, and I’m sure that we will get some sneak peaks this weekend during the pro tour. So take some time to check out the Pro Tour, catch some standard decks and maybe some new cards.
As always, best of luck in all of your matches and I’ll see you next week.
