Final Fantasy Spoiler Review – Standard and Alchemy

Hey all. Final Fantasy spoiler season is nearly over, and since my first spoiler review after the debut, we’ve gotten a lot of sweet cards to take a look at.

Final Fantasy is kind of in a weird spot as a set. First, it is the last set before rotation, so it will always be harder for cards from that set to see play just because there are already so many good cards and established strategies in the format.

Second, Standard, and Alchemy, are both in a very powerful state right now, and fast aggro decks are warping the formats around them. With bans unlikely, the cards from this set will have to keep competeing against those aggresive powerhouses even after rotation.

Lastly, the set seems to be somewhat powered down compared to sets like Bloomburrow and Duskmourn, which will be a good thing in the long run but might impacts its ability to make an impact on the format in the immediate future.

All that is to say, while there are a ton of sweet cards that I am going to cover today, and even more sweet cards that I am not going to cover, the competitive viability of most of these cards is going to be non-existent when the set comes out.

What we are mostly going to be looking for are cards that can upgrade existing decks, making them more efficient or more flexible.

But it’s my article, so I’m going to cover cards that I can’t wait to brew around as well as cards that I think will have an impact on the format. So let’s dive in!

Ambrosia Whiteheart

Every now and then, Wizards falls in love with a design and they print it in every set. So here we have this set’s white two drop with flash that can bounce a permanent you control to your hand, Sunpearl Kirin eat your heart out.

So really this card is just for players playing Orzhov or Esper Pixie that decide they want more copies of this effect. This card is slightly worse than Sunpearl Kirin, because it doesn’t have flying and is legendary so drawing multiple copies can be awkward.

But if you really want a 5th or 6th copy of Sunpearl Kirin, maybe because you think the flash is very valuable, then you can easily slot Ambrosia Whiteheart into your deck.

It is also a bird, so if you are building a bird typal deck then you could include Ambrosia Whiteheart as well.

Battle Menu

Battle Menu is some awesome flavor and some awesome flexibility.

Two mana instant speed for a 2/2 knight is the adventure side of Virtue of Loyalty, and instant speed creatures are very powerful as unexpected blockers, or as an unexpected attacker on the following turn.

Normally +0/+4 for two mana would be stone unplayable even in limited, but because of the flexibility here there will be times where you choose to save your creature from a Torch the Towerso it can live on to block.

Destroying a creature with power 4 or greater for two mana is par for the course, and this mode plus the 2/2 knight mode are the real bread and butter of this card.

Lastly, gaining 4 life in a pinch can save you from certain death.

If this card was just a split between making the 2/2 knight and destroying the creature with power 4 or greater I would be pretty happy, but with those extra modes tacked on, even if they won’t come up very often, this card is a great card that could see play in maindecks or sideboards.

Dion, Bahamut’s Dominant

A four drop? In my Standard/Alchemy format? Yes, I think this card has the chops to get there in these formats (or at least be fun and then put up on the shelf after dying to Cori-Steel Cutter and friends many times).

Four mana for a 3/3 and a 2/2 is great rate, because even if they kill Dion, Bahamut’s Dominant you are still left with a 2/2 in play, giving you some card advantage in that exchange. Dion also grants flying to your knights on your turn, so it at least attacks for 5 flying the following turn but could even come down and send your team of knights in for lethal in the right deck.

If you ever flip Dion, you are going to get two turns of pumping up your whole board and giving them flying, which should be lethal if you have a few other creatures in play, and if that doesn’t finish the job you can take out their more problematic permanent and start all over again.

We’ve seen Elspeth, Storm Slayer be a powerful threat because not only does it stabilize the board by making two blockers, but sends your team to the skies to swing in for lethal, and Dion is giving me similar vibes.

I’m not sure which deck wants this, so it might have to wait until after rotation to see play, but I will be trying Dion out in dedicated knight decks and other white midrange decks.

Summon: Knights of Round

Speaking of Knights, Summon: Knights of Round is a huge bomb worth cheating into play, and we have a few ways to do it in Standard/Alchemy.

At eight mana, casting this card is certainly out of the question in most games, but I think this does something that other cheating-in cards don’t do. The other cards that get cheated into play are cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier for the card advantage and big lifelink blocker, Portal to Phyrexia for wiping out a few creatures, Valgavoth to take over the game, and in Alchemy Saint Elenda to also stabilize the board.

The thing is, if you are reanimating or cheating in to play and need to stabilize the board, those big lifelink blockers might sound nice, but one removal spell and you are back to being dead. Summon: Knights of Round gives you four blockers to use, and if you use up those blockers you get three more the following turn, and the next turn, and the next turn, and then you get to pump everything up and hopefully swing for lethal.

So this thing is great at stabilizing the board and leaving enough afterwards to pressure the opponent. It won’t always be the best option, but if you are trying to cheat things into play, you’ve got to consider this as an option.

You could reanimate it with Zombify, or get it into play with Kona, Rescue Beastie or Summoner’s Grimoire.

Ultima

Ultima is just another board wipe in a format filled with them, but what I like about it is that against Cori-Steel Cutter decks it cleans out all the monk tokens as well as the cutters themselves, so you can have a bit of breathing room that other wraths don’t give you.

While Temporary Lockdown will still be the cheapest and cleanest answer against those cards, one Into the Flood Maw and they are back in business. Ultima answer those cards for good, hopefully buying you some time to set up your defenses or own game plan.

The end the turn part of this card can also be quite good, because it stops any death triggers that your opponent’s creatures or artifacts might have.

Ultima might have to wait until Sunfall rotates to have a chance, but I think its unique ability to take out Cori-Steel Cutter gives it a shot before then.

Stolen Uniform

Stolen Uniform has some confusing wording, but it basically says, “attach target equipment to a creature you control.”

Stolen Uniform gets a shout out because it could give life to some equipment combo kills in Standard. There are several powerful equipment in Standard/Alchemy that aren’t really viable because their equip costs are too high, or you get easily blown out by a removal spell once you try to equip it.

Stolen Uniform can get around both of those things, by getting around that expensive equip cost or moving equipment around at instant speed.

This set gave us several big powerful equipment and there are already some good ones in the format, so I can’t wait to brew with this one.

The Water Crystal

We have to try to make mill happen. The Water Crystal discounts all of your blue spells, but also adds on an extra four cards for each of your mill effects. It can also activate to mill some extra cards itself.

This card is best with small mill effects that might not be threatening on their own but with that extra four cards get quite scary.

My first thought with this card is to combine it with Glacierwood Siege and everytime you cast an instant or sorcery spell you’ll be milling them for eight cards, not four. You could cast just five or six spells and mill your opponent out from there.

You have to survive to get to this point, but if you do you can kill very quickly with it. So I can’t wait to try to build it and mill out some opponents in Standard.

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo is another sweet card for equipment decks trying to cheat equipment onto your creatures.

Like I said when discussing Stolen Uniform, there are a lot of powerful equipment that are just too expensive to equip, especially at sorcery speed, but Raubahn lets you get around that by just attacking to put the equipment on.

The ward on Raubahn means that if you get a power boosting equipment on him it will be very painful for your opponent to remove, helping you close out the game.

I think that Raubahn, when combined with existing equipment pay off cards in the format, could be a fun card that helps get around the awkwardness that comes with equipment. I am excited to try him with cards like Cloud, Midgar Mercenary, and Kellan, the Fae Blooded to search up our powerful equipment and then get them attached nice and easy.

Summon: Titan

Summon: Titan can be an easy path to lethal. Its first ability helps set up its second ability, and with other self-mill you can get even more lands back into play, and its last ability can easily pump up a creature with +10/+10 and trample, giving you a game ending threat.

You only get one hit with Summon: Titan itself, but that 7/7 with trample can nicely set up your big shot the following turn.

There isn’t a current deck for this card, but there are a lot of great tools in the format for this card, and I think it could be a fun finisher in a self-mill deck or some sort of land combo deck using cards like Aftermath Analystand/or landfall effects.

Choco, Seeker of Paradise

Choco, Seeker of Paradise is a sweet payoff for a birds deck, and I think that Azorius Birds in Alchemy could try going Bant to include it.

Choco makes an impact the turn you play, letting you attack and get to look at two or three cards, depending on how many other birds you had in play, put one into your hand, and any lands into play.

On the turns that Choco attacks, all of those lands are going to trigger its landfall ability to pump up Choco until end of turn.

The card advantage plus ramp makes this a great payoff for a more midrange build of a birds deck, and we also got Traveling Chocobo in the set, so I think a Bant build of the deck will be a lot of fun and a lot of value.

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant is a nice upgrade/side-grade for Jeskai Oculus decks, giving them more options for getting Abhorrent Oculusinto the graveyard, and presenting a nice plan b when your graveyard gets taken out.

While Tersa Lightshatter is nice with its haste, Joshua gives you an extra point of toughness to block with, and when you get to five mana you can flip him to deal some damage to the opponent, gain some life thanks to lifelink, and then return any creatures in your yard to play.

So I really like Joshua in the Jeskai Oculus deck. It does everything the decks wants from serving as a discard outlet, to stabilizing the board, to reanimating Abhorrent Oculusitself.

I think there is some debate to be had about when you want Tersa Lightshatter and when you want Joshua, but I love having back up plans, and Joshua is powerful one to have.

Buster Sword

Buster Sword is a sweet equipment that is similar to a sword of x and y, (think Sword of Forge and Frontier in Standard) both with its casting cost, equip cost, and effect.

Buster Sword gives you some nice card advantage, and you can easily be casting five or six drops from your hand without paying their mana cost.

If I was going to play this in Standard, it would be in a deck with Raubahn, so you aren’t worrying about that equip 2, and if you curve Raubahn into Buster Sword, you can attack, hit for five, and cast something from your hand for free, giving you a huge board presence.

Equipment like this are usually too clunky for Standard, but with free equip costs I could see this being a fun inclusion in an equipment deck.

Ishgard, the Holy See

We got the rest of our cycle of tapped lands with adventures, so let’s break them down starting with the white one.

Ishgard, the Holy See only works in a deck with artifacts and/or enchantments, but if you are a deck trying to make use of either of those permanent types, Ishgard is a fine inclusion.

Midgar, City of Mako

Midgar, City of Mako is a fine inclusion in a sacrifice deck. Although three mana and sorcery speed is not nearly as powerful as a card like Deadly Dispute, this gives you a way to get an extra sacrifice outlet or two into the deck and cheat on your land count a little bit.

I am excited to try sacrifice thanks to the printing of Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier, and I will be including at least one or two copies of Midgar, City of Mako in those lists.

Lindblum, Industrial Regency

Wrapping up the cycle, we have Lindblum, Industrial Regency, which can make an instant speed chump blocker, or a nice little threat.

That 0/1 token is great for a spell slinger deck, as it can easily add an extra 5-6 damage over a couple of turns, but even if you aren’t a dedicated spells deck, you could still consider playing a copy or two of Lindblum just for the instant speed blocker/threat.

I think this one is the best of the cycle, just because it is cheap, instant speed, and doesn’t need any other synergies to just be a decent card.

Wrapping Up

There are so many cool cards in this set, and I am very excited to brew with them. That said, I am worried that these cards just aren’t powerful enough to make it in our current Standard/Alchemy formats that are so fast and brutal.

It is possible that after rotation (and a ban or two) that Standard and Alchemy slow down and we can see some of these slower and synergistic cards see play, so if that day comes a lot of these cards can shine.

Regardless, I’ll be back next week after all the set has been spoiled to go over some sweet new brews for both Standard and Alchemy.

Until then, best of luck in all of your matches!