Commander Deck Tech: Lightning, Army of One

They say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. With Lightning, Army of One as your commander, your opponents should pray this is true.

Final Fantasy gave Boros fans a new fun commander for their decks: Lightning.

In this article, we'll show you two lists with this commander. The first one is a classic Voltron list that leans on extra combats to kill opponents at lightning speed, and the second focuses on Goading creatures and forcing your opponents to fight each other.

Without further ado, let's see this incredible commander!

In the Final Fantasy universe, Lightning is Serah Farron's oldest sister (if you'd like to see more about her, click here!). She is a knight and protects Etro, the goddess. She also has a strong will.

Lightning is considered by many the second female main character in the Final Fantasy franchise. The first one was Terra, from Final Fantasy VI (if you'd like to see more about her, click here!).

In MTG, Lightning showed up as this Boros commander, a mono-red creature (Lightning, Security Sergeant), and as an Isshin, Two Heavens as One reprint named "Lightning, Lone Commando".

For this article, we'll use the Boros version. It's a perfect representation of how this pink-haired young lady is truly a one-person army. She has three incredibly valuable keywords (trample, lifelink, and first strike), doesn't cost much mana, and has a decent body for any attack early on.

Furthermore, when our dear Lightning deals combat damage to a player, her Stagger effect activates: "(...) until your next turn, if a source would deal damage to that player or a permanent that player controls, it deals double that damage instead."

In practice, if she deals damage to an opponent and you cast a Lightning Bolt on them, this spell will deal 6 damage instead of 3. This ability also stacks, so if Lightning has double strike and you use this spell, it will deal 12 damage to your opponent instead of 3.

That's why this commander will be at the center of incredibly fun (and slightly chaotic) Boros lists, particularly alongside extra combats, equipment, tokens, and even burn!

The sky is the limit!

Extra Combat

As we mentioned, this commander will be great in many strategies. The first list we'll show you is closer to a Voltron archetype because this theme is quite friendly to most players, beginners or veterans. To start, we'll add one of the most important elements for this strategy: extra combats.

This is everything we added to support the extra combat strategy. On the same turn, you'll be able to target multiple opponents with Lightning or focus on only one of them. If you decide to focus on someone in particular, you'll deal increasingly more damage each time you hit them.

Aggravated Assault is a great option. You can activate its effect more than once per turn if you have enough mana or if you deal damage with a creature equipped with Sword of Feast and Famine.

Aurelia, the Warleader and Karlach, Fury of Avernus both give you extra combats and shine in this list next to Lightning. Please note that, as Lightning has first strike, she deals damage before anyone else.

If Aurelia, the Warleader and Lightning are attacking, for instance, and Lightning manages to deal damage to an opponent, Aurelia will deal 6 damage instantly. In an extra combat phase, Karlach, Fury of Avernus gives first strike to all the creatures she untapped. That's why you must pay attention before using this ability, even though this creature is undeniably great in this strategy.

Many players forgot Freerunning dangerously fast. There are many valuable cards with this mechanic we should still keep in mind.

In this case, we added Overpowering Attack. We can cast this sorcery for a total of five mana, but if your commander deals combat damage to a player that same turn, you can pay just three mana as an alternative cost. It's essentially three mana for an extra combat and a main phase after it. Certainly whoever made this card was considering how helpful it would be in a Voltron list.

As for instant speed, we must highlight Great Train Heist, which we can use to buff our creatures by +1/+0 and to create Treasures as well.

Finally, last but not least, we also added Savage Beating. This card costs seven mana with Entwine, but it can certainly win the game for you in just one turn. Besides the extra combat, Savage Beating also gives double strike to all our creatures until the end of the turn.

Remember what we said earlier about Lightning having double strike? Yeah, it's worth it.

Buffs and Protection

Lightning will definitely stand out on your pod, and your opponents will definitely try to remove her. So, we need to figure out a way to protect her and make each of her attacks even deadlier.

Deathtouch and first strike are strong together, but trample makes everything a lot more dangerous. So, we had to add Basilisk Collar to this list.

Bruenor Battlehammer buffs all your creatures by +2/+0 for each equipment card on them. It also lets us equip cards to them for free. Meanwhile, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded is a tutor and also buffs your creatures, but by +1/+0 for each equipment card or aura on Kellan himself.

Sword of the Animist gets basic lands from our deck and puts them on our board. But if you can't find this card, no problem: The Reaver Cleaver will give you Treasures and Sword of Feast and Famine protects your commander from green and black. This equipment card also untaps your lands when the creature it is equipped to deals damage to a player.

Both of Halvar's sides are quite valuable in this deck. Try to figure out which one you need before playing it so you can get as much value from it as you can.

As Halvar, God of Battle, your equipped or enchanted creatures will have double strike, and, at the beginning of each combat, you will be able to attach an equipment or aura on your board to another creature you control. As Sword of the Realms, the creature you equip it to will have vigilance, +2/+0 and if it would die, it returns to your hand instead.

Shadowspear is a bit redundant for Lightning, as she already has trample and lifelink, but its ability, which lets you remove hexproof and indestructible from enemy permanents until the end of the turn, is unparalleled. Furthermore, you don't need much mana to cast it and equip it.

Boros Charm, Clever Concealment, and Flawless Maneuver are common protections in Commander decks, and quite efficient too.

Akiri, Fearless Voyager draws cards and also protects a creature you control if you remove the equipment card attached to it. When you do this, you'll make that creature indestructible until the end of the turn.

To protect a target from a certain color, you can play Sejiri Shelter and Mother of Runes. And to avoid disruption on your turn, you can play Grand Abolisher, which prevents opponents from activating abilities on artifacts, creatures, and enchantments and from casting spells when it's your turn.

Card Draw

As usual, we need card draw so we can move at a good pace and guarantee our victory.

As flavor, we added the Lightning, Security Sergeant version. Professional Face-Breaker, the Warrior, creates Treasures and lets us use them to exile the top cards in our deck and cast them on that turn.

Sram, Senior Edificer and Puresteel Paladin are two classic Voltron cards, and Paladin lets us equip our creatures for free.

Finally, this is our list:

For this alternative list, we wanted to lean heavily into dealing twice as much damage to a target opponent until our next turn. So, we added a very common Commander strategy: Goading creatures.

These two commanders from Universes Beyond are known for forcing creatures to fight, and now they're supporting Lightning!

We added Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos and Slicer, Hired Muscle as well as Khârn the Betrayer, Goblin Spymaster, and Grand Melee.

To make sure your opponents fight each other, we added Goad cards like:

This is definitely not the strongest list around, but it interacts a lot with your opponents' decks and should give you very unusual matches.

Lightning is already quite strong by herself. In fact, she forces your opponents to prepare their board to hang on when she does hit them instead of preparing themselves to stop her.

You can also build decks with her in many ways, so it's up to your tastes and your particular Commander pod.

Have you ever built a deck with her? Tell us all about it in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!