Metagame: Final Fantasy's First Week on Competitive Events

Final Fantasy is here, and the first competitive tournaments featuring the collaboration between Magic: The Gathering and Square Enix took place this weekend, mainly in the Magic Online's Challenges.

This week's events precede the Pro Tour Final Fantasy, which takes place in Las Vegas between June 20 and 22, in Standard and Limited formats, and give us the first impressions of what we can expect from the competitive scene of the event and the potential changes that the first Universes Beyond collaboration to arrive in Standard brings.

Below, we present the main results and highlights of this weekend's Challenges, with which decks Final Fantasy delivered new cards, and what new strategies or techs the set offered.

Vivi Ornitier and Astrologian’s Planisphere were the big highlights of Standard in the Challenges over the weekend, and for a clear reason: Izzet Prowess is the best deck in the format and both cards served to further solidify the archetype’s position in the events leading up to the Pro Tour.

While Planisphere didn't see much play in decklists — Cori-Steel Cutter is a better piece of equipment — Vivi Ornitier has held its own with at least two copies in most lists, where its extra mana is used to level up Stormchaser's Talent or pay the high cost of Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna, providing a steady source of card advantage.

The addition of another enchantment has also increased the amount of This Town Ain't Big Enough in these decks, creating a pseudo-Bounce theme with Talent and Furnace, which also works to protect Vivi Ornitier.

Jund is back! Not quite Jund in terms of color combination, but the classic Modern archetype's shell of cheap threats and answers combined with Dark Confidant has been given new life in Standard with Mono Black and Golgari versions.

In both cases, the lists follow the line of using targeted removals and Cecil, Dark Knight as the closest thing we have to Tarmogoyf with several two-for-one effects to force poor trades for the opponent, whether with Preacher of the Schism and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor in Mono Black, or with Glissa Sunslayer and Liliana of the Veil in Golgari.

Cecil, Dark Knight has also gained slots in Dimir Midrange lists, with numbers ranging from one to three copies. Apparently, the predominance of Prowess and Red Aggro does not reduce Cecil's viability, but increases his potential to transform and hold games as early as the third turn.

Speaking of Red Aggro, these did not have major additions with Final Fantasy, but Opera Love Song has been tested as a complement to Questing Druid, or even as a direct replacement in Mono Red lists, since the card offers more breathing room in long games while interacting with the mice package.

Gruul Delirium gained Summon: Brynhildr as another card with two types that offers some value when it comes into play while, in a list where creatures don't have native Haste, it helps to increase the pressure that the archetype offers in slower games.

Terra, Magical Adept was another new card to the archetype. In addition to putting five cards in the graveyard, it recovers Fear of Missing Out and Summon: Brynhildr, or even Dredger's Insight in lists that still run the enchantment.

Yuna, Hope of Spira created a huge hype in the early days of Final Fantasy on Magic Arena, but it didn't convert it into significant results in Challenges. A list featuring her running Virtue of Persistence and Duskmourn Overlords made the Top 16 at an independent event over the weekend.

At the same event, Yuna was used as a complement to Zur, Eternal Schemer in Domain Overlords — a setup for what, after rotation, could become the archetype's base without the main card in the list today.

Dark Confidant was ostensibly played in the Rakdos Prowess' Sideboard as the new tool for longer games. It remains to be seen whether it will be more effective than other options in those slots, such as Urabrask's Forge or even Cori-Steel Cutter and Opera Love Song.

One of the best decks of last season's Standard, Esper Legends gained several new tools with Final Fantasy, with the two main ones being Cecil, Dark Knight and Dark Confidant, bringing it back to Pioneer. Additionally, Starting Town offers an excellent mana fix for three-color lists, being less damaging than Mana Confluence by generating colorless without paying life.

Terra, Magical Adept also has found a home in Pioneer’s Enigmatic Incarnation Domain decks. Unlike Gruul Delirium in Standard, this version makes the most of Final Fantasy VI’s protagonist by transforming her, allowing her to copy Overlords or any other enchantment.

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant has become Greasefang, Okiba Boss’s new best buddy, offering the same qualities as Tersa Lightshatter, but with a more resilient body in exchange for Haste and an activated ability that, if it reaches the third chapter, can bring a player back to a previously lost game while reusing the card’s ETB to discard more artifacts.

Speaking of reanimation, Boros Monument has been experimenting with combining its discard-to-value game plan with Abuelo’s Awakening and Summon: Knights of Round for a combo. Monument to Endurance even seems to be giving birth to a new Orzhov Greasefang deck, but since it doesn’t have any Final Fantasy cards, we’ll cover it in another article.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER appeared in a Top 32 Challenges list with Rally the Ancestors and the famous Aristocrats base. Personally, it doesn’t seem like the most famous RPG villain really does anything innovative in this list, much less adds anything it didn’t already have with Zulaport Cutthroat, and the deck didn’t make very impressive results.

The villain also starred in one of the winning decks of the weekend's Challenges, Rakdos Sacrifice, where he joined Mayhem Devil in a variant that forgoes the combo with Ygra, Eater of All in favor of a more targeted plan, focused on attrition games.

A Five-Color Humans list was also in the Top 16 of the same event, with Dark Confidant and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER in the same list, added to Cecil, Dark Knight and the already known Humans structure, with Thalia's Lieutenant and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar.

Vivi Ornitier seems to be the new win condition for Izzet Lotus Field, the archetype that used the card the most in Pioneer and almost tied with Standard's Izzet Prowess in terms of numbers over the weekend. In addition to the extra mana, the fact that it deals damage to the opponent with each spell played makes it the ideal card to win games in a list that, at other times, tried to loop with Lightning Strike to get the same result.

An Izzet Prowess list with Vivi was also in one of the Challenges and got a good result, but the impression is still that Arclight Phoenix does a better job of being a Tempo deck in this color combination.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER has been a consistent addition to Mardu Energy lists in both Challenges and Leagues. The FFVII villain provides a recurring card advantage tool with Ocelot Pride while benefiting from Goblin Bombardment to trigger his transformation on the same turn he enters — with that done, Sephiroth is capable of winning the game on his own between his 5/5 Flying body and the ability to sacrifice multiple creatures to drain opponents' life while drawing multiple cards.

All signs point to him being a Mardu Energy staple in the coming months.

Several Boros Energy lists in both Leagues and Challenges have experimented with Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant in some slot, either in place of Seasoned Pyromancer, or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, or even as part of other flexible slots in the archetype. Its biggest draw is the potential to revive a combination of Guide of Souls, Ocelot Pride, and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah with a single card that also acts as a threat in attrition matches.

Lightning, Army of One has also shown up as a one-of or two-of in some Boros Energy lists, but all of them have been 5-0 in Leagues rather than Challenges.

Cecil, Dark Knight did have some presence in one of the Orzhov Blink lists, which seems more like a testing slot than something that will be the archetype's standard at the moment. Cecil interacts with Ketramose and the Fetch Lands for the necessary life loss and offers a way to be aggressive while protecting the other attacking creatures, in addition to compensating for the life loss of Ketramose, the New Dawn once he transforms.

One addition that is definitely here to stay is The Wandering Minstrel in Amulet Titan as a one-of to fetch with Summoner's Pact or Green Sun's Zenith. The advantage of Minstrel is that it has the same passive ability as Spelunking — a staple of the deck today — in a slot that can be found by other cards, increasing the consistency in generating extra mana with Bounce Lands.

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo has appeared in some Boros Hammer Time lists to complement Puresteel Paladin and Sigarda’s Aid in bypassing mana costs, or to serve as the perfect target for Colossus Hammer, since his Ward ability becomes a virtual-Hexproof when the opponent needs to pay 12 or more life to get rid of it.

Vivi Ornitier has teamed up with Emry, Lurker of the Loch to replicate the loops once made with Underworld Breach. A relevant detail of this variant is that Repeal works as a free spell to return a Mox from the battlefield to the hand, but we can use it with enough mana to return and play Vivi again, allowing us to reuse its ability, since it is a new object on the board.

Astrologian’s Planisphere was the most played Final Fantasy card in Legacy, but with few results in Challenges: the competition for these slots in the format is very high, especially in Delver decks, and while the Leagues showed good results with the artifact, they were not even used or appeared in the Top 32 of the weekend's events.

On the other hand, Izzet Painter takes advantage of Planisphere with Flame of Anor to guarantee more attrition tools and an alternative victory condition for a deck mostly focused on artifacts and non-creature spells.

Cecil, Dark Knight and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER also made a few results in Legacy, but with limited appearances. Most notably, in a list of Rakdos Evoke without Grief, Cecil benefits from the life loss of reanimating an Oliphaunt or Fury, while Sephiroth interacts with Broadside Bombardiers to quickly enable the emblem and turn each creature into a Lightning Bolt.

Jumbo Cactuar, yes, Jumbo Cactuar works in Legacy. Apparently, there are situations where the best you can do is use Entomb for a giant cactus and reanimate it with Shallow Grave for a 10,000 damage hit-kill.

Black Mage’s Rod seems to be the hottest Final Fantasy card for Pauper, and it popped up in several archetypes in Leagues this week. One of them was Golgari Pactdoll, where the increased artifact pool opened up the possibility of running Bleak Coven Vampires as a pseudo-Siege Rhino — and we haven’t seen this kind of thing in the format in over a decade.

The artifact was so effective in the format that it even made its way into Affinity, where it benefits from the wide range of noncreature spells while providing more fodder for cards with Affinity or Reckoner’s Bargain.

White Weenie ran Summon: Choco/Mog in one of the events as an extra threat that increases, for a few turns, the power of all your creatures, being the closest we have to a “lord” creature in Pauper.

As expected, Town Greeter went straight into Dredge to increase the archetype's consistency in putting cards in the graveyard. The addition, however, doesn't seem to have boosted its results in Challenges much.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!