Standard: 5 Decks with Final Fantasy to try out!

Final Fantasy is coming, and with it, several new possibilities for strategies and cards arrive in Standard in the first Universes Beyond set to be legal on the format.

Despite the difficulties that some cards may encounter in the current Metagame, others are pretty strong by themselves or have good interactions in Standard to establish archetypes. In this article, we present five decklists focused on Final Fantasy cards that may be worth testing in the first week.

Lightning Mice

Lightning, Army of One is one of the strongest cards for Aggro decks in Final Fantasy, whether they are go wide like Jeskai Convoke or Soldiers, or go big like Prowess decks.

In this list, we've mixed it with the usual mice package and traded pumps and excessive protection for more board interaction that can be used on the opponent's life; a conscious and intentional choice as Lightning doubles any damage when she deals combat damage to the player, so Lightning Helix now deals six, while Boros Charm deals eight, not counting the Prowess triggers from Emberheart Challenger.

Opera Love Song, another addition to the set, offers a way to increase the power and trigger the mice's Valiant while adding more reach and/or card advantage in longer games. Its pump also interacts with Lightning to pull her combat damage. In addition, Seifer Almasy functions as the fifth copy of Manifold Mouse, and when attacking alone, if accompanied by Monstrous Rage, he can reuse any spell from the graveyard without paying mana costs when dealing combat damage, making it a lethal threat in longer games.

Orzhov Sephiroth Sacrifice

The best shell for Sacrifice decks today are Raise the Past lists with Bartolomé Del Presídio and creatures with a mana value of two or less. Despite not fitting the mana cost to be reanimated, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER offers everything this archetype needs: an extra threat to gain life, a means of gaining recurring card advantage, and, with the ease we have of transforming him, a win condition that cannot be removed by conventional means.

To capitalize on his triggers, we also have Voice of Victory. Since Mobilize requires tokens to be sacrificed at the end of the turn, Voice guarantees two triggers for Sephiroth in combat, and if we attack with him, we can also sacrifice another creature for the third trigger, being one removal or another activation away from creating an emblem.

This also seems like one of the best homes for Dark Confidant in Standard currently: the mana costs are mostly low, it can be reanimated with Raise the Past to generate card advantage in the long run, and if we need to, we can sacrifice it at any time with Zahur, Glory's Past or Bartolomé del Presídio.

Yuna Reanimator

Yuna, Hope of Spira offers a good reanimation effect that interacts mostly with the new Creature Sagas from Final Fantasy, but also with the Overlords cycle from Duskmourn. In this list, we tried to team her up with Zombify as a way to create a Reanimator in the style of Greasefang, Okiba Boss in Pioneer.

For targets, we prioritize Summon: Knights of Round and Summon: Bahamut in a 3-1 split. Knights of Round is the preferred target since it has indestructible and puts more pressure on the board each turn it is in play. Bahamut, on the other hand, offers board interaction and will likely win the game if it reaches the last chapter.

In addition to these, we also focused on Overlord of the Mistmoors as another reanimation target with an immediate impact on the board, and Overlord of the Hauntwoods as a Ramp and threat. It is worth remembering that Yuna offers Lifelink, Trample and Ward 2 for enchantment creatures.

Although this shell is an option today, I believe that Domain Overlords ends up doing everything this deck wants with less effort. Perhaps it will be a more appropriate option for Standard after rotation.

Mardu Aggro

This list tries to utilize a wide range of Final Fantasy cards while replicating the patterns we used to see in decks like Jund or Abzan Midrange in Modern when Dark Confidant was one of the best cards in the format: reducing mana cost and focusing on one-for-one trade efficiency while generating card advantage and pressure with cheap threats.

The Mardu choice can be replaced by any third color, or even a two-color mana base, but the addition of guarantees cheap removals like Torch the Tower and answers to Cori-Steel Cutter with Abrade, not to mention that Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant works considerably better in this list than in Aggro versions when we want to make the most of its two sides.

Tifa Leyline Stompy

Tifa Lockhart has one of the most explosive abilities in Final Fantasy and interacts with Fabled Passage and other “Fetch Lands” to double her power twice. Combined with Wild Ride or any other pump, or two that give three power, it is easy, with a Passage, to reach up to 28 damage with Trample as early as the third turn, making it an ideal card for Leyline of Resonance decks.

I don’t know if we really need Fabled Passage in a deck that, naturally, doesn’t want many lands, but we focus on this version to maximize Tifa’s explosive potential to win games. Additionally, we also focused on including Questing Druid instead of Cacophony Scamp to have more traction, since Tifa sometimes requires a prior setup to work.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!