Commander Deck Tech: Vivi Ornitier

Ever since the first cards from Final Fantasy were revealed, Vivi Ornitier stood out.

Some were Vivi fans since FF IX, others planned to build decks around it and upgrade them. Whatever the case, this card was undeniably the talk of the town when it came out.

In this article, we'll show you two Vivi lists for casual Commander pods. The first one will focus on small spells and is a traditional spellslinger list, but the second one will focus on artifacts.

Are you ready to live this adventure with this Wizard by your side?

For just three mana, Vivi will conquer your heart (and make your opponents hate you).

Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, Vivi gets a +1/+1 counter and deals 1 damage to each opponent.

Please note that this ability won't trigger when you copy spells with Storm.

Furthermore, its activated ability also costs 0 and lets you create Izzet mana equal to its power. You can only use this ability once per turn.

As we mentioned before, our main list focuses on instants and sorceries, particularly cheap ones.

With them, you'll buff your commander, attack your opponents, and create even more mana with its ability.

Frustrating Opponents

For better or worse, Vivi scares many players. And that's not without reason!

Izzet has a lot of potential for explosive turns that, many times, win games. This little Wizard can get a lot from this type of strategy.

That's why we need spells that "frustrate opponents".

Here are a few removals, blinks, and board wipes that will protect you or just delay your opponents' game plans.

Yes, we do play a Grapeshot!

Storm might not trigger Vivi, but it is still incredibly strong and can often win games. For this reason, we included both this spell and Thousand-Year Storm in this deck.

We must also highlight Aetherize, which always frustrates enemy attacks (particularly against token decks), and Ghostly Flicker, which you can use to blink Vivi itself to protect it from removals. Or to just use its effect again that turn.

Rocks and Spells to Create More Mana

Izzet isn't known for drawing lands from the deck, but, luckily for us and Vivi, this list plays artifacts and spells that untap lands or add mana to the pool.

Keep in mind that Vivi itself can create a lot of mana each turn!

Of course this list plays Storm-Kiln Artist. This Dwarf Shaman gets +1/+0 for each artifact you control, and, when you copy or cast an instant or sorcery, it creates a Treasure you can then use to ramp.

With Harmonic Prodigy or Veyran, Voice of Duality in play, you can trigger both its effect and Vivi's effect twice.

Card Draw

One of the most important things for a Wizard is having access to their book of spells. That's why we added many ways to draw cards to this list. With them, you'll draw the best spells possible to help Vivi.

If you enchant Niv-Mizzet, Parun with Curiosity or Ophidian Eye, you'll be able to deal a lot of damage to the board and draw lots of cards. But, even by themselves, these cards are interesting in this deck and will bring you a lot of value.

Damage

Burn cards (that is, cards that deal damage directly to the opponent's life or to a specific target) are a way to speed up the game.

After all, Vivi will deal one damage for each spell you cast, but you can always use more cards with this same effect.

Besides these cards, we added some that also deal burn damage by themselves:

In this list, we explored the wonderful world of Artifact Izzet. The two lists share some spells, like Harmonic Prodigy, but we also added cards like Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter, Hullbreaker Horror, and Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant. They will make your opponents incredibly sad, as it often happens in Commander pods.

We also added some Stax pieces to disrupt your opponents:

Our main list above leaned heavily into cheap spells, but this alternative list focuses on artifacts. Here are a few of them:

If you want to build a list around Vivi but don't want to build another spellslinger list, this version could be more fun.

There is a good reason why Vivi is so charming. This commander is strong, which, by itself, is already great, but it also needs a whole deck to work. And that's what many players love about Commander.

You don't always have to build a deck around a commander. But, when you manage to build a list that works practically by itself and the commander is only the icing on the cake that makes everything better and leads you closer to victory, then you know you did something right.

This small Wizard might not be friendly for beginners, but if you have it, I highly recommend you try playing it in a casual Commander pod at least once.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!