The release of MTG Final Fantasy may not be happening for another few months, but we’ve already got our first glimpse at what the set has to offer. A handful of sweet legends, including those in the Final Fantasy Starter Decks, have been revealed. Many of them look poised to make an impact in Commander at the very least.
While Emet-Selch, Unsundered seems to have garnered a lot of attention, it isn’t the only legendary creature that makes for a nice build-around. Today, we’re going to be showcasing a rather burly Leviathan and discussing some neat ways to maximize its triggered ability. This card may have an expensive mana cost, but it can completely take over the game in the right situation.
Maximizing Sin, Spira’s Punishment
Sin, Spira’s Punishment is a massive creature with evasion that provides value whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks. Even without putting in a ton of work, the card is decent as long as you have ways to get cards into your graveyard. In the Sultai color combination, this is as easy as pie.
The obvious downside is that the permanent that you get a copy of is randomized. If you focus on milling yourself with cards like Grisly Salvage, it’s possible you make a token copy of something cheap and don’t really get the biggest bang for your buck. This is somewhat minimized by the fact that randomly selecting lands lets you repeat the process. Still, it would be nice to have some more agency over what you get.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to go about abusing Sin, Spira’s Punishment. Perhaps the coolest way is to pair Sin with cards that reliably exile unwanted cards from your graveyard at will. Titan’s Nest and Earthrumbler are prime examples of awesome tools to utilize.
One avenue to abuse Titan’s Nest is to exile all nonland permanents from your graveyard. Then, you can cast Sin, or attack with Sin if it’s already in play. You’ll end up with token copies of every land in your graveyard as a result.
With enough self-mill effects and lands with potent abilities, such as Field of the Dead, you’ll gain an enormous advantage from this exchange. Throw in Amulet of Vigor, and you can use those lands right away.
On the flip side, you also have the option to use Titan’s Nest to leave one particular nonland permanent in your graveyard. Then, when Sin enters or attacks, you’re guaranteed to get a copy of that card. The card you leave in your graveyard could be as simple as a huge haymaker like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.
You could even set things up where Sin resurrects a missing combo piece this way. The world really is your oyster, and we’re just getting started.
Abusing Token Production
As we’ve showcased, Sin is an excellent ramp Commander as long as you put in the work. However, there are other cards like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods that can perform a similar task without forcing you to jump through hoops. If you really want to take advantage of Sin and flood the board with more permanents than you know what to do with, you want to incorporate token doublers.
Sin’s ability doesn’t just put the permanents you randomly select into play but rather gives you token copies. So, cards like Adrix and Nev, Twincasters make for elite additions to a Sin EDH deck.
Beyond Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, and Doubling Season all perform a similar task in Sultai. If you ever manage to get two of these effects out at once, a single Sin trigger will net you four token copies of each permanent you exile!
Additionally, effects that copy tokens make for elite inclusions in a Sin deck. Second Harvest goes hard as long as you have some powerful stuff to copy. Similarly, City of Death can net you upwards of five extra copies of your most powerful token. With any luck, your opponents will have a very difficult time keeping up with all of this value.
Additional Support Cards
The rest of your Sin, Spira’s Punishment deck should be made up of cards that fill a few different roles. First, you ideally need ways to cast Sin ahead of schedule. Generic ramp elements do the trick, while cards like Harrow that also put permanents in your graveyard are even better.
After that, you’ll want plenty of effects that fill your graveyard. Molt Tender and Malevolent Rumble are nice because they’re mill effects that simultaneously enable you to cast Sin early.
Other cards besides Sin that reward you for filling your graveyard, including Lumra and Aftermath Analyst, go a long way to keeping your game plan more consistent. Sin serves as your top-end finisher, but you’ll want other things to do in the interim.
Lastly, Lightning Greaves and other cheap haste enablers let you attack with Sin the turn you play it and get extra triggers. These cards make board wipes less devastating since you can follow up by recasting Sin, attacking, and generating a board presence once again.
Sin, Spira’s Punishment is a cool design that should play out really well in EDH. Don’t let its clunkiness fool you, it packs a huge punch.