Since 2017, Magic: The Gathering players have been besotted with Colossal Dreadmaw. Despite being a humble 6/6 Trampler for six, it won players’ hearts by appearing in a ton of sets in a row, always at common. This led it to become a bit of a meme in the community, with Wizards itself making many references to the card over the years. Many never thought they’d see the day a strictly-better Colossal Dreadmaw was printed, but that day has come. Yesterday Balamb T-Rexaur, a card that fills this role exactly, was spoiled for MTG Final Fantasy.
This may sound like a joke, but a better Colossal Dreadmaw at common is actually a big deal for Limited. The extra abilities tacked on here may even give it legs in Commander, to boot. T-Rexaur tops off a great day of low-rarity spoilers for Final Fantasy, including a modal edict and a very, very good boy. If you’re looking forward to Final Fantasy Draft and Sealed more than constructed, then these cards will be right up your alley.
Balamb T-Rexaur MTG
- Mana Value: 4GG
- Rarity: Common
- Type: Creature – Dinosaur
- Stats: 6/6
- Card Text: Trample.
When this creature enters, you gain 3 life.
Forestcycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Search your library for a Forest card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
Starting with the clear headliner of yesterday’s spoilers, Balamb T-Rexaur is the new, better, Colossal Dreadmaw. It does everything Dreadmaw does, at the same cost, with some very relevant extras on top. Technically, we have seen a couple of Dreadmaw upgrades over the years in Earthshaker Dreadmaw and Colossal Dreadmask. These both vary in terms of type and rarity, however, so T-Rexaur is the first truly superior incarnation.
Looking at its new abilities, Forestcycling for two is a pretty massive deal. This can grab any Forest, not just basics, so you can use it to fix your mana in Commander. The fact that this is an uncounterable way to put a beefy reanimation target into the graveyard is also great. The one-mana Lord of the Rings landcyclers, Troll of Khazad-dûm in particular, saw a lot of success when used like this. Two is a massive jump for constructed formats, but in Commander, this’ll still work just fine.
On top of that, T-Rexaur also gains you three life when it enters. This is a pretty minor ability, and certainly not on the level of Malboro from the same cycle. That said, if you can find a way to consistently Forestcycle this on two and reanimate it on three, aggro decks will have a hard time pushing past you. Even in Standard, this would be a great line, though I’m skeptical that Wizards will add three-mana reanimation to the format any time soon.
Wishful thinking aside, I do genuinely think Balamb T-Rexaur has a shot in MTG formats like Commander. Graveyard decks like Karador and Slimefoot and Squee love getting reanimation targets into the ‘yard early, and this is a great way to do that. It’s no Generous Ent, but it’s surprisingly close.
Gaius Van Baelsar
- Mana Value: 2BB
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Soldier
- Stats: 3/2
- Card Text: When Gaius van Baelsar enters, choose one —
• Each player sacrifices a creature token of their choice.
• Each player sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice.
• Each player sacrifices an enchantment of their choice.
Balamb T-Rexaur wasn’t the only exciting low-rarity MTG Final Fantasy card spoiled yesterday. We also saw Gaius van Baelsar, a really interesting take on an edict effect. Generally, these cards, Accursed Marauder, etc., are great in Commander because the four-player nature of the format breaks their symmetry in your favor. Gaius takes this even further, since you can easily pick a mode that doesn’t affect you at all.
If your opponents are going mad with tokens and you don’t have any, for example, that first mode is all upside. The same is true for the last mode if you’re not running enchantments. It’s worth noting that this is a new way for Mono-Black decks to deal with enchantments. This is getting more and more common, with cards like Withering Torment from Duskmourn seeing print, but it’s still rare enough to be noteworthy.
The potential for this to be a one-sided edict effect is what really makes Gaius interesting. Four mana is a lot for an edict on a body these days, so you really need to be getting something extra out of it to warrant the slot. Just running this out and sacrificing it to its second mode isn’t going to feel great. That said, the fact that opponents can’t use tokens as fodder if you pick the second mode is a notable upside. This is a big part of what makes Accursed Marauder so good.
While it’s probably too slow for Standard, Gaius should have a solid home in Commander for years to come. Edicts are pretty much always good there, and having one that can also deal with pesky enchantments like Rhystic Study is even better. The fact that Gaius is legendary is also relevant, since most edict-on-a-body effects aren’t.
Torgal, A Fine Hound
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Legendary Creature – Wolf
- Stats: 2/2
- Card Text: Whenever you cast your first Human creature spell each turn, that creature enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it for each Dog and/or Wolf you control.
Tap: Add one mana of any color.
From one end of the good/evil spectrum to another, the last low-rarity Final Fantasy spoiler we’ll be looking at today is Torgal, A Fine Hound. That name may sound like a joke, but the card itself is far from it. Torgal is a fine hound, in more ways than one.
First of all, Torgal is just a two-mana 2/2 mana dork. That’s not exciting, but it is passable in Limited at least. Getting to attack and block well while also ramping and fixing your mana is always good. We’re well past the point where two mana dorks are good in Standard, but Commander still has plenty of time for them. Doubly so when they offer additional synergies on top, as Torgal does.
With Torgal in play, the first Human you cast each turn gets a boost based on the number of Dogs and Wolves you control. This immediately encourages a kind of hybrid typal strategy, where you run Humans and Dogs together in tandem. Such a deck would be very flavorful, but it would also be difficult to balance in terms of card ratios. Especially since Torgal needs you to go wide before you see any serious returns from its ability.
This specificity makes Torgal tricky to recommend in serious constructed formats, but an ideal challenge for Commander players. Figuring out how to build a Dog/Human deck, in Mono-Green, no less, is something that many players will relish. Luckily, this Torgal is better than that questionable promo card we saw earlier.
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