Edgar, King of Figaro is very unlikely to see constructed play, but this wacky rare gives Commander players plenty of opportunity to accomplish various impossible sidequests. As players know, trying to flip five heads on a card like Yusri, Fortune’s Fame naturally is almost impossible.
For the rest of us mortals who don’t have golden horseshoes up our butts, you might be looking for some help to consistently complete your glorious coinflipping sidequests. If that’s the case, Edgar, King of Figaro from Final Fantasy VI is the card you’ve been looking for.
Edgar King of Figaro
Both of Edgar, King of Figaro’s abilities are interesting, but one is much more unique than the other. Even if it’s not as fun, Edgar’s first ability can refill your hand in an instant. Thanks to Treasure, Food, and Clue tokens being so prevalent in Commander, getting a few cards, at least, should be easy. In a focused deck, Edgar could easily fill your hand enough to set up a game-ending turn.
As useful as card draw is, it’s nowhere near as fun as fixing coin flips. Even if Edgar can only fix one set of coin flips each turn, this ability is undeniably powerful. This unique ability can even create absurd two-card combos with specific cards that are otherwise very difficult to use properly.
On social media, MTG players are most excited about Edgar’s applications with Yusri, Fortune’s Fame. Flipping all five heads on a Yusri trigger both draws five cards and essentially grants an Omniscience at home. Thanks to Yusri flipping all five coins simultaneously, Edgar forces a positive result. Since this combo combines card draw with free spellcasting, the two-card combination is even more powerful than Omniscience itself, and it can come online as early as turn 5. This probably has the strongest applications in a Yusri Commander deck, but you could also pull this off in the Secret Lair Commander deck Heads, I Win! Tails, You Lose! precon.
The wording on Edgar means that it’s actually quite difficult to maximize his ability. Since he only cares about the first instance of flipping coins, he won’t work well with cards that flip consecutive coins. If you try to use Edgar, King of Figaro with Zndprsplt, Eye of Wisdom, for example, your first heads will be guaranteed, but that’s it.
To date, only four tournament-legal cards in MTG flip multiple coins in one instance. Yusri is, by far, the strongest card among these, but pulling off Ral Zerek‘s ultimate with Edgar on the board will also likely end the game. Since all of your coins are guaranteed wins, you’ll get five extra turns. Unfortunately, not only is Ral’s payoff worse than Yusri’s, but you need to do a lot of work to get Ral to a spot where he can even go for it.
Goblin Traprunner and Two-Headed Giant are the only other tournament-legal cards that flip multiple coins in one instance, and neither of them are worth taking the time to set up. Goblin Traprunner will basically create three 1/1 attacking Goblin tokens on each attack, and Two-Headed Giant will essentially become a 4/4 with Double Strike and Menace for four mana.
So, while Figaro creates an absolutely explosive combo that should win the game on impact with Yusri, Fortune’s Fame, the card otherwise just wins your first coin flip per turn. That certainly merits its inclusion in coinflip decks, but for six mana, you should ideally be able to get value out of both abilities that Edgar, King of Figaro offers.
Other Coinflip Applications
Edgar, King of Figaro may not be able to fully flex his capabilities in many scenarios, but he can still create a decent amount of value with cards that just flip one coin per turn. Being able to create two tapped Treasure Tokens each turn with Setzer, Wandering Gambler, for example, is quite powerful.
Outside of that application, however, Setzer is just a flavorful dud. Unless you have coinflip synergies or some incredibly strong Vehicle ones, Setzer isn’t a very strong Magic card.
If you’re looking for powerful individual coinflips to win with Edgar, King of Figaro, it’s tough to beat Invert Polarity. Winning this coinflip lets you gain control of an opponent’s spell at instant speed, while losing it turns the card into an expensive Cancel. The best part about this interaction is that you’ll generally play Invert Polarity on the opponent’s turns. This allows Edgar to fix your Invert Polarity flip without using up his trigger on your turn. Instead, use your coinflip guarantee on Stitch in Time during your turn to take an extra turn for three mana.
If you want to spend a bit more mana to control the tide of everyone’s combat, Edgar, King of Figaro and Tide of War make for a funny pairing. Your opponents can simply choose not to block attacking creatures to bypass this combo, but as long as an opponent blocks with just one creature, you’ll get to decide whose creatures get blown out.
Fulfilling a New Idea
Edgar, King of Figaro might not be a competitive icon, but he does fulfill a niche that MTG players didn’t even know they wanted. Having a guaranteed way to influence multiple coin flips at once is a space of game design that Wizards of the Coast hasn’t explored before. While many are excited to use this card with Yusri, Edgar could create more wacky combos in future releases.