Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy set is officially out on digital platforms, and already multiple cards are making their presence known. Yuna is seeing play in Standard, and Sephiroth is being tested across multiple formats. The set is even touching Legacy already, with Astrologian’s Planisphere putting up results in Delver. Over in Pauper, things are similarly exciting. A couple of the new Black Mage cards from MTG Final Fantasy are seeing play there already, across multiple decks.
Many have had their eye on these cards for the format since they were spoiled. Black Mage’s Rod, in particular, generated a lot of hype when revealed. Now that they’re out in the wild, player suspicions have been confirmed. Pauper has a lot of answers to the strategies these cards support, so their reign may well be short-lived. For now, however, they’re a great way to try out the new set on a budget.
Knight Typal Feat. Black Mage’s Rod
The first deck that makes use of the MTG Final Fantasy Black Mage cards we’ll be discussing today comes via MVanni. Bizarrely enough, this is actually a Knight Typal list. Not exactly the kind of deck you’d expect to include Wizard synergies, but I digress. The deck managed a 5-0 finish in yesterday’s MTGO Pauper League, so it’s doing well right out of the gate.
Black Mage’s Rod is the centerpiece here, coming in hot as a full playset. For two mana, this card does an awful lot for a common. It provides a 2/1 creature, an artifact, and a reliable source of ping damage to boot. As a noncreature spell itself, it plays very nicely in multiples. It also ties into the Knight part of the deck.
The main Knights in the deck are Smitten Swordmaster and Fell Horseman. Swordmaster can burn your opponent for each Knight you control on its Adventure half, and is the main reason to run Knights in general. Horseman is a reasonably-costed Knight that can help recur your other creatures too. Both play great with Rod since they’re noncreature spells first, meaning extra ping damage.
The deck’s final Knight is Masked Vandal, which is a nice way to deal with opposing Rods and other pesky artifacts/enchantments. Outside of this unusual typal shell, the deck is a classic black sacrifice list. It runs Fanatical Offering and Eviscerator’s Insight to dig through your deck, while stacking up damage via Rod triggers. Cheap interaction like Duress and Cast Down rounds out the list, letting you control the game while dealing damage as you do so.
Golgari Gardens Feat. Cornered By Black Mages
The other deck we’ll be looking at today makes even better use of the MTG Final Fantasy Black Mage cards. This one comes to us from Heisen01, who pulled off a 5-0 with it in Tuesday’s MTGO Pauper League. It’s a tricky list to pin down in terms of archetype, but Heisen01 identified it as Golgari Garden in a post on X, so we’ll go with that.
The deck runs the full playset of Rod, as well as three copies of Cornered by Black Mages. This is a three-mana edict effect, that also happens to create a 0/1 Wizard token that pings just like Rod does. While it looks inefficient on the surface, it’s actually quite well-suited for Pauper. Plenty of decks rely on a single big threat, whether it’s Troll of Khazad-dûm or Tolarian Terror. This can take them out, while developing your burn plan at the same time.
This card plays great alongside Rod, letting you stack multiple pings per spell. The rest of the deck leans into a bit of an artifact theme, with Refurbished Familiar appearing alongside Pactdoll Terror and Blood Fountain. It’s not full-on Affinity by any means, but this high density of artifacts helps power your sacrifice-based draw spells. Pactdoll Terror is also a great source of additional ping alongside your Black Mage cards.
Overall, this version of the deck looks more competitive than the first. It leans harder into the ping theme, and it makes use of some established Pauper artifact powerhouses. Going forward, I think most decks that want Rod are going to follow Heisen01’s example and run Cornered too. In any case, Rod has definitely proved itself in Pauper with this speedy double result.
Final Fantasy Black Mage Cards In MTG Pauper Going Forward
Are the MTG Final Fantasy Black Mage cards here to stay in Pauper, then? That still remains to be seen. While they’ve done well this week, there’s plenty of counter play out there to keep them in check.
The biggest knock against the cards is how fragile the tokens they produce are. They all have just one toughness, which makes them vulnerable to all manner of removal options. End the Festivities is a huge sideboard staple in the likes of Burn and Madness, and it takes out all of your Wizards for just one mana. Getting your engine back online after a sweep like that will likely be difficult.
Speaking of Red, Cast into the Fire may just be the perfect answer to Black Mage cards. It can ping down two tokens if need be, or exile your Rod straight-up. This is another red sideboard staple, owing to its huge range of targets in Pauper. Since Black Mage decks are looking likely to be artifact decks going forward, they’ll always be vulnerable to this hugely efficient card.
Non-red decks have plenty of answers too. Mono-Blue Terror can hit your tokens with Echoing Truth, for example, leading to a total blowout for all the same-named tokens. These aren’t modifications these decks will need to make, either, but rather cards they’re already playing. That doesn’t put Black Mage decks in a great spot in current Pauper.
That said, the two decks above did land 5-0 results, so we shouldn’t count them out just yet. It may well be that both cards are efficient enough to be worth playing, despite the ample alternatives available.
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