Back in the middle of February, players were given a sneak peek of the face Commanders for the Final Fantasy Commander Precons. Now, the long wait is finally over, and all four Commander decks have been revealed in their entirety.
For fans of Reanimator strategies, the Revival Trance deck is definitely the place to look first. This deck features an efficient Commander that can resurrect low-powered creatures turn after turn in Terra, Herald of Hope. There’s also the secondary Commander who does a great job fueling your graveyard in Celes, Rune Knight.
Low Power, Big Effect
Terra has a lot in common with Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. The goal is to reanimate creatures with low power from your graveyard to play when you connect in combat. What’s nice about Terra is that it doesn’t restrict you from bringing back creatures with hefty mana costs. They just have to have three power or less.
As such, there are a handful of new cards that can have a big impact on the game once in play. Siegfried, Famed Swordsman, for example, may be a 2/2 when in your graveyard, but chances are, it will enter with a ton of extra +1/+1 counters on it. After all, Terra mills cards every turn cycle, so you’re bound to have a lot of creatures in your graveyard as the game progresses.
Cyan, Vengeful Samurai is yet another creature that can attack for large chunks of damage despite synergizing with Terra. General Leo Cristophe is one of the strongest of the bunch, having the opportunity to enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters and return another creature from your graveyard to play in the process. General Leo Cristophe even grows Cyan, Vengeful Samurai, in the process.
Gogo, Mysterious Mime is definitely one of the sweetest cards in the Precon to put into play. Getting to copy another creature and give them both Haste can be very powerful. Beefy threats with potent attack triggers like Sun Titan are perfect for this. Being able to follow up Gogo with Sun Titan, copy it, and give it Haste, then attack with two Sun Titans sounds awesome.
Other Small Creatures
A large portion of the deck, still, is made up of more efficient creatures that are lower on the curve. Shadow, Mysterious Assassin may be small, but the effect it provides in conjunction with Terra is powerful. Setting up a spot where you can sacrifice Cyan to gain card advantage and make each opponent lose seven life, just to bring Cyan back with Terra is awesome.
Gau, Feral Youth is a rather aggressive card, but once again, it rewards you as long as cards are routinely leaving your graveyard. Strago and Relm is a cool legend that is designed to simply generate value over time. Sometimes, you’ll spike something huge, which is cool.
Summon: Valigarmanda is a great creature to bring back with Terra, so long as there are some strong Instants and Sorceries in graveyards you can replay. Edgar, Master Machinist is a bit of a weird inclusion here, as there aren’t a ton of Artifacts present. Regardless, any mana rocks you mill over with Terra are fair game to recast at low cost.
Locke, Treasure Hunter fuels your graveyard, ramps you, and lets you cast spells at will. What more could you want?
Finally, we have Setzer, Wandering Gambler. There are some Vehicles to pair with Setzer in this Precon, but Setzer mostly looks like an awesome Commander card outside of this particular deck. Getting Treasures every time you win a coin flip is powerful, and playing Setzer alongside Krark, the Thumbless and other coin-flipping cards sounds like a fun time.
Big Bad Bombs
Even though Terra is heavily focused on bringing back smaller creatures, there are a multitude of ways within the Precon to buy back huge threats. As such, there are some new haymakers that are well worth cheating into play.
Kefka, Dancing Mad is likely at the top of that list. Kefka has insane upside. The turn you get it into play, your opponent’s likely can’t kill it. From there, you’ll generate a ton of value on your end step via its trigger, assuming you hit something powerful out of your opponents’ graveyards.
Frankly, Kefka looks like a really sweet build-around Commander option in its own right. By using ways to manipulate the contents of your opponents’ graveyard (like Unlicensed Hearse), you may be able to guarantee some big hits.
Beyond Kefka, Umaro, Raging Yeti is another huge monster with a potent triggered ability. The ability is random, but all three options are pretty good. Given the high density of triggered abilities in this Precon, cards like Strionic Resonator could serve as nice upgrades.
Ruin Grinder and Flayer of the Hatebound are reprints, but they’re worth mentioning for synergy reasons. Ruin Grinder is easy to get into the graveyard and provides a big reward when you bring it back. Flayer of the Hatebound will keep sending damage wherever you choose as creatures leave your graveyard via Terra, Sun Titan, or any other effect.
Reanimation Effects
In order to cheat these expensive threats into play, you do need other reanimation effects. Luckily, there are a few new options in the Revival Trance Precon. Coin of Fate is an awesome example.
You ideally need two impactful creatures in your graveyard for the opponent to choose from to mitigate the downside. Nonetheless, getting a creature to play period and becoming the Monarch at Instant speed is a great way to pull ahead.
The Falcon, Airship Restored serves as a recursive Vehicle that can keep reanimating creatures over time. The more mana you have, the better The Falcon, Airship Restored will perform.
Rejoin the Fight may cost six mana, but the effect is well worth the cost. In a four-player game, you’ll be getting back three creatures to play no matter what. You just need plenty of fuel in your graveyard, which shouldn’t be an issue.
Fueling Your Graveyard
Terra does a good job of putting cards into your graveyard, as does Celes, the backup Commander. That doesn’t mean the deck can’t use more ways to get creatures from your hand into your graveyard, though. Laughing Mad does just that. It’s a pretty inefficient card, all things considered, however, so it’s likely to be high up on the chopping block if you want to make way for Precon upgrades.
Snort is a fixed Wheel of Fortune, but any mass discard and draw effect has its place in a deck like this. Banon is a neat legend that lets you rummage and then cast the creature you discard if you choose. You can also cast any creature spells you mill with Terra. Overall, a nice value engine.
Mog, Moogle Warrior acts as a discard outlet during your end step. Discarding creatures nets you tokens, and discarding noncreature spells makes those tokens bigger. Either way, you’re happy with the exchange.
New Filler
The last chunk of new cards are mostly filler cards that help round out the Precon. The Warring Triad serves as a mana rock that also mills you and eventually turns into a big attacker. Ultimately, a solid card to fill the classic three-mana rock slot in EDH.
Sabin, Master Monk is a burly attacker that acts as a repeatable discard outlet. The Blitz cost is rather pricy, unfortunately, which makes this card a lot less appealing. Interceptor, Shadow’s Hound looks more like a neat addition to an Ezio Auditore da Firenze Assassins deck, more than anything. It is a recursive beater, it just gets a lot better with extra Assassin support.
Espers to Magicite is just a good card on rate. It messes with any reanimation shenanigans your opponents are up to, all while netting you a potentially enormous threat. This should be an excellent addition to mill-focused Commander decks like those centered around Phenax, God of Deception.
Finally, we have Phoenix Down. Phoenix Down is a simple way to reanimate a low-cost creature. As an Artifact, it’s nice to recur with Edgar, Master Machinist.
Notable Reprints
In the reprints department, there aren’t any extremely valuable cards to be seen. Reanimate is among the best reprints from a financial perspective, and it holds a price tag of roughly $7 according to TCGplayer market price.
There are a few other cards in the $3-$5 range as well. Rise of the Dark Realms is a decent reprint, but it fell in price after recently getting reprinted in MTG Foundations. Ruinous Ultimatum is worth about $4, and Stitch Together holds a price tag of roughly $3.
Most of the value behind the Precon lies with all the new cards, of which there are plenty. You can check out the full decklist here. Be on the lookout for more main set spoilers as they continue to get revealed in the coming weeks.