Most Final Fantasy MTG spoilers have been revealed thus far, and it’s very clear the set is heavily designed with Commander in mind. This isn’t too surprising given the sheer number of iconic characters and legends that need to be covered. Nonetheless, from a Constructed standpoint, this set looks less powerful overall than some other sets from the last year.
Recently, though, a handful of spoilers were previewed that have competitive potential. These cards could make a difference in Standard, Pauper, and even Modern. To start, let’s highlight a modal uncommon that provides a lot of flexibility.
Battle Menu for Standard
Battle Menu is a sweet design. It comes with four modes attached, all of which can be impactful depending on the situation.
The downside here is that the baseline of making a 2/2 with no abilities for two mana isn’t super exciting, even if it’s done at Instant speed. Fortunately, there is one deck that can use this type of effect quite well.
That deck, unsurprisingly, is mono-white tokens in Standard. A 2/2 token may not be that strong on its own, but when it’s triggering Enduring Innocence or Caretaker’s Talent, it’s a fine exchange.
At the same time, when you don’t have Enduring Innocence or Caretaker’s Talent at the ready, you have other relevant modes to choose from. Destroying Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Abhorrent Oculus can swing a game in your favor. Meanwhile, versus mono-red aggro, simply using Battle Menu to gain four life can buy you time to get to your late game payoffs like Elspeth, Storm Slayer.
Battle Menu being an Instant means you’re free to react to whatever your opponent plays. On turn two, making a 2/2 at Instant speed to trade with Emberheart Challenger is perfectly reasonable. If your mono-red opponent tries to push damage with Monstrous Rage, the Creature they suit up will now be in range for the Magic mode to kill it.
It can’t be understated the value of having one of your token producers in the deck double as a removal spell. It wouldn’t be too surprising if mono-white token control utilizes a couple copies of this card moving forward in place of flex slots such as Virtue of Loyalty or Authority of the Consuls. In some metagames, Battle Menu may give Get Lost a run for its money, too.
Pauper Trio
Up next, we have three new additions to Pauper that all warrant consideration. Summon: Choco/Mog, Magitek Infantry, and Red Mage’s Rapier have plenty of appeal in a couple different decks.
First, Summon: Choco/Mog offers a lot of value in the mono-white weenie archetype. As a 3/3 for three mana, Summon: Choco/Mog is a decent blocker when it comes down turn three. By pumping all of your other Creatures, it helps you push damage with your copies of Thraben Inspector and Kor Skyfisher.
What makes Summon: Choco/Mog so appealing, though, is that this isn’t just an enters-the-battlefield effect. You get to buff your squad repeatedly for the next few turns. So, if you resolve both halves of Battle Screech, your next attack will be for a huge chunk of damage.
Some mono-white weenie decklists already play Guardians’ Pledge as a way to push damage with Battle Screech. Summon: Choco/Mog offers a similar ability, albeit weaker, but comes attached to a 3/3 body and triggers over the course of multiple turns.
Guardians’ Pledge suffers when you don’t have a big board, whereas Summon: Choco/Mog adds pressure to the battlefield while helping you stabilize. We’re excited to see what this card can do for mono-white weenie moving forward.
Speaking of mono-white weenie, Magitek Infantry also has some appeal in the deck. Alongside Thraben Inspector and Novice Inspector, it isn’t hard to be attacking for two damage right away with your one-drop. Then, as the game progresses, you can grab additional copies from your deck without investing any extra resources.
With no evasion and a lot of competition in the one-drop slot between the Inspector duo and Lunarch Veteran, Magitek Infantry’s inclusion is a bit more dubious. Still, in a more combo-heavy metagame, Magitek Infantry does a good job applying pressure. Playing up to 16 total one-drops isn’t out of the question, especially considering Magitek Infantry gives you something to do with your mana later in the game.
Third, we have arguably the most exciting of the bunch in Red Mage’s Rapier. Red Mage’s Rapier has a lot of potential applications. In assertive red decks, you get an attacker that threatens a ton of damage early in conjunction with burn spells. As an artifact, Red Mage’s Rapier makes Galvanic Blast and Goblin Tomb Raider more reliable, too.
In a Boros or Mardu Synthesizer strategy, Red Mage’s Rapier plays multiple roles. The Hero token keeps the pressure on early. If the opponent kills the token, both Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk let you bounce the Artifact to your hand and reset it. Barbed Batterfist often sees play in Boros Synthesizer, and Red Mage’s Rapier has added upside alongside a flurry of spells. This card simply looks awesome for Pauper.
Wandering Minstrel for Modern
- Mana Value: GU
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Bard
- Stats: 1/3
- Card Text: Lands you control enter the battlefield untapped.
The Minstrel’s Ballad — At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control five or more Towns, create a WUBRG 2/2 Elemental creature token.
3WUBRG: Other creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Towns you control.
The last spoiler we wanted to discuss at a competitive level is Wandering Minstrel. Wandering Minstrel is a Commander card at heart. Yet, ignoring all the Town synergies, a 1/3 for two mana that makes your Lands enter untapped could be good enough for Amulet Titan decks in Modern straight up.
Wandering Minstrel isn’t likely to replace Amulet of Vigor or Spelunking. Instead, What the card offers is a way to have your Lands enter untapped that you can tutor for with Summoner’s Pact or Green Sun’s Zenith. Playing a single copy of Wandering Minstrel with these tutors makes it more likely you can win the game with Primeval Titan and Scapeshift.
This just goes to show that even in a set with a Commander focus, there are always some gems for Constructed aficionados if you dig deep enough.
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