Between all of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm brewing and this week’s big multi-format ban announcement, you may have briefly forgotten about the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set coming this June. To keep that hype pot simmering along nicely, Wizards decided to let another spoiler from the set drop yesterday. That card is Gladiolus Amicitia, and it brings Final Fantasy XV’s world of road trip goodness to MTG with aplomb.
This spoiler follows a trend established back in March, where Final Fantasy cards are spoiled on the in-game birthdays of the characters they portray. We saw it with Celes, we saw it with Zell Dincht, and yesterday we saw it with Gladiolus. While Gladiolus isn’t the most exciting birthday spoiler yet, it’s still an excellent card with potential in both Standard and Commander. Those who enjoy land-based decks will want to pay close attention.
Gladiolus Amicitia MTG
- Mana Value: 4RG
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Warrior
- Stats: 6/6
- Card Text: When Gladiolus Amicitia enters, search your library for a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, another target creature you control gets +2/+2 and gains Trample until end of turn.
Gladiolus Amicitia is a card of two halves, both of which are exciting for land-loving MTG players. First of all, it’s a 6/6 for six that comes with a universal land tutor attached. While the land Gladiolus fetches comes in tapped, there are no restrictions on what it can be. This opens up a ton of possibilities, in multiple formats.
Gladiolus aside, there are only 18 cards in Magic’s 32-year history that provide this effect. Several of these are notorious powerhouses, like Crop Rotation and Scapeshift. Some have even proved worthy of the Commander ban list, in the cases of Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Primeval Titan. The ability to grab any land you want has the potential to be very powerful, in other words. As the number of good utility lands in the game grows with each new set, this will only get more true over time.
Gladiolus clearly isn’t the most efficient incarnation of this effect we’ve seen, coming in at a steep six mana. Getting the effect on a body is always nice, however, opening up the potential for blink loops and reanimation shenanigans. On top of that, it also packs an additional Landfall ability that synergizes with the tutor effect. Whenever a land enters play while Gladiolus is around, you can give another creature +2/+2 and Trample.
Getting a sizable combat buff and evasion for free alongside each of your land drops is a great deal. It also throws open the doors for very aggressive combo lines. If you can drop a bunch of lands at once with Scapeshift or Hew the Entwood, Gladiolus can straight-up end the game with the extra damage it stacks up.
The Lay Of The Landfall
When it comes to the Standard format in MTG, Gladiolus Amicitia is clearly part of a wider Landfall package that Wizards is slowly assembling. We’ve got a few solid pieces in the format right now, including Bloodghast and Nissa, Resurgent Animist. Tarkir: Dragonstorm added yet another in Dragonback Assault, which looks like a very solid finisher for such a deck. On top of that, the few Final Fantasy spoilers we’ve seen so far conform there’ll be a Landfall theme there, too. Both Sazh’s Chocobo and Zell Dincht hint at this being a Gruul-aligned strategy, and Gladiolus seems to confirm it.
If a Standard Landfall deck does come into being, would it want to run Gladiolus? At first glance, it seems unlikely. Landfall decks in the past have typically succeeded when built aggressively, and six mana is way too much for an aggressive deck. Additionally, the big upside of Gladiolus, the utility it offers by tutoring any land, is less relevant in a deck that primarily cares about hitting hard as early as possible.
On the other hand, Dragonback Assault could pave the way for a slower, more Control-oriented take on the archetype. The deck could focus on ramp in the early game, drop Assault to clear the board, then ride the value wave to victory. In such a list, Gladiolus looks like a top contender. It can grab you any of the new Tarkir: Dragonstorm utility lands, all of which are great in drawn-out matchups. It also gives you the extra power and evasion you need to break stalemates. Such a deck is unlikely to succeed in the current meta, but if it does emerge then Gladiolus will be a shoo-in for it.
Countless Commander Combinations
Standard play may be in doubt, but Gladiolus Amicitia will almost definitely find some homes in the MTG Commander format. Tutor effects are much more important when you only have one copy of each card, after all. On top of that, there are countless broken utility lands for Gladiolus to search up in the format.
Field of the Dead is a classic example, giving you an endless source of Zombie tokens that’s pretty much impossible for opponents to interact with. Landfall decks love to see this card in play, and with Gladiolus you can guarantee it shows up. On the other side of the coin, you can grab Glacial Chasm to shut down all aggression from your opponents. The ‘enters tapped’ clause doesn’t stop Chasm from working, handily. If you find yourself up against either of these lands yourself, Gladiolus can even grab you a Wasteland to take them out.
None of these interactions are Gladiolus-exclusive, of course. I mentioned the other universal land tutors in Magic: The Gathering above, and 16 of them can still be run in your Commander deck. What sets Gladiolus apart is the fact that it’s a legendary creature, and can therefore be your Commander. Golos already proved how dangerous having easy access to a land of your choice was, to the point where it was banned in the format.
Gladiolus is harder to cast, doesn’t cheat out permanents, and isn’t in all five colors, so it should avoid the same fate. That said, it will be a powerful Commander option regardless. Getting to run a busted utility land of your choice as a second ‘hidden’ Commander is excellent stuff. Expect to see a lot of Gladiolus decks when Final Fantasy drops in June.
