Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy crossover is a set that continues to surprise us. Sure, the recent Pro Tour’s metagame was a bit depressing, but many cards that players originally wrote off as casual Commander-only are making appearances in multiple formats. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is perhaps the most surprising of these, appearing in Pioneer and even the likes of Modern.
Kefka, Court Mage may not be seeing any play in two-player formats, but the iconic Final Fantasy villain is a surprisingly popular cEDH choice. Thanks to offering bundles of card advantage, getting stuff into your grave, and forcing card disadvantage upon your opponents, Kefka has become a frequent flyer in various winner’s metagames across cEDH events.
Kefka, Court Mage in cEDH
Appearing in multiple top eights of larger events, and winning some smaller ones, Kefka, Court Mage is a relevant contender in today’s cEDH metagame. Notably, Kefka is also making some appearances in Duel Commander, the other competitive variant of the format.
Kefka’s cEDH success is likely partially because of how well Kefka’s enters ability plays in multiplayer formats. Instead of a total of two cards getting discarded upon entry, Kefka will force four discards, allowing for a much higher potential for different card types to appear.
As powerful as Kefka himself is, his color identity plays very well in cEDH. All of the best combo cards are generally in Grixis colors, allowing Kefka to play the omnipresent Underworld Breach package complete with the format’s best tutoring spells. This seems to be at the core of all the successful Kefka variants across cEDH, and it’s not that surprising.
Underworld Breach combos, complete with Lion’s Eye Diamond, and Brain Freeze, supported by Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Vampiric Tutor, and friends, is the best thing to be doing in the format. Of course, Demonic Consultation and Thassa’s Oracle appear as another combo to win the game.
Similar to other decks employing Underworld Breach win conditions, Kekfa also employs a lot of Ritual effects. Rite of Flame, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Lion’s Eye Diamond not only let you combo quicker, but they also allow you to cast Kefka himself ahead of time. This Commander might be expensive, but it will have a larger effect on the board than your typical Partner Commander. Should Kefka somehow manage to flip, the game is basically over.
This is all incredibly typical for a Grixis cEDH deck, but from there, things start to vary a bit. Successful Kefka decks are taking slightly different approaches to the same endgame. Some Kefka decks, like the one listed here, employ a more midrange-y type of gameplan, with a larger focus on creatures that create incremental mana advantages like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Professional Face-Breaker. Others focus on playing a more controlling role with various pieces of interaction, focusing on stopping the opponent’s win attempts while protecting yours.
So, Kefka, in many ways, is a new skin for cEDH’s most prolific and arguably best strategy. Despite this, there are some unique synergies with Kefka that offer new and interesting twists. Kefka’s power is showcased in the exceptions, not the whole.
Hyper-Synergistic Cards
While Kefka shares lots of similarities with already successful cEDH decks, there are a few powerful cards that make a home uniquely here, thanks to powerful interactions. The most notable may, perhaps, be the appearance of Displacer Kitten.
This kitty is an infinite combo machine, and a well-known one. While the card certainly has a profile of being a kill-at-first-sight card, should it resolve, it’s actually not that easy to deal with. Thanks to Displacer Kitten flickering a creature at a moment’s notice when you cast noncreature spells, the cat becomes surprisingly evasive. Once the Kitty is in play, all manner of shenanigans can ensue.
The cat is particularly nasty with Kefka, Court Mage. Flickering the Court Mage will allow for an entry ability every single time you cast a noncreature spell. Not only will this continually force opponents to discard potential answers, but you’ll draw tons of cards. Winning is often trivial if you set this up.
Because Kefka’s enters ability is so powerful, this cEDH archetype has the unique trend of running Commander copy effects. These are very popular in casual Commander and appear quite often in cEDH as well. Sakashima the Imposter, Mockingbird, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Flesh Duplicate show up across different variants of Kekfa, Court Mage. Many of these won’t stick around if they copy Kefka, but the enters ability will still apply. Sakashima has the added benefit of ignoring the Legend Rule, and Flesh Duplicate can copy opposing creatures. Phyrexian Metamorph can also copy opposing artifacts and creatures. Saw in Half and Essence Flux also appear as a way to further enable enters effects.
To further enable this, Harmonic Prodigy occasionally appears as a way to double Kefka’s entry effects. That card is getting a lot of attention at the moment, thanks to synergizing with a ton of new Final Fantasy Commanders.
Thanks to an abundance of discards, Kefka, Court Mage works wonders with cEDH mainstay Dauthi Voidwalker. Voidwalker is already fantastic thanks to shutting off opposing graveyards, but forcing discards means that Voidwalker will put a lot of Void counters on opposing cards. Since the win conditions in cEDH are so homogenous, the chances of getting a key card for your combos from an opponent are higher than you might think.
More New Cards to Try!
It’s clear that Kefka, Court Mage offers a really powerful tool for cEDH, but that tool is not without its compromises. Perhaps the largest one is how much mana Kefka costs to cast. Five mana is a monolithic amount in cEDH, and getting a Kefka countered can really set you back if you’re stuck with synergy pieces in your hand. For that reason, it doesn’t appear that this deck is quite as flexible as existing Partner Commanders that rule the format, but Kefka is putting up strong, consistent results.
A lot of the ways Kefka functions in cEDH can also be used in less powerful Commander Brackets. Remove the combo aspect and add in some more synergistic tools, and you’ll have a very powerful Grixis Commander deck.