Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy crossover has made great use of Magic’s double-sided card mechanics. Many Final Fantasy characters transform into powerful beings as the story progresses. Massive villains like Sephiroth and Kefka attain godhood before the final battle is wrought. This epic narrative is a perfect fit to be told via MTG’s Transform mechanic.
These storytelling techniques have already caused a massive uptick in interest for some MTG Transform support, but Final Fantasy’s Transform shenanigans are far from over. Some new Transform cards have been spoiled, which should trigger the interest of mono-black players.
Mono-Black, in fact, is getting a lot of interesting tools soon. Besides a few Transforming threats, an interesting sideboard card depicting an iconic moment from Final Fantasy 6 could gain traction after Standard’s yearly rotation.
Jecht, Reluctant Guardian
Jecht, Reluctant Guardian is incredibly underwhelming on its front side. That said, the back side of this card is so compelling that players will likely experiment with him in Standard. If this lackluster 4/3 manages to connect with your opponent’s face, it turns into a 7/7 with Menace that absolutely devastates your opponent’s position. You’ll essentially go +6 in card advantage if Jecht gets through all his abilities. The extra 7 damage is just icing on the cake. As long as you manage to flip Jecht, he is worth the inclusion, even if he dies immediately afterwards.
Thankfully, Jecht, Reluctant Guardian’s front side has Menace, which should make connecting with him a little easier. That said, everything else about Jecht’s frontside is worrisome. The card is significantly understatted for a four-mana creature in Standard nowadays, but Jecht’s three toughness is particularly problematic.
This puts Jecht, Reluctant Guardian in range of a Bargained Torch the Tower – a one-mana removal spell that’s seeing widespread play at the moment. Nowhere to Run out of Pixie variants also puts the quash on Jecht, Reluctant Guardian.
That said, Jecht could see play in Standard Mono-Black Demons lists. The card is unlikely to be a maindeck threat, however. Jecht works best alongside a slew of must-answer threats as yet another massive problem that demands answers, putting strain on your opponent’s removal. Jecht won’t come out quickly enough against aggressive matchups to play this role properly. The card will instead shine in slower matchups against the Demons mirror and Domain.
Jecht could even come in against Pixie variants since the rest of the deck has cards that don’t succumb to Nowhere to Run. This means that the Pixie deck will likely board them out.
Jecht is far too slow to see play in other constructed formats, but nothing stops this card from seeing play in Commander. Notably, the Saga abilities on Braska’s Final Aeon care about each opponent, which means that the card still offers strong card advantage in a multiplayer setting. Thanks to his discard effects when flipped, Jecht could be particularly synergistic with mono-black discard Commanders like Tinybones, Trinket Thief. Connecting with Jecht in Commander should also be significantly easier since you have three different options to attack.
Vincent Valentine
Similar to Jecht, Reluctant Guardian, Vincent Valentine really wants to attack. Unlike Jecht, Vincent Valentine only needs to attack to Transform, so there’s no need to hit your opponent. Transforming Vincent into his Werewolf counterpart gets you a persistent Lifelinking threat, but the creature’s body isn’t too impressive.
That’s where Vincent Valentine’s frontside comes into play. This card is best paired with strategies that want to remove a lot of opposing creatures. Vincent Valentine gets stronger with each brute you manage to vanquish.
In my opinion, Vincent Valentine has a lot less potential than Jecht, Reluctant Guardian. The card obviously fits well in Transform or Werewolf Commander decks that it can play in, but this card isn’t really capable of much on its own. You need to remove something for Vincent Valentine to impact the board significantly; otherwise, this creature will often take too long to get going.
Making things worse, in matchups where you have enough time to consistently cast and Transform Vincent, a 3/2 Lifelinker won’t make a big impact, furthering the importance of Vincent’s front. In comparison, if Jecht manages to flip, the entire game revolves around him.
Vile Poison Attack
- Vile Poison Attack
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Sorcery
- Card Text: Choose one: All creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. Target player reveals their hand. You choose an artifact or creature card from it. That player discards that card.
Vile Poison Attack might be the unlikely Standard star you’ve been looking for. This two-mana sorcery has two very potent modes that make this a fantastic sideboard card. You can eliminate a wide array of small threats or take a bigger one out of an opponent’s hand.
While granting -1/-1 to the board is incredibly situational, it is quite powerful in the current Standard environment. Otter and Monk tokens all bite the dust to a well-timed Vile Poison Attack. For now, Temporary Lockdown will remain the board wipe of choice since it can also deal with Cori-Steel Cutter, but Vile Poison Attack could become popular post-rotation.
This situational board wipe is offset a bit by the card’s versatility. Taking a creature out of an opponent’s hand can be beneficial in aggressive matchups, depending on the nature of the deck. It’s not great against Izzet Prowess, but there are still two whole sets and a ban announcement before Standard rotates.
There’s no guarantee that Vile Poison Attack will be a Standard player, but the potential is definitely there. Two-mana board wipes are quite rare, and if Pyroclasm’s two damage isn’t necessary, the flexibility of Vile Poison Attack could be a better alternative.
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