After two full weeks of new cards, preview season for the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set is, at last, winding down. There are still a few rares and a lot of commons/uncommons to go, but for the most part, the shape of this new set is clear. While it looks like a mixed bag in terms of overall power level, MTG Final Fantasy enables a surprisingly wide range of new combo lines across multiple formats.
One of these combos exploits what reads like a joke card at first to lethal effect. Others involve stacking up huge power early or pumping out infinite creatures, in classic Magic fashion. These interactions may not make it into top-tier decks any time soon, but the fact that they exist is exciting in itself. This proves that Wizards isn’t afraid to keep pushing the boat out, even in an ostensibly beginner-focused set like Final Fantasy.
The Jaws Of Defeat/Overkill Combo
The first new MTG Final Fantasy combo we’ll be looking at today is that of Jaws of Defeat/Overkill. Overkill was leaked a while back, and most assumed it was a Limited filler card with some fun Final Fantasy flavor thrown in. 9999 is typically the damage cap in each game, so a card that dishes out the same amount of ‘damage’ to a creature makes a ton of sense.
Turns out there’s actually more to this card than just definitely killing a creature. In the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks we got Jaws of Defeat, which burns your opponent for life equal to the difference between an entering creature’s power and toughness. If you use Overkill on your own entering creature, that difference becomes over 9000, and the damage becomes lethal.
This combo is a bit unintuitive at first. The creature you target with Overkill will die before the Jaws of Defeat trigger resolves, which might lead you to think it’ll fizzle. This isn’t actually the case, however, as Jaws will instead look at the creature’s stats just before it left play. Basically, it works just like you’d hope it would, which is great news for fans of weird combo lines.
In terms of where this combo could see play, Commander is the safest bet. It’s a three-card combo that only takes a single opponent out of the game, so it’s unlikely to upset many pods. It’s also kind of hilarious, in a way that most actual infinite damage loops simply aren’t. Beyond this, I don’t have much hope for the combo in Legacy or Vintage, given how fast both are and how many better options are available. Never say never, mind you.
Swinging For 20 With Tifa
Jaws of Defeat/Overkill aside, there’s plenty more MTG combo goodness waiting in Final Fantasy. One of the most exciting examples is Tifa Lockhart, a green two drop with some seriously explosive potential.
Tifa is a very simple card: a 1/2 Trampler with a Landfall trigger that doubles its power for the turn. As is always the case in Magic: The Gathering, however, effects that double anything need to be treated with extreme caution. Tifa is dangerous, and it’s almost funny how easy it is to assemble lethal damage with her very early in the game.
If you play Tifa on two, you can follow up with a Titanic Growth and a Fabled Passage on three. This will boost its power to five, then double it to 10, then double it again to 20. Swinging with a 20 power Trample creature on turn three is no joke, and can absolutely end the game if your opponent is off to a slow start. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll likely leave them with so little life that a single burn spell or Haste creature can finish them off on turn four.
The best part of the above combo? It’s actually possible in Standard. The exact package above probably isn’t ideal to include in the likes of Gruul Prowess, but I could see players trying Tifa out alongside classics like Monstrous Rage for sure. Having another creature like Slickshot Show-Off that can close games out of nowhere is a big deal for the deck.
In older formats, Tifa looks even better. Premium pump spells like Scale Up and Mutagenic Growth make it trivial to generate lethal damage with the card, essentially putting it in a similar category to Infect creatures.
Infinite 6/6 Fliers From Terra
Continuing the trend of bringing powerful combo options to Standard, MTG Final Fantasy has yet another trick up its sleeve. By combining Terra, Magical Adept with Yenna, Redtooth Regent, you can clog the skies with infinite 6/6 Fliers.
For this combo to work, you need both Terra and Yenna out, then you need to pay six to flip Terra into her Esper form. Next, use Yenna’s ability to create a nonlegendary copy of Esper Terra, which, on entry, can copy itself, thus furthering the loop. Each copy of Esper Terra created by itself is a 6/6 Flier with Haste, and you can repeat the loop as many times as you want. Once you’re done, simply move to combat and swing to end the game.
You can achieve the same result by substituting The Apprentice’s Folly for Yenna. That version is a bit trickier to pull off timing-wise, but it’s also less mana-intensive, so it balances out. With the quality of mana in Standard currently you could probably even stretch to four colors and include both. Dedicating that many slots to a combo win is risky, given how fast Standard is right now, mind you.
Realistically, I think a Naya Enchantments build running Terra and Yenna is the way to go for this combo in Standard. A self-mill sub-theme with the likes of Patchwork Beastie and Fear of Missing Out could help a lot too, in terms of filtering through to the pieces you need. Throw in a few of the Duskmourn Overlords as extra targets for Terra and Yenna, and you have a new combo brew that may just be weird enough to work.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!