At this point, it’s no secret that the Final Fantasy MTG set was a runaway success. Not only did the set sell ridiculously well, but it had a huge impact on competitive and casual formats. Commander players, in particular, got tons of new toys in this 2025 set. There were so many fun new cards, in fact, that it appears some gems didn’t get the attention they deserved.
Jenova, Ancient Calamity, for instance, has tons of potential yet is hardly played in Commander. While this card is already well worth building around, it’s going to get a whole lot better in a few days. With more and more support being inevitable in the coming years, this Commander is definitely one to watch.
MTG Jenova, Ancient Calamity
At its core, Jenova, ancient Calamity is a very simple MTG card. She can buff any creature, turn it into a Mutant, and then cares about when Mutants die. Like many modern commanders in MTG, she’s a powerful self-contained value engine that hardly needs extra support. So long as you’ve got creatures, the bigger the better, Jenova can be a fantastic value engine.
Realistically, you’ve got two different avenues to go down, and either one has a lot of potential. Learning into Jenova’s first ability, you can build around +1/+1 counters, buffs, and general Golgari value engines. Cards like Hardened Scales and The Earth Crystal are fantastic here, but realistically, there’s no shortage of support.
With a few counter doublers in play, you can easily pile buffs on Jenova, turning her into a Mutant-making machine. Not only will this create a very scary board, but it’s somewhat self-sustaining, keeping your hand full thanks to card draw on death. Add in some extra support, and you can even combo out.
Alongside any infinite reanimation loop, like Xathrid Necromancer, a free sacrifice outlet, and Maskwood Nexus, you can draw your entire deck. Admittedly, there are more effective wincons using this infinite, but sacrifice synergies are definitely worth considering. Viscera Seer and Meren of Clan Nel Toth, for instance, can provide a ton of value throughout a game.
Mutant Madness
While Jenova, Ancient Calamity is more than capable of making her own Mutants, Magic: The Gathering does have quite a few these days. Thanks to 2024’s Fallout Commander decks, in particular Mutant Menace, many of these are quite powerful. Cards like Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor, Lumbering Megasloth, and Rampaging Yao Guai are all amazing with Jenova.
More recently, Wizards also released the mechanically unique The Ghoul, Gunslinger via Secret Lair. Capable of dishing out Rad Counters to your opponents, or yourself, The Ghoul adds extra Mill spike to Jenova decks.
On top of the Fallout-themed cards, Jenova, Ancient Calamity is soon getting a ton of extra support from the TMNT MTG set. Introducing 31 new Golgari-aligned Mutants, Jenova decks just got a whole lot more consistent. Without having to worry about her once-per-combat effect, you can guarantee you’re always getting card draw when something dies.
Beyond just offering a card draw consistency boost, many of the new Mutants actually work fantastically with Jenova. Rocksteady, Mutant Maruader and Leatherhead, Iron Gator, for instance, can both dish out tons of +1/+1 counters. With Mona Lisa, Science Geek in play, this also means you’ll get tons of ramp.
Jenova Just Gets Better
As if the TMNT MTG set wasn’t enough of a boost, Jenova, Ancient Calamity is primed to get even better in the future. Later in 2026, it looks like Jenova is going to get even more Mutants to play with. Between the box art for Marvel Super Heroes and cards like Quicksilver, multiple iconic X-Men characters will be appearing in the set.
Considering the vast majority of X-Men are Mutants, these future cards could easily have the creature type. Depending on how many of these iconic characters are in the set, this could be a huge boost to Jenova’s already impressive playability. That being said, creature types in Universes Beyond sets are always a bit finicky, so nothing is guaranteed.
Beyond what we’re getting this year, there’s a chance Wizards could create an entire X-Men set in the future. With how slowly Infinite Stones are being released, it’s not out of the question that we’ll get six Marvel x MTG sets in total. If this is the case, then an X-Men set, jam-packed full of Mutants, is definitely a possibility.
Notably, even if all of the Mutants in the inevitable X-Men set are Mutants, there’s a non-zero chance that Jenova could be usurped. Characters like Magneto seem like obvious Mutant Typal cards from a flavor perspective. Depending on their abilities and color identity, this could push Jenova from the command zone and into the 99.
Thankfully, if this does happen, you might be able to access Jenova’s infinite combo. With at least five power on Jenova, you can put those counters on Sage of Hours to take another turn. As effective as this combo is, needing a Sultai Commander to make it happen does complicate matters somewhat.
A Future Classic?
Even before any future X-Men cards roll around, Jenova, Ancient Calamity is still a very powerful MTG card and Commander. For now, she’s still fairly cheap, too. Currently, on TCGplayer, you can pick up a copy of Jenova for around $1.25. Considering Jenova only helms around 4,500 decks right now, while appearing in the 99 of 14,500, this price tag isn’t hugely surprising.
That said, with how bright Jenova’s future looks, she might not stay this way forever. Should she continue to get compelling support, however, her price might not stay low forever.
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