Wizards of the Coast made a rather major shipping error ahead of Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s prerelease weekend. While most players around the world got to open prerelease packs as usual, Brazil received some Final Fantasy product instead. Considering that this set wasn’t supposed to be released until June, this is a rather massive blunder.
As expected, this caused some unofficial leaks to trickle onto the internet, although not as many as expected. Instead of cards from the Final Fantasy main set, it appears that the starter kit contents got leaked. There are a ton of new cards to look at, but as expected, a majority of the cards aren’t very impressive. There is, however, one exception for Commander players from the Dimir starter kit deck.
As a quick reminder, because these cards weren’t officially revealed, there is a chance that they could be fake. If you want to wait for the official reveal of these cards, consider this your spoiler warning.
Relm Drawings
- Mana Value: 2UU
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Sorcery
- Card Text: Menace. Create a token that is a copy of target artifact, creature, or land.
Referencing the character Relm from Final Fantasy 6, Relm Drawings is an incredibly unique sorcery that captures Relm’s abilities quite well. Creating a token copy of something isn’t new ground for MTG players, but granting these exact options is very unusual.
Most copying effects, in particular, don’t allow players to create a copy of a land. Other popular copy effects in Commander, like Clever Impersonator, can only copy any nonland permanent in play. This means that lands evade its abilities.
This allows Relm Drawings to do some incredibly unique things. Any Commander deck playing powerful utility lands may want to consider picking up this card for themselves. Among all the lands you can abuse with Relm Drawings, there are some that stick out more than the rest.
Lands to Copy
Field of the Dead seems leagues ahead of any other land to copy in Commander. Banned in Pioneer and Modern, Field of the Dead can win the game on its own. Obviously, this is a very rare and powerful thing for a land to do.
Creating Zombies in Commander with Field of the Dead is easy. Games go incredibly long, and, unless you’re a mono-colored deck, fulfilling the task of having seven or more lands with different names goes hand-in-hand with a singleton format.
Copying Field of the Dead with Relm Drawings basically doubles the triggers that you get off the card. Instead of creating one Zombie per land drop, you’ll get two. This scales ridiculously with token-doubling effects like Doubling Season and Anointed Procession. You’ll create more Field of the Deads with Relm Drawings and will create more Zombies. If Anointed Procession is in play as you resolve Relm Drawings, you’ll be creating 12 Zombies per land drop instead of 2.
This synergy has some other interesting applications. Using Relm Drawings as a form of ramp with token doubling and copying effects is a bizarre but promising strategy. Ideally, you’ll want to copy high-value lands like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Sol lands like Ancient Tomb to make this as effective as possible, but decks with other token synergies may also want to use this. Effects like Three Blind Mice and Caretaker’s Talent that can specifically copy tokens can make even more copies of your lands. Caretaker’s Talent can even draw cards from your token lands.
This is, by far, the most unique thing that Relm Drawings is capable of. Creating token copies of lands is a really unusual trait. That said, the additional flexibility of Relm Drawings is what makes it interesting for Commander.
Copying the Best Thing Out There
Relm Drawings has the most important trend that a copy spell needs, in my opinion, to see success in Commander: it’s not just limited to your own stuff. Relm Drawings can create a copy of whatever the scariest artifact, creature, or land is on the entire board.
A lot of the time, you won’t be targeting opponent’s lands, but if you need a specific trigger to stop someone’s momentum, it could be a game-changing play. For example, creating a copy of a Bojuka Bog could stop a massive turn for a graveyard-based deck.
Otherwise, you can simply grab a copy of the best creature or artifact in play. A lot of the time, creating a copy of an opposing Commander can allow you to keep up with the value it creates. Any Commander that can trigger on an opponent’s things can essentially leverage the value that an opponent’s deck is creating.
Of course, copying a massive threat like Atraxa, the Unifier or Toxrill, the Corrosive is a fantastic deal for four mana.
Copying artifacts is probably the least exciting thing that Relm Drawings can do. While it certainly helps to have the option to copy something like a Portal to Phyrexia, many other cards can make copies of artifacts more effectively. Relm Drawings is certainly better for the added versatility, however.
A Premier Option for Lands, But the Flexibility Is Strong
Ultimately, most decks that will consider running Relm Drawings will likely be interested in copying lands. While you can recreate this effect with other MTG cards, a gimmick is usually involved. It is rare that the effect appears so cleanly.
Copying creatures and artifacts is something that other MTG cards can do just as well or better than Relm Drawings. That said, this option means that the chances of Drawings rotting in your hand in a game of Commander are rather small.
Will this see play in constructed Magic? There is a decent chance that Relm Drawings is Standard legal even though it’s in the Final Fantasy Starter Kit. Unfortunately, outside of a compelling gimmick, Relm Drawings may find it challenging to see Standard play. This four mana card should have no issue doing a ton of work in Commander, but Standard’s faster nature may restrict it. By the time something copyable comes up, the game may already be over.
All in all, for an uncommon especially, Relm Drawings is a very exciting MTG X Final Fantasy card for Commander players.