It’s been made clear from the early Final Fantasy spoilers that this set will have a lot of flashy abilities. While these aren’t always the best for competitive Magic, abilities that ask for some extra requirements, but take a mile once you get them going, are very strong in Commander.
A new Final Fantasy Summon with ‘player Deathtouch’ has appeared. If this Summon manages to connect with your head, the game is over for you.
Summon: Primal Odin
Summon: Primal Odin is a rather flashy temporary creature, but since this guy doesn’t stick around, he needs to do a lot for the short time that he’s present. Primal Odin will, essentially, always pull you two cards ahead. Between destroying something on impact and drawing two on its final mode, Primal Odin does the bare minimum required for a temporary six mana effect.
The second ability that Primal Odin offers is the star of the show. If you manage to connect with Odin after he gains this ability, any player who takes damage from him will immediately lose the game. This may seem powerful, but Primal Odin makes this feat rather difficult to accomplish. You only have one turn to connect with Primal Odin through normal means. That’s because Odin will vanish after resolving its final chapter.
Between that and its understatted 5/3 body, it’s going to be much more difficult to connect with Primal Odin than it seems. It may be a bit easier to use the card in Commander since the chances of one player’s shields being down aren’t unrealistic, but connecting in Standard is a miracle.
Fortunately, in Commander, there are even more ways to make connecting with Primal Odin realistic. Trample aside, there are a few cards you can use to make your Summons stick around longer.
Cards to Play With Summon: Primal Odin
I wouldn’t be surprised if Power Conduit saw a spike in price in the coming weeks. This is one of the best cards to use with Sagas, especially ones that you want to stick around. This card already commonly sees play alongside Urza’s Saga for that reason. You can remove counters from Sagas to allow them to stick around, and even trigger the third chapter ability of Sagas repetitively. Just remove the third Lore Counter before the ability resolves, and your Saga won’t disappear afterward.
This not only gives Primal Odin more opportunities to connect with opponents, but it also means you’ll draw two cards every turn. Power Conduit will have similar synergies to other Summons that appear in Final Fantasy.
Hex Parasite has a similar sort of synergy with Primal Odin. This little creature will grow as a threat as time passes, and otherwise matches Odin’s color identity for Commander purposes. Conduit and Parasite are by far the best options for synergy with not just Primal Odin, but basically any Summon. That said, there are some other cards you can use to fill out the 99. Nesting Ground, for example, is a bit less efficient than Hex Parasite or Power Conduit, but it can do a similar thing. This can only work at Sorcery Speed, however, so you won’t be able to repeat the final ability of Sagas.
If you manage to flip Invasion of Fiora, Marchesa, Resolute Monarch can continually remove counters from your Sagas. Marchesa is much better at providing value on her own compared to other options, but Marchesa will always reset your Primal Odin to zero. Odin will, at least, keep its second ability regardless after he gains it the first time.
Sigurd, Jarl of Ravensthrope from Assassin’s Creed is also capable of removing Lore Counters specifically, but can only do so as a Boast ability. Not only do you need to attack with Sigurd, but the color identities between Sigurd and Primal Odin clash. It won’t be easy to include both of these in your Commander 99.
General Saga Support
Outside of things that specifically manipulate counters, there are a series of cards built specifically to play alongside Sagas. Some of these, like Narci, Fable Singer, are already seeing massive price spikes. Narci will replace your saga and drain the table for six when Primal Odin departs.
Tom Bombadil is the de facto Saga Commander, and Summon: Primal Odin works great alongside it. Tom Bombadil will simply keep spinning stories, so after Primal Odin departs, another new tale will take its place.
Satsuki, the Living Lore doesn’t include black in its color identity, but it is capable of returning Primal Odin back to your hand after it vanishes from play. You can otherwise speed along Odin’s Lore Counters to make sure you get the card draw effect if it faces removal.
Flashy Enough for Commander
Summon: Primal Odin does what Commander players want. It offers removal, card draw, and functions to end the game immediately. Between these three traits, the card will probably see some level of Commander play.
Outside of that, however, Primal Odin may struggle to appear in two-player constructed. In a slower format of midrange mirrors, this card could be quite powerful, but six mana is certainly too slow for Standard, and Primal Odin doesn’t make a big enough splash in slower matchups.
Either way, someone is going to take out an opponent with Primal Odin’s second ability, and it’s going to feel incredible.
