Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast revealed four entire Commander decks with basically no fanfare. Typically, these decks are shown off by content creators, who each dive deep into the deck’s new cards and flavor. This time around, however, Wizards just released the full decklists for the Final Fantasy Commander decks and called it a day.
For better or worse, this left MTG players with a whole lot to unpack in an incredibly short timeframe. It’s not like spoiler season is going to take a break to let players stop and smell the roses, after all. This is a crying shame, as many of the new Final Fantasy Commander spoilers are a real treat to behold.
While I’m entirely biased, since it’s my Final Fantasy game of choice, this is especially true for the Final Fantasy XIV Commander deck. Dubbed Scions & Spellcraft, this deck is all about drawing cards and casting spells, as the name suggests. As always, there’s room for improvement within this precon, however, things do look rather synergistic and cohesive out of the box.
17 Legendary Creatures
Usually, a preconstructed Commander deck from Wizards of the Coast will contain two legendary creatures. You’ll get the face Commander, the secondary option that supports the same color identity, and that’s it. For the Final Fantasy Commander decks, however, Wizards of the Coast has taken things to the extreme.
In total, the Final Fantasy XIV Commander deck contains 17 new mechanically unique legendary creatures. Only two of these, however, support the deck’s full Esper color identity. These are two of the cards we’ve already seen before: Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed and G’raha Tia, Scion Reborn.
As usual, these two cards both support the core game plan of Scions & Spellcraft, albeit in slightly different directions. Y’shtola cares about casting multiple big spells per turn for life drain, while G’raha wants massive spells to create equally massive tokens. Out of the box, both of these Commander options seem pretty powerful, and the deck seems well structured around them both
While none of the deck’s other legendary creatures can helm this deck out of the box, there’s an obvious extra Commander pair. Offering Azorious colors, Alisaie Leveilleur and Alphinaud Leveilleur can Partner with one another. Obviously, these two cards are made to be played with one another, and their abilities show that too.
Both Alisaie and Alphinaud care about casting your second spell each turn, which fits the Scions & Spellcraft theme nicely. On their own, however, this pair doesn’t do much else, so they might not actually be the best build-around Commanders. Still, it’s always nice to have more Partner cards in MTG, especially a pair this fitting.
Actual Build Around Options
Thankfully, while Alisaie and Alphinaud might be a bit of a mechanical letdown, they’re not the only extra legendary. Within Scions & Spellcraft, there are plenty of exciting legendaries that’re worth building around in their own right.
Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian looks like a monster of an MTG card, if you build around them right. In a sacrifice-focused deck that shuts down your opponent’s resources, Fandaniel can really hurt. All you have to do is load your graveyard with instants and sorceries, and the damage will ramp up fast.
Notably, Fandaniel only cares about your opponent’s having non-token creatures to sacrifice. This gives their ability a surprisingly large amount of wiggle room. While he’s not cheap, dropping him into play after a board wipe could leave your opponent’s in shambles.
While they are an iconic character from Final Fantasy XIV, Lyse Hext feels like she’s in the wrong Commander deck. With Prowess, cost reduction, and conditional Double Strike, Lyse is clearly an aggro card. As much as this fits her being a Pugilist in-game, Scions & Spellcraft hardly goes all in on cheap spells and aggressive swings.
That being said, this deck does have some token generation, which should allow you to build a board. We’ve already seen how this is possible with Hildibrand Manderville, and Hermes, Overseer of Elpis has a similar strength. If you’re really into bird tokens, Hermes is technically another build-around option, although they’re admittedly not the best in class.
Right now, Kastral, the Windcrested is still the best option for Bird-Typal in Commander. That being said, Hermes’ token-producing ability could go a long way in the right deck. Having a neat Scry effect bundled on top of this is always nice too, especially if you’re casting a lot of spells.
Strong Support
For better or worse, a lot of Scions & Spellcraft’s legendary creatures won’t do so well on their own. While it is technically possible to helm a deck with these cards, they’re much better off in the 99. Their being legendary is just a side effect of them being iconic characters, rather than a signpost toward playability.
Thankfully, even if they’re not Commander material, a lot of these cards are still great. Thancred Waters, for instance, gives you instant speed protection for one of your creatures. So long as you’ve got a noncreature spell to cast, you can give Thancred protection too incredibly easily. This could make him a very resilient piece of anti-removal tech, which could see substantial play in Commander.
In a similar vein, Tataru Taru is surely going to see a lot of play within Group Hug decks in Commander. Not only does Tataru reward you and an opponent with card draw, but she can create a fairly steady stream of Treasure tokens. She might be limited by a once per turn clause, by that’s still potentially four treasures per turn cycle!
Speaking of once-per-turn locked value engines, Krile Baldesion can also put in serious work. Depending on what creatures you have in your graveyard and noncreature spells in hand, Krile can provide consistent reanimation to hand. While this won’t let you cheat out any big haymakers, it should nevertheless keep your hand stocked at all times.
In their own way, Urianger Augurelt does the exact same thing. By exiling cards to play later, Urianger should keep you from running out of gas. Beyond just giving you extra cards to cast later, Urianger reduces their cost and gains you life. Since these cards don’t get cleared from exile, Urianger could even be a competent Commander option.
Non-Stop Spells
With so much strong support, Scions & Spellcraft shouldn’t struggle to have plenty of cards to play. Keeping this going, Emet-Selch of the Third Seat allows you to play cards from your graveyard rather easily. All you have to do is ping an opponent, and then your graveyard is your oyster.
Sadly, Emet-Selch’s ability is limited by a once per turn clause, however, that’s not a major problem. So long as you have a card like Papalymo Totolymo in play, you’ll have a consistent damage outlet. This will allow you to cast a spell from your graveyard for cheap each turn, which keeps things moving nicely.
Since casting spells is obviously the goal, it’s well worth going over the deck’s new additions in this area. Somewhat surprisingly, Scions & Spellcraft only contains one new instant. Thankfully, this spell, Transpose, is useful at least as it will help to keep Emet-Selch ticking along.
While paying three cost for a looting effect that hurts you may seem steep, the token that Transpose creates is genuinely useful. Like Papalymo, this card pings an opponent each time you cast a noncreature spell. Sadly, you won’t get another token when casting Transpose off Rebound, but two rounds of Looting isn’t bad.
Beyond helping with Emet-Slech, these easy pings also synergize nicely with Reaper’s Scythe. As one of the deck’s new artifacts, Reaper’s Scythe wants to be constantly damaging opponents to buff up one creature. Thankfully, even if the equipped creature gets dealt with, the Soul Counters stick around, allowing Reaper’s Scythe to go again.
A Slight Diversion
A great deal of the Scions & Spellcraft support cards care about regularly casting noncreature spells. Hraesvelgr of the First Brood is a strong example of this, although they’re kind of in the wrong deck.
Much like Lyse Hext from earlier, Hraesvelgr works much better in a deck with cheaper spells. While Scions & Spellcraft can definitely cast multiple spells each turn, you’ll need a fair bit of mana to do that. Because of this, Hraesvelgr may end up seeing more play within Dragon Typal decks in Commander.
The same is true for Estinien Varlineau, who has a clear synergy with other Dragons. While Estinien can get the job done on their own, they’re clearly better when part of a coordinated team. In Dragon Typal decks, Estinien could easily draw three cards per turn, but in Scions & Spellcraft only has two Dragons in total.
The one Saga Creature in Scions & Spellcraft, Summon: Good King Mog XII, is also lacking in additional support. While you can generate a few Moogles with some spells at the right time, the deck has no other way of creating Moogles. Sadly, this may mean the Summon’s final mode falls flat more often than not.
Speaking of falling flat, Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness definitely isn’t bad, but it feels like they sorely want a different deck. In a solely Legendary-focused Orzhov deck, Ardbert could be a real machine, pumping out counters nonstop. In Scions & Spellcraft, however, he may be somewhat bogged down by the blue spells.
A Peculiar Pivot
While Scions & Spellcraft does have plenty of reprinted instants and sorceries, there are more enchantments and artifacts. Thankfully, these cards do still further the deck’s game plan since they’re noncreature spells, but it’s nonetheless rather strange. If there’s room for improvement anywhere, it’s potentially by shifting the balance around here.
Unsurprisingly, this deck features a handful of new Job Select cards, playing into the MMO’s mechanics. Unlike some of the others we’ve seen, these new cards appear to be rather powerful. Dancer’s Chakrams, for instance, buffs the equipped creature and your Commander while giving both Lifelink.
Currently, it’s unclear how useful this effect will be in Scions & Spellcraft, but it should work wonders in other Equipment-focused Commander decks. That said, Blue Mage’s Cane feels a lot more synergistic with this deck’s core game plan. While you do have to risk a creature, you can potentially steal an instant or sorcery from an opponent’s graveyard.
Depending on what your opponents are playing, this could potentially be a massive steal for three mana. Sadly, while this could be very good, there’s no guarantee you’ll always get positive value. Sometimes you might end up overpaying for a cheap piece of removal, but that’s still better than nothing in some scenarios.
An Enchanting Trio
Continuing the rather odd direction of Scions & Spellcraft, there are three new enchantments that are good but somewhat strangely placed. Out of the three cards, Observed Stasis makes the most sense being in the deck. At worst, this card stops an attacker and draws you a card, but the ceiling is so much higher.
Should your opponent take a massive swing at the table, Observed Stasis can provide an obscene amount of card draw. With this in mind, timing this card right will be vital, however, you don’t want to leave it too late. Having the option to save yourself while replacing itself is a nice worst-case scenario.
Thankfully, not all of the new enchantments have to be played so carefully, as Eye of Nidhogg can be dropped down whenever. Depending on what you enchant, Eye of Nidhogg can either buff or nerf a creature that your opponent controls. While the latter seems most sensible, the former isn’t bad, thanks to it being Goaded.
Essentially, this turns whatever Eye of Nidhogg enchants into your opponent’s problem. Even if this problem gets dealt with, Eye of Nidhogg goes right back to your hand, allowing you to do it all again. If you’ve got mana spare when ending most of your turns, this could make this enchantment quite a menace.
If you’ve got a lot more than three mana spare, Champions from Beyond might be the new card for you. Not only is this card capable of creating a bunch of Hero tokens, but it can buff them too. While you will need eight or more creatures in play to make that happen, having large boards in Commander is hardly a rare sight.
At worst, each of these three cards could easily see play in a variety of different Commander decks. It seems like there are quite a lot of cards in this deck, in fact, that could become niche staples. Potentially, this means that the Scions & Spellcraft deck will be packed full of value.
A Range of Reprints
While the new cards in Scions & Spellcraft each look rather exciting, the reprints are a different story. There are some winners, of course, but a lot of the deck’s reprints aren’t that valuable. Curiously, the best of the bunch is actually a land, Sunken Ruins, which is worth around $22.
Outside of that rarely reprinted land, the deck’s value falls off rather quickly. Archaeomancer’s Map is worth around $9, Snuff Out is worth $8, and Authority of the Consuls is only $6. Outside of these cards, Crux of Fate is the last notable reprint at $5, before values really fall off.
Thankfully, while the value of most of the deck’s reprints isn’t amazing, each one has new art. For the most part, this just adds to the flavor of the deck, however, there could be some seriously expensive gems. Due to showcasing an iconic and gut-wrenching moment in the game, the Relic of Legends reprint may be surprisingly collectible.
Right now, it’s unclear what new art like this could do to the value of Relic of Legends, but it’s definitely worth watching. That said, the Final Fantasy MTG set appears to be packed full of iconic scenes, so this one is hardly unique.
Nevertheless, even if most of the deck’s reprints aren’t impressive, the deck’s new cards could carry a lot of value. As always, that’ll depend on the supply of these decks, however, and how accessible the cards are in Collector Boosters.
A Solid Start
Ultimately, the Scions & Spellcraft deck looks pretty solid out of the box. While it’s certainly possible to upgrade it with some different spells and a shifted focus, it’s not bad by any means. That said, upgrading this deck with any Universes Within MTG cards will obviously impact the Final Fantasy XIV flavor.
This raises an interesting question for all of the new Final Fantasy Commander decks. Since Wizards has done such a good job with them, upgrading them may feel a bit awkward. This is especially true for the Collector’s Edition deck variants, which are entirely Surge Foils. Thankfully, as much as foil and flavor cohesion are nice, it’s by no means mandatory, so upgrades are always possible.