As of today, we’re only about 72 hours out from the official Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy debut at PAX East. We can likely expect a shedload of spoilers from that event, and probably a ton of additional information for the set too. Before the feast of previews begins, however, Wizards has a little snack to tide us over. Today, a brand-new MTG Final Fantasy card, Shantotto, Radical Lady, was revealed.
This is a popular character from Final Fantasy XI, known for her distinctive rhyming dialogue. In Magic, she’s a powerful Izzet legend with potential in a range of different archetypes. As an uncommon, this isn’t the kind of card that’s likely to light a format on fire, but as an appetizer for Saturday, it’s more than welcome.
Shantotto, Radical Lady MTG
- Shantotto, Radical Lady
- Mana Value: 1UR
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Legendary Creature – Dwarf Wizard
- Stats: 0/4
- Card Text: Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast that spell. If X is 4 or greater, draw a card.
Shantotto, Radical Lady was revealed, in MTG form, by the official Japanese Final Fantasy XI Twitter account earlier today. The card was revealed in Japanese, and as of yet, no official English translation has been provided. As always, this means we probably have the effect right but not the name. Excellent as ‘Shantotto, Radical Lady’ is, it’s probably not totally accurate.
Translation aside, this looks like a very solid new Izzet legend. We’ve seen plenty of creatures that scale their power based on noncreature casts before, but rarely are they this efficient. Starting at four toughness means Shantotto is pretty hard to remove early, and lets her serve as a great blocker to boot. She also gets power increases based on the mana spent on your spells, rather than a flat rate like most similar creatures.
This means Shantotto works fine with cheap spells, but even better with those a bit higher up the curve. The last part of her ability really hammers this home. If you spend four or more on a noncreature spell with Shantotto out, you get to draw a card in addition to the juicy power boost. There’s no ‘once per turn’ clause here, but the mana required essentially locks it to that anyway.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an Up the Beanstalk situation, where you can cast discounted spells but still leverage Shantotto’s ‘four or greater’ condition. Since this ability checks the mana spent and not the mana value, those synergies are off the table. That’s obviously a knock against the card’s playability, but it’s probably for the best. Up the Beanstalk was banned in Modern thanks to such interactions, after all.
A Power-Up For Prowess?
So that’s Shantotto, Radical Lady: a new take on a classic MTG creature archetype. As to where she might see play, there are a number of possibilities in Standard. The first one that springs to mind is Izzet Prowess. This is a relatively new deck, only emerging with the advent of Cori-Steel Cutter in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. It’s also in Shantotto’s colors and plays an awful lot of noncreature spells. As fits go, they don’t get much better than this.
Shantotto gives the deck an option for going a bit bigger. Currently, Izzet Prowess is an extremely low-to-the-ground deck, with nearly half of its cards costing just a single mana. The creature suite is similarly lean, with just Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-Off making appearances in most cases.
Shantotto is comparatively pricey at three mana, but it lets you hold off opposing creatures nicely. It’s also a hugely threatening attacker, especially paired with Monstrous Rage for Trample. The ability to gain chunkier power boosts from Stock Up and Cori-Steel Cutter gives the card an edge over traditional Prowess creatures.
There’s an easy argument to be made that Shantotto is too slow for the deck. It lacks Haste, it costs three mana, and it needs other cards to present any power at all. Izzet Prowess is a very young deck, however, and it may well find itself in need of a card like this at some point. It even has a way to trigger Shantotto’s card draw ability, via a Kicked Burst Lightning. Scenarios like this are where the Shantotto wording shines and the Beanstalk wording falters.
It’s probably a long shot in such an aggressive Standard, but I could see Shantotto cropping up in variants of Izzet Prowess. The potential for big swings and extra card draw are both enticing prospects indeed.
Big Spells, Big Fun
Izzet Prowess aside, the other natural MTG home for Shantotto, Radical Lady is probably Jeskai Control. This is another new Tarkir: Dragonstorm Standard archetype, and one with much more potential for tapping into Shantotto’s card draw ability.
There are a good number of noncreature spells you can sink four or more mana into here. Coil and Catch from Marang River Regent is a great example, and the deck’s signature spell, Jeskai Revelation, is another. Both flood you with card advantage with Shantotto out, and grant her a huge boost in the process. Revelation, in particular, is likely a K.O. punch if you have her in play. Three Steps Ahead is a sneaky extra option here, since you can easily push its cost to four or more via Spree.
This extra draw power is what really sells Shantotto for me in Jeskai Control. Ordinarily, Control decks want nothing to do with Prowess creatures, unless they’re beefy, hard-to-kill finishers. The fact that you can draw cards from your big spells changes that here. With the possibility for card advantage in the mix, running out Shantotto early to block is a viable line. There’s even the possibility that it can serve as a beefy finisher later, as with the Revelation line above.
As with Prowess, Shantotto is probably a sideboard piece here more than a maindeck one. It’s a card that lets Jeskai Control play a bit more aggressively when needed, which is nice but not something you’ll need every game. This isn’t a slam-dunk addition to either deck I’ve covered here, but it still looks plenty good for an uncommon. Fans of the character from Final Fantasy XI can rest easy.