Final Fantasy cards have arrived on MTG Arena, and players are quickly starting to brew to their hearts content. While some cards like Vivi Ornitier received a lot of hype during spoiler season, we’re also seeing some underrated cards overperform right out of the gates.
Today, we have a spicy new deck to share with you that is built to maximize one such card: Yuna, Hope of Spira. Yuna requires you to heavily construct your deck with her in mind in order to get the most out of her abilities, but if you’re up for the task, she delivers in a big way.
Nick Carlson boasted a 10-1 record during their initial run with the archetype, which features a ton of new cards to help support Yuna. If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary to play on the ladder, look no further.
Crafting Around Yuna
Yuna is the heart and soul of this archetype. This card has a lot going for it. The turn you play Yuna, it has Ward 2, making it rather difficult to kill right away. This is essential, since you want to be able to get to your end step with Yuna unscathed so you can resurrect an enchantment to play.
As expected, in order to fully abuse Yuna, you need ways to get enchantments into your graveyard as well as beefy enchantments to reanimate that can close games on their own. Fortunately, Final Fantasy MTG helped on both accounts.
Early in the game, cards like Resentful Revelation and Overlord of the Balemurk help fuel your graveyard. They simultaneously dig for Yuna, too, which is your main engine. Bitter Triumph plays an important role as well, allowing you to discard huge enchantments from your hand for Yuna to reanimate later in the game.
There are a lot of enchantments present in the deck, but two in particular are capable of giving you an enormous advantage on their own. First, we have Summon: Knights of Round. Summon: Knights of Round singlehandedly floods the board with creatures. Barring a board wipe, it’ll be tough for your opponent to contend with both Summon: Knights of Round and Yuna during their turn.
The second beefy enchantment to reanimate is Summon: Bahamut. Summon: Bahamut serves as an interactive element to keep the opponent in check. As a 9/9, it attacks for a ton of damage. Yuna gives Summon: Bahamut Trample and Lifelink during your turn, too, making it nearly impossible to race. Yuna truly does everything you want.
Midrange Elements
The rest of the deck is filled with cards that thrive in attrition battles. Esper Origins isn’t the strongest turn two play, but it makes up for this by being a great card to Flashback. Plus, it sets up your draws and provides a bit of a life cushion, making it more likely you can survive long enough to cast Yuna and take over the game.
From there, both Overlord of the Hauntwoods and Summon: Fenrir serve as three-mana ramp spells that get you to Yuna a turn sooner. Both are solid enchantments that Yuna can bring back in the event you haven’t found one of your big bombs yet. Remember, Yuna grants all of your enchantment creatures Lifelink the turn she comes down, so curving Summon: Fenrir or Esper Origins into Yuna can swing a game in your favor if you’re able to attack.
To help with consistency, you’ll find a couple copies of The Cruelty of Gix. The Cruelty of Gix is a versatile tool that, just like Yuna, can come down and return Summon: Knights of Round or Summon: Bahamut to play just fine.
For disruption, you’ll also find a few copies of Leyline Binding in the decklist. Overlord of the Hauntwoods makes it trivial to cast Leyline Binding on the cheap. You can always put copies you mill over onto the battlefield with Yuna if you need to answer a problematic threat. Leyline Binding pairs particularly well with Up the Beanstalk, which makes an appearance as a two-of and shines in the midrange matchups.
Interesting Ideas
Overall, building around Yuna is a really cool idea. Yuna is a very strong payoff. Even though you don’t have a ton in the way of removal, Yuna’s ability to enable a big life swing and instantly stabilize the board goes a long way versus Izzet Prowess and mono-red aggro. These matchups are far from perfect, especially if the opponent has fast draws involving Monstrous Rage. Nonetheless, Yuna is still capable of stealing games.
Against decks like Dimir midrange, Bitter Triumph and Leyline Binding can answer pretty much anything. Up the Beanstalk and your Overlords excel here, and even a single Yuna trigger can generate a ton of value that’s difficult to overcome.
One thing this deck doesn’t do well is pressure the opponent. Archetypes like Azorius Omniscience combo can often ignore your incremental advantages and win the game in one go.
Matchups like Azorius control can also be a bit tough, since actually sticking Yuna in the face of a slew of Counterspells like No More Lies isn’t easy. Finally, as good as Yuna is, hate pieces like Ghost Vacuum mess with your chances of resurrecting big haymakers.
In this sense, the Abzan Sagas shell has its limitations. The deck is still quite fun and can put up a fight on the Arena ladder, even if it isn’t the most competitive. Yuna is a house, and hopefully, the card continues to show promise.
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