Final Fantasy has arrived, and among the more than 300 cards the set brought to Magic: The Gathering, there are several of them that are at higher rarities — in my personal tests, most of the first cards I tried were mythics, and it's natural that most of them don't work as well as expected until we find the right shells for them.
However, this doesn't mean that the set lacks accessible options or that it requires few rare and mythic wildcards to be assembled in Magic Arena: cards like Tifa Lockhart and Machinist's Arsenal, or even the coveted Vivi Ornitier, interact well with so many common and uncommon cards that it's possible to build good decks around them, while other mechanics, like the Black Mages, offer good strategies for the deck that can be built with very few rare wildcards.
In this article, we delve into five Budget decks featuring Final Fantasy cards for Magic Arena, with a maximum threshold of eight rares and four mythics per list.
Keep in mind that while most decks are two-color, we do not include rare duals in them, and we strongly recommend that players start improving their lists with the mana base: while the allied Fast Lands (Seachrome Coast, Blackcleave Cliffs, Copperline Gorge) and Pain Lands (Adarkar Wastes, Sulfurous Springs, Shivan Reef) leave the format in August, the enemy Fast Lands (Blooming Marsh) and Verges (Floodfarm Verge, Blazemire Verge, Thornspire Verge) remain, and Starting Town, also from Final Fantasy, should be a staple next season.
Five Budget Standard Decks with Final Fantasy
Rakdos Black Mage Burn - 4 Rare
The Black Mages in Magic interact with non-creature spells to deal damage to the opponent, allowing us to end the game without even needing to attack — even though, ideally, we want to attack to speed up the clock — but with direct damage spells, whose range is extended by the tokens.
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Black Mage’s Rod and Coruscation Mage are the main early game pieces to sequence damage spells in the following turns, or even interact more with the board with Cornered by Black Mages, which also creates another token, or even play the adventure of Lindblum, Industrial Regency to guarantee the land drop in the following turn.
With enough tokens, Boltwave and Hopeless Nightmare start to increase the damage on the opponent, added to the burn spells Shock, Burst Lightning and Lightning Strike.
Grab the Prize offers more traction while we can discard a less relevant piece to Shock the opponent while we draw cards, and Circle of Power guarantees a few more draws and another token. We can replace it with Kuja, Genome Sorcerer if we want to invest in more rares, but Black Mage Burn requires having spells at all times to sequence triggers, and Kuja does not help with this front.
Azorius Machinist Affinity - 8 Rares
Final Fantasy brought Valkyrie Aerial Unit and Machinist’s Arsenal as two pieces that care about artifacts. There are other cards in this category in the set, such as Tidus, Blitzball Star, but these two are the ones that interact best with the artifact shell we have today.
Machinist’s Arsenal has the advantage of transforming any creature into a threat when equipped, which includes Spyglass Siren and Novice Inspector, cheap drops that put tokens into play. Additionally, White Auracite offers extra mana and another removal on the list alongside Glass Casket and Spring-Loaded Sawblades, helping to pay for the high equip cost of Arsenal.
With so many non-creature spells, Astrologian’s Planisphere can also turn creatures into threats while counting as an artifact. Its use here isn’t as effective as in a Prowess-dedicated list, but it works well with cheap pieces in general, and this combination of artifacts helps casting Voyage Home for two mana consistently.
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Gruul Tifa Stompy - 8 Rares
Everyone already knows that the Mice package is good with pumps and Tifa too, So how about we try another spectrum for a budget deck? In this version, we use Sazh’s Chocobo as another cheap threat that cares about Landfall and Pawpatch Recruit for protection and to have more creatures in play with a single card.
Like the other versions of Tifa Stompy, our plan involves increasing Tifa Lockhart’s power to five or more, using any “Fetch Land” (Evolving Wilds, Escape Tunnel) to double her power twice, and attacking for 20 or more damage with Trample in a single combat — for this purpose, we have Wild Ride, which grants three power and Haste, as well as Giant Growth and Turn Inside Out.
To reduce the number of cards in the combo, we run two copies of Titanic Growth, which will leave Tifa with five power and, consequently, she will have 20 with a fetch land. For our alternative Aggro plan, we have Aloe Alchemist to give Trample to Sazh's Chocobo while it is also a creature with Trample on its own, being another ideal target for the pumps in the list.
Golgari Exdeath Mill - 4 Mythic
Golgari Mill became popular after Pro Tour Aetherdrift and gained two powerful tools with Final Fantasy: Diamond Weapon is as colossal on its card as it is in FFVII and protects itself from damage caused by the opponent, and Exdeath, Void Warlock offers life gain for a cheap while, if transformed, has a power equal to the number of permanents in the graveyard and Trample, being able to end games in just a few turns.
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Our plan involves using creatures that put cards in the graveyard to speed up the casting or abilities of all cards that care about the number of permanents in the graveyard. In addition to the new cards, we have Huskburster Swarm and Hollow Marauder — since they all have a high mana value that is reduced, we can take advantage of Up the Beanstalk for the least amount of mana possible.
Although they are not necessary, Fang, Fearless l’Cie and Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie interact with the game plan of the list and, if melded, might win games on their own.
It is worth noting that, on June 30th, Standard will have a Banned and Restricted update, and one of the cards most speculated for possible bans is Up the Beanstalk due to the absurd amount of value that the enchantment provides on its own. Since it is uncommon, we see no reason to remove it from the list now, but the need to rework the list without it may arise early next month.
Izzet Vivi - 8 Rares, 3 Mythics
Izzet Prowess is the best deck in Standard today, and despite its results and powerful cards, it is relatively ungreedy on wildcards when it comes to nonland cards. With Cori-Steel Cutter on the danger radar, we prefer to include Astrologian’s Planisphere to complement Vivi Ornitier in a spellslinger deck.
As the name suggests, our plan involves playing multiple spells in a turn to trigger our key cards: Stormchaser’s Talent and Vivi Ornitier have a nice interplay where we can use the mage’s extra mana to level up the enchantment, while Planisphere grows any creature equipped with it, and Red Mage’s Rapier can attack for ten damage in a single turn with the right sequence — this line is what included Enter the Enigma in this version.
In addition to the various cantrips, we have Stock Up to refill your hand, and This Town Ain’t Big Enough to reuse Stormchaser’s Talent or even equipment to create more tokens on the board. It is worth mentioning that, like Up the Beanstalk, This Town Ain’t Big Enough is another card with a lot of controversy regarding its space in Standard, but we can exchange it for Into the Flood Maw, which does not offer the same favorable trades with ETBs, but helps to interact with the board.
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Wrapping Up
That’s all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
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