Final Fantasy XIV is not only one of the most popular entries in the JRPG franchise, but also one of the most successful MMO’s created. So it’s no surprise that it got its very own Magic: The Gathering Preconstructed Commander Deck. The deck does a fantastic job of bringing a large number of different heroes to the board replicating that feeling of those late nights running raids with your guild. The main difference though, is unlike those raids, you are trying to beat your friends, and this guide will tell you how.
Scions and Spellcraft Deck basics
The commander for this deck is everyone’s favorite cat-warlock, Y’shtola as the card “Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed”. She is a White, Blue and Black card with a Power of 2 and Life of 4, and has several useful abilities. Vigilance lets her attack without being tapped, allowing her to block on your opponents’ turns. She also lets you draw a card at the end of every player’s turn if any player loses 4 or more Life that turn, which given the multiplayer nature of Commander, could reward you if others are playing well (or poorly). Finally, she deals 2 damage to each opponent and heals you for 2 Life every time you cast a non-creature spell of mana cost 3 or greater. Keep this in mind, as it will come into play later.
Y’shtola is joined by fellow cat person, G’raha Tia, Scion Reborn. He has a power of 2 and Life of 3 as well as the abilities Lifelink which lets you heal for all damage he deals, and Throw Wide the Gates. The latter triggers when you cast a non-creature spell and lets you pay any life equal or less to the Mana of that spell. In return, you are able to create a “Hero” Token which acts as a creature with 1 Power and 1 Life, but you are able to put as many counters on it for each life you paid which increases both by 1 per counter.
Since the world of FFXIV is full of players fulfilling the role of the heroes of the realm, this deck contains many “Artifacts” which allow you to create additional Hero tokens with different abilities to simulate the Jobs in the game. These “Artifacts” also are considered non-creature spells, so while you are doing this, you get to trigger Y’shtola’s and G’raha’s abilities. Y’shtola will recover your life which you can then pay to bolster your battlefield with more tokens.
Gather the Heroes of Light Using these cards
Final Fantasy XIV is not just full of player characters. There are tons of NPC’s who make their way into MtG to help out in different ways, just like the real game! Here are a couple!
Alisaie Leveilleur and Alphinaud Leveilleur are two separate cards but are partners which means when you play one, you may search your deck for the other, and add it to your hand, which makes sense since their abilities complement each other. Alisaie has Dualcast, letting the second spell you cast on your turn cost 2 mana less, which helps out Alphinaud’s ability, Eukrasia which has you draw a card after casting a second spell. By utilizing these abilities, you maximize your mana resources, while also guaranteeing you are drawing at least two cards per-turn.
The Gentleman of Life is also in this deck as Hildibrand Manderville, and you will definitely want to find him. He gives +1 to both Power and Life to every token you have and since this deck will have a majority of your battlefield be tokens, this is a pretty easy way to buff them.
The FF character with the best name is also ready for play. Papalymo Totolymo is a low cost-creature only requiring 1 white and 1 black mana to play. He is also fairly weak only having a Power of 1, and Life of 2, but he makes up for it with his abilities which lets you not only deal 1 damage to each opponent for each non-creature spell you cast, but also heal 1 Life.This is useful to help offset some of the life you will pay to play some great cards such as “Transpose”.
Though not a creature, “Transpose” is a spell you will want to get out early. This card has you draw a card and then discard but it also has a secondary effect. If it is cast from your hand, you will get to pay 1 life and in return, create a Wizard token with 0 Power and 1 Life. While this may not seem useful, it has an ability that has it deal 1 damage to each opponent whenever you cast a non-creature spell, which we already know, we will be doing a lot of. Even better, you can exile it after it is played and then you are able to play it again next turn creating a second Wizard token to deal a total of 2 damage for every non-creature spell you cast.
There are plenty of incredibly powerful Artifacts and Creatures present in this deck that can be combined in brutal combos. When running this Pre-Con, your primary focus should be creating a number of tokens while getting other creatures onto the field with abilities that trigger when playing non-creature spells. From there, buff them with various artifacts and spells and create a cascading effect to take down that 40-person raid boss (or your friends).
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