We Built A Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Lightning Commander Deck

The highly anticipated Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy expansion is due on June 13, and preview season have shown off plenty of incredible cards for every MTG format. The most popular format, though is Commander--where players builds decks of 100 cards, with no duplicate cards outside of basic lands, all themed around one legendary creature--so we thought, why not try our hand at building a deck of our own with one of the Final Fantasy set's many legendaries?

This gallery will run through the deck we've built during this exercise, including some of its key themes, strategies, and cards. While there are a few "staples" missing--we can already think of a few omissions that may seem like blasphemy among Commander players--this is a first draft; every Commander player knows that playtesting and tweaking are key to finding the right formula for any deck.

The full decklist, for reference, can be found here.

The Final Fantasy legend we've chosen to lead our deck is Lightning, Army of One, a red/white commander that can wreak havoc in a match by indirectly pitting our opponents against each other.

• Lightning, Army of One (Legendary Creature - Human Soldier)
  • Costs 1 generic, one red, and one white mana to cast
  • 3 power, 2 toughness
  • First strike, trample, lifelink
  • Stagger — Whenever Lightning deals combat damage to a player, until your next turn, if a source would deal damage to that player or a permanent that player controls, it deals double that damage instead.

While Lightning's toughness is lower than we'd like, the combo of keywords will be able to mitigate it in direct combat--first strike will let her damage a blocking creature first, excess damage will reach the player and activate the second ability, and lifelink will gain us life no matter where her damage is going.

Speaking of that second ability, that's the crux of the whole deck; making one of our opponents susceptible to double damage (or more than one, but we'll get to that) until our next turn might be too good for the rest of the table to pass up, and one of them may direct an attack elsewhere that was initially coming for you.

Lightning shouldn't storm into battle alone, and while we've included a handful of effective supporting creatures, Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Kassandra, Eagle Bearer are two of the marquee companions in this deck.

Kassandra will instantly find the Spear of Leonidas spell that will give Lightning double strike--which allows her to attack twice, meaning double damage and double life gain--while Karlach, just by being on the field, gives our entire board an extra combat step, which means Lightning can attack two opponents in one turn, which makes them both easier targets for the rest of the room.

Speaking of extra combats...

Extra combat steps are a big theme in our deck, with nearly a dozen cards granting extra combats per turn when cast or while on the battlefield. Full Throttle and World at War offer more than one extra combat--Full Throttle instantly, World at War on the next turn thanks to the Rebound effect--while Overpowering Attack can be cast for two mana fewer if we cast it in our second main phase, after Lightning has already dealt damage.

We also packed Equipment artifacts into the deck, as each one can buff Lightning in different ways. Buster Sword offers extra power and free spells, Leyline Axe can start the game on the the battlefield if it's in our opening hand, and Brotherhood Regalia prevents any of Lightning's damage from being blocked.

(Final Fantasy XIII's heroine using a weapon from Final Fantasy VII, while wearing the uniform of the Assassin's Creed heroes, and sometimes next to a Baldur's Gate III warrior...that's Magic, baby.)

Equipment is great and all, but if it's sitting in the middle of your deck, what good will it do? Cards like Steelshaper's Gift and Cloud, Midgar Mercenary can help you search your deck for the Equipment you need, while Bruenor Battlehammer can get that newly found Equipment onto Lightning for free if it's the first equip of the turn. Bruenor's not the only way to discount those equip costs, either...

Multiple cards in the deck--Sigarda's Aid, Raubhan, Bull of Ala Mhigo, Fighter Class, Bureau Headmaster, and more--affect the equip costs of our Equipment artifacts in some way. If we can get more than one of these effects onto the battlefield, we can use those combined discounts to load up Lightning or another creature with as many Equipment cards as possible.

Our focus can't be entirely on blind offense; there needs to be some sort of defense in order to keep Lightning alive long enough to cause her chaos. Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory will stop opponents from casting any spells on your turn, giving you the freedom to do what you wish without fear of being countered, while Mother of Runes can give Lightning protection from any spell that targets her--and every other card in that color to boot--for the rest of the turn.

Another key aspect of our defensive approach is making Lightning impossible to defeat no matter how an opponent may try to do so. Iroas, God of Victory gives all of our creatures menace--which means they can't be blocked by a single creature--while Swiftboot Boots will make Lightning immune to opposing targeted spells. Then, with a few buffs on Lightning, we can play Odric, Lunarch Marshal and share those buffs with the rest of our creatures on the board.

As our opponents build their boards and try to execute their game plans, we need to have a way to interrupt what they're doing in case they become too much of a threat. Swords to Plowshares is a Commander staple, while Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix are two classic instant-removal spells that can also end the game in one fell swoop.

Finally, our mana base is made up mostly of basic Plains and Mountains, but we do have a few utility lands that offer more than just mana. Rogue's Passage can make Lightning unblockable for a turn, while Ishgard can retrieve Equipment spells that reached the graveyard, and Arena of Glory can grant Lightning haste as she's cast, allowing her to attack immediately after entering the game.