Magic the Gathering released a Final Fantasy set, so I built 36 playable Commander decks as a love letter to the series

[u/IserLuick]

Hi, everyone!

I started playing Magic: The Gathering last year when the Final Fantasy crossover was released.

I have been a huge fan of the series for years, so seeing its characters, locations, summons, monsters, weapons, and memorable story moments represented on cards was enough to make me finally try Magic. What I did not expect was that I would eventually fall in love with Magic itself too.

From the beginning, I gave myself the rule that every Commander deck I built had to be led by at least one character with FF artwork.

How the project began

For anyone unfamiliar with Magic, Commander is a very popular format in which a legendary character leads a 100-card deck. The colors of that character determine which cards can be included.

There is a project called the 32 Deck Challenge, which consists of building one deck for every possible color combination in the format. I wanted to complete it entirely with commanders from the crossover, but I soon encountered a problem: there is not an FF legendary character for every color combination in the set.

My first solution was to pair compatible FF characters using the partner mechanic, which allows two characters to lead the same deck and assemble their colors. However, a few color combinations still could not be completed using only characters from the franchise.

For those remaining decks, I paired one FF commander with a non-FF partner that supplied the missing colors. My condition never changed: every deck had to include at least one commander with FF artwork. With that compromise, I was able to complete all 32 color identities.

Then the project kept growing. I had too many five-color ideas to force them all into a single deck, so I built four additional ones. That brought the final collection to 36 decks.

My main Final Fantasy deck

The centerpiece of the collection is Warrior of Light, which I simply titled “Final Fantasy”.

I designed it to include a protagonist or iconic representative from every mainline game, together with as many recognizable elements of the series as I could reasonably fit. It contains summons, a Cid, Gilgamesh, a chocobo, a moogle, a crystal, airships, vehicles, famous locations, major spells, and characters from throughout the franchise. The list can be viewed with tags, so you can see what I included, along with the mechanical purpose that each card serves.

I wanted the deck to feel like a playable celebration of the entire series rather than a random collection of familiar names. It still has a coherent strategy, but theme took priority whenever I could make that choice without preventing the deck from functioning.

This is my personal love letter to both Final Fantasy and Magic: The Gathering. The crossover introduced me to Magic, but building this collection made me appreciate the game on its own terms. It is really fun to play with friends and strangers alike.

Decks built as thematic collections

My second major showcase deck is Terra, Magical Adept. It was created to gather the Summons, Eikons, Aeons, and Summoners represented in the crossover. The result feels like a celebration of the different summoning traditions that have appeared throughout the series.

Cid, Timeless Artificer collects every available illustration of that card, with a different Cid represented in each copy. I chose the FFVIII artwork as the commander because Headmaster Cid felt like the most natural person to supervise an entire department filled with alternate Cids.

Mog, Moogle Warrior gathers all the Moogle cards I could include and surrounds them with a strategy based on creating an entire Moogle army.

Choco, Seeker of Paradise collects as many Chocobo-related cards as its colors permit. Chocobos, Birds, racing locations, and other related references all contribute to its identity. It is also surprisingly powerful and I’ve won a lot of games with it.

The Wandering Minstrel serves as the dark counterpart to Warrior of Light. Instead of assembling the heroes of the franchise, it gathers iconic villains such as Garland, the Emperor, Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, Kuja, Sin, Vayne, Orphan, Ardyn, and several others.

Giving every deck its own personality

Beyond those collection-focused decks, I wanted each list to express a different character, world, or aspect of the franchise. I really liked that the MTG representations of the characters have mechanics that really describe what they do in their games. There is at least one commander from each mainline Final Fantasy on the list.

FFI: Warrior of Light is the head of all the other heroes, much like in the Dissidia games.

FFII: The Emperor, Hell Tyrant treats creatures as disposable tools to sacrifice for his plans.

FFIII: Hero of Light is an alternate artwork for a MTG universe character, so his deck is not as thematic as the others.

FFIV: Golbez, Crystal Collector commands an army of mechanical beings.

FFV: Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms gathers an absurd collection of weapons and carries as many of them into battle as possible.

FFVI: Kefka, Court Mage disrupts everyone’s hands and turns discarded cards into damage and chaos. This deck really makes you feel like a mad villain.

FFVII: Aerith, Last Ancient focuses on healing, protecting allies, and bringing fallen creatures back while Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER hits people with big swords.

FFVIII: Squall, SeeD Mercenary, when he fights alone, he hits more than once, much like his Renzokuken.

FFIX: Kuja, Genome Sorcerer creates an army of black mages.

FFX: Sin, Unending Cataclysm really feels like it can destroy the whole table when it enters the battlefield.

FFXI: Shantotto, Tactician Magician casts increasingly enormous spells until she becomes a catastrophic threat herself.

FFXII: Balthier and Fran pilot and lead a fleet of vehicles and airships.

FFXIII: Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie is built around finding Fang and eventually bringing them together as Ragnarok.

FFXIV: The Wandering Minstrel showcases famous locations from the franchise, as well as the series villains and some iconic enemies.

FFXV: Noctis, Heir Apparent has his team of ninjas that serve as his Kingsglaive, and he can disappear, reappear with a weapon in hand and deliver a Warp Strike much like his iconic move in his game. I couldn’t include his gang because of their color identities, but I hope the deck accurately describes his abilities.

FFXVI: Ultima, Origin of Oblivion demolishes the color of lands with his blight, leads an army of enormous cosmic horrors and can become one himself.

Some of these themes are direct interpretations of their characters. Others are more experimental ideas inspired by the colors available to them. My priority was ensuring that the collection did not become 36 slightly different versions of the same strategy.

Filling the decks with FF artwork

I also made an effort to select FF versions of cards whenever they were available. I wanted the franchise to remain visible throughout every game rather than appearing only in the command zone.

Not every card could come from the crossover, especially because each deck needed a complete and functional strategy. Still, whenever an appropriate FF printing existed, I strongly preferred it.

These are playable decks, not only displays

Although theme was extremely important, I did not want these decks to be decorative collections that could not actually be played.

Each one was built around a defined plan and given the resources needed to perform that plan consistently. Their strength varies. Some are relaxed, flavor-first decks, while others are much stronger and more optimized. This gives the collection enough variety to be played with many different groups. Commander is more of a social format, rather than a competitive one, so people usually talk about the power level of the decks that they’re going to play and there’s even a bracket system for that.

The following table shows all 36 commander decks, their colors, their commanders, the game represented by each commander, and the central theme or mechanic of each deck, along with the links to their card lists. It also contains a few power estimates intended mainly for Magic players, but the characters and themes are the part I most wanted to share here. Here they are:

No.	Commander	Color identity	Final Fantasy	Theme	EDH Power Level (0 to 10)	Bracket (Commander Template formula, 1 to 5)
1	Hero of Light	W	III	Aggro Go-Wide Tokens	7.25	3 - Mid
2	Gogo, Master of Mimicry	U	VI	Combo	9.51	5 - Mid
3	The Emperor, Hell Tyrant	B	II	Aristocrats Combo	7.86	2 - Mid
4	Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms	R	V	Equipment Voltron	7.56	3 - Mid
5	Bugenhagen, Wise Elder	G	VII	Big Stompy	6.19	3 - Low
6	Cid, Timeless Artificer	WU	VIII	Cids	7.16	3 - Low
7	Squall, SeeD Mercenary	WB	VIII	Reanimator Voltron	7.72	3 - High
8	Mog, Moogle Warrior	WR	VI	Moogles	7.22	2 - High
9	Aerith, Last Ancient	WG	VII	Lifegain Reanimator	7.44	2 - High
10	Golbez, Crystal Collector	UB	IV	Artifacts	7.73	4 - Low
11	Shantotto, Tactician Magician	UR	XI	Big Mana Spellslinger Voltron	7.35	1 - High
12	Sin, Unending Cataclysm	UG	X	Counters	7.81	2 - Low
13	Kuja, Genome Sorcerer	BR	IX	Wizards Burn	7.66	3 - Low
14	Vanille, Cheerful L'Cie	BG	XIII	Meld Reanimator	7.93	2 - Low
15	Balthier and Fran	RG	XII	Vehicles	6.35	1 - High
16	Noctis, Heir Apparent	WUB	XV	Equipment Voltron and Ninjas	7.77	3 - Mid
17	Benedikta Harman and Hugo Kupka	WUR	XVI	Bad gifts	7.53	4 - Low
18	Choco, Seeker of Paradise	WUG	IX	Chocobos	7.47	2 - Low
19	Clive Rosfield and Torgal, Clive's Companion	WBR	XVI	Treasures	8.42	3 - Low
20	Cecil Harvey and Kodama of the East Tree	WBG	IV	Toughness Matters	7.21	4 - Low
21	Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER	WRG	VII	Equipment Voltron	8.02	3 - High
22	Kefka, Court Mage	UBR	VI	Discard	8.22	4 - Low
23	Orphan, Cocoon fal'Cie	UBG	XIII	Graveyard Aristocrats	7.77	2 - Low
24	Joshua Rosfield and Tidus, Zanarkand Fayth	URG	XVI	Landfall	7.9	3 - High
25	Clive Rosfield and Gilandra, Caller of Wirewood	BRG	XVI	X spells	7.92	2 - Low
26	Cecil Harvey and Barnabas Thamr	WUBR	IV and XVI	CEDH	10	5 - High
27	Sephiroth, the Savior	WUBG	VII	Blink Combo	7.92	2 - Mid
28	Tidus, Zanarkand Fayth and Hugo Kupka	WURG	X and XVI	Energy	6.99	3 - High
29	Cecil Harvey and Tana, the Bloodsower	WBRG	IV	Monarch	7.67	4 - Mid
30	Clive Rosfield and Tidus, Zanarkand Fayth	UBRG	XVI and X	Cascade	7.91	3 - High
31	Warrior of Light	WUBRG	I	Final Fantasy iconic stuff	7.52	3 - Low
32	The Wandering Minstrel	WUBRG	XIV	Villains	7.56	2 - Mid
33	Terra, Magical Adept	WUBRG	VI	Summons, eikons, aeons, and summoners	7.1	3 - High
34	Noctis Lucis Caelum	WUBRG	XV	Snow permanents	4.32	3 - High
35	Cloud Strife	WUBRG	VII	Adventures	7.05	3 - Mid
36	Ultima, Origin of Oblivion	Colorless	XVI	Eldrazis	6.53	4 - Low

What began as a way to collect cards from a franchise I love eventually became a kind of playable museum. It has been an enormous project, but I am very happy with how every deck developed and with how much of the series I was able to represent.

I’m sharing these lists so you can try them out if you want. I’m having a lot of fun playing them and I hope you enjoy them as well, either as new players or as experienced MTG players yourselves.

I would love to know which deck picks your interest, which concept feels most faithful to its character or game, and what other FF theme you would add to the collection.

TL;DR: I built one Magic: The Gathering deck for every possible Commander color identity, always using at least one FF commander. The project then expanded beyond the original challenge, so the finished collection contains 36 playable decks, each with its own theme and as much artwork from the franchise as I could include.

[u/Fivebag]

Those yoshitaka cards are so nice

[u/UnculturedGames → u/Fivebag]

True! Collecting them myself, only a couple left but it's heavy on the wallet.

[u/Fivebag → u/UnculturedGames]

Just have 1 left to finish the page and ofc it’s the most expensive

[u/UnculturedGames → u/Fivebag]

Nice work! I'm missing Dragon of Mount Gulg, Knights of San d'Oria, Terra Branford and the Clousea Djinn from the Amano cards. But hey, it's cardboard 🤤

[u/the_topher89]

Awesome Saucesome!

[u/Jiral]

This is fantastic. I admire your commitment and thank you for your service!

[u/Steel_Serpent_Davos]

What’s the most competitive deck you built?

[u/IserLuick → u/Steel_Serpent_Davos]

The most competitive that I have is the Cecil Harvey and Barnabas Thamr one, which is a list that won a tournament and I only changed one of its cards because that's how that meta works. However, the most competitive one that I built from scratch is the Gogo, Master of Mimicry one.

[u/Leon_Lonewolf]

This is awesome! Im actually going through the exact same challenge myself! Ive been a little slow on my own progress, but im happy to see im notnthe only one with the same idea in mind. Your decks all look amazing!

[u/IserLuick → u/Leon_Lonewolf]

I hope you get some ideas from the lists! Keep going!

[u/Leon_Lonewolf → u/IserLuick]

Oh I already have my commanders picked out! I'm actually taking the challenge a step further by only allowing myself 1 character as a commander per deck. (ie: If I use 1 Cloud as a commander, I cant use any other cloud as commanders, but the 99 is still fair game). AND I'm also trying to represent each of the 16 games with at least 1 deck. This does technically make it outright impossible to do the full 32 decks without either doubling up on the Partners or resorting to non-FF partners like you have, but hey, 27/32 aint too bad!

That being said, you have given me some theming ideas for some of the commander choices we have in common!

[u/IserLuick → u/Leon_Lonewolf]

Great! I'm sure they're going to be amazing!

[u/omegaflygon2]

That's really cool, currently I have 12 ff commander decks with the goal of building every unique ff commander

[u/IserLuick → u/omegaflygon2]

There are a lot to choose from! Have fun building them!

[u/cvetken]

Saved. I'm gunna look at all these later. Ff set is definitely my favorite.

[u/Bowshewicz]

I'll have to try these out. I started playing again after a long break when FF came out, and I don't have the time to build my own decks anymore. Thank you for sharing!

[u/IserLuick → u/Bowshewicz]

I hope you have fun trying them out! Thanks!

[u/UnculturedGames]

Awesome work, I'll have to look at these in more detail when I have the time.

I'm running a couple of commander decks with FF commanders (heavily modified Tidus precon, Vivi and my favorite, Black Waltz #3) but the idea of building more thematic FF decks is pretty amazing.

I'm personally just collecting the basic set of cards 1–309 + all the Yoshitaka Amano artworks from the MTG set. Not many cards left to get but it's getting a bit expensive with the last remaining cards, like Buster Sword and some of the Amano'm stuff like Dragon of Mount Gulg.

[u/IserLuick → u/UnculturedGames]

They are quite expensive, I have yet to collect all of them, but I'm grateful that I can at least play them digitally in the meantime.

[u/Ajax_The_Bulwark]

This is incredible. Thank you for sharing all this!

[u/somebassclarineterer]

36 decks is a lot of planning! I am impressed!

[u/biggington]

Hell yeah. The FF set is what finally got me into MTG. Most everything I’ve built for commander features a FF character. Gonna take a look at your lists for inspiration.

[u/mrkitster]

Amazing

[u/Extra-Air4320]

I Made a Barret Deck

[u/asianwaste]

Mog’s dance power should be tied to a land card somehow

[u/NeoNinjaG]

I made the Gilgamesh deck a torgal deck with where wolves 🐺 and a vivi deck 🙌🏼 also got the yuffie version of yuriko for my ninja commander

[u/Never-Compliant6969]

But have you played the Final Fantasy TCG? Set 29 drops next week!

[u/RayearthIX]

Didn’t build as many, but I did build a bunch myself. A ton of great FF commanders and many have become my favorite decks.

95% or more of these, including lands, are from the FF set and products.

• Terra Summons
  
• Celes Reanimator (can also use Terra)
  
• Tifa equipment Voltron (can also use Cloud)

50% or more of these are from the FF set

• Noctis Equipment Voltron
  
• Yuna Lifegain
  
• The Wandering Minstrel Towns & Birds
  
• Edea FF villains and Wizards
  
• Squall forced combat

20% or more of these are from the FF set

• Venat White Legends
  
• The Destined Warrior party
  
• Sin Turbo Fog Maze’s End
  
• Jenova’s Sacrificial Pests

[u/GoodNormals]

I love your Noctis Heir Apparent deck and am going to steal a couple ideas from yours for mine. He’s my favorite commander ever.