The first cards for the upcoming Universes Beyond Final Fantasy set have been revealed, and among several other cards, the four face Commanders for each deck have also been shown off. Each of these represents a different game in the series: Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 10, and Final Fantasy 14, with a promise that each deck will also feature characters from other games in the beloved RPG franchise. But with each Commander comes different ways to build them, and we’ve collated some of the best ways to build each of the Commanders.
Terra, Herald of Hope
Terra, Herald of Hope is the lead commander of the Final Fantasy 6 deck, and is all about graveyard reanimation. At the beginning of combat on your turn, you mill two cards so that Terra can gain flying, and then when Terra deals damage, you can pay two mana in order to resurrect any creature card with power three or less from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
Now, there are a few different ways to build this. Terra is a Mardu () commander, which gives you access to a lot of cards in black specifically that have low power but get bigger over time, like Savage Gorger. There’s also the more cruel option however, which is filling your deck with cards like Grief so that your opponent essentially discards their entire hand over time, but your mileage on that playstyle depends on how much you value having friends.
Your other option for building this involves entry triggers. Cards like Karmic Guide might have an Echo cost but you get the effect of reanimating any creature card from your graveyard as soon as it enters the battlefield, meaning that you can bring back some massive creatures like Blightsteel Colossus. You could also use cards like Fear of Missing Out in order to draw cards from your deck, which can be useful in a situation where you’re on the back foot and need to draw the out to your opponent's board.
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER
My personal least favorite of the Commanders (despite the fact it’s my favorite of the games), Cloud Ex-SOLDIER, cares specifically about equipment. When it enters the battlefield, you can attach a piece of equipment you control to it (which, let’s be honest here, is likely to be the Buster Sword), and whenever it attacks you draw a card for each attacking creature you control with equipment attached. If Cloud has seven or more power, you also create two treasure tokens.
So what’s the best way to build him? Well, other than the obvious one of shoving as many powerful pieces of Equipment in the deck as possible (though for what it’s worth, we greatly recommend playing Excalibur, Sword Of Eden in the deck), you should play as much recursion and cost reduction as possible.
As a Naya equipment commander, it’s almost essential that you play Danitha, New Benalia’s Light in the deck so that you can consistently recur your Equipment spells from the graveyard. It’s also extremely important that you play cards like Fighter Class and Forge Anew so that you can make it easier to actually use your equipment by reducing the equip cost. Puresteel Paladin also makes this a breeze, whilst also allowing you to draw a card every time an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control.
For Cloud’s draw ability, however, the best card you could play is something akin to Goldwardens Gambit. Creating five tokens with haste alone is pretty good, but with this card you can also attach a piece of equipment to each of those tokens, meaning you’ll have five different creatures with equipment that can attack, which means you’ll be drawing at least five cards that turn as long as you have Cloud on the battlefield.
Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed
Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed is a Cat Warlock from Final Fantasy 14, and here is an Esper commander that allows you to draw a card at the beginning of each end step as long as a player lost four or more life that turn. Y’shtola also deals two damage to each opponent and gains you two life every time you cast a non-creature spell with a CMC of 3 or greater, making it a lot easier to satisfy that first condition.
The best way to build this deck is to put Sheoldred, The Apocalypse in the deck first. While it’s a fairly hated card overall, it’s also a card that will automatically satisfy half of the required four lost life each of your opponent turns, making it that much easier to draw cards.
Other than that specific creature card, the deck is mostly going to be instants and free spells. Cards like Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will cost three or more mana usually and satisfy Y’shtola’s requirements, but also have alternative costs so that you don’t have to spend that much mana to cast them. Other recommendations are cards like Snuff Out and Deadly Rollick for free removal and Inkshield or Teferi’s Protection for protection that also still helps to trigger Y’shtola.
Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian
Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian is a Bant commander that represents Final Fantasy 10. It, like several other commanders in this color identity, cares about counters (though it’s uncaring about exactly what type of counters those are), and once a turn when one or more creatures you control with a counter on them deals combat damage to a player, you can draw a card and proliferate.
The first way to build this commander is to go absolutely nuts with the Planeswalkers. Cards like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, Teferi, Master of Time, and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria are perfect here, with incredible ultimate abilities awaiting those who can get to that point, while also still having pretty great Plus abilities.
The second, and most obvious, way to build this commander is to put The Ozolith into the deck and start making your creatures bigger and bigger with +1/+1 counters. To help with this strategy it’s best to include cards such as Bristly Bill, Spine Power, and Vorel of the Hull Clade in the deck since they can double the amount of counters of each of your creatures. It’s also worth including automatic counter doublers like Doubling Season, just to see how massive you can make your creatures.
Of course, you could always go the evil route and play Triumph of the Hordes, but that may result in a loss of respect from your peers.
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