Sunday, 6 July 2025

Final Fantasy - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: June 13th 2023

Set code: FIN

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

It may look bad but I write the card name above the card image because it makes searching through the set review easier and helps me repair the article if the card image drops for some reason.

I only list the cards which I believe are playable. Some of these cards may be power crept out of playability by the time you read this and perhaps there are cards I don't mention which do become playable due to a new combo, or I simply fail in my power evaluation. Unfortunately this method doesn't allow me to justify why I think some cards aren't playable but I gotta draw the line somewhere.


INTRO

Until now I have written these set reviews in chronological order. Unfortunately, due to laziness, life stuff and the increased number of sets released, I let the habit slip and am stuck back in Wilds of Eldraine. A bunch of people encouraged me to start up again, so I'm skipping to the current set, Final Fantasy. Hopefully I can get back and cover the ones I've missed, but we'll see.

Before I start listing cards, FIN brings a noticable rules change to Saga's. Here's an excerpt from the official release notes:

"...With the advent of Saga creatures, it's much easier to get into a situation where a Saga on the battlefield loses all of its abilities but is still a Saga enchantment. The result of this interaction was previously unintuitive to many players: since that Saga had no chapter abilities, the game defined the "greatest number among its chapter abilities" as zero, and no matter how many lore counters that Saga had on it, it would be sacrificed as a state-based action once it wasn't the source of a chapter ability on the stack (usually right away).

Starting with the release of Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, we're updating the rules: If a Saga has no chapter abilities, it won't be subject to the state-based action that would cause it to be sacrificed due to how many lore counters it has. Similarly, it won't be subject to the turn-based action that adds a lore counter to it at the beginning of your first main phase each turn..."

The most common interaction this will effect in Highlander is Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon/Harbinger of the Seas removing the chapter abilities from Urza's Saga. This used to 'kill' Urza's Saga but now it might actually help it, provided the chapter II ability has resolved for generating constructs.



THE CARDS


Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

I like seeing powerful double colour 2drops because you really need to commit your mana base to casting them. You can't just chuck them in 4colour good stuff decks. I personally aim for an ≈85% chance of success with my drops. I currently use Aetherhub's Hypergeometric Calculator. The below screenshot gives you an idea of the commitment I expect for a double colour 2drop:


24 sources is basically your entire mana base. Dauthi Voidwalker would probably be 2points if it was 1B to cast.

The first thing that comes to mind with ~ is drawing 4 cards by saccing him to Skullclamp. As long as you have cheap disruption/removal in your deck to recover from the tempo loss, that many extra cards is going to win you the game. I can't really imagine running ~ without Skullclamp.

Umezawa's Jitte is another powerful equipment that gets double triggers with ~. However, ~ will most likely be attacking to his death because he doesn't have evasion or first strike.

~ and Skullclamp are acceptable with Lurrus as your companion. Lurrus decks are controlling in nature and drawing 4 cards with Skullclamp fits that strategy. I've always had some form of 'White Weenie' deck built in highlander and ~ is perfect for my current build.
I am running 4 equipment in my monowhite Lurrus deck at the moment, but with the addition of ~ and the potential to recast him and Stoneforge Mystic from the graveyard with Lurrus, or bounce ~ with Karakas, I probably need to add a 5th equipment.

~ is a Mercenary, a creature type initially supported in Masques block but has seen no support until recently in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Notably there is a very cheap Mercenary tutor, Cateran Summons. I would happily pay an extra black mana on a preceding turn for ~ or Deadpool, Trading Card. Cateran Summons is one of those cards that could become impossible to find. Get your copy whilst you can.


Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

Sephiroth's sword, Masamune is so hilarious long it goes out of frame like Doug Dimmadome's hat.

I can see ~ in an Aristocrats/Yawgmoth style creature combo deck. The bottom of the curve being cheap disruption and a bunch of the cheap creatures, which you don't mind sacrificing. These death-happy creatures feature in some combos and are also fuel for the creature tutors which have an additional cost of sacrificing a creature. There are many of these, so you get a lot of consistency. 

~ is great when you have something to sacrifice and his 'Blood Artist' trigger is a win condition with several 'death loops', such as:

Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead

Removal is critical against midrange decks such as the very popular Grixis deck, which has enough disruption to break up combos and then finish the game with a dominating creature. Having lots of creature tutors gives you access to 'Chupacabras' whilst miniminsing the removal spells which may be bad against some combo decks and hardcore control decks with few, if any, targets.

Locally in Melbourne, Brookesy has put up a couple top8's with his Mardu tokens deck, which was inspired by the powerful mobilize mechanic from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. He tells me he was a Final Fantasy kid and is looking forward to flipping ~ EOT when his mobilize Warriors die.

~ is an Avatar, so you can't grab it with Overlord of the Balemurk.

When someone already has a Boo token from Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, it is easy to overlook the upkeep trigger, but cards like ~ give you value there.

Terra, Magical Adept


~ is pretty bad if you whiff. I recommend running at least 22 enchantments.

I can see ~ in a Naya enchantments deck. White would be the natural 3rd colour because of Serra's Sanctum and cheap removal like On Thin Ice and Chained to the Rocks. White also gives you the powerful sideboard options like Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, and Deafening Silence.

4 power is enough to trade with most creatures, therefore ~ is card advantage against noncombo decks. Against combo decks digs she digs for hate, therefore I think ~ is fine even without the transform ability. 
You can realistically activate ~ against grindy decks where you have the time, such as the popular Grixis/UB/UR decks. Serra's Sanctum's mana generation is helpful here, so much so that you may want to run nonbasic land tutors to find it. If so, you could also run Urza's Saga, Valgavoth's Lair and maybe even Karakas to bounce ~.

I wouldn't recommend relying on your graveyard because players are already running graveyard hate to deal with Reanimator decks. However, if you incidentally have a few mill effects like ~ or Dredger's Insight, then you could run a few cards like Replenish or Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Note that Rest in Peace from your sideboard will make your graveyard side-theme worse.

To boost Serra's Sanctum and other enchantment synergies, you can run ETB enchantments such as Abundant Growth, Oath of Nissa and Dredger's Insight. This may create the opportunity to run Yorion, Sky Nomad as a companion. Although, it's hard to say whether diluting your pointed cards would be worth it. I would have to test to find out, which is outside scope.

Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo

Semicolons in card names now. Surely that'll screw with someone's app or whatever.

Another decent ETB trigger for the Yorion enchantment deck. You typically aren't the beatdown with that style deck but blink ~ enough times and you will be.

Summon: Bahamut

I've never seen someone have success with Academy Rector but it is very powerful and ~ is a new option. Same with Replenish.

~ is a Dragon. There are several cards which let you 'cheat' a Dragon onto the battlefield, or a creature of a certain type. Looking through them I think Magda, Brazen Outlaw is perhaps the only realistic one.

I wanted to mention the following combo because it's cool, even though it's definitely not playable: Use The Creation of Avacyn to find Tom Bombadil and then have at least one massive GG Saga in your deck, e.g. ~ or the next card:

Summon: Knights of the Round

Round, round, baby, round, round
Another big enchantment to cheat onto the battlefield FTW.

Yuna, Hope of Spira

...speaking of ways to cheat big enchantments onto the battlefield.

It's hard to be sure that ~ is playable but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt because she still has significant board presence against graveyard hate like Keen-Eyed Curator. 
She is also difficult to kill; 5mana value puts her above Fatal Push and 5toughness puts her above Fury, although still bad against Unholy Heat / Snuff Out. At least the ward 2 makes it a recoverable tempo loss. Having ~ countered for 2mana is a problem, so is being unable to cast her because you're already dead or you've been Strip Mine'd.

You'll need disruption against combo decks and you'll want enchantments in your graveyard. That means going Abzan or Bant. 
Bant would give you looting effects and also Lay Claim and Shark Typhoon, which have cycling. The trick would be running enough blue cards to support Force of Will and Force of Negation. 
If you went Abzan, the black mana would give you hand disruption but not really looting, so I'd be leaning towards Bant.

Traveling Chocobo

Oracle of Mul Daya is the OG. It was printed in OG Zendikar. Since then there have been a few more:
Courser of Kruphix
Radha, Heart of Keld
Augur of Autumn
Glarb, Calamity's Augur

All these work nicely in 'Lands' strategies but they're also synergistic with Highlander's abundant library manipulation, that is fetchlands and cantrips. I think they all have their niche but Courser of Kruphix is the only one I've seen in a successful list recently (shoutout to Gene). For Gene, the life gain from Courser was valuable enough for offsetting the damage from Fastbond.

So what would be ~'s niche? Why will ~ succeed where the others have not? Well, helping find Nadu, Winged Wisdom is good, so is that addition trigger ability, would be siiick in a Yorion, Sky Nomad deck. Yorion is a BIRD.

There are plenty of little things that add up to make ~ playable:

Landfall triggers:
Lands with ETB's:
  • Surveil lands - even though two surveil1 triggers isn't a huge payoff, the high accessiblility of surveil lands makes the interaction with ~ quite good. 

  • Mystic Sanctuary - a cantrip will likely allow you to play a land off the top with ~, even if you put two spells on top with Mystic Sanctuary + ~.

  • Witch's Cottage - Lets you put a couple Birds from your graveyard on top of your library and cast them immediately with ~.
    Another cool thing would be swampcycling Troll of Khazad-dum to find Cottage and then revealing Troll to a     Caustic Bronco saddled by ~.

Choco, Seeker of Paradise and Bartz and Boko are excellent bird tribal payoffs but there's currently not enough to make bird tribal your main strategy. There are however, several generally good Birds you could chuck into a Yorion deck / Landfall deck / Combo Lands deck / Nadu deck to synergise with ~:
  • Birds of Paradise.
  • Mockingbird - explicitly remains a Bird, so if you copy an ETB creature, ~ will give you an additional trigger.
  • Ledger Shredder.
  • Baleful Strix - additional draw trigger.
  • Kishla Skimmer - ~ goes in 'Lands' decks, which naturally trigger Kishla Skimmer.
  • Aarakocra Sneak - additional Undercity trigger was too good not to mention.

Sazh's Chocobo

If you turn2 fetch into turn3 fetch you have a game winning threat. Obviously a bad mid-lategame topdeck but we're talking aggro here.

Having landfall cards in your deck creates interesting play decisions: Weighing the benefit of holding fetches in case you draw landfall cards, verses cracking them immediately for a surveil land.

~ is amazing with Hardened Scales. That deck could be real now with recent printings of ~, Scythecat Cub and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

Rydia, Summoner of Mist

Turn3 ~ + cracking a fetchland and dredging Golgari Grave-Troll twice = 13 cards in graveyard.

My bad meme at the start of the article is inaccurate because Hex Parasite is still very much friends with Urza's Saga, especially if you have ~. With the chapter III trigger you can go find Hex Parasite, then bring Urza's Saga back with ~ and use Hex Parasite to remove the finality counter from Urza's Saga.

~ is a Green Sun's Zenith-able discard outlet for madness cards and Vengevine et al. There are other green creatures that can discard but they each have their issues: Lotleth Troll is a little underpowered, Oblivious Bookworm is blue and needs to wait until end of turn, and Territorial Kavu can't rummage until it attacks. ~ requires a land drop and she's only a 1/2, so she's not ideal but she's situationally better than the others.

Self-Destruct

~ was good enough to win a Pro Tour and given the power creep of Standard, that would indicate that ~ is playable in Highlander too.
~ is not the best 'Fling', but it is one of the best and that's what matters in Highlander combo decks, redundancy.
At the moment we have, in rough power order:
Fling
Kessig Wolfrun

There are a bunch more expensive ones.
I may have missed some good cheap ones in my search because these effects have been worded so many different ways over the years.
I decided to include trample + haste but that's debatable if you consider that at the moment Natural Order is zero points and the opponent may have a 7/7 vigilance lifelink flier on turn3.

Having said all this, to make the flings playable you need a huge creature. Wall of Blood is the one that first comes to mind. There is also the following new card:

Tifa Lockhart

Attacking for 4power trample after a fetchland is ok. What you really want though is to pump ~. Even a Noble Heirarch exalted trigger + a fetchland is 6 power. If you have a serious pump spell like Scale Up + a fetchland, that's 24 trample damage, GG.
The trick of course is protecting ~ against removal, because you probably lose if you get 2-for-1'd.

Vivi Ornitier

A little vulnerable postboard considering the popularity of the four Blasts. Fatal Push and Karakas are also factors. Despite ~'s vulnerability, I think the power level is high enough to be worth the risk. If you can get ~ to ≥3 power then his first ability makes you at least mana neutral. If ~ lives a couple turns he is going to generate you a game winning amount of mana. Running counterspells for protection is a good idea, e.g. Force of Negation, Mental Misstep, Force of Will.

Temur Prowess decks have put up results in the past. ~ is a natural fit.
You really want the option of giving ~ haste. That way you can punish opponents for tapping out. The dream scenario is turn3 cast ~ with Arena of Glory, cast Invigorate and go crazy. Strong pump spell options include:

Reckless Charge
Wild Ride
Invigorate
Mutagenic Growth
Become Immense
Groundswell
Might of Old Krosa
Scale Up
Berserk

~'s activated ability is so powerful that it may be worth running Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

Aerith Gainsborough

Another card that's good with Agatha's Soul Cauldron but in a different way; It's a vulnerable 3card combo but a turn3 kill is always worth mentioning:
  • Turn2 Agatha's Soul Cauldron
  • Turn3 Walking Ballista X=0, it dies. 
  • Cast ~ and toss Ballista into the Cauldron giving ~ the +1/+1 counter. 
  • ~ can now remove the counter to ping the opponent for 1.
  • Her trigger gives her a replacement +1/+1 counter. 
  • Repeat ∞.

Astrologian's Planisphere

Most of the payoffs for casting lots of noncreature spells are creatures. Therefore the more of them you run, the weaker they all get. ~ however, is a payoff and a noncreature.

~ being an equipment makes incidental bodies better, e.g. Snapcaster Mage and tokens from Seasoned Pyromancer, Young Pyromancer and Third Path Iconoclast.

Notably, with the printing of ~ and Cori-Steel Cutter, incidental artifact destruction goes up a lot in value.

'Prowess' decks tend to run delirium cards because you naturally fill your graveyard with cantrips and baubles. ~ being an artifact is a little bonus for delirium in the event that ~ gets milled/discarded/countered/destroyed.

Equiping ~ to a Walking Ballista is powerful. Same goes for creatures with doublestrike and lifelink.

The Hero token being colourless is nice against Mother of Runes.

~ turns the equipped creature into a Wizard, which is nice for Flame of Anor.

Cecil, Dark Knight

It's quite easy to flip ~. The hard part is protecting him. You really want some combination of hand disruption, Mother of Runes type effects and counterspells. That way you can keep ~ alive after he's flipped and gain all that life back.

I dislike all flip cards for logistics reasons but ~ does have interesting play patterns. To be simplistic, you either trade ~ off immediately or never at all. Removal is good for the latter.

Plenty of Games here in Melbourne have been hosting a monthly 7point Highlander series. The FIN prerelease was two weeks before the most recent monthly, where Kyle came 2nd with his 8point Dimir deck featuring ~. Kyle has been crushing it lately. It's nice that ~ softens the life loss from Watery Grave. Kyle's deck is pretty much the perfect home for ~.

Clive's Hideaway

The setup is too unreliable to build around. I think you just chuck ~ into a legends deck and be happy to hit a 3mana, maybe 4mana spell.

To allow the colourless land I think you want to be mono coloured or a Jegantha deck with no double colour spells. Note that all the companions get a little boost in legend-strategies.

Adding spell lands such as Emeria's Call, Turntimber Symbiosis, Fell the Profane, Witch Enchanter, Boggart Trawler and Bridgeworks Battle will increase your hit density but remember that some of those may not meet companion criteria.

If you really want to hit big stuff of ~, then a ramp legends deck abusing Natural Order, Mox Amber, Honor-Worn Shaku and Relic of Legends would be the way to go. Ramp legends include Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, Bugenhagen, Wise Elder, Torgal, A Fine Hound and Nissa, Resurgent Animist. Let's count Bugenhagen and Torgal as tentatively playable.

Surprisingly you don't need to sac ~ as part of the activation, so there's an opportunity to return it to hand for extra value, e.g. with Tameshi, Reality Architect.

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant

errr, your poem doesn't ryhme!
His hand looks disproportiate right? Like he could scratch his shin whilst upright.

~'s stats aren't there when you compare him to the 2mana Tarmogoyf but I think there's enough other things going on that he will find a home in Mardu initiative/legends/humans. 

The rummage trigger helps dig for answers and key cards, similarly to the proven Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Tersa, Lightshatter. Mardu Initiative/Legends/Humans typically run Reanimate purely for it's efficiency and so ~'s rummage trigger helps the reanimation mini plan. Mardu Initiative also runs Ephemerate, which is nice with ~'s ETB.

Seifer Almasy

Eat your heart out Rafiq of the Many. Rafiq never saw play but I think ~ has a niche because he's monored and of course he might recast a couple things for free.
I'm imagining ~ in a 'big red' deck abusing Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors and Blood Moon. You'll be running the best burn spells to remove blockers and recast at their face. The recently Standard banned Monstrous Rage counts there too. If the metagame is right, you may even want Stone Rains, Molten Rain, etc.

~ can give your other dudes doublestrike; Imagine double hits with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer.

Squall, SeeD Mercenary

I was curious as to why ~ was so similar in design to Seifer Almasy, I googled it and sure enough they're rivals in Final Fantasy VIII. Good job design team.
Hard to say which of the two is better. Instants and sorceries are easier to get into the graveyard but there are more playable 3mana permanents than there are 3mana instants and sorceries, so if ~ connects you're likely to get more value. Neither of them leave behind any value if they're removed, so the plan for both of them would be to present a few other threats beforehand to eat all the opponent's removal and then hope that your 4drop goes unanswered. With that approach in mind, ~ is a little further ahead than Seifer.

~ is a Mercenary; so if you're running Cateran Summons for Deadpool, Trading Card, you'll want additional Mercenaries in case you've already used Deadpool. I think you want a minimum of three. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is second best and ~ could be your third. 

Serah Farron


Serah, Serra, Sarah, Sarah. Not as shameful as the planeswalkers that all have the same name though.

~ is more of a 4drop because if you cast her turn3 she might die before giving a 2mana discount.

Nice with Jegantha, the Wellspring.

Ramps to Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

I want to try a Naya Mana Crypt/Ancient Tomb deck with ~ and Shadow in the Warp.

Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn

If you're running a tonne of ≤1 mana legendary spells, then I like ~ as a turn4 'must answer' value threat.
I had a look through the cheap legendary spells; Most of them are aggro. ~ is not an aggro hard, she's a midrange card. To have enough cheap legends to support ~ I think you would need an artifact theme. Esper gives you the greatest quantity: 

Mox Amber
Mox Opal
Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful
Shadowspear
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Tasigur, the Golden Fang

That deck looks really fun. My style for sure.

Ambrosia Whiteheart

Not super powerful but there's probably enough utility:
  • You can save stuff in response to removal.
  • Pick up things with ETB triggers.
  • Pick up a Saga with the final chapter trigger on the stack.
  • Pick up chump blockers to bide time.
  • Lots of triggers for Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful.
  • Combo potential with Aluren.

Deadly Embrace

Risky against Force of Negation and Spell Pierce but I can see ~ in an aristocrats deck with Phyrexian Tower and perhaps some Eldrazi scions/spawns.

Dion, Bahamut's Dominant


Pretty close to good enough without any work: leaves behind some value if killed, 5power flying for 4mana and wins the long game if he survives activation.
Having said that I do think you need a lot of disruption in your deck to give ~ room. I also think you need some amount of synergy to justify a 4drop, e.g. Ephemerate, Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, Winota, Joiner of Forces or a bunch of Knights.

From Father to Son

All those kids expecting a car from their parents after playing XV...and then learning the brutal reality of generational wealth inequality.

"A computer! and a car! Thanks Mom and Dad"

I never overlook a 2mana to-hand tutor. Right now ~ is not actually playable but eventually there'll be some combo with a Vehicle. The only Vehicle combo I can think of right now is reanimating something huge with Greasefang, Okiba Boss, but that requires 'Entomb' rather than 'Demonic Tutor'.

Golbez, Crystal Collector

I can see ~ in a Dimir Time Vault combo deck or a Tinker control deck. The surveil trigger digs for the combo and fuels delve spells whilst the 4toughness gives you a decent blocker that survives Lightning Bolt.
The end step trigger is realistic and there are plenty of creatures to return that such a deck would want to run, e.g. Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, Baleful Strix and Basim Ibn Ishaq.
There may even be enough legends to support Mox Amber.

Phoenix Down

Good toolbox option for Brightglass Gearhulk

Machinst's Arsenal

In a Bots deck ~ is huuuuuge and comes down about turn3, which is a lot of pressure considering it's almost a oneshot if unblocked. Most decks will be able to chump block a few turns to survive but sometimes you'll have an evasion creature lying around and you can just equip ~ to it for the win, e.g. Stonecoil Serpent, Shadowspear or Night Scythe.
~ may be so huge that it's worth running Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper's Gift and Cloud, Midgar Mercenary to find it.

The Lunar Whale

Very powerful in Mishra's Workshop decks. Finding a crew of 1 is easy if you're going for a beatdown stompy style
.
Supporting the 'U' mana is tricky because you run heaps of colourless lands and you also really want green for Once Upon a Time and Boseiju, Who Endures. You probably need to run a few mana fixing spells to support two colours. The payoffs are there though: Tinker, Urza, Lord High Artificer, Kappa Canoneer, Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass, etc.

Having said all this, being weak to Null Rod et al is a big strike against ~. Maybe you board it out or maybe you get creative with adding extra answers to Null Rod postboard.

Not being able to attack into a Baleful Strix is also pretty awkward also...I dunno, a current Workshop player can tell me what they think.

Commune with Beavers

Not that kind of Beaver.

Bots often run green for Once Upon a Time and Ancient Stirrings to find their powerful lands, or a threat if they already have enough mana. ~ is roughly three fifths as good as Ancient Stirrings but that's probably still good enough considering how happy most blue decks are to run Ponder.

Going further down the list:

  • I don't think Abundant Harvest is suitable for the Mishra's Workshop decks because too often you'll find an average land or an average spell.

  • Crop Rotation is absolutely powerful enough despite Mental Misstep. Doubling the number of turn1 Workshops does not sound fun. I hope Crop Rotation never goes to zero.

  • I don't think Commune with Dinosaurs gets there because it only hits lands and is only better than Llanowar Elves if it hits a pointed land, i.e. Urza's Saga, Tolarian Academy, Planar Nexus, Mishra's Workshop and maybe Urza's Workshop. 5 in 60 is just over a 40% chance, i.e. not enough.

  • Oath of Nissa and Adventurous Impulse only hit lands and creatures. Currently Workshop decks run less than 15 creatures and therefore the chances of hitting a threat in 3 cards is too low.

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo

Cast ~ turn2 then turn3 drop an equipment with a huge equip cost:

Belt of Giant Strength
Colossal Hammer
Steel Shaper's Gift
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
Stoneforge Mystic
Urza's Saga
Enlightened Tutor

The 'Hammer Time' archetype can consistently put a Hammer on a dude now. Protecting the creature is another matter.

Delivery Moogle

Never dismiss a tutor in Highlander.
Artifact combo decks naturally have acceleration, so ~ being 4mana is not so bad.
~ finds both halves of:
  • Time Vault + Voltaic Key
  • Painter's Servant + Grindstone
  • Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry
  • Agatha's Soul Cauldron + Steel Overseer

Sidequest: Hunt the Mark


There might be a Treasure deck with other payoffs such as:
Tolarian Academy

Samurai's Katana

You pick up the katana and BECOME a Samurai. Easy peasy Japanesey.
Maybe there's a stompy monored artifact deck with Gleeful Demolition, Kuldotha Rebirth, Goblin Tomb Raider, Assaultron Dominator, Atog, Ravenous Intruder, Dowsing Device, Shrapnel Blast, Galvanic Blast, Legion Extruder, etc

World Map

A bad Expedition Map; 1mana difference to activate is huge, especially when mana generation is involved. Think of the power difference between Llanowar Elves and Woodland Mystic. 
Despite being worse than Expedition Map, I still think ~ is good enough for an all-in Tolarian Academy deck where you make up the cost of the tutor immediately.

If you already have the Tolarian Academy then you can go find Urza's Saga, or Minamo, School at Water's Edge, depending on how you're trying to win.

Being able to find a basic is handy because you might have a different tutor for Tolarian Academy in hand but you're short on lands. Or you need a basic against Back to Basics, which is quite popular in Melbourne at the moment (Thanks Kyyyle).

Black Mage's Rod

Firebrand Archer was never loved but I can see ~ being fringe playable in some artifact combo deck with Scrap Trawler recurring Black Lotus or whatever. Especially if that deck is already running equipment tutors and Skullclamp-ing Memnite and Genesis Chamber tokens blah blah blah.

Sazh Katzroy

Finds Nadu, Winged Wisdom.

If they counter ~ then you have to say his flavour text out loud.

My current project deck is Bant Nadu. I've had a few top8's with it and here's my list from the latest PoG monthly. I reckon I'm 2-3 cards from fully tuned and I think it's good enough to win a major tournament. 

~ was legal for the last PoG monthly but I didn't include him because he doesn't find an en-kor creature. Thinking about him more now, he's a genuine threat and the trigger is still handy if you already have Nadu: You can find a Birds of Paradise to chump a Murktide Regent, or find a basic for hardcasting Atraxa, or to get white mana against Blood Moon.

Looking at my list, if I wanted to try ~ I think I would cut Invasion of Ikoria, a land or Ignoble Heirarch. 

Loyal Retainers is important for converting creature tutors into Nadu-reanimation. However, if I don't have Nadu or Atraxa in the graveyard, Loyal Retainers is pretty bad. Having ~ as one more legend to reanimate makes Loyal Retainers a little bit better.

I don't run Shuko in my build but I wouldn't fault other for doing so. In that build you would have a lot more artifacts, i.e. historic spells, which would open up the option to use Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle or Moira and Teshar as tutorable birds to return Nadu from the graveyard.

Sin, Spira's Punishment

Possibly a backup to Atraxa, Grand Unifier in a Natural Order deck.
~ is competing against:
Vaultborn Tyrant
Torsten, Founder of Benalia
Craterhoof Behemoth
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

What could put ~ above the others?
  • ~ pitches to Grief/Subtlety/Force of Will/Sickening Shoal.
  • ~ repeats if it copies a land from your graveyard, so ~ gets a boost if you run cards with landfall triggers.
  • ~ is awesome with Rain of Filth and Squandered Resources.

Note that ~ is an Avatar, so you can't take it with Overlord of the Balemurk.

Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant

"How about a two-piece combo of me and Illusions of Grandeur for W+3U+2?".

Esper Origins


Ever since Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis was printed I've always had some form of BGx graveyard creature deck simmering away. These decks typically feature Survival of the Fittest and Vengevine, so naturally they loot cards and they have a high density of creatures (good for chapter I and III of Summon: Esper Maduin). 
You don't want to cast ~, 1G surveil 2, gain 2 is not a card. You really want to loot it away with something like Territorial Kavu, in which case ~ is just straight value.

Town Greeter

Very niche but years ago my local meta had very little combo and was all Grixis midrange. I built a deck that was all 'Chupcabras' and graveyard recursion creatures. Satyr Wayfinder performed well as a body for Skullclamp/Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis/Birthing Pod and a way to mill threats like Vengevine. What killed that deck was the printing of Thassa's Oracle.
I'm not saying that today's meta is similar, I'm just saying that there are metagames where ~ could be playable. For that to happen again I think we'd need significant points changes. Right now there are too many ways to effectively win on turn3, e.g. Tinker, Natural Order, Flash, Underworld Breach, Nadu. To interact with these cards you need more than sorcery-speed creature removal.

Garland, Knight of Cornelia


A very bad Dragon's Rage Channeler but still a possible addition to the Lurrus Underworld Breach deck, purely because that surveil trigger is so good at digging for the combo whilst filling the graveyard.

Matoya, Archon Elder

~ combos with Garland, Knight of Cornelia and Dragon's Rage Channeler but is otherwise pretty slow.
Also triggers off surveil lands.

Summon: Brynhildr

Good aggro 2drop. Also good for giving haste in creature combo decks. ~ does add a couple build restrictions though:
  1. ~ asks you to play all proactive cards. For example, Mental Misstep is bad to exile. Don't get me wrong, Mental Misstep is probably too important to cut as an answer to combo.

  2. Running nothing >4 mana because if you cast ~ turn2 and reveal a 5drop, you won't be able to cast it unless you have mana acceleration.
Dying on the spot turn2 to a Wrenn and Six is the floor but I think the ceiling is high enough to be worth the risk: Imagine exiling a land then next turn comboing off with Hermit Druid or Prime Speaker Vannifar.

Battle Menu

Good utility for the Polymorph deck.

Sorceress's Schemes

I like ~ exclusively with Time Walk. You'll need a tonne of tutors to ensure access to Time Walk every game.

There are enough of these flashback Relearn cards now that a simple Gifts Ungiven package is probably enough to win the game. Imagine end of your opponent's turn4 you Gifts Ungiven for:


No matter which combination they give you, if you hit a couple land drops you'll get at least 5 extra turns:
Turn4, Gifts Ungiven.
Turn5, land, Dryad's Revival getting back Time Walk (2G + 1U)
Turn6, land, Mystic Retrieval getting back Time Walk (3U + 1U)
Turn7, flashback Mystic Retrieval on Time Walk (2R + 1U)
Turn8, flashback ~ on Time Walk (3R + 1U)
Turn9, land, flashback Dryad's Revival on Time Walk (4G + 1U)

You're tapping out completely on turns 5, 6 and 9, so you may not be able to do much with the extra turns but you still get 5 cards, up to 5 land drops and all your mana on turn 10 so surely you win the game there. 

If you use Intuition rather than Gifts Ungiven you will still need to wait until 5mana because the cheapest redundant package is Time Walk + ~ + Dryad's Revival.
This package gets you 3 extra turns but you need to hit a land each turn to keep going and you tap out each turn. In the end you'll have 3 extra cards and at least 7 lands untapped, so you probably still win, especially if you dropped a creature turn2 and was able to attack with it each of those turns.

Obviously there is a large build cost, i.e. running all these expensive flashback Relearns, so like I said, the key is having enough tutors to always have the Time Walk and then hope it doesn't get exiled by Force of Negation.

If you somehow get to 12 lands, casting ~ from hand on an exiled Mystic Retrieval is an infinite loop with Time Walk. Chuck a Mana Flare in there and you can halve the land requirement :P.

Magic Damper

A couple years ago Juzza came second at a major tournament running Shore Up. Maybe it's still good enough or maybe you're gonna wish you hadn't.

Zell Dincht

Dies easily but works well with:
  • Landfall trigger cards
  • Surveil lands
  • Talon Gates of Madara
  • Khalni Garden
  • Urza's Saga
  • Mystic Sanctuary
  • MDFC's which are lands (pick them up to cast as spells)
  • The new adventure lands:

Lindblum, Industrial Regency

A bit slow but it might find a home:
Monored Storm?
An extra Wizard for Flame of Anor?
Polymorph?
Burn?

Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis

Might have a home in my old Scapeshift deck. You basically run Rampant Growths, Time Walk and a bunch of tutors to cast Scapeshift with seven lands as fast as possible to kill them with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. It sounds crappy but it kills turn4 most of the time. If Opposition Agent wasn't popular then I would actually play the deck.
The deck rarely has a turn1 play so an ETB tapped land is fine.
Something that may keep ~ from getting added to the deck is most recent pointing of Lutri, the Spellshaper. Time Walk is critical for the deck's speed and is therefore uncuttable. Lutri was the deck's answer to Counterspell. Now I can't run both and therefore I've turned to Mystic Sanctuary as a backup. Having the critical mass of Islands has put an even greater strain on the mana base. Admittedly I haven't actually tested the Mystic Sanctuary build. If after testing, the mana doesn't work, then I'll cut Mystic Sanctuary and the extra islands and ~ can get in there.

Ishgard, the Holy See

Very niche but ~ can go in control decks which utilise Urza's Saga.

Starting Town

There are extreme combo decks which want all 5 colours and don't care much about life loss because they're aiming to kill the opponent by turn3. I've run City of Brass, Mana Confluence and Gemstone Mine in such decks before, e.g. Hermit Druid combo back in the day.
I can also imagine ~ finding a home in some artifact decks because they often have several light splashes which don't need to be consistent, e.g. Boseiju, Who Endures, Phyrexian Metamorph, Cranial Plating, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Once Upon a Time, Dismember, etc.

SIDEBOARD CARDS


Ultima

Over the last few years the Workshop decks have moved away from artifact lands to become resilient against hate such as Null Rod and Seeds of Innocence. With the release of Modern Horizons III they have even leaned into Eldrazi for further resilence. ~ hits artifacts and Eldrazi.
Artifact decks can kill pretty quickly so you can't just 'land go' for the first 4 turns. It's very difficult to break the symmetry of ~. The best way to do it would be playing extra lands with Fastbond, Explore, etc.

Kain, Traitorous Dragoon

I'm not a Storm player but ~ might be good postboard after the opponent takes out removal?

Zenos yae Galvus


'My First Friend'

I can imagine ~ in the sideboard of Jordan's 'Eclipse' deck, that he's had recent success with.

Fire Magic

"1 damage to each creature" was a sorcery until now.

Poison the Waters

Pretty weak but is a decent answer to True-Name Nemesis and Ocelot Pride if that card is popular in your meta.

CONCLUSION


Boom! Set review complete. Good to be back. Set reviews are always better before the prerelease, so I'll try get my Edge of Eternities review done before 25th July 2025. 
Also, identifying the good cards proactively means we can preorder the underpriced ones and save some money!

Here are my picks for the notably strong FIN cards in roughly descending power order:


Sadly I can't make it to Pat's recently announced Black Lotus event in Sydney (devastated). However, I will be at the next few PoG monthly events here in Melboure, so hopefully see you at one of those.

Cheers,

Mulch.
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