Building Around Final Fantasy Summons in Commander with Tom Bombadil

Posted on July 4, 2025

Hello everyone! I'm Levi of The Thought Vessel, and today we're exploring another deck tech. This week, we're looking at a commander that just got a major makeover with the latest set, Final Fantasy. The commander I'm talking about, of course, is Tom Bombadil. Before we dive into the deck itself, I should probably explain how this deck came to be. I was overjoyed when I learned we were getting a Final Fantasy set for Magic: The Gathering, as Final Fantasy X is my favorite video game of all time. The first thing I thought of was the hope for a five-color Yuna that could play all the Aeons. Unfortunately, we did get multiple Yunas, but also a lot of really neat Summons in Red and Black that couldn't be played. Enter Tom Bombadil.

The Commander and Deck

Tom Bombadil is a five-color lore counter machine. You gain protection by having Sagas with lore counters out, and he consistently keeps your board full by replacing one sacrificed Saga per turn. Outside of card restrictions, the game plan options are pretty open. We could go for an enchantress style and take advantage of the enchantment synergies. We could flood the board with tokens and go wide. We could even lean into planeswalkers and run a lot of cards with proliferate. But for this deck, we're focused on Summon creatures and trying to win through combat, with some extra Sagas to round things out. It's more of a bracket two strategy--slower-paced, winning over time without explosive combos or finishers. That said, there is one notable exception, which I'll get into later. But first, let's talk about some key cards.

Key Sagas

Sagas are the name of the game here. These are enchantments or enchantment creatures that enter on chapter one and trigger an effect each turn. As turns progress, the Saga gains chapters until it reaches its final chapter and sacrifices itself. This deck runs a healthy number of these to support our commander, but a few really stand out.

The first is Summon: Bahamut. One of the strongest Aeons in Final Fantasy X, this Saga Creature lives up to the hype. In chapters one and two, you simply destroy target nonland permanents with no restrictions. Chapter three lets you draw two cards, and if it survives until chapter four, it deals damage to each opponent equal to the mana value of all your other permanents. With just our commander out, that's five damage. In the right game, this ability could deal over 30 damage without breaking a sweat. It can absolutely end the game.

Summon: Knights of the Round is next. Normally I'd hesitate to include too many seven-mana Sagas, but since Tom Bombadil can cheat them into play--sometimes even ramping--it's worth it. This one creates three 2/2 Knight tokens each turn until chapter five, where your entire board gets +2/+2 and indestructible counters.

The Eldest Reborn isn't a Summon, but it has big impact. First, it forces each opponent to sacrifice a creature, then discard a card. On its final chapter, you return a creature from a graveyard--ideally one of your Summons. Since it has only three chapters, it's easy to get it sacrificed quickly so Tom can trigger again.

The Apprentice's Folly lets us copy our non-token creatures, and since most of our Summon Sagas aren't legendary, that's great value. The downside is if it reaches chapter three, all those copies are exiled. Fortunately, with the amount of counter manipulation in the deck, it's not hard to prevent that from happening.

Counter Manipulation

Speaking of counter manipulation, this deck has plenty of ways to add, remove, or reset lore counters. Brago, King Eternal is fantastic for this, and a personal favorite of mine--much to my pod's annoyance. When a Saga is blinked, it comes back with its counters reset, letting us reuse powerful effects. O'aka, Traveling Merchant is another great support card, letting us remove one lore counter per turn to draw a card.

Atomize is a strong removal spell that also proliferates, which can trigger chapters on other players' turns. If a Saga completes on an opponent's turn, Tom Bombadil still triggers and replaces it. Sigurd, Jarl of Ravensthorpe is an MVP, as it can add or remove lore counters to line up our sacrifices. He also gets +1/+1 counters whenever a lore counter is added to a Saga, making him a serious combat threat.

So... How Do We Win?

Win conditions are simple: we're going for combat damage or Summon: Bahamut's final chapter. But technically, there is a combo here--though it takes a lot of luck. The key cards are Terra, Magical Adept (specifically the back side, Esper Terra) and Yenna, Redtooth Regent. Yenna can copy Esper Terra, which is no longer legendary. When Esper Terra enters, it can copy a non legendary enchantment. It doesn't say "another," so it can copy itself, giving the copy haste. That hasty copy can repeat the process until you've got a horde of hasty 6/6 flying enchantment creatures that can swing for lethal damage. You'd need both cards in play, flip Terra, and activate Yenna without anyone interrupting over multiple turns. It's unlikely--but glorious if it works.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, the new Summon creatures have given Tom Bombadil a more combat-oriented playstyle, and it's incredibly fun. Fair warning, though--when you've got a bunch of Sagas out, turns can take time, so be ready for that. Until next time, happy gaming!