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Welcome back!
If you didn't catch our Final Fantasy article going over the White cards, be sure to check that one out first. I recount my history with the game franchise and how it created some of my fondest gaming memories.
Final Fantasy previews are still pouring out, and the set looks great so far. It's really hitting a lot of nostalgia for me, and I'm sure for everyone else as well. I was a bit critical at first, because I thought cramming all 16 games into one set would be a bit chaotic. I still think it feels a bit chaotic because of this, but the set's designs have been great nonetheless.
In this and the next few articles, I'll be discussing some of my favorite cards that have appeared so far, and in each article I'll mention the latest date of previews I've seen, in case you wonder why I didn't include a specific card. For this one we'll be looking at cards up to 5/21.
Let's begin!
Dreams of Laguna
This is just Think Twice, but you also get to Surveil 1 with each casting, and the flashback cost is one more mana. Other than that...same card! If you combine this with another card farther down on the list, you get to draw two cards for each casting.
Edgar, King of Figaro
As a huge Final Fantasy 3/6 stan, holy smokes do I love Edgar. I'm not a Commander player at all, but this makes me want to build a Commander deck around him. Assuming you've built any sort of deck around him, there's no way you draw fewer than three cards off of him when he comes into play, and that's a pretty good deal for six mana. If you find a way to exploit his coin flipping ability, I'm sure it can be an incredibly powerful one, and the fact that it will work on each turn makes it even better.
Edgar is so lucky.
Ice Magic
Every set typically has some number of a series of Blue cards: one cheap card that bounces a creature, one medium cost card that can put a creature on top of the library, and one expensive card that gets rid of the creature altogether in a very Blue way.
Well, in true "every ability is kicker" fashion, we now have the tiered ability. This reminds me a lot of the Outlaws of Thunder Junction mechanic "spree," except with tiered you can only choose one mode. That's totally fine, though, since this is basically three very common abilities on the same card, and depending on where in the game you are, you can just choose the one that suits you best.
While I do think eight mana for the Blizzaga mode is a bit high of a cost, this is a great card and I would love to see more cards with the spree or tiered mechanics on them.
Jill, Shiva's Dominant
Three-mana 2/2 creatures that bounce something have been around since the earliest days of Magic, but they just seem to keep getting better and better. First I had a copy of Barrin, Tolarian Archmage in my Cube. Then I upgraded to Aether Channeler, which just did a lot more. Now I'm wondering if Jill is just the best option yet? I think she might be.
She goes from being a 2/2 that can bounce any permanent, to a legitimate 4/5 threat that can make herself or another creature unblockable for two turns, then she taps down all the opponent's lands, before transforming back and bouncing something else!
Matoya, Archon Elder
Another three-mana creature, Matoya is a 1/4 that changes all your scrys and surveils to card draws. But it doesn't really change them, so much as adds to them, since you still get to scry or surveil before you draw the card. It's not a replacement effect, which makes this a much stronger ability. Turning every Preordain or Serum Visions into a "draw two" for one mana is seriously good.
Y'shtola Rhul
The one thing I don't like about Y'shtola is that she costs six mana, just like Edgar. These are both pretty expensive cards, but they also very clearly "build arounds."
I'm a big fan of Roon of the Hidden Realm because I love being able to blink cards with "enters the battlefield" abilities, and Y'shtola is not only able to blink twice every turn, but she also doubles any other "end of turn" effects that trigger as well. I haven't even begun to think about the best possible cards or effects to take advantage of this, but I know a ton of people will try to break this card in half.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
