Final Fantasy's leap into the world of Commander Magic wasn't just a lore-lover's dream - it was a designer's flex. Across the color pie, each shard of nostalgia came packed with real mechanical relevance. But Black, almost more than any other color in the set, delivered a toolkit of cards that feel like they were pulled straight from your favorite nightmare (or final fantasy, get it?) and into your decklist.

These aren't just flavorful nods to iconic villains and dark forces - these are cards that fit seamlessly into aristocrats, control, sacrifice, and reanimator strategies. You've got staples. You've got build-arounds. You've even got a land that eats up a creature to draw you cards and then can be played as a land afterwards. If you're like me and appreciate your value engines with a little villain arc, then Final Fantasy's Black cards deserve your attention.

Let's get to the shadowy stuff.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER / One-Winged Angel

Sephiroth begins as a modest 3/3 with two extremely useful effects. He draws you cards when you sacrifice creatures during his ETB or attacks - perfect for decks that naturally generate fodder. But the real show begins when four creatures die in a single turn, allowing him to transform into Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel.

On his flipped side, he grants you an emblem that drains your opponents for one life every time a creature dies - forever. That stacks fast in token-heavy or aristocrats shells. And he still offers card draw, except now it scales: you can sacrifice any number of creatures during combat and draw that many cards. This is the perfect finisher in a deck already built to churn through tokens, recur fodder, or chain sacrifice loops. Sacrifice engines like Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar are no-brainers. But in a pod of four? Innocent Blood will transform ol' Sephy ASAP.

It's hard to think of a Black commander more self-contained and satisfying than Sephiroth. He's removal bait early and an inevitable engine late. He's also the coolest transformation trigger we've seen in years.

Zodiark, Umbral God

Zodiark enters the battlefield and forces each player to sacrifice half of their non-God creatures, rounded down. That's already a one-sided board wipe if your deck is light on creatures or built to go wide and recover quickly. But it doesn't stop there - every sacrifice that follows puts a +1/+1 counter on Zodiark, turning him into a snowballing, indestructible threat that demands removal.

You're not just running Zodiark for the board impact - you're running it as a value engine in Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed builds. It works beautifully with cards that force sacrifice, especially in multiplayer: Butcher of Malakir, Plaguecrafter, or The Meathook Massacre. And because Zodiark is indestructible, it also pairs well with board wipes that leave it as the last God standing.

This isn't a flashy commander - it's an apex predator. And once it's on board, it rarely stays small for long.

The Darkness Crystal

This legendary artifact does a lot with little fanfare. First, it reduces the cost of your Black spells - a welcome cost cutter for decks that run high cost Black finishers like Torment of Hailfire, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. But it also comes with a secondary passive that rewards you every time a nontoken creature an opponent controls dies - you exile it and gain 2 life.

That's disruption, incidental lifegain, and graveyard hate all in one neat package. But wait - there's more. For seven mana, you can bring back a creature exiled this way, under your control, with two +1/+1 counters. That's stealing what you've already killed and turning it into a threat of your own.

It fits cleanly into reanimator, life drain, or even just goodstuff Black decks. It's a card that works better the longer it stays on board, and one that scales wildly in multiplayer pods.

Midgar, City of Mako

This card is quietly brilliant. As a land, it's already playable - it enters tapped and taps for Black. But what makes it shine is that before it hits the battlefield, it functions as an Adventure spell called Reactor Raid. That spell lets you sacrifice an artifact or creature to draw two cards.

Black decks thrive on sacrifice outlets and death triggers, so getting to cash in a treasure or a token for two cards is instant value. And then you still get a land out of it! In many ways, this feels like a Black staple as you get tempo early, value midgame, and it never rots in hand.

It's perfect for commanders that rely on fodder or death triggers, like Teysa Karlov, Golbez, Crystal Collector, or Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. You'll rarely feel bad about drawing this, because at nearly every point in the game, it will give you something useful.

Gaius van Baelsar

A flexible edict effect in the command zone or 99? Yes please. Gaius gives you a choice between three symmetrical but pointed removal modes: creature tokens, nontoken creatures, or enchantments. That makes him one of the most modular Black four-drops in recent memory.

This kind of targeted edict is a political tool and a pressure valve. If your table is full of token decks, use the first mode. If someone's hiding behind Ghostly Prison or Smothering Tithe, target enchantments. Against Voltron or reanimator decks, go after nontoken creatures. There's always someone who's going to be annoyed with Gaius... and that's what makes him good.

In the right shell, Gaius becomes more than a disruption tool. He's a repeatable lever that tilts the board every time he resolves.

Final Thoughts

Final Fantasy's foray into Magic: the Gathering didn't just give us nostalgia - it gave us weapons. These five Black cards are efficient, synergistic, and brutally elegant.

And honestly, most of them aren't just good for a Universes Beyond set - they're just good, period. Expect to see these cards across EDH tables for months (or years) to come.