Final Fantasy: Universes Beyond is just around the corner, and if I know anything from my limited time (I played through FFII once), it's that your team matters. That means we're probably going to need to assemble a Party.

In Magic, a party is any combination of Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard. It's a "batching mechanic", which is what the mucky-mucks at Wizards call it when they group things. A Party counts each type, only one of each type, and each one it counts only counts as one Party member. That means: A Party is 0-4 Creatures; it'll count "Rogue" as long as you have one, but if you have four Rogues it still counts as one; and if for some reason you manage to make a "Wizard Rogue", it can only count for one slot or the other.

This is... tricky. Most of the payoff cards, like Burakos, Party Leader, count the number of Creatures in your Party. Others care if you have a full Party, like Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate which means you want to have one of each on the Battlefield as much as possible.

I'm going to help you do that.

We're not going to talk about the various Creatures. We're not going to talk about the payoffs. These are tricks to maximize the possibility of seeing at least one of each Creature in a full Party at any given time.

1) Do your math.

Most likely, based on the breakdown of Magic players, you're here for Commander. But the rules are the same for 60-card Magic. You have a number of nonland cards. Each one has a 1/X chance of being drawn, where X is the number of cards in your deck, with each draw. If you're building a Commander deck with 24 Creatures, then, the thing to do is divide them as evenly as possible, which would mean six of each type. Divide your Creature slots by 4 and fill each slot with one of the Party Creature types.

2) Cheat a little.

Veteran Adventurer and some other cards specifically count as all four Party types. This is awesome, and assuming any color restrictions allow it, those cards should be included. Additionally, Changelings (cards with the "Changeling" keyword, like Amoeboid Changeling) are all Creature types at all times. They can only count for one member, but they can be the one type you're missing.

3) Dig, dig, dig.

You need to move through cards. Decks with access to cards like Brainstorm can Scry their way through their deck, ditching anything that doesn't move them closer to a full party. Every deck has access to some of these effects, with Artifacts like Sensei's Divining Top and Crystal Ball. Surveil is another great way to work your way through cards, though you'll want to think about the implications of lots of cards going to the 'yard. Tazri, Beacon of Unity is slow for 60-card, but would be a fine Party Commander, giving you access to every color and digging you six, with a payoff of two cards, for four mana.

Key to the City is a great example of the sort of thing a deck like this might want. Ditch something you don't need in your hand, draw another card, and get one of your Creatures through in the meantime. Looting and Rummaging work too - it doesn't really matter if you draw first or draw after, because you'll know what you're looking for.

Regular old card draw is also great, of course, though cards that let you see more - like Read the Bones or Behold the Multiverse - are probably more important than sheer volume of cards, like Jace's Ingenuity.

4) Cheat a lot.

Look, Demonic Tutor is a thing, and it's legal in Commander. Beseech the Mirror and Insatiable Avarice are just two examples of tutors legal in Standard at the time of this writing. Despite all the discussion around facedown tutors and very strong opinions, Wizards makes sure we have one or two in rotation at all times. It's a thing. A tutor is the card you need, normally a turn later but precisely right. Plus they work well when your party is assembled and now you're looking for your payoff - something a Veteran Adventurer can't do.

In Commander, it gets even crazier, with cards like Fauna Shaman, Birthing Pod, and Worldly Tutor floating around. I can see a very patient Commander builder assembling a Party with Planar Portal. (Now that's dedication!) If you want to search for the exact card you want, you can do that. It's likely this is simply the most efficient way to do it.

5) Don't worry about it.

This one's for our Timmy/Tammies, our fun-loving friends who genuinely don't care if they win or lose, they just want to play. You can decide to just run the cards you want and hope. Barring some very specific corner cases, you won't be paid less and no one will look down on you. If you've never played Magic this way, I encourage you to try it, at least once. I find it really fun.

The truth is, these concepts are not at all Party-specific. They work for when you need to find something specific. Parties are just a particular brand of challenge, as you're essentially assembling a four-piece combo that doesn't automatically win the game. Hopefully these ideas can help get you on the road to adventure!

Thanks for reading.