So, I was going over the Final Fantasy spoiler to figure out what I wanted to talk about on an upcoming Standard-focused episode of the Ancestral Recall podcast with my fellow CoolStuffInc contributor, Roman Fusco.
This one caught my eye:
I was interested in Ultima immediately because artifacts have been a chink in the soft underbelly of white defensive armor since the rotation of Farewell. Authority of the Consuls has certainly helped in recent months, but poor White control decks have, at least off-and-on, been knocked around silly by Urabrask's Forge and other pesky artifacts.
So, I'm down.
I have long harbored a probably unhealthy bias for Sunfall despite the availability of Day of Judgment and even Split Up in Standard. Five isn't a problem for me. More than that, Temporary Lockdown is not going to be with us for much longer, so a way to kill not only Cori-Steel Cutter but all the Cori-Steel Cutters on the battlefield is something all White mages are going to be interested in soon.
Then I looked a little closer.
End the turn.
Ultima turns off Heartfire Hero and Cacophony Scamp!
Woah!
I know it costs five, but that's kind of cool, isn't it?
Then I looked not closer, but around.
Lifelink, lifelink everywhere. In fact, there are nineteen cards with the word "lifelink" on them in Final Fantasy (not even counting other things that have to do with gaining life). That's about twice as many instances of the keyword as you'll see in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Aetherdrift, or Duskmourn: House of Horror. Bloomburrow has... Wait for it... two. The nice people in Renton, WA do look at Standard over time, and when they were making Final Fantasy probably had some idea that various Red aggro decks were going to be some of the most popular ones in the format.
So, I got to thinking...
Is there enough "lifelink" in Final Fantasy to finally put an end to the dominance of basic mountains feeding pump spells? Can we get the mice to cower over into Pioneer? My favorite decks from the last Standard format were Blue-White Control, Orzhov bounce, and Jeskai Control... All decks that excelled against aggressive strategies (primarily due to many copies of the soon-to-be-departing Temporary Lockdown in all of them). But by the same token, these were all in some way "anti-" decks; they were all good in part because Red was such a good Plan A; and its popularity gave these ones purchase in the metagame. Could there now be decks with Plans A of their own(s) so enticing they could lure Red mages away? Especially if gaining life - inherently hostile - were part of the mix?
I decided to look at the 19 lifelink cards from the new set, and see how many are good enough, and maybe good enough to snuff out the popularity of the Red aggro strategies various.
1. Adelbert Steiner
2/1 lifelink for isn't the worst rate in the world. But 2/1 lifelink for
also isn't getting you very far unless 1) you're actually in it for the lifelink, and 2) there is a low expectation of Adelbert Steiner being removed before paying you off.
One toughness (Adelbert's base stat) is not a great place to be specifically against the Red decks, which tend to have cheap removal. I don't know where the Boros equipment decks are going to actually stabilize, but this card doesn't seem like a bad include in that archetype, especially as Adelbert provides built-in racing synergy against other aggressive decks.
I think I love this card as a sideboard card though. It's very "Dennick, Pious Apprentice" to me. You can just slam 4 copies in from a bunch of different decks with the plan of trading with base 1/1s (and the occasional pre-Monstrous Rage Emberheart Challenger), especially in decks with equipment. Think about Azorius Artifacts. That deck can already have Cryptic Coat and Assimilation Aegis. What you're looking for is a cheap play to block and trade; that you can get bonuses aplenty for artifacts you would just play anyway is just gravy.
Rating: Sideboard, probably.
2. Aerith Gainsborogh
Kill on sight?
A 2/2 for three mana is kind of a terrible rate. A 2/2 for 3 with lifelink is starting to look less awful; and one with Aerith's +1/+1 ability is actually wiggling into the conversationl. Imagine you just played Adelbert Steiner on turn two, Aerith Gainsborough on turn three, and sent Adelbert into The Red Zone. I don't know if he'd come home at the end of combat, but I do know that Aerith would start the opponent's turn as a 3/3 lifelink with that Legendary Arcbound Ravager-esque counter ability queued up.
I'm not really sold on a 1/2 Moogle on ; but that's kind of a problematic 2-3 if not 1-2-3 for any aggressive deck, and gives you an alternate way to trigger Aerith in games you didn't draw Adelbert.
Aerith can hold her own in some contexts (a sideboard card for some control strategies where the opponent doesn't have a lot of removal, maybe) but she's probably a cog in a lifegain deck; and pretty good at that job.
I said already that I don't know how the "Boros Equipment" deck is going to look, but what if we shifted toward just White Legends as an academic exercise? Consider all the overlapping synergies just in White, just in Final Fantasy...
Adelbert Steiner + Aerith Gainsborough: Life and lifelink
Adelbert Steiner + Cloud, Midgar Mercenary: equipment
Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn // Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal + all these guys: Legendary
Aerith Gainsborough + Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn // Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal: +1/+1 counters
So, you can have a deck of all White Legends, some of which are finding equipment, some of which are getting paid by equipment; drawing cards and making each other bigger and bigger. When some of them die, everyone will get bigger still, unless they're also indestructible. All these cards give you a kind of 1 + 1 = 3.
Kill on sight?
Get in line.
Rating: Team player
3. Ardyn, the Usurper
Costs eight; doesn't have lifelink itself.
For our purposes a non-issue.
4. Cecil, Dark Knight
A 2/3 for is kind of incredible on rate. That said, Cecil will actually help a Red Deck along for at least half of the ride. You don't want this becoming a 4/4 (which might as well be a 4/9999) lifelink, though.
I think that, like Dark Confidant, this is a card a Red Deck wants the opponent to be playing. If you've got basic Mountain on your side, just make sure you save the last Lightning Strike for the flip trigger. If it actually flips, Red Decks might be in trouble, but Cecil's existence likely strengthens their position in the metagame, if anything.
5. Circle of Power
At this card would be insane. At
I'm not sure that there is enough power in Wizards (even with +1/+0 coming) to make up for the overlap of 4 mana and two life. Non-issue.
6. Garnet, Princess of Alexandria
The ability to keep Sagas going is pretty cool. But the base rate is for a 2/2 Lifelink.
With the right synergies, Garnet is Aerith-esque; but the downside is that you actually have to attack with Garnet to potentially grow her.
It would be a strange world indeed for the Red Deck mage if Garnet were an actual thing to worry about more than any given 2/2 Lifelink.
7. Hope Estheim
Very similar to Garnet, but at instead of
. I think for Red Decks, Garnet is actually the more dangerous because of the possibility of growth.
Neither one of these cards is keeping anyone up at night. Not for the lifelink, anyway.
8. Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant
Okay this card is really interesting and will probably be rewarding to build around.
Its base rate is 3/4 for three mana, but with some selection. Factor in flashback and harmonize, and Joshua might also be a natural source of card advantage.
A 3/4 for three mana is potentially problematic for aggressive decks, at least in the right shell. For instance, Joshua is an annoying card to deal with with your Screaming Nemesis. Can your Nemesis clear Joshua? Yes. Will you get to do any of the usual Nemesis naughtiness? Not without some help. Do you have to do it anyway? Probably.
But that's just on size / rate; not even lifelink yet.
If the opponent actually gets to flip to Phoenix, you're in a world of trouble because not only does the Phoenix have lifelink (think an eight point swing in the air every attack), but the first two Saga triggers are both mini-Lightning Helixes also.
This is a very good card that is just naturally good against Red in the same way that Shiko is. On that note, Joshua can set up Shiko!
Rating: "This is a very good card," as above.
9. Lightning, Army of One
If the opponent is sending a Lightning Helix at your untapped planned blocker, then following up on turn three with Lightning in The Red Zone, it won't even matter if you remove it the next turn. As an aggressive player, you might be catastrophically behind already.
Lightning won't be in the "best" aggro deck, but might be a key contributor to be best anti-aggro aggro deck.
I don't even care about the 2 toughness over much. First strike cures a lot of ills.
10. Locke Cole
I wanted to hate this card, but it's 66% Vampire Nighthawk, and I've had a soft spot for Vampire Nighthawk for something like a decade and a half. 66% Vampire Nighthawk + 50% Ophidian means that If you start actually connecting with Locke, your opponent is probably just going to throw away the key.
Locke Cole is actually pretty good against Red Decks. 3 toughness isn't insurmountable, but it's out of Shock range, so can be annoying; it eats a lot of the Red Deck attackers naturally, and trades with literally anything. Add together all the things Locke has going for it, and one lifelink connection might be everything you need to win a game.
This is Dennick 2025; I think you play two copies in the sideboard of a deck that can cast Locke. It's not priced for main deck Kaito-ing; it needs the right context to shine, or really be relevant at all. But ironically, that context can be not only Red Decks, but midrange decks that somehow can't contain it, and even control decks that might have sided out their removal.
Rating: Sideboard
11. Minwu, White Mage
I'm not going to say this is unplayable, but 3/3 for five, come on.
If a Red deck loses to this, it would have lost to whatever team Minwu is on, not Minwu in isolation; a strategy rather than a card.
12. Moogles' Valor
First I was like "wow, what if we're out here Slaying Storms..."
Then I was like, "wow, the floor on this is... zero."
Not unplayable. Not scaring any Red mages into adopting other colors, either.
13. Noctis, Prince of Lucis
Four mana for a 4/3 is kind of awkward.
I can see this being powerful in a Serra Paragon way... But obviously a much worse blocker. I'm not sure this card is even good against Red; its lifelink really more a buttress against its own card advantage text. You can get a scarier defender in Locke Cole for less mana.
14. Rosa, Resolute White Mage
On the other hand, this is a Magic: The Gathering card!
Rosa is basically a 3/4 lifelink immediately if you want to go that direction, and gets bigger and lifelink-ier every turn. Rosa is more of a kill on sight in isolation than Aerith. If you don't deal with her pretty quickly, she's very apt to just take the game over.
She's like a Halana and Alena, Partners that specifically doesn't need any friends, and more specifically targets Red Decks with that bow.
Rating: KILL ON SIGHT
15. Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant
I don't know if I would ever actually want to pay 2; so it's a question of if you'd be in the market to pay .
A 1/2 does contain a Heartfire Hero, technically. But not for very long. I think if you desperately wanted to trigger Aerith Gainsborough immediately Stiltzkin could be your man Moogle on a deck redundancy basis, but it's not scaring off Red Decks by itself; and it probably isn't good enough to just play for its body or lifelink.
16. The Wind Crystal
I'm sure this is exactly the Overrun someone is looking for, in some deck.
17. Vincent Valentine
2/2 for four mana isn't too scary. The transformation into a lifelinker requires a clean attack. Non-issue.
18. Yuna, Hope of Spira
There is more than a little Zur DNA to Yuna.
She's naturally buddies with the remaining Green and White Overlords; and curves off of a three mana Overlord of the Hauntwoods. Not enough to actually scare off the Red Death; but maybe enough to spawn an interesting deck.
19. Zidane, Tantalus Thief
Not quite a Zealous Conscripts. But not bad at all.
Not enough to scare off the Red Decks by itself; but at a pretty explorable overlap of "fun" and "maybe good" for this set.
Conclusion: I was probably a little enthusiastic about all the life gain language and lifelink text. Many existing archetypes are going to lose a lot more (including the most important anti-aggro card in the format, in Temporary Lockdown); whereas the Red Decks are going to lose the eminently replaceable Monastery Swiftspear.
Don't get me wrong; I think Monastery Swiftspear is one of the most underrated creatures of all time. But you can slot in a Hired Claw or whatever and have most of your Red Deck intact.
As far as I can see for now, aggressive strategies are going to remain some of the most popular in Standard. But especially the interplay of all those White Legends might give us something interesting to occupy them with. Go, go Aerith!
Joshua is the most interesting to me, because he's so many Lightning Helixes (and can discard extra copies of himself); and is so good with Shiko both in terms of helping you dig to your fourth and fifth lands, and to optimize Shiko's re-buy quickly. 4 Joshua, 4 Lightning Helix, 4 Shiko is like 16 Lightning Helixes and it really only takes one to win the game. Ask any Red mage.
LOVE
MIKE