Edge of Eternities is here at last, but wait - I'm still not done talking about Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy! The latest and greatest release may have arrived, but I'm still itching to talk more about what has been my dream set. The set is packed to the brim with 164 brand new legendary creatures between the main set and the Commander decks. That means there's still tons to cover that maybe haven't been talked about thus far.

Today I want to take a step back, ignore the big names, and look instead at what people aren't playing. I've taken a look through EDHREC.com to see if there are any cool legends that simply aren't getting the love they probably deserve. To my surprise, there are plenty. Several legends have less than 200 lists on the site with many merely sitting in the double digits! There's a lot of cool ones in the mix and I want to talk about a whole bunch of them!

For the sake of this list, I tried to get a roughly even amount of legends from both the main set and the Commander decks alike. Additionally, each card on this list will also denote the amount of lists you can find for them on EDHREC.com as of the time of writing.

Let's not waste any time and dive straight in!

Queen Brahne (92 Lists)

Compared to your average legendary, Queen Brahne looks quite modest. She might as well just be a simple prowess creature that happens to make a small creature of seemingly little consequence every time she attacks. However, those little Black Wizard (ahem - Black MAGE) creature tokens pack one hell of a wallop. Once you get a couple on the board, it's trivial to start dishing out heavy damage - something you can increase by adding similar creatures like Firebrand Archer and Guttersnipe to the mix.

Now admittedly, there are a couple legends in the set that utilize a similar mechanic and of them Queen Brahne is arguably the worst of the bunch. Black Waltz No. 3 is a souped up Black Mage in Rakdos colors that offers more depth even if you need to find other means of getting pingers on the board. Additionally, Kuja, Genone Sorcerer // Trance Kuja, Fate Defied is similarly a great Rakdos option that not only makes tons of tokens but boosts their damage output on his backside as well.

In both cases, Queen Brahne is likely a better fit in the 99, which shouldn't make it very surprising that the other two are more popular. However, Queen Brahne offers an excellent budget-friendly way to build this style of deck without needing to invest in things like expensive dual lands. You can get most pingers and a bunch of cheap noncreature spells easily and just stuff your deck with Mountains. Then over time, you can build up into something a little more epic. Or hey, maybe just keep the simple budget option around for simple fun with friends in a way that doesn't break the bank.

Sazh Katzroy (79 Lists)

I hated Final Fantasy XIII. I tried for hours and eventually gave up. I didn't get the game's mechanics, the story was confusing, and many of its characters were just unexciting. Sazh Katzroy was one of the few exceptions to that rule. Sazh boasts an excellent character design and provides an awesome story of a father trying to get back to his son again. Oh yeah, and who could forget the chocobo that flits around and nests in his afro?

For the Magic fans here, though, you likely know him better as an absolute monster in Limited. He makes creatures get absolutely monstrous in no time flat. That gets even more trivial in Commander where you get access to other cards that grant +1/+1 counters or even double them like, say, Branching Evolution or The Earth Crystal. Couple him with some birds and changelings for extra value (Chameleon Colossus sends its regards) or just attack and watch your creatures become gigantic.

Cid, Timeless Artificer (66 Lists)

...HUH?! When I first read the deck count on EDHREC I felt like there just had to be some sort of mistake. Relentless effects like this card - named for their original source card Relentless Rats - are beloved favorites of Commander. If you can stick a dozen or so copies of a card in your deck and go to town, why not? So, to see so few copies of a whole Commander deck built around this mechanic seems so unusual.

The simple fact that Cid, Timeless Artificer can not only be your Commander but fill your deck with several copies is huge. Even if you only run the 15 copies that represent each individual game, that's still plenty of instances of the card to fill your graveyard and supercharge your board. Fill your deck up with plenty of artificers, artifact creatures, and perhaps even some Job Select equipment and you'll be in business in no time flat.

It's baffling to see less than 100 lists for this Commander. You should absolutely try to build a deck around this card - especially if you're a long-time Final Fantasy fan.

Reno and Rude (43 Lists)

On its surface, Reno and Rude largely reads like a lesser version of the iconic Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. When you deal combat damage to a player, you exile the top card of their library and then you get to play it. Unlike Ragavan who gives you a Treasure token to help you pay for the spells, Reno and Rude force you to give up something instead.

This may seem like a drawback at first, but when you think of the many cards that benefit off of sacrificing permanents, it's not as bad as it sounds. Creatures like Bloodghast and Razorlash Transmogrant come back from the dead with ease and if you pair them with one of many easily accessible Blood Artist effects, you'll lower life totals left and right. More importantly, some cards like Ichor Wellspring and Mephetic Draught can even be used to draw you extra cards so that it doesn't feel like such a particularly awful tradeoff.

It may seem a bit like Ragavan-at-home, but make no mistake, Reno and Rude can pack a serious wallop if you build the deck properly. It might even surprise your opponents when you start casting their stuff and beating them to death with their own toys.

Barret Wallace (41 Lists)

This one is a surprise to me. Barret is a fan favorite character with his boisterous personality and heart of gold. Cloud Strife may play the role of main character and hero as the game goes on, but it's Barret who acts as the leader of Final Fantasy VII's Avalanche group. That alone should be enough to get people to play him.

Still not convinced? Well how about this simple fact: Barret Wallace brings the pain and brings it hard! A four-mana 4/4 is pretty respectable in Red - even in Commander - and that's all the better thanks to the color's recent dipping into trying out mana dorks. When he's on the board, though, simply make a bunch of creatures and suit them up. Whenever you attack with Barret, he'll deal a bunch of damage via his ability and then you'll get some further juicy hits in thanks to just how well equipped your creatures are bound to be.

This may look not quite as exciting as his Commander deck version - Barret, Avalanche Leader - but he's no slouch either. Give him a shot and watch as he tears through your pod's life totals fast.

Krile Baldesion (128 Lists)

Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there. I've seen this one before, it's a classic! Don't believe me? Check out Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and compare the abilities. While Krile Baldesion can only activate once per turn, that's still more than enough to get up to nonsense much like Teshar does. More importantly, Krile scales up higher than what you can do with Teshar since you can go past Teshar's limiter of mana values 3 or less. That makes for an excellent build-around, and is something you can almost certainly happen more than once with the aid of various ability doubling effects and is well worth checking out if this is your kind of deck.

Wakka, Devoted Guardian (104 Lists)

Oh, Wakka... While I'm mostly covering lore flavor elsewhere, I didn't get the chance to mention just how flavorful this one is. Wakka HATES machines (called the "forbidden machina" in the Final Fantasy X) and his disdain for them comes through tremendously in this card. Unfortunately, it also makes the card just narrow enough that it's not hard to see why players aren't picking him up.

Going after artifact decks specifically is a great way to pick on "that player in particular" in a game of Commander. It's nothing super new either when we've gotten similar artifact destruction from the likes of Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy quite recently. However, shooting down an artifact and buffing your team is a good clean value play that makes him very worth checking out. If you've got someone who's getting a little out of hand with their artifact decks, consider taking Wakka for a spin and bring that anti-machina spite to the table!

Red XIII, Proud Warrior (119 Lists) and Edgar, Master Machinist (86 Lists)

This is where this article's "(Or So)" comes from in the title. I liked both of these legends and they seemed to have similar enough effects. While Krile also brings back cards from your graveyard, she asks you to build around her in quite a different way. Red XIII, Proud Warrior and Edgar, Master Machinist are far more straightforward, however.

Both cards seek to bring back stuff from the graveyard to fuel your overall strategy. While getting back equipment in both cases can feel a bit underwhelming since those will often stick around, repeatedly buying back auras and consumable artifacts is a different story. In both cases, though, the result is a fairly straightforward aggressive strategy that ultimately kills your opponents dead. It just so happens that they both offer the benefit of having a bit more potential depth under the surface that's well worth your time to check out.

Umaro, Raging Yeti (58 Lists)

Oh yeah, it's time for a bit of chaos in your Commander game! This design is super fitting of the character who acts as a berserker that you're unable to control. It might seem a little unappealing at first glance, but players have loved chaos decks in Commander for sometime. Hell, the late Sheldon Menery was known for piloting a Ruhan of the Fomori deck that would blindly beat people up left and right.

Thankfully, Umaro isn't full-blown chaos but rather a controlled chaos where the ability triggers and then you get to take actions based off of the result. That's great for building your deck to best fit within the confines of those abilities, while also considering alternative possibilities. Fleshing it out can be as simple as stuffing in some mana rocks/dorks and creatures to get buffed by Umaro or as deep as going all in on chaos effects. It may look a little weird on the surface, but it can be a very rewarding deck to build around.

Heidegger, Shinra Executive (38 Lists)

I love Heidegger as a possible Mono-White commander. While it's true that you can likely build a better token commander with a multicolored legend, this card is still a great way to fuel your board and absolutely deserves more than the paltry number of decks he's shown up in so far. This diabolical character players everywhere love to hate thanks to his famously irritating laugh just so happens to be the leader of Shinra's military forces. As a result, he can spit out tons of creature tokens every turn, provided your opponents have more creatures than you, of course.

Generally speaking, you'll only be able to make three creatures at most, likely two in most cases. However, if you take advantage of White's many token doubling effects, you can generate rather absurd numbers of tokens. Combine this with powerful anthems, +1/+1 counters (Cathars' Crusade, anyone?), and equipment and you've got one hell of a potent commander. Oh, and hd supercharges one creature a turn as well, meaning if you can give one of your souped up tokens evasion, you can dominate games quickly.

This list merely represents a small amount of the myriad legends you can utilize from the two Final Fantasy releases. That doesn't even include the possible options with the reskinned existing legends found in the Through the Ages bonus sheet. With plenty of sweet choices, I definitely recommend looking past the expected popular characters and try something new instead. Who knows, maybe you'll find yourself falling in love with a new favorite character in the process!

Paige Smith

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