The Standard Regional Championship season may be over, but nothing stops me from pondering my favorite format in Magic: Standard. I was hesitant to accept the idea that having six Standard sets a year would be good for the format's health, and while we still have yet to see the full impact on this year's releases on the format I can at least say that the frequency of new sets provides new perspectives on the metagame.

FINAL FANTASY is the next Standard-legal set to be released, making it the first Universes Beyond set to be legal in the format. Universes Beyond sets are interesting - they're definitely not on the same power level as Modern Horizons sets, but I also don't know how to rank them in terms of power compared to other Standard sets. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth had some incredibly powerful cards, like The One Ring, Delighted Halfling, and Orcish Bowmasters, but the rest of the cards in the set were much weaker.

FINAL FANTASY looks to be similar in this regard. The cards seem a bit more geared toward casual and Commander gameplay than they do for Modern or Standard, but this doesn't mean there are Constructed-playable cards in the set. In my opinion, this is actually good for the overall health of these formats. It's fine to print a few playable cards, but I think with six sets releasing a year it would be hard for players to keep up with all the releases if each new set is drastically shaking up Standard.

While others have already talked about FINAL FANTASY previews and their impact on particular formats, today I wanted to focus on the cards that I think might make an impact in the Standard archetype I like to play, and exceed at: Control. At some point I'd like to do a larger overview of the set's impact on Standard, but coming off my performance at the Minneapolis Regional Champion, my head is still buzzing on how to make decks like Azorius and Jeskai Control all the better in this Standard metagame. (I'm also locked out of playing RCQs until the end of July so thanks to CSI for giving me an outlet to collect my thoughts!)

Ultima caught my eye for a few key reasons. First of all, I have to give credit to WOTC for making a Control card from my favorite game in the franchise, FINAL FANTASY XVI. XVI is actually my first FINAL FANTASY game, and while I may be a tad bit late to the franchise, it'll always hold a special place in my heart for being my introduction to the series - I feel like not many FF fans get to say that!

Now, back to Magic cards. Ultima is the perfect wrath effect for Standard Control decks for a few key reasons, the two main ones being it kills Cori-Steel Cutter and counters a Heartfire Hero trigger. Outside of cards like Abrade, there aren't many maindeck ways to permanently deal with a Cori-Steel Cutter. Sure, you can Temporary Lockdown your opponent, but that plan can get swiftly thwarted by a single Into the Flood Maw. If you aren't playing Jeskai for Abrade or Brotherhood's End and prefer Azorius Control, you also don't have any permanent ways to deal with Cutter. Ultima is important in this aspect as it not only takes pressure off you from your opponent's creatures, but it also takes the pressure off from the now dead Cori-Steel Cutters that would've helped your opponent rebuild their board on the next turn. Ultima, while more expensive than say, Day of Judgment, is key in matchups like against Izzet where it actually buys you more time than a Day of Judgment would.

In addition, it counters a number of random abilities, like Heartfire Hero's death trigger, or your opponent wanting to make a fish token off of their Fountainport (as they have to do this before you resolve Ultima, which will kill it anyway). Ultima even pairs well with Get Lost, getting rid of the map tokens your opponent was saving post-wrath to dig past the lands that are sitting on top of their deck. Ultima is also just the perfect counter against the Azorius Artifacts decks that have been popping up in Standard recently, completely getting rid of Simulacrum Synthesizer and the tokens it produces. You can't cleanly answer that deck with just Sunfall or Day of Judgment.

While you probably don't want more than a few copies of this card in your deck, since it competes at the 5-drop slot with Shiko, Paragon of the Way, and Elspeth, Storm Slayer, it's a nice utility wrath-effect to have that's very relevant in this current Standard environment.

Next up is another FFXVI-inspired card - Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice. It makes me so happy to see a Jill card in this set, as she's one of my favorite characters in XVI, but it makes me even happier to see she's a playable card in Jeskai Control. Jill is an interesting Man-o'-War effect to evaluate. Not only can she bounce your opponent's creatures, but she can bounce your opponent's permanents as well. This is pretty sweet considering she can reset cards like Heartfire Hero, Urabrasks's Forge, the various Talents from Bloomburrow, and even your opponent's turn two Cori-Steel Cutter. I think this gives Jill a cool tempo advantage to Control decks - but she offers so much more than a simple bounce effect.

Jill can also bounce your own permannets, including resetting your Shiko, Paragon of the Way, your turn two Roiling Dragonstorm, or even a Beza, the Bounding Spring. This gives you a lot of flexibility in one card, especially post-board when you can rebuy your Loran of the Third Path.

On top of that, Jill even has a whole other card on her flipside! For five mana you can flip Jill, giving you a 4/5 creature and saga. While her first chapter is probably not as relevant for a Control deck, her chapter two and three are passable. You can get in a free attack for four damage and then stop your opponent from doing anything on your following turn, which is relevant in the Blue matchups. Better yet, Jill just transforms back into her human side and doesn't sacrifice like the other Saga Enchantments in this set! Talk about value.

Overall, this card seems flexible enough that it makes me think I'd always want one copy at least in Control decks, even if you can't flip her after making a token copy with Shiko, Paragon of the Way. I like that while this card is sort of a fun one-of, she can actually help close out games in conjunction with Shiko and Lightning Helix.

With Final Fantasy we get a cycle of new Adventure lands, a set of lands that come into play tapped that also have an Adventure spell stapled onto them. Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital feels like a Control card, as it provides an alternate way to win the game that's simply taped onto a land. However, I'm not sure as to how playable these lands will be, given that land slots in Control decks are heavily contested. In Jeskai Control, you practically have no room for utility lands that tap for one color, given how mana-intensive the deck is. You just have to spend those land slots on dual lands, especially the Surveil lands that also come into play tapped. In Azorius Control you could probably get away with one or two copies of this card, but is it that much better than playing more Fountainports or Restless Anchorages?

While I'm not set on sleeving up this card on week one, it's one I'm keeping my eye on, especially if we get to a point where Standard slows down post-rotation or future bannings. I also just like this card because of how well it combos with Riverchurn Monument. It's hard to one-shot kill your opponent with Riverchurn Monument like you can with two copies of Jace, the Perfected Mind when your opponent is at 30 cards in deck. However with Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital, you can set up a lethal Riverchurn Monument fairly easily.

Dreams of Laguna is another Control card I think could see at some point in its Standard lifecycle. While we currently have Deduce and Roiling Dragonstorm, I like that Dreams of Laguna gives you a Surveil, which is relevant with any graveyard-centric cards.

You can also pitch Dreams of Laguna to any discard spells (or to Hopeless Nightmare), and Surveil it away with the Surveil rare land cycle. Again, not exactly a better Deduce or Roiling Dragonstorm, but it has some unique functionality.

Lastly, I wanted to take a look at a non-Jeskai or Azorius card that I think feels similar to Shiko, Paragon of the Way. Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin reminds me a lot of a card that saw play in Grixis-Midrange/Control shells, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. Kefka, Court Mage has a similar design to Nicol Bolas, which makes me think it has playability in Standard, albeit it feels like a worse card.

Kefka does have some unique differences, however. Kefka's ETB and attack ability lets you loot away cards in favor of spells, while also taking away a card from your opponent. However, if you and your opponent each discard a different card type you get to draw an additional card! Even better, if you (or your opponent) happen to discard a card with two card types, say Fear of Isolation, you get another card. Unlike Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, Kefka, Court Mage feels like he can snowball in value much faster in this regard.

Kefka's flipside is definitely not as powerful, but if he connects in combat and deals your opponent five damage, that's five new cards at your disposal. Also, if you have cards like Hopeless Nightmare in your deck, that's an additional way to net cards without having to deal direct combat damage. Again, I'm not exactly sure where this card fits in Standard, but it's one I'm keeping my eye on due to its similarity to a card that was powerful in the Standard format it was in.

With just about half of the main FINAL FANTASY set being spoiled, there are still lots of cards left to see. While I don't think this set will have the greatest impact on Standard, it does look like there are quite a few playable cards, especially some new tools for Control aficionados like myself. I'm hopeful there are more goodies for us draw-go mages, and you might just see a part two to this article...

May the crystals guide our way.

-Roman Fusco