Final Fantasy: Draft Guide

By: Scuffle

This is a truly amazing draft set. 

Many of you know how difficult it is for me to admit that. For those who don’t, just know that I was expecting MTG Final Fantasy to be terrible, and went in wanting it to be bad.

I was wrong. 

The archetypes are deep, the gameplay is uniquely fascinating, and there are dozens of decisions to make at every stage of the draft process. I’m going to draft a lot of Final Fantasy.

You can watch my explanations for  here, or come yell at me if you disagree at Twitch.tv/ScuffleDLux.

We have a lot to go through today, so let’s dive right in!

The Stats!

Here are some useful numbers for context and future reference.

The Final Fantasy Draft format has, at the common and uncommon rarity and without the bonus sheet, the following:

• 12 Combat Tricks 
• 32 Two-for-Ones
• 9 Pieces of Recursion
• 13 Ways to put cards straight into the graveyard
• 5 Mill, 8 Surveil
• 4 Ways to Pump the Team
• 12 Common Dual Lands
• Towns are in 55% of basic land slots
• 5 Colorless Color-Fixers
• +3 Green Color-Fixers

• 119 Creatures
• 96 Real Creatures +23 Functional Creatures
• 11 Artifact Creatures +12 Equipment Creatures
• 16 Fliers (VERY Low)
• Dragonstorm had 28, Foundations 25
• 6 Creatures with Reach
• 1 Creature with First Strike
• 1 Creature with Double Strike
• 3 Creatures with Lifelink

Of those 117 creatures, 

• 19   have  1💗 Toughness (+Cat/Fairy/Soldier/Elf/Goblin Tokens)
• 25   have  2💗Toughness
• 23   have  3💗Toughness
• 20   have  4💗Toughness
• 4     have  5💗Toughness
• 4     have  6💗Toughness
• 1     has    7💗Toughness
• 2     have  8💗Toughness

This means that among the removal spells that deal damage or give a creature -X/-X,

• 1 Damage kills 19% of creatures (2 Spells)
• 2 Damage kills 45% of creatures (4 Spells)
• 3 Damage kills 68% of creatures (2 Spells)
• 4 Damage kills 88% of creatures (2 Spells)
• 5 Damage kills 93% of creatures (0 Spells)
• 6 Damage kills 97% of creatures (2 Spells)
• 7 Damage kills 100% of creatures (0 Spells)
• 8 Damage kills 100% of creatures (1 Spell)
• 9999 Damage kills 9001% of creatures (1 Spell)

There are fewer toughness-dependent removal spells than usual, but that’s alright because Foundations boasts:

• 6 Unconditional removal spells
• 3 Conditional
• 5 Scaling
• 2 Sweepers 
• 1 Edict
• 1 Bite
• 1 Fight
• 1 Ring 
• 2 Aura
• 10(!) Tempo Spells
  • 1 Tuck, 2 Bounce, 2 Taps, 5 Stuns
• • 2 Counterspells
  • 2 Disenchant

• 1 Shatter

OK, so you have your dirty, filthy numbers, you animals, let’s figure out what they mean.

The Shape of the Format

The mechanics of Final Fantasy aren’t really unique, but instead are impressive twists on existing mechanics. They’re easier to discuss in relation to the cards and archetypes in which they’re featured, but you can see a full list and breakdown here from Wizards of the Coast.

Final Fantasy is a Synergy Set, meaning cards matter in terms of their shell. Cards have other types of cards that you want to pair them with, as opposed to having specific cards just being individually powerful. The average power level of each card is high enough to create the illusion of a Power Set, leading a less-savvy player into the trap of simply choosing the best card in a given color. Even the most powerful rares and mythics don’t function well outside of their intended decks and archetypes. With this in mind and the benefit of card data, there are a few conclusions we can draw about what you need to prioritize and how to approach your draft:

Creatures and Combat

(TL,DR: Flying is better than usual. Growing creatures is strong)

The first thing that jumped out at me was the relatively low number of fliers. Combined with the inherent ways to make creatures larger given enough time, this means that you have to have ways to deal with opposing fliers, and all creatures with flying or reach are inherently more valuable. 

In a trend we’ve been seeing more in recent sets, creature sizes are relatively uniform. Additionally Combat keywords like First Strike, Double Strike, Deathtouch, and Flying are rarer than usual. This means there’s more value in growing your creatures- giving a 1/1 creature +2/+2 is enough to bring it from trading with 19% of creatures to 68%. Combat Tutorial, Prish’s Wanderings, and any equipment with a low equip cost will enable attacks better in Final Fantasy than most formats. 

The combat steps are going to be complex, and you’ll need to think about them each turn because: 

Time is a Resource

(TL,DR: Sagas turn cards into Time, Equipment turns Time into Cards.)

While drafting, be conscious of the time you’ll need to spend setting up your game plan and ending the game from there. With the modern form of Vanishing, Saga Summon Creatures are all powerful but will eventually just die.  Surprisingly few actually net additional cards before they go away, so If they die without trading with a creature in combat then they end up costing a card. Stunning or tapping a saga creature at the right time can actually generate cards through these summons. Job Select equipment are the reverse of Summons- The body they generate will inevitably die and leave a very expensive equipment cost behind. Giving an opponent a free turn to attach equipment to a previously useless body like an 0/1 Black mage turns it into a real threat, generating a threat from time.

To really take advantage of the time factor in your games, you need to pay special attention to your:

Card Advantage and The Late Game

(TL,DR: Pick your card advantage highly, or know where your mana is going late)

There are 32 Two-for-Ones in Final Fantasy- that’s cards that are worth more than one card. For comparison, Tarkir Dragonstorm was a set where 95/191 of the cards were worth two cards or replaced themselves. The engines available, and especially the rares, can generate a lot of cards, but for the most part card advantage needs to be a conscious part of the drafting process if it's something a deck needs to function.

Running out of cards doesn’t necessarily mean the game is over as long as there’s a good idea of what will happen at that time. There are a few large threats available to every color, and Equipment can make any creature a threat once there are no more spells to cast. Every archetype has at least a few cards that win the game with 8 mana at uncommon, rare, and mythic so be sure to have a way to answer a threat on that level or a way to end the game beforehand. 

The easiest way is with:

Removal

(TL,DR: Aim for ~4-5 Removal spells that fit your Archetype)

The removal in Final Fantasy is plentiful, powerful, and present in all 5 colors. Creatures tend to be threats as opposed to value machines or engine pieces, but they don’t replace themselves often enough to make the game into a pure race. The Rares and Mythics tend to represent the end of the game if not quickly killed with extremely powerful transformations or the ability to grow massive over time. However, the existence of so many strong equipment and other ways to turn any creature into a lethal threat puts each player on enough of a time crunch- a deck with too much interaction will find itself dead to an 0/1 Mage with a big sword. 

Prioritize removal spells that fit your archetype, preferably with plenty of:

Bonus Text

(TL,DR: Your cards have lots of extra hidden value)

The archetypes in Final Fantasy are all unique new takes on existing archetypes. I’ll go through all the archetypes and pick priorities soon, but for now, here’s a quick list of all of the bonus text that might matter to you on a given card:

Types: Legendary, Artifact, Permanent, Noncreature, Nonbasic land

Subtypes: Equipment, Saga,  Equipment, Bird, Land, Wizard, Human, Town

Other: Mana Value 4, In Graveyard, Sacrifice, Multiple permanents 

All of the above have at least one color-pair or archetype where a whole card’s worth of value can be extracted from the often inconsequential text of a card. This can yield a lot of extra value and therefore affect your pick order. In a vacuum, Overkill is the best removal spell in the set- it kills every creature, including the indestructible ones. Despite this, I often pick it below White Auracite- an artifact(U/W Archetype) permanent(B/G), which is not a creature(B/R) at 4 mana(U/R), ramps (U/G), and can be sacrificed (B/W).

It may not fit all these archetypes, but cards in any color I pair with white will help me extract the extra value I need to win the game.

There are a lot of examples of contextual evaluations like this, but it’s easier to talk about them as we explore the pick orders for each of:

The Archetypes!

The archetypes, according to wizards, are:

And just for our own reference, we can break those apart:

The individual cards are strong enough for the archetypes to work in specific colors with rares or in specific situations, e.g., Blue/Black can use the Blue payoffs for Big Noncreatures with the Black noncreature removal spells. For the average draft, here are the archetypes and pick orders for the 10 advertised color-pairs:

Important note: For the Pick Orders, these aren’t the only cards you’ll want to pick up, just the ones you’ll need to pick sooner.

Azorius Artifacts

Azorius has a wide umbrella of an archetype, covering all of the equipment and getting extra value out of combat keywords. Try to replace existing slots with artifacts and play a “fair game” of magic with all the little bonuses you can muster from the artifact subtype. Decide early whether you’re winning with evasion or a flood of creatures. Look for rares that turn your creatures into bigger threats, the mana sinks and card advantage will come naturally.

Pick Order:

1) Payoffs: 

There are very few artifacts that actually reward you for filling your deck with them, making the rares and other available payoffs your highest priority: Machinist’s Arsenal, Valkyrie Aerial Unit, Cid, Timeless Artificer, Ashe, Princess of Dalmasca

2) Good Artifacts

The Artifacts you’d still run even if they weren’t artifacts, it’s important to pad your artifact count without sacrificing card quality: White Auracite, Dragoon’s Lance, Cargo Ship

3) Removal

Specifically the non-artifact kind: keep yourself alive and value flexibility Battle Menu, Ice Magic, Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus

4) Other Artifacts

There are lots of strong but ultimately replaceable artifacts. It helps to lean into a theme if possible, like Magitek Infantry, Fliers, or equipment

Dimir Control

Dimir is controlling and powerful, but doesn’t have an inherent way to win the game. Figure out if you’re using your graveyard and how- some cards reward filling it with creatures and others emptying its noncreature spells. Bombs are important for giving you a direction, and the card advantage needs to be planned out, but the removal will just come to you. Choose two to focus on: build your control deck around Artifacts, Mill/Recursion, Digging for specific bombs, or noncreature spells.

Pick Order:

1) Wincon: 

Ultimecia, Time Sorceress, The Final Days, Rares like The Water Crystal and Ninja’s Blades

2) Engine/CA

Travel the Overworld, Summon: Anima, Reno and Rude, Fang, Fearless l'Cie, Shambling Cie’th

3) Interaction

Sidequest: Hunt the Mark, Vayne’s Treachery, Ice Magic,Poison the Waters

4) Blockers

Locke Cole, Demon Wall, Qiqrin Merchant, Sahagin

Rakdos Black Mages

It helps to think of this as a burn deck-Rakdos is great at getting the kill, although not as aggressively as WotC claims. Figure out if you’re trying to do all 20 points of damage directly, or force through some attacks early. Try to get incidental Black Mage Tokens and deal some damage, then finish things off with extra equipment or bigger burn spells. Cards that generate more than one black mage are extra valuable, and grab the removal that other decks don’t get bonus value from to trigger your mage pings.

Pick Order:

1) Payoffs/Recurring Enablers: 

Black Waltz No. 3, Queen Brahne, Shantotto, Tactician Magician (splashed)

2) Card Advantage

Call the Mountain Chocobo, Circle of Power, Summon: Anima, Garland, Knight of Cornelia

3) Removal

Esper Ramuh, Suplex, Overkill, Thunder Magic, Sephiroth’s Intervention

4) Random Wizards

Mysidian Elder, Cornered by Black Mages, Black Mage’s Rod,

Gruul Landfall

Gruul is great at putting lands into play; you have to figure out what to do from there. Deploying gigantic creatures is great and all, but you can also use those lands for better attacks, direct damage, equip costs, and all sorts of gigantic 8-mana spells. The ramp spells themselves more valuable, and you’ll need to decide how much you need removal and blockers from there. Flexible spells are extra valuable early while you decide what kind of lands deck to be.

Pick Order:

1) Ramp Advantage: 

Summon: Fenrir, Gladiolus Amicitia, Reach the Horizon, Torgal, A Fine Hound

2) Removal

Choco-Comet, Airship Crash, Chocobo Kick, Thunder Magic

3) Flexible Spells

Call the Mountain Chocobo, Prishe’s Wanderings, Balamb T-Rexaur, Fire Magic

4) Blockers

Bard’s Bow, Cactuar, Summon: G.F. Ifrit, Sabotender

Selesnya Go Wide Sagas

Selesnya would be pure sagas if there were enough, but their rarity and power mean it’s safer to start as a token deck and embrace the saga life if you get enough of them. Figure out what your engine is doing- Are you generating bodies? Card Advantage? Mana? Damage?- Answering this will tell you what kind of anthems work best, what kind of interaction you need, and what turn you need to play your sagas. The deck changes a lot based on which payoffs and sagas you find, but planning to play your creatures and enable your attacks is the best place to start.

Pick Order:

1) Sagas: 

Green and white have the most sagas, but it’s not by much. To go wide with your sags, you’ll want to Sumon: Fenrir,  Fat Chocobo, Primal Garuda, Rares like Esper Origins

2) Support

Clash of the Eikons, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, Ambrosia Whiteheart,Restoration Magic

3) Interaction

Fate of the Sun-Cryst, Airship Crash, Chocobo Kick, Slash of Light

4) Anthems

Rydia’s Return, Auron’s Inspiration, Summon: Choco/Mog, You’re Not Alone

Orzhov Sacrifice

Orzhov suffers from Black cards and White cards, wanting to do different things, but has incredibly powerful individual pieces to make up for it. Figure out whether your creatures need to survive to win- are you going wide with a flood of creatures, or maximizing the value of your creatures dying? There’s a ton of cool big attacks, and you get to utilize some of the cards that other players simply can’t play, so grab the spells you’ll fight with other players over first.

Pick Order:

1) Payoffs: 

G’raha Tia, Reno and Rude, Judge Magister Gabranth, Splashed Threaten effects (Unexpected Request)

2) Wincon

Al Bhed Salvagers, Dark Knight’s Greatsword, Summon: Choco/Mog, Dragoon’s Lance

3) Fodder

Undercity Dire Rat, Magitek Infantry, White Mage’s Staff, Dwarven Castle Guard

4) Removal

Vayne’s Treachery, Fate of the Sun-Cryst, Battle Menu, White Auracite

Izzet Big Noncreatures

Izzet is fantastically well-designed and one of my favorite things to play in FF Draft. Your payoffs for the archetype are rare, so don’t start drafting U/R without one of the stronger ones and pick them aggressively. Grab removal, stay alive, and then look for card advantage. Make sure to line up your noncreature spells with your threats- it’s fine if none of your creatures cost more than 3 mana. If you don’t find any rares, then you’ll probably need to kill them with flyers or extreme amounts of value, so don’t be afraid to pick up the “weaker” flying vehicles you see.

Pick Order:

1) Payoffs/Bombs

Shantotto, Tactician Magician, The Emperor of Palamecia, Ultros, Prompto Argentum

2) Noncreature Spells to Spend 4 Mana On

Choco-Comet, Thunder Magic, Ice Magic, Relm’s Sketching

3) Card Advantage

Dreams of Laguna, Call the Mountain Chocobo, Travel the Overworld

4) Wincon

The Prima Vista, Sahagin, Samurai’s Katana, Warrior’s Sword

Golgari Graveyards

Golgari is flexible, and the self-mill is plentiful, making me happy to play with my graveyard. Decide early how you’re using your graveyard; you can use it like a toolbox, generate strict value with flashback spells, or just mill yourself out for huge payoffs. Know what you’re recurring with all of the available ways to return cards to your hand, and it will be easier to value your pieces of recursion.

Pick Order:

1) High-Impact Flexible Permanents 

Cloud of Darkness, Summon: Fenrir, Balamb T-Rexaur, Summon:Anima

2) Payoffs

Diamond Weapon, Exdeath, Void Warlock, The Final Days, Fang, Fearless I’Cie

3) Self Mill

Town Greeter, Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie, Namazu Trader, Shinra Reinforcements

4) Pump/Removal

Vayne’s Treachery, Chocobo Kick, Blitzball Shot, Rydia’s Return

Boros Equipment

Boros equipment has the ability to be blazing fast, but does not have to be. Job Select Equipment leaves an expensive but valuable artifact behind when the hero dies, and making every creature in the deck a threat is a fine late-game plan. Take the creatures with strong keywords aggressively and then snap up every Job Select equipment you see. You’ll need to pass some removal spells to make this happen, but the pressure you apply lets pump spells do a reasonable removal impression.

Pick Order:

1) Payoffs/Keyword creatures: 

Adelbert Steiner, Weapons Vendor, Freya Crescent, Giott, King of the Dwarves, Ashe

2) Job Select

Samurai’s Katana, Dragoon’s Lance, Paladin’s Arms, Warrior’s Sword,  White Mage’s Staff

3) Cheap spells

Coral Sword, Zack Fair, You’re Not Alone, Blazing Bomb

4) Removal

Slash of Light, Suplex, Self Destruct, Aerith Rescue Mission

Simic Town Ramp

Simic Ramp may seem old, but this version feels fresh and powerful. The card draw payoffs are powerful enough to justify running off-color towns, and so Simic can easily splash the rares it opens later. Counterspells are often as good as removal spells in Simic, and then you can lean hard into card draw or gigantic threats based on what comes back around the table.

Pick Order:

1) Ramp: 

Ignis Scientia, Blitzball, Summon: Fenrir, Reach the Horizon, 

2) Interaction

Airship Crash, Sleep Magic, Syncopate, Stuck in Summoner’s Sanctum

3) Payoffs

Qiqirn Merchant, Travel the Overworld, Quistis Trepe, Coliseum Behemoth, Omega, Heartless Evolution

4) Flying Blockers/Lifegain

Dragoon’s Wyvern, Bard’s Bow, PuPu UFO, Town Greeter

End Step

I don’t have a special place in my heart for Final Fantasy or any particular love for Universes Beyond, and I was originally planning on skipping this set entirely. I was wrong, and after playing with it, I can confidently say that this is a complex and deep draft format with a ton of replayability. If you want to come hear me apologize and fight for Mythic Rank 1 again on the MTGA ladder, come hang out at Twitch.tv/ScuffleDLux or in Meta Confluence Discord. 

Until I see you again, Happy Drafting!