Pauper: Final Fantasy Review

The new Universes Beyond set introduced Final Fantasy characters and lore into our beloved Magic: The Gathering. The spoiler season alone has already shown us some very interesting common cards for Pauper.

We've got new equipment, new interactions, creatures with a lot of potential, and a lot more in this new set to unravel, so let's go!

Time for Dark Magic

Let's start with mages. This set brought us a series of cards that can create Wizard creature tokens, and a few look quite interesting for Pauper.

Black Mage's Rod is one of the new equipment cards this set brought us. It creates a creature token and equips it immediately. This token will also get +1/+0, and start dealing damage whenever its controller casts a noncreature spell.

Cornered by Black Mages is a black sorcery that is a bit expensive for this format, but it works as an Edict and also creates a creature token. In fact, it creates a 0/1 and gives it the same ability the card above does.

As for Mysidian Elder, it is a red creature that creates a 0/1 Wizard token when it enters play.

The common trait all these three cards share is that they can all be spellslinger engines, very similarly to Kessig Flamebreather. So, decks that play many spells will have more win conditions with them.

A good interaction for Cornered by Black Mages and Black Mage's Rod are buyback spells, particularly Capsize.

The biggest interaction will be between Mysidian Elder, Ghostly Flicker, and Ardent Elementalist. If you combine these three cards with Nightscape Familiar, you'll get a simple, fast win condition that creates infinite Warlock tokens. All you need for this build is two Familiars in play, as well as Elementalist and Elder.

With Flicker, you can target Elementalist and Elder, and then finish the game by doing the same with an Island and an Elementalist. This will essentially let you deal infinite amounts of damage.

I don't know if a deck with these cards will actually become a great competitor in the format, but it's definitely worth a try!

Resentful Revelation is a functional reprint of Ransack the Lab, and, as an upgrade, it has Flashback, which means you'll be able to cast it from your graveyard later on. Neither Ransack nor this new card have a clear home in Pauper, but we can imagine a few possibilities.

Maybe we can play a single copy of it in certain builds as a way to play certain cards in the graveyard with the help of Brainstorm, for instance. It can be a way to play your Sneaky Snackers in the graveyard, or a way to dig through your deck in an Altar Tron list. It's hard to say exactly what it will do, but it is interesting.

This creature could be incredible if its Cycling cost . Two mana can be a lot in Pauper, and, in this case, it really is. As a landcycler, this creature is weak if compared to the incredible Troll of Khazad-dûm, which enables Exhume on turn 2 and you can keep in your opening hand with a single land in black decks.

On the other side, its effect while on the battlefield can be devastating in a build that doesn't want the Troll and doesn't mind spending some mana, like Tron, for instance. Malboro might be a new, upgraded Dinrova Horror that searches for a Swamp and you can recover later on with a Pulse of Murasa to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

A Green Ponder?

Commune With Beavers is basically a green Ponder that can only look for an artifact, creature, or land. It is really similar to cards like Malevolent Rumble, but it costs one mana less and doesn't interact with the graveyard as Rumble does. It also doesn't create an Eldrazi token, which is what makes Rumble so efficient in certain decks.

Suplex, the Upgraded Abrade

Suplex's case is similar to the one above, but a bit more complex at the same time. Abrade was very popular in Pauper for a while, before Cast Into the Fire stole its place. Suplex can be artifact hate, like Cast Into the Fire, and can remove certain creatures, like Abrade. So, though it works at sorcery speed and this is certainly a downgrade in certain situations, it exiles a creature when it would die with its first effect, which is, unquestionably, relevant.

Furthermore, Abrade could only destroy artifacts, and Suplex can exile them. It is a nice upgrade.

More Artifacts

This card is curious: it is a creature that does something very similar to what Rebel creatures do, but it is a bit cheaper, and also an artifact.

It might be decent for White Weenie because it is white, can fill your board later on, and gets a buff through the tokens Thraben Inspector creates. It also buffs its Magitek friends.

World Map is quite literally Expedition Map, but the Standard version, and also gets any land for you. However, it costs a bit more than Expedition, which would make Tron slower. At the same time, though, it is a colorless card you can cast more easily than Crop Rotation, and doesn't force you to sacrifice a land. It could be interesting.

Furthermore, its other ability, which costs a lot less, lets you search for a basic land.

Lembas was one of the most impactful cards Pauper got in a while. In fact, it showed up in multiple decks and became one of the most important staples in the game. Instant Ramen could do the same, as it is the instant speed version of Lembas.

Drawing cards on your opponent's turn with your Altar Tron or even Boros Synth will make a difference in some matches. Furthermore, now Pauper has a decent number of efficient Foods, which means we can build a deck to take advantage of them with cards like Cauldron Familiar.

Another interesting possibility is playing it as your opponent passes and then sacrificing it with a Fanatical Offering, for instance, to draw three cards.

Final Fantasy is a very interesting set. It is the first Standard-legal Universes Beyond set that has a slightly different power level than regular sets. This set also reprinted a few very useful cards for Pauper, like Snuff Out, which is very popular and coveted among players.

As for how much it will impact this format, it is still too early to tell. Of course, cards like Instant Ramen already have a guaranteed spot in Pauper and will certainly occupy it!

All there's left for us to do is wait and see what the future holds. Maybe another set in the future will give us support for the Final Fantasy common land cycle, the Towns, or, perhaps, Commune With Beavers will find a home. Who knows?

What do you think of this set? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!