Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier | Art by Toni Infante

Move aside, Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed fans, there's another Final Fantasy commander in EDHREC's Top 10 most popular! That's right, one of Standard's most prolific recently axed tyrants, Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier, is now in the #10 spot on our Most Popular Commanders list. This new development ousts Lathril, Blade of the ElvesLathril, Blade of the Elves from her spot on the list in the process.

Read on for more about how this came to be!

Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier and the Rise of Universes Beyond Commanders

Vivi has taken his time to make it to the #10 spot. At least, that's true relative to the rise of Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed to 4th place on the same list. In any event, Vivi is not only the second Final Fantasy commander to touch the Top 10, but also the third Universes Beyond commander to do so.

Naturally, before Y'shtola even saw print, there was another herald of this interestingly polarizing trend: Sauron, the Dark LordSauron, the Dark Lord. Sauron was first, and for a little while, also the only Universes Beyond commander on the Top 10 list of the most popular commanders.

Having said that, to see two commanders from the same set show up on this list in the same year raises a couple of interesting questions. For one, just how popular is Final Fantasy as a series, a franchise, and a set? Spoiler alert: The answer is, "extremely."

But another few questions come up, this time centered around the future of Universes Beyond and Magic: The Gathering as a whole. How long until more Universes Beyond commanders permeate the Top 10, and how inevitable is it that the entire Top 10 list could be 100% Universes Beyond? These we ask rhetorically, as our readers will only be able to speculate on this for the time being.

That said, it's good food for thought, even if the notion that The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon eventually being toppled from the list seems far-fetched.

Lathril's Fall

But I think we're getting far ahead of ourselves here. Right now, the attention should be on Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier and his usurping of the #10 spot from Lathril, Blade of the ElvesLathril, Blade of the Elves.

Why has this happened? Put simply, it probably comes down, in part, to the downsides of initial-print seniority. Wizards of the Coast printed Lathril back during Kaldheim in 2022. Vivi released in 2025. Even though Lathril also got a reprint in Foundations, that reprint doesn't necessarily mean anything for Commander players, or the format as a whole, except perhaps that she sorely needed it.

Frankly, Vivi desperately needs a reprint, given the price tag of upwards of $32 for his basic, non-showcase version. However, Vivi will probably not get a reprint in the directly foreseeable future (barring some sort of Universes Within shenanigans). However, due to that, Vivi will most likely remain highly novel for players. And novelty in this context will often translate to popularity, even if players really don't seem to like facing this particular Black Mage.

Conclusion

No matter the sentiment surrounding the card itself, congrats to Vivi players for their contributions to the Top 10 list of most popular commanders! You did a fantastic job representing this card and all the myriad ways to utilize it.

And now, let's open the floor to you, dear readers! Do you have a Vivi Ornitier deck? How often do you play it, and how often does it win? Alternatively, do you ever find yourself facing down a Vivi within your local meta, and how often does it win against you? Sound off in the comments below!