Kimahri, Valiant GuardianKimahri, Valiant Guardian | Art By Christian Angel

Hello everyone! I’m Levi from The Thought Vessel, and today we’re back looking at another commander from my favorite video game of all time, Final Fantasy X. Not only are we looking at a legendary creature from my favorite video game, we’re also going to be looking at my favorite character from that game: Kimahri, Valiant GuardianKimahri, Valiant Guardian.

I promised that I’d put a Kimahri deck together whenever we got a spoiler, and fortunately, this commander’s right up my alley. This list was a blast to put together and might end up being my favorite brew in 2025. But, before we get into the deck, let’s take a look at our commander.

What Does Kimahri, Valiant Guardian Do?

Kimahri’s interesting because, in typical blue mage fashion, he gets his powers from opposing creatures.

Each combat Kimahri’s in play, we can tap down a creature, and Kimahri can become that creature with this effect. The fascinating part of this ability is if Kimahri copies a non-legendary creature, he’s no longer legendary and can be copied due to the legend rule. These copies also have Ronso Rage and can copy onto something else on a later turn.

As an added bonus, Kimahri also gets a +1/+1 counter each turn, so the longer he sticks around, the harder he hits. It's good to remember that this ability is a "may" ability, so we can simply take the +1/+1 counter and tap down a creature without having to become a copy of the creature. This can be nice if we're already copying something strong and simply want to get a blocker out of the way.

I can see this commander going in two different directions. We can either use Kimahri as a value piece in the command zone and build a Simic value engine throughout the 99, or we can try to get the most potential out of Kimahri’s ability by making it the focal point.

Fortunately, Kimahri is capable of doing either with the same list.

Comparable Commanders

We haven’t gotten a commander quite like this before, but the closest we’ve seen is either Moritte of the FrostMoritte of the Frost as a Simic clone or Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces with a green partner.

The benefit of Kimahri is that you’ve got the ability to change which creature you’re cloning every turn, so if something more appealing is played, you can simply upgrade your board.

The only downside for Kimahri versus Sakashima is that you don’t have to worry about the legend rule as much with Sakashima since you’ve got a way to get around it in the command zone. Since we’re rolling with Kimahri, we want to be able to take advantage of our versatility.

The Game Plan With Kimahri

The primary objective of this deck is to clone our Kimahri as many times as possible and to copy and tap down our opponents’ creatures while we’re at it.

This deck has one huge asterisk, though. When Kimahri becomes a copy of a creature, the name still remains “Kimahri, Valiant Guardian.” This means that if we copy two different legendary creatures, they’d still have the same name and would be subject to the legend rule.

With this in mind, we’re playing all three cards in available in our colors that let us ignore the legend rule. We also want to play clones that come in that aren't legendary, such as Spark DoubleSpark Double. If we use the Ronso Rage ability, they lose that non-legendary stipulation, but we could cast them in the second main phase as a copy of our Kimahri and decline to convert them on future turns since it is a "may" ability.

This deck’s going to operate in the post-combat main phase a lot because of this. Ultimately, being able to tap down several potential blockers with an army that grows gradually over time will hopefully be strong enough to grab the win.

Let’s take a look at the notable cards in the 99 to see how this deck will operate.

Notable Cards for Kimahri, Valiant Guardian

The first card we need to look at is ShadowspearShadowspear. This is a deck that’s going to be targeting opposing creatures a lot, so we need a way to get around hexproof. ShadowspearShadowspear can clear hexproof off an opposing creature while also giving our creature trample and lifelink, which can come in handy on a creature that is getting a +1/+1 counter every turn.

Arcane LighthouseArcane Lighthouse is a land that also allows us to get around hexproof and lets us keep cloning.

Since clones are both the motivation and conversation of this deck (shoutout to any 2 Chainz fans reading this), Progenitor MimicProgenitor Mimic is great since we can make a Kimahri clone every single turn that can change into whatever creature suits us best.

It’s important that we keep the original Progenitor MimicProgenitor Mimic as the same copy of Kimahri instead of using Ronso Rage so we can keep this ability. The copies, however, are free to roam. Springheart NantukoSpringheart Nantuko works in a similar capacity. We can bestow it onto one of our Kimahri clones and get a copy with every landfall.

Though it can’t use Ronso Rage on its own, Oko, the RingleaderOko, the Ringleader is another great clone, as it can become a copy of one of our creatures and we’ll be able to draw two extra cards every single turn since Kimahri’s Ronso Rage ability includes targeting an opponent’s creature and is considered a “crime.”

Kodama of the West TreeKodama of the West Tree is an interesting inclusion since Kimahri and clones will be giving themselves +1/+1 counters, making them modified creatures. Kodama provides trample to our creatures, and when they connect for damage, we get to tutor up a basic land right into play.

Helm of the HostHelm of the Host gives us a non-legendary copy of our commander every turn. We can stack our triggers to let our main Kimahri become a strong legendary creature and have the copy come in as the non-legendary version that will have access to Ronso Rage.

"Group Hug"

In a moderate way, it behooves us to make sure our opponents don’t have a mana-screwing issue. The best card in our deck is a powerful creature someone else controls. The better off your opponents are, the stronger options we’ll have for Kimahri targets.

Because of this, we’re running Pir’s WhimPir’s Whim and Tempt with DiscoveryTempt with Discovery. With both of these cards, we’re able to provide mana to our opponents as well as ourselves. It wouldn’t typically be enough to make drastic deals, but it may attract some good faith from the table and help any player that falls behind.

An Offer You Can’t RefuseAn Offer You Can’t Refuse can give a player two Treasure tokens in exchange for a problematic noncreature spell on the stack. It may not make you any friends, but the ramp will at least keep your opponents going.

Since we’re giving out ramp, it’s probably wise not to provide a lot of extra card advantage at the same time, so we’re not adding cards like Edric, Spymaster of TrestEdric, Spymaster of Trest or even Howling MineHowling Mine. The exception to the rule with this is Arcane DenialArcane Denial since we’re countering a spell that’ll cantrip for us and reload an opponent’s hand with two cards.

We’ve got Beast WithinBeast Within, ResculptResculpt, and Swan SongSwan Song in our removal package. These are great cards, but they also give our opponent a non-legendary creature that all of our Kimahris can target.

For example, later in the game, the vast majority of the Kimahri clones could target the 2/2 Bird to give the entire board flying. Since they’re buffed by the +1/+1 counters, they could very easily sneak out a win by getting around blockers.

Cute Synergies

Traditionally, Flesh DuplicateFlesh Duplicate comes in as a copy of a creature with vanishing, but if we copy Kimahri, we can turn the copied creature into a new creature, thus dropping the vanishing stipulation.

Mirror BoxMirror Box allows us to sidestep the legend rule, but since all the Kimahri clones retain the name “Kimahri, Valiant Guardian,” we can also select various targets and still get a massive anthem bump for our creatures.

WillbreakerWillbreaker in this deck is actually pretty funny. Since Kimahri’s Ronso Rage ability targets, we can simply steal the creatures we wanted to clone anyway until Willbreaker is removed.

If we don’t have a way to get around the legend rule, we can simply make one of the Kimahris a legendary creature and take any legendary creature on the board and sacrifice it to the legend rule. This makes our board an extremely efficient removal engine.

Since we’re tapping creatures down anyway, why not take advantage of all those triggers with some card advantage from Verity CircleVerity Circle? This enchantment lets us draw a card for every creature that we tap down and gives us a nice outlet in the end game to sink our mana into to tap down potential attackers or blockers in our way.

Bane of ProgressBane of Progress can be repeatedly copied by our clones in the event we’re playing against an artifact or Enchantress deck. The loop of having a Bane of Progress come into play, sweeping away all the artifacts and enchantments, makes it impossible for those players to advance any kind of board state.

The Star of the Show

The absolute best card in this deck without a doubt is Sakashima the ImpostorSakashima the Impostor. If we’ve got the ability to ignore the legend rule, we’ve got free rein on what we copy without repercussions.

Granted, we don’t want to turn Sakashima into Kimahri and switch off of the legend rule clause, but even having a creature that taps down opposing creatures and supports the rest of the team is a huge get.

If we’re able to copy the biggest and best card on the board, like a Koma, Cosmos SerpentKoma, Cosmos Serpent, we can really push the value of this deck to a whole new level.

How Are We Going to Win With Kimahri, Valiant Guardian?

Since a big portion of our game plan is actually going to be provided to us, we’re a little reliant on our opponents providing something good. If they can’t, our three win-condition cards are in our creature selection.

Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth is a good old-fashioned finisher for green decks, pumping our board to the point that we can swing for lethal damage on everyone.

Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar is a target for our clones to put out a massive army of 0/1 Plant tokens that’ll be pumped with +1/+1 counters for each land drop and Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar clone in play.

Hullbreaker HorrorHullbreaker Horror is traditionally a combo piece with low-mana mana rocks like Sol RingSol Ring, but in this deck, we’re making copies and having a perpetual Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift in play, bouncing everything that’s played until we can chip for lethal damage.

Potential Areas of Improvement

To start, I’m only using two Game Changers in this Bracket 3 deck, and that’s Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift as a board wipe option and Rhystic StudyRhystic Study for card advantage. A card like Fierce GuardianshipFierce Guardianship for protection or Consecrated SphinxConsecrated Sphinx for card advantage would be very strong in the 99.

I felt that these cards weren’t a complete necessity, but if we want to boost the power level further, they should be considered.

As new cards are printed, if we can find a good way to temporarily donate a creature to an opponent for a turn, we could start copying our own creature targets with Kimahri. This could be a great help for this deck so we wouldn’t have to be as reliant on our opponents playing viable creatures—we could simply copy our own card that was donated.

We’ve got all three cards that get around the legend rule, but we aren’t running a lot of tutors for consistency, so a power-up would be having more ways to tutor up at least Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces.

Wrapping Up

When I put this list together, I didn’t imagine how dynamic of a deck it would end up being. All I wanted to do was brew a list around one of my favorite video game characters of all time. In that process, I may have brewed my favorite deck of the year.

We’ve got to jump through a lot of hoops to get what we want, but it’s an exciting puzzle to work through every turn. Whether you play this deck as is or simply use it as a jumping-off point, Kimahri, Valiant GuardianKimahri, Valiant Guardian needs to get a lot more love and attention than we’re currently seeing.

Hopefully, in writing this article, we get just that. Until next time, happy brewing!

Kimahri, Valiant Guardian Commander Deck List