Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant | Art by Nino Is

Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant is a new legendary creature from Final Fantasy that brings the devotion mechanic back to standard while also adding some neat twists as a transforming dual-faced card (fancy speak for a card that has an activated ability allowing it to transform into a second side on its back) and rummage (discard then draw) engine.

Let's take a crack at making a mono-red reanimator deck built around Clive.

What Does Clive, Ifrit's Dominant Do?

Clive is a powerful draw engine, allowing us to discard our hand and draw cards equal to our devotion to red when he enters. Since Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant has in his casting cost, that means we'll get to draw at least two cards every time, potentially more if we're able to up our devotion count before casting him.

Spoiler alert: that's exactly what we'll want to do.

Using Clive's activated ability, we can transform him at sorcery speed for . Notably Clive has to tap to activate this ability so we'll need to run some haste enablers like AngerAnger, Hammer of PurphorosHammer of Purphoros, and Mass HysteriaMass Hysteria or wait a turn to activate his ability.

When Clive transforms into Ifrit, Warden of Inferno, it fights up to one other creature immediately and then makes for its second and third stages before transforming back into Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant. Since Ifrit is a 9/9, it'll make for quite a potent attacker, though it is notably also lacking in haste to attack the turn it transforms.

Key Cards for Clive, Ifrit's Dominant

Clive is pulling us in two interesting directions at once: devotion to red and drawing and discarding en masse. While we could certainly look at ways to blink Clive or do more with the Ifrit side as a Voltron commander, those are perhaps a little too clunky in a mono-red deck, so instead we'll focus on a deck that cares about red permanents, card draw, and our graveyard.

We'll want to run a few key cards that care about devotion, like: Altar of the PantheonAltar of the Pantheon; Purphoros, Bronze-BloodedPurphoros, Bronze-Blooded; and Fanatic of MogisFanatic of Mogis of course; as well as lots of permanents with red pips in their mana costs. The greater our devotion to red is when we cast Clive, the more cards we get to draw. And who doesn't love drawing cards?

Since we'll be both drawing and discarding lots of cards over the course of the game, some key payoffs for doing exactly this, like Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler and Brallin, Skyshark RiderBrallin, Skyshark Rider, will be vital to helping us close out the game. There are a handful of creatures like Magmakin ArtilleristMagmakin Artillerist and Marauding MakoMarauding Mako from Aetherdrift that also merit consideration because they can become large threats on their own as we go.

Of course, if we're drawing and discarding a lot of cards then we'll want some way to reanimate all the stuff that ends up in our graveyard. If you've read any of my Plot Twist articles, then you know just how much I love the graveyard.

How Does This Clive, Ifrit's Dominant Deck Win?

Since this deck is packed with cards like Fable of the Mirror-BreakerFable of the Mirror-Breaker and Neheb, Dreadhorde ChampionNeheb, Dreadhorde Champion that allow us to quickly churn through our deck and increase our devotion to red, we'll end up with a lot of creatures in our graveyard. And you know what that means: it's time to reanimate them!

The main win condition with this deck is going to be reanimating artifacts and creatures from our graveyard with cards like Daretti, Rocketeer EngineerDaretti, Rocketeer Engineer, Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path, Portal to PhyrexiaPortal to Phyrexia, and Scrap MasteryScrap Mastery. So many of the creatures we're running ended up being artifacts as well, so we're able to get many of our most valuable reanimate targets with both Feldon and Scrap MasteryScrap Mastery.

The secondary win condition of this deck is burning our opponents out with a variety of effects like Fanatic of MogisFanatic of Mogis, Magmakin ArtilleristMagmakin Artillerist, Palantír of OrthancPalantír of Orthanc, and Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler. Since these cards all telegraph what we're doing pretty strongly to our opponents, we'll likely want to hold them back to do the final 5–10 damage to our opponents when needed.

In general, we're running a mixture of single-target reanimation spells and mass reanimation. We'll want to deploy the single-target reanimation effects, like Daretti, Rocketeer EngineerDaretti, Rocketeer Engineer, early to start eking out extra value and whittling down life totals while holding off splashier effects like Scrap MasteryScrap Mastery for later in the game when we can knock out the whole table at once.

Artifact Creatures to Reanimate

So what exactly are we reanimating? Let's start with Phyrexian TriniformPhyrexian Triniform, Triplicate TitanTriplicate Titan, and Wurmcoil EngineWurmcoil Engine. These three are all serious threats on their own that also allow us to get a few extra artifact creature tokens in some form. They'll be difficult for our opponents to remove, and help supply artifacts we can sac to Daretti, Goblin WelderGoblin Welder, and friends.

Some of the most interesting artifacts for us to reanimate are ones that also have red pips in their mana value, like Krenko's BuzzcrusherKrenko's Buzzcrusher, Combustible GearhulkCombustible Gearhulk, and Hexplate WallbreakerHexplate Wallbreaker. These are easy enough for us to recur turn after turn with a Goblin WelderGoblin Welder or Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path and add devotion to fuel Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant too.

Combustible GearhulkCombustible Gearhulk helps refill our hand or mills cards and deals damage. With an average mana value of 3.89, our opponents will be in a tough spot choosing between giving us three cards or potentially taking 12 damage on average as we recur the Gearhulk. Hexplate WallbreakerHexplate Wallbreaker allows us to get some extra combat steps, and it'll create a 2/2 Rebel every time it enters and automatically attach itself.

There are also a ton of artifact creatures that can help shore up the weaknesses of a mono-red deck too. Silent ArbiterSilent Arbiter can stop us from being attacked if we find ourselves behind on the board. And Meteor GolemMeteor Golem, Cityscape LevelerCityscape Leveler, Steel HellkiteSteel Hellkite, and DuplicantDuplicant can help us remove problematic permanents.

Don't sleep on both Containment ConstructContainment Construct and Sandstone OracleSandstone Oracle as artifact creatures we can recur that will also help us turn all that discarding we're doing back into card advantage.

Clive, Ifrit's Dominant Commander Deck List

Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:

Conclusion

Thanks again for checking out this deck tech for Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant. This is certainly an interesting take on a reanimator list in mono-red in the same vein as Daretti, Rocketeer EngineerDaretti, Rocketeer Engineer or Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path, and a departure from the type of reanimator deck I normally play.

Be sure to check out my regular series, Plot Twist, which is now on EDHREC! I'm always looking to put an interesting twist on commanders that look straightforward to keep interesting things happening in my games. You can view all my deck lists here or see what I'm currently playing in paper here on Archidekt.

Let me know in the comments below how you're building Clive, any cards I missed, or what other Final Fantasy cards you're excited to brew around.