Tidus, Yuna's GuardianTidus, Yuna's Guardian | Art by Niji Hayashi

Hello Everyone! I’m Levi from the Thought Vessel, and today we're looking at a headlining commander from my favorite video game of all time, Final Fantasy X. When Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian was first revealed, I simply didn’t want to wait for a precon spoiler, I jumped in right away with a brew. Because of this, the only cards from the Final Fantasy set in this deck as it stands are Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian and Yuna, Grand Summoner. If you're looking for some upgrades beyond even this decklist, I highly recommend checking out the precon list for some Counter Blitz goodness.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at the card Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian.

What Does Tidus, Yuna's Guardian Do?

Tidus, Yuna’s GuardianTidus, Yuna’s Guardian moves around counters, but doesn’t actually produce them to begin with, so this is a commander that's going to find ways to produce counters consistently through the 99. When the counters are on creatures already, there's room for Tidus to shine. Proliferate and card advantage off of combat damage can really build out a board. The “moving” of a counter is actually the removal of a counter and placement of another, so Doubling SeasonDoubling Season effects have a lot of potential. And with this idea in mind, we start with the premise.

The Deck Idea

In order to decide what this deck will do, we first need to determine what this deck is not. Traditionally, with counter decks, the main two directions the deck goes are either hard into +1/+1 counters across the board or a Voltron build. We could very easily focus on +1/+1 counters with Tidus, but there's more potential here than something that simple. Additionally, a commander like Shalai and HallarShalai and Hallar might have better results.

Being that Tidus comes without protection, evasion, or a color pair known for explosiveness, Tidus as a Voltron commander is possible, but probably not what this deck wants to do.

Since Tidus isn’t really focused on commander damage and can be more versatile than just +1/+1 counters, I decided to build this deck with all types of counters in mind. Being able to proliferate powerful keyword counters like hexproof on creatures and then move them around was a very intriguing thought. This would also lean into the color identity of Bant () by building a value engine over time and keeping that engine safe.

Key Cards for Tidus

The good news here is that Bant as a color combination has plenty of support with the counters strategy. The bad news is that cutting cards for this list is very difficult since we have to get rid of some incredible cards in the process.

For our strategy of moving counters around, we want to get a good mix of keywords that we can proliferate with Tidus and spread the duplicates around on later turns. Agent’s ToolkitAgent’s Toolkit is great here because it puts a +1/+1, flying, deathtouch, and shield counter into play that can be dumped off to different creatures as they come into play. By proliferating the counters on Agent’s ToolkitAgent’s Toolkit, they can make extra counters and move those extras off to make the Toolkit act more like a Bag of Holding from Dungeons and Dragons.

Crystalline GiantCrystalline Giant is an interesting inclusion for this deck because it will consistently get keyword counters, but it will be a random keyword. Regardless of the chaotic nature, being able to proliferate and then move these counters around to get powerful keywords like vlying, lifelink, and hexproof onto our best creatures is a huge boost in this deck.

Damning VerdictDamning Verdict is a great board wipe since our creatures will all have counters on them and it will clear out most, if not all, of our opponents’ creatures. But as far as destruction goes, we also have protection cards like Arwen, Mortal QueenArwen, Mortal Queen. Built to be thematic - Arwen sacrifices her immortality for a loved one - in this deck, we’ve already proliferated that token multiple times and we're handing out indestructible counters like souvenirs, keeping all our best creatures safe from destruction-based board wipes.

As a recipient of these incredible keywords, we have Denry Klin, Editor in ChiefDenry Klin, Editor in Chief, a legendary creature that loves to share the same number and types of counters with each new entering creature. So by loading up Denry turn after turn, we’ll be putting out creatures with ten power, trample, lifelink, and deathtouch before we know it!

Vorinclex, Voice of HungerVorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Innkeeper's TalentInnkeeper's Talent work as our doublers, so when we move a counter from one creature to the next, it can produce more of that counter. So if I have a more desirable counter, like hexproof or indestructible, there will be more to go around. Mjolnir, Storm HammerMjolnir, Storm Hammer is here to tap blockers down and hand out stun counters. These counters can, in fact, be proliferated, so as long as Mjolnir can stay equipped on a creature and attacking, we can indefinitely lock down the strongest creatures each player has.

Tekuthal, Inquiry DominusTekuthal, Inquiry Dominus might be the MVP of this deck. For starters, whenever we proliferate, we do it twice instead, so we can really load up on counters this way. Being able to cash in some counters we might not need to make indestructible counters at will allows us to quickly build an indestructible army.

We also have a fair share of cards in this deck that I'll call “Save Your Progress” cards. These would be The OzolithThe Ozolith, Yuna, Grand SummonerYuna, Grand Summoner, and Resourceful DefenseResourceful Defense. A huge weakness of a counters deck is it takes a lot of time and cards to build up these creatures, so one removal spell from an opponent can undo the work of several cards at once. The OzolithThe Ozolith allows for these counters to be stored and redistributed to a different creature to keep the pressure on.

Cute Cards

These are some cards that I like for the deck that aren’t necessarily the best options, but they have an interesting synergy. First is one of my favorite planeswalkers that just seems to never make the cut: Ajani UnyieldingAjani Unyielding. The mana value is pretty stiff at six total mana, but it can be effectively an extra three cards to hand per turn, spot removal, or a good boost to every creature on our board. Tidus’ proliferate ability also works on loyalty counters, so getting to that ultimate is that much easier. My particular decklist isn’t exploring the planeswalker space as much as it could since we already have a lot of other themes going on.

Pollywog ProdigyPollywog Prodigy and Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel become much stronger card draw engines when their power is buffed over five or so since most spells will trigger for Pollywog ProdigyPollywog Prodigy, and players won’t want to pay 5+ mana to prevent one player from drawing a card most of the time.

Astral CornucopiaAstral Cornucopia and Everflowing ChaliceEverflowing Chalice are aided by the proliferate mechanic, allowing for Astral CornucopiaAstral Cornucopia to tap for massive amounts of mana all at once. Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness is cute in the deck since Tidus can slide a counter over to Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness as often as needed to be able to grab important permanents from the graveyard to be reused.

Malcolm, Alluring ScoundrelMalcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is a very interesting card for this deck since we have proliferate in our command zone. If Tidus is in play as Malcolm attacks, it should only take two turns before Malcolm is at that fourth chorus counter and we can start playing the discarded cards for free. If we get to this effect early enough, we might be able to drop in a bomb like Myojin of Cryptic DreamsMyojin of Cryptic Dreams before the table is ready to handle it.

So, How Are We Gonna Win With Tidus, Yuna's Guardian?

There are combos that we could include in this deck that would fit pretty naturally. Heliod, Sun-CrownedHeliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking BallistaWalking Ballista can utilize +1/+1 counters and lifelink to ping down the entire table, while Scurry OakScurry Oak and Ivy Lane DenizenIvy Lane Denizen can create an infinite number of Squirrels. But instead of using a combo, I want to keep Tidus to be a strict combat deck and win through the board state. We will need help to get this done, though.

Herald of Secret StreamsHerald of Secret Streams is a great finisher in this deck because we can ensure all of our creatures have +1/+1 counters to sneak past any blockers and land a lethal blow. The combination, though not infinite nor immediate, of

and Cathars’ CrusadeCathars’ Crusade can build up a board of 1/1 Spirit tokens loaded up with enough +1/+1 counters on them to cover the art. Add in Kodama of the West TreeKodama of the West Tree and you have a board that can make Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth look like a simple OverrunOverrun.

We can also keep up our mana and sneak out a win with Aetheric AmplifierAetheric Amplifier by doubling up the counters on one of our creatures out of nowhere.

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This deck is a lot of fun to play with for those players that like to have a game plan that's flexible from turn to turn as the game progresses. I currently built this deck with Bracket 3 in mind using two Game Changers, leaving room for a third.

I’ve had a lot of fun testing the deck. Being able to build these monster creatures over turns and exploiting the Myojins’ indestructible counters is a blast - at least for us. Ultimately, this is just my list. Feel free to take what you like from it and build it your way. This is an archetype with a deep list of great cards to help make the deck feel like your own. Until next time, happy brewing!