Dion, Bahamut's DominantDion, Bahamut's Dominant | Art by Kevin Glint

Hello friends! Your friendly neighborhood Jesguy here, back with another Commander deck tech, this time with one of the most beloved characters in Final Fantasy XVI, Dion, Bahamut's DominantDion, Bahamut's Dominant!

All I know about DionDion is that he is a cool Knight, he's handsome, honorable, and he is one of the first gay main characters in a Final Fantasy game! What's not to love about him?

Knights are my second favorite creature type after Eldrazi, so when I saw a Knight-centric commander who was one of the neatest characters in the one Final Fantasy game I kind of knew about, I just had to write about him.

But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I know I mentioned that DionDion cares about Knights, but what does he actually do?

Bahamut's Dominant

DionDion is one of the best four-mana bringbring-a-friendfriend Knights ever. Not only is he a 3/3 that brings a 2/2 vigilant Knight, but he also "jumps" all your Knights into the air during your turn as well. Talk about the potential for major damage. And we aren't even halfway through his card yet!

For six mana, he can transform into Bahamut, Warden of LightBahamut, Warden of Light. This Saga creature pumps and jumps your entire team two turns in a row, blows up a permanent and comes attached to a 5/5 flying body too. With DionDion, it's all upside!

While his back half is cool, this deck is going to focus on the front half, since that is the side that you'll be seeing for the majority of your games. For a build like this, we want lots of Knights on board for DionDion to jump, dishing out huge damage to anyone who might not have any flyers.

While your regular ol' Knight deck will fit this criteria no problem, it isn't exactly what I had in mind...

Don't Templar Me With a Good Time

That's right, I want to build a Templar KnightTemplar Knight deck with DionDion!

My thought process here is simple.

The Templars want to attack in order to trigger their ability to search out any legendary artifact. Most of the time though, one or more of them will die in combat, making it harder to trigger their ability again since you need five of them out and attacking to work. DionDion helps with this immensely by giving them flying, letting you swing into whoever is open, and hopefully, not lose any of the Knights in the process! Not only will you get a bunch of damage through, but you'll also be able to grab multiple powerful artifacts!

For a deck like this, I started from scratch, since basically 65% of the deck is already figured out between our land count and plethora of Templar KnightTemplar Knights. I looked at a few Templar lists on Archidekt to get my feet wet, and the best number of Knights for a deck seemed to be about 30. So there we go, 1/3rd of the deck done!

The Templars want artifacts though, right? So let's see what treasure we'll be able to search up!

You Belong in a Museum!

In my first version of the deck, I wanted to be a bit more toolbox-y and have a bit of fun with the pieces I put in. The PandoricaThe Pandorica for single target removal, Sword of the AnimistSword of the Animist for a bit of ramp, God-Pharaoh's StatueGod-Pharaoh's Statue for a bit of cheeky stax...But after playtesting the deck, a toolbox is not what this deck wants to be.

Even with 30 of them in the deck, it can be a bit difficult to get out five Templar KnightTemplar Knights at the same time, so when it happens and you're able to tutor, you want to make it count with something big and splashy. Some minor toolbox-y effects can come later once you've got your game plan going.

First up are the artifacts you want to tutor up right off rip!

Lithoform EngineLithoform Engine is a great get, as it sets you up to double every subsequent Templar KnightTemplar Knight trigger from here on out. Every turn you'll be able to tutor up two legendary artifacts, which makes the hoop of needing five Knights on board a bit more manageable. Akroma's MemorialAkroma's Memorial is one of the best cards in the deck, period. It turns all your Knights into threats with a ton of keywords on them, making them harder to block in combats to come. Finally is The Immortal SunThe Immortal Sun. The SunThe Sun is just an all around excellent card. It reduces mana costs, pumps your team, draws you cards, does your taxes, washes your car...Everything you want out of a big ol' artifact!

The other two artifacts you may want to nab first are creatures. Paladin Danse, Steel MaverickPaladin Danse, Steel Maverick is a great tutor to ensure that your board stays intact, as it can protect you from board wipes and removal. Speaking of removal, Graaz, Unstoppable JuggernautGraaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut is player removal. Turning all of your vigilant, (hopefully flying) Knights into 5/3s is a real easy way to close out games incredibly quickly. If you need to aggro someone down or catch them with a surprise alpha strike, GraazGraaz is the way to do it!

Now it's time for the rest of our legendary artifacts which are split up into nice, neat groups, the first of which is card advantage!

• Eye of VecnaEye of Vecna
• Horn of the MarkHorn of the Mark
• Phial of GaladrielPhial of Galadriel
• Rammas Echor, Ancient ShieldRammas Echor, Ancient Shield
• The One RingThe One Ring
• Throne of EldraineThrone of Eldraine
• Chimil, the Inner SunChimil, the Inner Sun

In some way, all of the above permanents contribute to making sure we don't fall behind in terms of cards throughout a game. Whether they're full on drawing us cards, or providing selection or free spells, either way, we'll easily be able to keep up with the rest of the board.

The second category is ramp. While this deck don't need much ramp, thanks to having 30+ two drops, we still want to flip DionDion at some point, which these will help us with!

• Phial of GaladrielPhial of Galadriel
• Nyx LotusNyx Lotus
• Sceptre of Eternal GlorySceptre of Eternal Glory

And finally comes the toolbox section! Like I said earlier, I had to cut these down significantly, but I'm still happy with the ones that made the cut.

• Throne of the God-PharaohThrone of the God-Pharaoh
• Urza's SylexUrza's Sylex
• The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal

Whether it's making the entire table lose a bit of life, resetting the battlefield, or making sure that we're able to race with our opponents, these are all excellent choices for later in the game when things are winding down and you just need a bit more "oomph"!

The Cavalry Is Here!

Templar KnightTemplar Knights aren't the only Knights in the deck though. I snuck a few extras in, just because they worked so well with our current game plan.

Knight ExemplarKnight Exemplar is another way to ensure that our Templar KnightTemplar Knights are always swinging in. Making them into 4/2s with indestructible is a surefire way to make sure that not only are they protected from removal, but that they're always swinging! Similarly, Kinsbaile CavalierKinsbaile Cavalier turns all of our Knights into double striking monsters, achieving a similar result to Knight ExemplarKnight Exemplar. Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry is the perfect way to force a game to end, once again jumping all of our Knights into the air and giving them a massive power and toughness boost.

That's not all though; there's one more Knight I have yet to mention: Guardian of FaithGuardian of Faith. The Guardian here is an excellent way to give us a bit of play against removal at a moment's notice. This got me thinking: we're going wide with a bunch of small creatures right? While we're starting to get low on available slots, we still need to make sure to round out our suites of removal, protection, and card draw.

Even Knights Eat Their Vegetables

This deck can't just be all artifacts and Knights and flying and "tally-hos!" now can it? We need to make sure we have some glue to keep everything together!

First up is our removal.

• Path to ExilePath to Exile
• Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares
• Urza's SylexUrza's Sylex
• Split UpSplit Up
• Everything Comes to DustEverything Comes to Dust

Whether it's pinpointed removal, or mass removal, this deck needs a bit of it in order to make sure we can interact. Don't get me wrong; the way we want to interact with our opponents is knocking them out of a game. But sometimes you just need to clear a board or knock off a single, key creature in order to do that.

Making sure our board stays protected is huge in a deck like this. We're going wide and relying on our creatures for a form of card advantage. If they die or get wiped out, we're in trouble. So let's keep that from happening, shall we?

• Knight ExemplarKnight Exemplar
• Guardian of FaithGuardian of Faith
• Teferi's ProtectionTeferi's Protection
• Akroma's WillAkroma's Will
• Flawless ManeuverFlawless Maneuver
• Raise the PastRaise the Past

These cards are all great at either keeping our board established or rebuilding it after our creatures are demolished. I couldn't find room for Return to the RanksReturn to the Ranks, but if I could, that would be listed here as well.

Finally are more ways to draw cards. I know we had already talked about a handful of them, but there's nothing wrong with a bit more, even if they aren't tacked on to legendary artifacts.

• Chivalric AllianceChivalric Alliance
• Folk HeroFolk Hero
• Tocasia's WelcomeTocasia's Welcome
• Trouble in PairsTrouble in Pairs
• Minas TirithMinas Tirith
• War RoomWar Room
• Monumental HengeMonumental Henge

All of these cards are excellent additions to the deck, synergizing well with our previous card draw as well as with our armored cadre.

Dion, Bahamut's Dominant Commander Deck List

And there we have it, a Templar KnightTemplar Knight deck build around Dion, Bahamut's DominantDion, Bahamut's Dominant!

I've never really built a deck around any of the "a deck can have any number of X" cards before, and this one was a really fun challenge, since you need to balance the proper number of Knights with the proper number of artifacts, and then the proper amount of support for them both! I really enjoyed it, and have definitely considered building it in paper.

What about you, though? When you see DionDion, do you see a more "traditional" Knights build, or do you think this is something you could get behind? Did I miss any super cool legendary artifacts that you would have included? Make sure to let me know down in the comments below.

You can reach me on Twitter and Bluesky (@thejesguy), where you can always hit me up for Magic- or Jeskai-related shenanigans 24/7. Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Please don’t hesitate to leave them below or get in touch!

Stay safe, wash your hands, and keep fighting the good fight. Stay safe in these wild times. I support you. No justice, no peace.