Fandaniel, Telophoroi AscianFandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian | Illustrated by Paulius Dascioras

Have you always wondered what it would be like to raise armies for fun and profit? Has your research brought you to the brink of madness, delirium, or, at the very least, some other valid graveyard-based strategies? If so, dear reader, then you're in luck! This Commander deck tech revolving around Fandaniel, Telophoroi AscianFandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian, a character from Final Fantasy XIV, is sure to raise eyebrows, if not entire bodies!

In the context of FFXIV, Fandaniel is an Ascian, or a "Bringer of Chaos," as it were. He's allied with Zenos yae GalvusZenos yae Galvus, one of the game's central antagonists, and is a secondary antagonist in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.

In the context of Magic: The Gathering, Fandaniel is an excellent source of self-mill for you, and an even better source of life loss for your opponents.

What Does Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian Do?

To succinctly describe Fandaniel's abilities and how they measure in the context of Commander, we must look at them through the lens of his having four abilities, not just the two as printed. The first ability, which allows you to surveil 2 when you cast an instant or sorcery spell, can quickly fill your graveyard when you desire. However, this ability also grants you card selection. Surveiling, like scrying, doesn't force you to put the cards you see into the graveyard, after all. In fact, you put the cards back on top in any order if you don't put them there!

For that reason, the surveil ability is more like half of a copy of IndexIndex (rounded down) for the price of casting something entirely different! That's two abilities in one.

Now, let's look at his other ability. At your end step, your opponents choose how this ability affects them, with there being two choices. On an individual basis, your opponents will either sacrifice a nontoken creature or they will lose a lot of life. Usually abilities that allow opponents to pick their poison are not incredibly beneficial to you. Generally, a discerning opponent will choose the option that benefits them the most (read here as "hurts them the least"). However, if you can either a) limit their options or b) make both options positively sting, none of that will truly matter to you. You couldn't care less about the pain, but your opponents certainly will.

Breaking the Chain With Fandaniel

For this deck, we want to look at Fandaniel as an optimal reanimator commander. As a five-mana creature, my thoughts immediately go to Chainer, Dementia MasterChainer, Dementia Master. However, as a mono-black commander that cares immensely about instants and sorceries, I have other thoughts as well (more on those shortly). For a moment, though, let's quickly talk about reanimation in a Chainer deck.

Generally speaking, I find Chainer to be utterly fascinating. Of all the content I've written throughout my writing career, he's been my most discussed commander. To date, I've written three whole articles on the card. However, Chainer is a reanimator commander that couldn't be further from Fandaniel in a variety of ways. For one, Chainer actually reanimates creatures, while Fandaniel fills your graveyard and potentially others' as well. Chainer isn't limited to your turn, while Fandaniel is somewhat stuck triggering at your end step. And, perhaps most damning of all, Chainer has downsides in costing mana to resurrect things as well as that nasty leaves-the-battlefield trigger he has. Fandaniel is all upside.

A Common Link In Support

Truth be told, they complement each other nicely for these reasons. Fandaniel enables Chainer (and others) as a more support-focused card, put simply. This is where that prior comparison I alluded to comes in: Fandaniel is Chainer support in a similar but slightly different way to Portal Three Kingdoms' own Xiahou Dun, the One-EyedXiahou Dun, the One-Eyed.

Hear me out. Xiahou Dun might be a $90-$150 card (depending on what printing you want), but his effect is novel and supports both of these commanders in a huge way. Far and away, Xiahou Dun is the most expensive card to grace this deck tech, but it's also unique for what it does. In the exact same vein as how you can bring creatures back with it, Xiahou Dun allows you to also bring back instant and sorcery cards. The synergy is there, and it is in the slinging of spells.

It Takes an Ascian to Raise a Family

This brings us to the strategy portion of this deck tech. As this is a reanimator deck, we want to fill our grave with creatures and bring them back with our instant and sorcery spells. Put plainly, in the early game, we want to ramp up to 5 mana at least with our 50 or so mana sources while filling our graveyard. Then, in the mid-game, we want to start slinging spells left and right to gain value off of our card selection and continued self-mill. This should allow us to bring a few haymaker creatures back from the dead in the process. Finally, we want to cause such a tough ultimatum for our opponents that they can't help but lose the game.

Key Cards for Fandaniel

Fandaniel, as a reanimation commander, needs a lot of build-around support. After all, he himself doesn't reanimate. To that end, we have to curate our deck around the goal we're setting: raising the dead for fun and profit!

Grouping #1: Self-Mill

To kickstart this deck's overall game plan, we need a way to get cards into the graveyard. After all, the grave is our spawn point for a great many cards! Notable cards that help assist with this include Syr Konrad, the GrimSyr Konrad, the Grim, Oriq LoremageOriq Loremage, and dredgers Stinkweed ImpStinkweed Imp and Golgari ThugGolgari Thug. Doom WhispererDoom Whisperer, while a good reanimation target in its own right, also serves as a strong self-mill piece. And let's not neglect to mention The Warring TriadThe Warring Triad, a new card from the Final Fantasy Commander decks. Apparently, being able to provide double-duty in the early game (both self-mill and mana acceleration) is quite potent.

Okay, we have a sizable graveyard. So now what?

Grouping #2: Reanimation Spells

To cast a reanimation spell with this Final Fantasy legend is tricky. Whenever we cast an instant or sorcery, we have to adhere to a couple of rules:

1. When we select targets, we haven't yet cast the spell. As such, cards we surveil away won't be legal resurrection targets.
2. We want instants and sorceries in the graveyard, but not the ones that revive our creatures. At least, this is true in the short term. To that end, we don't want to surveil those away unless there's no use for them, which is a rare situation by the time we have Fandaniel in play.

So, in order to maximize our value, we don't necessarily want to run resurrection-based enchantments, so Animate DeadAnimate Dead and NecromancyNecromancy are out while Stitch TogetherStitch Together, ReanimateReanimate proper, and the new Rejoin the FightRejoin the Fight are all in.

There are couple of exceptions here. Reanimation that repeats itself, like Strands of NightStrands of Night for instance, feels good for when or if you run out of fuel. And don't think we forgot about creatures that can do the job as well! That's the second main exception. Sheoldred, Whispering OneSheoldred, Whispering One, Phyrexian DelverPhyrexian Delver, and Doomed NecromancerDoomed Necromancer all can take part in this. Furthermore, the new Ardyn, the UsurperArdyn, the Usurper from Final Fantasy does a similar trick. We have to appreciate the ingenuity of a creature that brings back friends.

On that note, we include both of the aforementioned legendary mono-black Reanimator creatures as well. Importantly, Xiahou Dun will bring back our black spells for even more mileage.

That's the main idea for how to resurrect things. On to payoffs!

Grouping #3: Reanimation Targets

Let's discuss various targets for our resurrection spells. This section can be curated to taste, but we have a few particularly nice ones in here. Archon of CrueltyArchon of Cruelty is a modern classic (and a Modern classic, to boot!). Vilis, Broker of BloodVilis, Broker of Blood allows you to trade some pain for cards, which is important as life is a resource to the discerning black-aligned planeswalker. We even have Massacre WurmMassacre Wurm as a minor board wipe that can, potentially, discourage further board wipes down the road.

When talking about the life loss that Vilis or Chainer inflict upon you, we need to talk about mitigation. Not only is SangromancerSangromancer a strong inclusion here for its lifegain opportunities, as a flyer, it can prove remarkably helpful in a pinch. We also have the tried-and-true duo of Kokusho, the Evening StarKokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel to drain opponents to their doom. How fun!

How Does Fandaniel Win?

As you'd expect, this deck wants to win by either making opponents unable to prevent losing a ton of life, or simply drains and damages them to death by a horde of ultimately unkillable creatures. The most ideal scenario here is this: by the end of the game, your opponents will lose on your turn because they have no creatures in play and so can't sacrifice them to sate Fandaniel's ability. To this end, obligatory board wipes are nice to have handy.

Alternatively, you could also cast and recast Temporal ExtortionTemporal Extortion with a repeatedly-resurrected Xiahou Dun, but I hear tell that chaining extra turns is a bit icky. Thankfully, your opponents can choose to let that happen; that frees you from the onus (kind of)!

Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian Deck List

Final Fantasy? More Like Final Fandaniel!

To conclude, Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian is a new commander from Final Fantasy that's fun for the whole Fandaniel! ...To be fair, I am not sorry for that pun, but I'm also not sorry for providing this deck tech! If it has helped inspire you to look at this card in an inspired light, sound off below! Furthermore, you can check out any of our other deck techs, including this one for Kefka, Court MageKefka, Court Mage.