Today is Saturday, June 7th; I hope everyone has been enjoying the new Final Fantasy set since yesterday's first batch of Prerelease events! I hope, too, that you've all been enjoying this Final Fantasy Count-Up article series! Yesterday we covered FFX, and today we will be covering Final Fantasy XI.

Notably, the FFXI subset has only thirteen cards in it, just eleven of which are at all applicable to this series. So, we will be eschewing an Honorable Mention for this section. However, the overall criteria we're working with for this superlative list is as follows:

• Honorable Mention - These usually will be a cycle or group of cards that are great but don't quite measure up to the "best" in the categories we have chosen to cover. (Today's list will, again, not have a card for this category.)
• Best as a Commander - This category covers, as advertised, the best commander to lead a deck in Commander, but may also look briefly at other Command Zone-driven formats.
• Best in the 99 - This section discusses my choice for the best card in a given 99 of a deck. It may be a ubiquitous card, but it might also just be a card with a fair amount of utility.
• Most Flavorful - The most fun to play card in a storytelling context will be deemed Most Flavorful. For example, we covered Town GreeterTown Greeter in our FFI list for its fun lore synergies with Towns, especially those with specific Final Fantasy town names.
• Best In Show - The very best of these cards in a balance of the above categories.

Furthermore, cards from the Commander precons, Through the Ages, and promotional/Secret Lair cards are ineligible for consideration. We want to keep this strictly from the main set.

With that, let's look at some of the best and most exciting cards in the FFXI subset!

Best as a Commander

Shantotto, Tactician MagicianShantotto, Tactician Magician was revealed fairly early on in the spoiler season for this set. Even so, she's my pick for the best Final Fantasy XI card to have as a commander. This isn't any shade towards cards like Absolute VirtueAbsolute Virtue, as you'll see in a moment. Shantotto just happens to have a remarkably strong ability that allows her to shine in a way that's a minor challenge and a major delight.

Best in the 99

SabotenderSabotender is a lowball entry, but with only eleven applicable cards for this subset to grant superlatives, we have to work with what we have. It's a good card, though, as it acts as a Spitfire LagacSpitfire Lagac analogue in a set that likes to burn opponents little by little. I can see a Limited environment in which Sabotender completely shines for its controller, even winning some games almost totally on its own (or in multiples).

Most Flavorful

A question for the Final Fantasy diehards reading this article: Did you ever want to own a Chocobo of your very own? If so, did the concept of enticing a Chocobo with a favorite food ever appeal to you? If so, you probably understand what I'm saying when I nominate Gysahl GreensGysahl Greens as the Most Flavorful card in the FFXI subset. It's a cute card with reasonable gameplay application, and it summons a Chocobo! What's not to love about that?

And with that, we move to our Best In Show. I hinted at it earlier, so it should come as no surprise to you that our Best In Show is...

Final Fantasy XI Best In Show

...Absolute VirtueAbsolute Virtue!

When the Final Fantasy Design team first previewed Absolute Virtue, they imparted a story that implied that the creature in-game took a hellishly long time to vanquish for the many, many players in FFXI. This feels like it tracks with this card version in a fairly big way. Protecting you and everything you control from opposing forces seems great and makes you a prime threat at the Commander table. However, it's not hard to make Absolute Virtue just as hard to defeat as in the video game. Be it by frequent reanimation or consistent protection, this creature could be the bane of many Aggro players in many cases. Even at eight mana, Absolute Virtue is beyond worthy of being my Best In Show for Final Fantasy XI.

Conclusion

This particular article was a bit harder to pen than the others so far. This was namely due to the lack of options, but I'm glad to continue this series. We only have five more count-up articles to go until Final Fantasy officially fully releases! It really feels like it's no time at all.

And now, some questions for you, dear readers. Are you enjoying the Prerelease events this weekend thus far? Are you hoping to open any particular cards from MTGFIN packs? And, are you building any cool decks this weekend to give any of the new cards a home? Sound off in the comments! And, if you are interested in reading more, the previous entries in the Count-Up series are all below. Feel free to give them a read!

Day 1: FFI | Day 2: FFII | Day 3: FFIII | Day 4: FFIV | Day 5: FFV |

Day 6: FFVI | Day 7: FFVII | Day 8: FFVIII | Day 9: FFIX | Day 10: FFX