Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix
It's Friday, June 6th, at long last! That means it's the day that a lot of people have been waiting for: Final Fantasy Prerelease day! But also, today is Day 10 of our count-up towards the official release of the set. I've been writing about the best and most flavorful cards from each game in the main FF series. Yesterday I covered FFIX, and today I'll be looking at Final Fantasy X!
The criteria we're working with for this superlative list is as follows:
- Honorable Mention - These can 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 only have one card.
- 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 begin!
Honorable Mention
This Honorable Mention was actually quite difficult, as there are a fair few cards that were in the running. However, I decided to give it to Al Bhed SalvagersAl Bhed Salvagers. This card eked out the superlative win over Combat TutorialCombat Tutorial on the merits of mechanical utility over flavor. Al Bhed Salvagers is a helpful, if literally uncommon, Aristocrat-style card in this set, with the only other card overtly like it in the set being Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIERSephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER. As such, Al Bhed Salvagers is a helpful addition to many different builds. It will see a lot of play in Limited under the white-black sacrifice archetype, but the card is more genuinely useful in any deck that utilizes black in the format. And this isn't even touching upon Commander's applications of the card, which seem quite vast as well!
Best as a Commander
In the Best as a Commander spot, we have Yuna, Hope of SpiraYuna, Hope of Spira. Between Sin, Spira's PunishmentSin, Spira's Punishment costing too much mana and Seymour FluxSeymour Flux having too few colors about it, Yuna felt like the right choice for this superlative spot. As a dedicated "Summon"-centric legend, Yuna seems like fertile ground for open potential in deckbuilding. You could always go with the Saga creatures from the Final Fantasy set, but you could also err towards general enchantment creatures as well. There is a real case for Yuna's high degree of open utility here, so make of that what you will.
Best in the 99
OverkillOverkill is one of those cards that you have to experience to really understand the magnitude of. Whether it's killing a bomb of a creature definitively and turning the tide of the game, or comboing out with Jaws of DefeatJaws of Defeat to take a player out, Overkill will seldom be unimpactful in a game of Commander.
Most Flavorful
How could we talk about Final Fantasy X and not put BlitzballBlitzball at Most Flavorful on this list? The card is a solid mana rock (mana ball? The verdict is still out among my editors) and provides ample card advantage upon scoring a goal. The analogy of scoring a goal being a legendary creature dealing combat damage is pretty rad, if I'm being frank. In Limited, people will probably only be sacrificing Blitzball in the late game, as mana is so vital earlier in Sealed or Draft. However, this card will be used a lot in Commander decks that care about the card advantage capabilities of this card. Time will tell how many decks want it, but it's still a really cool and flavorful card.
And that brings us to the Best In Show for FFX. Which card takes this category? It couldn't be any other card than...
Final Fantasy X Best In Show
...Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut!
This absolute monster of a Summon is one of the most impactful cards in the set, if you can cast it. If you're able to cheat it into play, such as by reanimating it with Yuna, Hope of Spira, it's even better. At one or two lore counters, Bahamut is going to ruin an opponent's day. But that's nothing compared to what's to come. When it reaches its apex at four lore counters, it's apt to do a metric ton of damage to every one of your opponents; this may often end games outright. It's one helluva powerful card, and that's reason enough for it to be my Best In Show for FFX.
So, that marks the end of my count-up for Final Fantasy X! Do you agree with my assessments here? Are there better considerations that I've perhaps missed? Make your case in the comments! And while waiting for tomorrow's FFXI count-up, feel free to read some of the previous entries in the articles linked below.
Day 1: FFI | Day 2: FFII | Day 3: FFIII | Day 4: FFIV | Day 5: FFV |
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