Garland, Royal KidnapperGarland, Royal Kidnapper | Art by David Rapoza

Hello, everyone, my name is Jonathan, and today I'll tell you about the deck I've built around one of the latest Final Fantasy commanders revealed: Garland, Royal KidnapperGarland, Royal Kidnapper.

Honestly, I don't know anything about the FF games, as I've never played even one of them once. Nonetheless, GarlandGarland's card makes me understand his thing is controlling others for personal profit, and that's exactly what I'm going to do with this deck: stealing and manipulating our opponents' creatures to win the game. Even more so, I wanted to go the extra mile and give this deck a spicy twist: we won't be running any creature in the 99. That's right, GarlandGarland will be our only creature and, for everything else, we'll be counting on our opponents' forces to beat them.

So, get ready and avoid those pesky storm players, because we're going on a heist mission.

What Does Our commander Do?

GarlandGarland's concept is extremely intriguing. On one hand, it introduces the monarchy, one of the strongest mechanics in the game as it grants the monarch one additional card at the end of their turn. This card advantage possibility incentivises players to attack one another since dealing combat damage to the monarch grants you the crown. Still, our commander doesn't want us to go down this bloody path. Instead, he wants us to stay away from the throne, as whenever someone else becomes the monarch, we'll steal (and pump) one of their creatures.

The idea behind the deck is as simple to explain as it is hard to correctly pull off. We want our opponents to take each other out during their succession quarrels while using their own creatures against them. We don't really care about who's the monarch as long as we can get some benefits out of it.

Even though we thrive when hidden in the shadows, we also want to make our own fortune. Combining these two opposite poles lead me to create a quite unique deck. In fact, we don't play any creature (other than our commander), because we're stealing everyone else's, but we also don't want to depend solely on other people's decisions. Hence, we're packed with ways to steal additional creatures.

Starting with the classics, we run Control MagicControl Magic, Become the PilotBecome the Pilot, and Corrupted ConscienceCorrupted Conscience.

All of them allow us to get our hands on opposing creatures, but with different flavors. While the first one is an oldie but a goldie, Become the PilotBecome the Pilot makes sure we're participating in the combat festival as well. Lastly, we can use Corrupted ConscienceCorrupted Conscience to present a lethal attack out of nowhere thanks to the power of infect.

At the same time, we can also count on some ways to take advantage of multiple opposing creatures at once.

Starting off with Mass ManipulationMass Manipulation, the name of the card truly explains the card. It requires a huge mana dump (and that'll be a recurring theme of the deck), but once we get to that point, it can be deadly. Then, stretching the boundaries of "stealing", Rite of ReplicationRite of Replication technically makes us play with multiple copies of one of our opponents' creatures, so that's fair theft to me. Once again, the more mana we have available, the better. Last but not least, Gather SpecimensGather Specimens can often be underwhelming but, if played at the right moment, it's nothing short of backbreaking.

But, isn't stealing from the graveyard still stealing?

Enter ReanimateReanimate, Animate DeadAnimate Dead, and Minion's ReturnMinion's Return! While the last one is much more resembling of a weird combat trick, which could be intended to be played on an opposing creature, the first two definitely are not, yet, since they don't have any restriction on which creature/graveyard they can target, it's all fair game.

In an ideal scenario, we let our opponents fight for the crown so that they're more than willing to block even in scenarios they usually wouldn't. Then, once the dust has settled, we put on our best vulture costume and bring their recently buried creatures back from the graveyard under our control.

Bringing the Chaos to the Table

Still, why should we stop here? Can't we go a bit further?

Given we're already causing havoc on the board, stealing a different creature (possibly) every turn, I thought it may be fun to keep the party going, so why shouldn't we involve other players?

Wrong TurnWrong Turn can be an extremely strong political tool, swinging a combat step in favor or against a precise player. Even though it seems we're doing someone a favor, keep in mind we're still trying to get our hands on whatever creature we gave them.

Domineering WillDomineering Will adds another layer to the equation. It can be used as a triple Wrong TurnWrong Turn, but it can also remove blockers to let someone become the monarch. This is especially interesting if we want to take control of a specific creature and we need a certain player's combat to go as we'd like.

Lastly, Order of SuccessionOrder of Succession is more of a chaos card than a strong one. Still, considering we'll almost always have an empty board, it can net us a creature for free while putting other players one against the other. Just remember not to play it when our commander's in play!

Another way we have to control the rhythm of the game is, surprisingly, somewhat of a Voltron side plan.

The first category of tools at our disposal is composed of Impetuses. More precisely, three of them: Ghoulish ImpetusGhoulish Impetus, Parasitic ImpetusParasitic Impetus and Psychic ImpetusPsychic Impetus. Each of these cards give the enchanted creature a stat bonus and goad it, meaning it'll always attack if able and it'll never attack us if able. Additionally, whenever it goes to combat, we benefit from it in some way. Of the three, Ghoulish ImpetusGhoulish Impetus is the most interesting, as it'll keep on coming back enchanting one creature after another even if the carrier is destroyed.

Then we have the Vows: Vow of FlightVow of Flight, Vow of MaliceVow of Malice and Vow of TormentVow of Torment. These ones don't goad the creatures they enchant, but they still prevent them from coming our way. Like the previous cards, they grant some stat bonuses and an additional ability. In particular, Vow of MaliceVow of Malice gives the creature it enchants intimidate, a keyword that can make it pretty difficult to block.

Lastly, there are even some individual cards that help us in this plan. Eye of NidhoggEye of Nidhogg stands out among them, given that it is a repeatable (and fairly cheap) way to give a creature evasion and force it to attack someone.

The Zenit and the Abyss

As required by any good strategy, we can count on some tools to make a commanding position even more commanding.

In particular, getting to take control over more than one creature at once can truly be game-changing. For this reason, we want to run some effects that double our commander's trigger.

Strionic ResonatorStrionic Resonator is an ol' reliable tool, getting the job done cheap. It basically doesn't do anything if we don't have our general in play, but when it does do something, we'll understand precisely why we wanted it in the first place.

Lithoform EngineLithoform Engine is more of a Swiss army knife in comparison to the previous card. In addition to the trigger-copying ability, it can also grant us duplicates of instants, sorceries and permanents, all of which we'll use to steal even more creatures.

Lastly, Mirror Room // Fractured RealmMirror Room // Fractured Realm is a bit more situational than the other two. Its first half only works if we've already stolen something from our opponents, although it does a good job if we have. The second half is a bit pricey, but it'll generate enough value we'll forget its price as fast as possible.

Nonetheless, any good strategy also requires an emergency button to push when everything goes wrong or gets out of hand.

Although we actively want the board to be filled with creatures, especially powerful ones, to take control of them, there'll be times in which our strategy doesn't play out as intended. All in all, the success of our plan depends on our opponents' moves: if they don't act as we're expecting them to, we could find ourselves in some sticky situations.

Additionally, while we're doing our best to use other people's tools against them, there'll still be cases in which we cannot control everything that's going on. Perhaps there are several threats in play at the same time and, even if we're more than happy to steal one of them, the others might be a little too threatening.

As a result, we want to run a quite large removal package, starting from targeted removal, such as Rapid HybridizationRapid Hybridization, PongifyPongify, and Feed the SwarmFeed the Swarm. These ones will help us take car of those creatures we've not managed to manipulate in time.

Additionally, Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge, DamnationDamnation and, to a less permanent extent, EvacuationEvacuation will all help us deal with overall non-favorable board states. In particular, if the battlefield is too crowded, we might need them to clear the way for some attacks we can get something out of.

Lastly, I wanted to mention Run Away TogetherRun Away Together, an underrated card that can act as a double removal and a political tool at the same time. In fact, we can use it to bounce two problematic creatures, grant a player the monarchy, and, in doing so, net ourselves a creature. All of this for as little as two mana!

The Complete Decklist

So, this is all from me for now! What do you think about the deck? Do you like this idea or would you have followed another route? Let me know in the comments!