Kefka, Court MageKefka, Court Mage | Illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano

When someone asks an expert in the Final Fantasy series about its most detestable villain, Kefka Palazzo will often come to mind. After all, Kefka has committed a vast multitude of crimes that, to paraphrase another RPG clown, would make the Geneva Convention look more like "Geneva Suggestions." The role of Court Mage of the Gestahlian Empire and, later, as the God of Magic are, understandably, extremely oppressive titles to hold. Kefka achieves his goals with aplomb and fanfare, often to the chagrin of the protagonists of Final Fantasy VI.

Therefore, it may come as no surprise that this deck tech is almost certain to bring pain and despair to many a table. Kefka, Court MageKefka, Court Mage (and its rear face, Kefka, Ruler of Ruin) is extremely powerful as a commander. This commander wants to do multiple different things, but in a way that allows us to seamlessly pivot from one task to another as needed. By no means is this deck ever not going to be a "group slug" build; the deck wants to oppress the table at every turn. But, at the same time, you ought to have a little fun doing it, right? It's exactly what Lord Kefka would want.

What Does Kefka, Court Mage Do?

Kefka, Court Mage is a legendary Human Wizard. His stats are relatively innocuous for his cost. He's a 4/5 for , which isn't much to shout about. However, it's his abilities that allow Kefka to shine. On entry and whenever Kefka, Court Mage attacks, each player discards a card, then you get to draw a card for each card type among the discarded cards. For emphasis, this doesn't include subtypes or supertypes, but you'll often draw at least two cards with each resolution of this ability. Such is the way of forced discard!

To transform Kefka into his Ruler of Ruin iteration, you must pay a hefty eight generic mana. However, in addition to transforming Kefka, the ability also forces each opponent to sacrifice a permanent. This could be something as innocuous as a token or as impactful as a land, but that's at the whims of your opponents. Even so, ruination comes forth!

Kefka's rear face, the Ruler of Ruin, is a 5/7 with flying. He's now on rate, even considerably better, for his five-mana cost, but those stats don't make him worth eight. However, his triggered ability, which reads "Whenever an opponent loses life during your turn, you draw that many cards," fully makes up for this.

A Contrapositive Nekusar?

At the point where you read the front face of Kefka, you may be thinking to yourself, "This clown seems a lot like Nekusar, the Mindrazer!" And to that, I fully agree with you. After all, Kefka also draws you cards, and is built to cater to group slug strategies. But there's something slightly off about this line of thought. To that end, I say Kefka, Court Mage is a contrapositive to Nekusar. By that, I mean they affirmatively complement each other, but are still very different. You could always group them into the same deck, but to achieve similar results, it's actually not necessary.

When you pivot over to Kefka, Ruler of Ruin, the commander that ensues does a good job at imitating Arjun, the Shifting Flame. To an even slightly careless Arjun pilot, one slip-up might spell the difference between drawing your deck and winning, or drawing your deck and losing. The same is true of Kefka, Ruler of Ruin, except we have more fail-safe options to mitigate that possibility. Namely, we have the addition of sacrifice outlets to help us in case Kefka goes a little too mad with draw power. This deck tech doesn't utilize many black sacrifice outlets, but know that you can, and it might make a difference for you.

Plans Befitting Ruination

This deck tech will showcase a "group slug" strategy, as mentioned previously. This means affecting opponents in a relatively equal, very net-negative manner. This will be achieved through group discard and punishing card draw for opponents. Additionally, we'll utilize a plethora of triggered abilities that proc off of either draw or self-discard. Finally, when we transform Kefka into his Ruler of Ruin face, we'll aim to win by maximizing the extent of our triggers off card draw.

Key Cards for Kefka, Court Mage

A few cards make this deck tick exceptionally well. These cards can be divided into three groups:

#1. Fail-Safes

Before we get into the fun parts of running this deck, we need to discuss the fail-safes to keep you from losing by your own (literal) hand. Very often, you may find yourself in a situation where you're about to draw too many cards all at once. This is typically a bad situation, but it can be salvaged! For one, we run instant-speed enablers like Leyline of AnticipationLeyline of Anticipation and High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster to ensure we can fix things quickly if they were to go awry.

The solutions themselves include sacrifice outlets, like Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar and Dimir House GuardDimir House Guard, in case we need to remove Kefka from the field. They also include cards that halt draw in some fashion, such as Obstinate FamiliarObstinate Familiar or Words of WasteWords of Waste. Finally, Ormos, Archive KeeperOrmos, Archive Keeper does a really good job of accruing +1/+1 counters instead of drawing in the worst case scenario - an empty library.

#2. Card Draw Payoffs

There are plenty of cards in this deck that pay off from drawing cards. For example, The Locust GodThe Locust God makes a ton of Insect tokens with haste with even one Kefka, Court Mage trigger. Sphinx's TutelageSphinx's Tutelage could mill a player out quite handily in here if you've transformed Kefka. And, quite notably, Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler and Starving RevenantStarving Revenant imitate the old Niv-Mizzet, the FiremindNiv-Mizzet, the Firemind-plus-CuriosityCuriosity combo with Ruler of Ruin on the battlefield.

#3. Discard Payoffs

This deck runs various ways to profit off of discard. This applies to opponents' discard, sure, but also self discard. Cards like Waste NotWaste Not or Bone MiserBone Miser work to create versatile and worthwhile situations. Through these scenarios, your opponents will ultimately suffer more than you. Archfiend of IfnirArchfiend of Ifnir is a straight-up one-sided board wipe if you can freely discard enough cards. And don't even get me started on the MegrimMegrim-style effects in this deck.

But special attention should be paid to the key reason this deck is Bracket 3 in letter as well as intent. Tergrid, God of FrightTergrid, God of Fright is a seriously intimidating card. It will do you absolutely no favors with how oppressive the card is. If you wish to tone the deck down at all, this should feasibly be the first card to consider cutting.

How Does Kefka, Court Mage Win?

Kefka, Court Mage wins a typical Commander game in a variety of different ways. One more apparent way is through Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac. Lab Man is a tried and true method of winning, and it isn't a bad one here. It also doesn't hurt that it can eat spot removal when you can use another method of winning.

Another method to win the game includes using Kefka, Ruler of Ruin to combo with Psychosis Crawler or Starving Revenant. This is a less effective means to win as it requires far more math, especially via Psychosis Crawler. The trajectory goes like this: with Kefka, Ruler of Ruin and Psychosis Crawler in play, when you draw a single card, each opponent loses one life. In a three-opponent game, that means you draw three cards. Psychosis Crawler causes your opponents to each lose three life, for nine life lost in total. You draw nine cards. They each lose nine life. You draw 27. If the next instance of 27 life lost can't defeat them all, you'd best have Ormos or a Lab Man handy. Starving Revenant does similarly, but on a 1-to-1 level of lifeless to draw as opposed to exponential degrees.

But overall, there are plenty of other means with which to win the game. This includes punisher effects and the potential for a go-wide strategy as well. The possibilities are endless!

Kefka, Court Mage Deck List

The End Comes, Beyond Chaos

This deck is, in a couple of words, certifiably evil. This is befitting of the good (read: despicable) name of Kefka Palazzo. It provides all manner of strong synergies with draw and discard effects. It's also readily able to pivot strategies to full-send draw payoffs as needed. Much like Kefka himself, this deck is sure to drive your opponents entirely up the wall, each scrambling in many ways to handle their inevitable collective demise. Just don't go dancing mad with too much power, or you'll fall to ruination yourself.

Finally, I hope you liked this deck tech and its diabolical fool of a commander. If you did, consider playing Final Fantasy VI for yourself. It's an expansive title and does amazing things for the series at large.