Rydia, Summoner of MistRydia, Summoner of Mist | Art by Yumi Yaoshida

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first article in the big leagues! I'm Command Zoe, and for anyone that doesn't know me yet, I'm a Magic writer and streamer that's been playing since Urza's block. I started playing Commander back when it was still called Elder Dragon Highlander. My chops include winning a junior GP, making a deck that got a card banned, writing an article that got an Alchemy card nerfed out of existence, and hitting #1 on the Arena ladder. I've been writing about Magic since 2020, and have been at Cardgamer.com since the beginning of January this year. I started streaming at the beginning of this year, and was recently chosen as a Featured Creator for MagicCon Atlanta. I'm so excited to be given the chance to bring my Commander knowledge here to EDHREC for you all.

Today I'm doing a deck tech on one of my very favorite Final Fantasy characters of all time, Rydia, Summoner of MistRydia, Summoner of Mist. She's a character from Final Fantasy IV who begins the game as the party's white mage. Halfway through the story there's an accident, and it appears Rydia dies being thrown overboard and eaten by Leviathan. However, she's actually taken by the beast to the land of Eidolons (the name for summons in that game) where time moves differently, and she grows up into an adult off screen. When she eventually returns to the party she's a powerful black mage capable of not only calling forth powerful Summons, but also backing up those Summons with an arsenal of powerful spells. Let's take a look at how that translated to the Magic card.

First I play Rydia, then I get rid a' ya'.

What Does Rydia, Summoner of Mist Do?

The game plan is fairly straight-forward. We play Rydia early enough that we can ramp and use Rydia's landfall ability to fill the graveyard with Saga creatures by discarding them. After setup is complete, we use all that mana from ramping to bring those Saga creatures back with Rydia's Summon ability.

There's a small wrinkle in that it doesn't necessarily need to bring back a creature Saga, but the card clearly wants you to because it also gives the Saga it returns haste; there'd be no need to give it haste if it was exclusively intended to bring back noncreature Sagas. Rydia also puts a finality counter on the Saga in an attempt to keep players from repeatedly cycling the same Saga ad infinitum.

Finally, and quite notably, Rydia is very fragile, having only two toughness and no defensive keywords. If she's viewed as a threat, she's very easy to destroy, so she'll need some help staying alive.

The most exciting thing about Rydia for me is that there has never been a Gruul () commander like her. Red-green reanimation is not something that has been explored a lot in Magic. The closest I can think of is the mono-red card Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path, who brings back creatures as artifact tokens for one turn. However, Feldon neither has an ability to set himself up, nor can he bring back cards for multiple turns. He's also unable to use green cards to help keep card advantage, remove enchantments, or diversify his selection of bombs to reanimate.

The one thing we need to be wary of when crafting a deck like this is that there simply aren't very many Summon cards, so we'll need to be lenient with our bombs and work around them to make the strategy work. It won't be as simple as Reanimator decks in other colors because the card quality of what we're returning is not on the same level as, say, Archon of CrueltyArchon of Cruelty. Because of that there is an instant and sorcery sub-theme, as several of the summon cards available care about them.

Key Cards for Rydia, Summoner of Mist

Summon Sagas

These are your best boys.

I started by adding all the available Summon cards that I could, but after some testing I found that Summon: BrynhildrSummon: Brynhildr was just not good for our plan. The first chapter on it is decent, but the second two are completely irrelevant when our commander already gives all our Sagas haste. Also, a 2/1 for two mana isn't very good when we'd rather be playing our commander on turn two.

The rest of the Summon creatures we're going to need to find a way to win with, because there are only ten of them. Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut is the obvious juggernaut card that we want to get out as many times as possible; it's definitely the deck's most efficient way of ending the game. All three of the five-mana Summons are decently powerful options for pushing damage through, but Summon: TitanSummon: Titan in particular you can rely on to help close games. The second chapter ability is usually going to bring a ton of lands back, so the third chapter will let something hit like a truck.

All of the three- and four-mana Summons are much more utility-focused than the higher mana value ones, but cutting any of them would make the deck's threat-density flimsier than it already is. This scarcity of Summons brings up the next type of card that's needed by the deck.

Dredge and Self-Mill

My dredge cards put all the cards in the yard.

The deck needs to have a way of putting more cards into the graveyard. One per turn isn't consistent enough because it relies too much on drawing one of only ten cards, and hoping it's one that's good enough to win with. So there are several cards added for which the main goal is to get more than one or two cards into the yard per turn.

Dredge cards like Life from the LoamLife from the Loam work great with Rydia's landfall effect, as they're not only a great way to fill the yard, but also will give a consistent way to return them to hand. The sequence is as follows: cast Loam to get three lands, then play one of those lands, discard another, get Loam back with dredge 3.

Another great self-mill card in the list is Wreck and RebuildWreck and Rebuild. Its versatility really shines in this deck. It can ramp while netting four additional cards into the graveyard, remove a troublesome artifact or enchantment, and can still be useful if it gets milled into the graveyard by another self-mill effect because of flashback.

There are also two self-mill cards that can double as ways to get cards back from the graveyard. Aftermath AnalystAftermath Analyst can make a ton of Rydia triggers at once and help filter down to the Sagas if they aren't coming up early, and the ramp is always good for Rydia's summon ability. The other is Shigeki, Jukai VisionaryShigeki, Jukai Visionary, whose channel effect can be critical for getting key cards that get milled back to hand. There's also a neat interaction between Shigeki and Peerless RecyclingPeerless Recycling where they can keep getting each other back plus another card, and at instant speed!

Dealing With Finality Counters

What do these three cards have in common?

The final problem the scarcity of Summons presents is the finality counter that Rydia puts on them. The strategy gets too inconsistent if it keeps losing Summons to exile. It means Rydia would only have 10 total chances with her second ability to close out a win, and not all of those are game-winning targets. So a way is needed around these finality counters.

The most obvious way is to simply remove the counters from them, but the options are limited. Power ConduitPower Conduit and HexavusHexavus are obvious inclusions, as is Nesting GroundsNesting Grounds, which has the added villainous-synergy of moving those finality counters onto our opponents' creatures.

Mutate cards like GemrazerGemrazer, Migratory GreathornMigratory Greathorn, and Sawtusk DemolisherSawtusk Demolisher have an interesting interaction with the new Saga creatures. If you mutate on top of them, they stop being Saga-type. This means they will stop gaining lore counters, which allows them to not be sacrificed into exile when they reach their final chapter. It unfortunately means they will also stop gaining lore counters, but if they get proliferated to their final chapter they will still retain the textbox, so the final chapter would still trigger, but without the downside of getting sacrificed.

Lastly, using Cloudstone CurioCloudstone Curio to return a Summon to hand that has a finality counter on it is another way around the exile effect. It also lets you bounce your own lands back to your hand so you never miss a land drop, and can then discard those returned Summons to reanimate them over and over.

How Does This Rydia, Summoner of Mist Commander Deck Win?

The win conditions in this deck are straightforward: get out large Summon creatures repeatedly and attack your opponents with them. So despite Reanimator not being typically featured in Gruul, Rydia still manages to pull off the vibes of the color pairing quite well. The go-to win card is Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut. Combine its third chapter effect with Weaver of HarmonyWeaver of Harmony and a decent board state, and the game can end on the spot. This can also work with the third chapter on Summon: KujataSummon: Kujata, depending on what's discarded. Morphing onto an unblockable FerropedeFerropede can also close a game out quickly, especially if you start putting +1/+1 counters on it.

Alternatively, there are two ways to win that don't involve attacking opponents directly. The first is by using Day of the MoonDay of the Moon with the counter-removers to eventually name every creature on the board. Start with each opponents' commanders, then move on to whatever else is around. It works cumulatively, so eventually every creature in their decks will get named. Just be ready when there's only one opponent left to finish them off.

The other way of winning is Monument to EnduranceMonument to Endurance. Each landfall on your turn triggers it, but so does looping the channel cards in the deck on opponents' turns so that the lose three life option of Monument can be chosen repeatedly in a turn cycle. This can add up incredibly quickly, especially if you copy the Monument with The Mycosynth GardensThe Mycosynth Gardens for two triggers per discard.

Rydia, Summoner of Mist Commander Deck List

Final Thoughts on Finally Fantasizing about Final Fantasy

This deck is an absolute blast to play. I had so much fun trying to get it to work, and finally getting it to a place where it was able to beat a couple of my friends was very rewarding. The deck can certainly do strong things, though it can struggle with consistency. It works best in a Bracket 2 environment, but if it were going up a step, the Game Changers I'd suggest focusing on are tutors and fast mana. This deck would love both Worldly TutorWorldly Tutor and Jeska's WillJeska's Will, for instance. It's not the most spikey list, but if you love Final Fantasy: IV or are a Johnny/Jenny who loves lots of synergies and landfall, give Rydia a try.

Thanks so much, everyone, for taking the time to read my first article here at EDHREC. I have been Command Zoe. Next time I'll do a deck tech on everyone's favorite little guy, Mog, Moogle WarriorMog, Moogle Warrior.