Sephiroth, Fallen HeroSephiroth, Fallen Hero | Art by Ittoku

Hello! Welcome back to Archetypes of Imagination, the series where we build decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'll be using Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages to build around a new theme each week. Scryfall has a really cool way of categorizing cards, where each card has specific labels attached to it for later reference. For example, Drakuseth, Maw of FlamesDrakuseth, Maw of Flames has the burn tag and Scavenger GroundsScavenger Grounds has the graveyard hate tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy.

This week we'll be building a deck focused on “flinging” creatures: sacrificing them to deal damage equal to their power to any target. To maximize the value of these FlingFlings, we're going to need some pretty big creatures to throw around. There's lots of ways to make big creatures in Magic, but I'd like to focus on a card from the most exciting upcoming set: Final Fantasy! This set has some super powerful cards, but one of them caught my eye for this week's article. So, this deck will be helmed by… Sephiroth, Fallen HeroSephiroth, Fallen Hero!

What Does Sephiroth, Fallen Hero Do?

SephirothSephiroth is super strong, turning each of our modified creatures (creatures that are equipped, enchanted, or have counters on them) into big, bulky 7/5s every time he attacks. And, on top of that, it's easy to avoid paying extra to recast Sephiroth because he can return himself to the battlefield if we sacrifice a modified creature. But we need a little more direction than just modified creatures. We'll be focusing on pumping up our creatures with +1/+1 counters, and then taking advantage of their Sephiroth-boosted power to quickly reduce our opponents' life totals to 0. Let's get brewing!

Key Fling Strategy Cards For Sephiroth, Fallen Hero

This deck is focused on dealing direct damage to our opponents based on our creatures' power. Let's talk about the best ones. One of my personal favorites is Brion StoutarmBrion Stoutarm. This big guy can take our 7/5s and sacrifice them for both direct damage and life gain. Plus, this is a repeatable effect, meaning we can cause a 14 point life swing on each table rotation. Similarly, I'm a big fan of Burning AngerBurning Anger. Although this isn't a traditional fling effect, it lets our biggest creatures hit our opponents over and over again. Plus, the classics like FlingFling, Kazuul's FuryKazuul's Fury and ThudThud are all here. Although they're not necessarily as flashy as some of the other cards I've talked about, they're important role players in this deck's 99.

We want to get extra value when we fling a creature. There are a few creatures, like Cacophony ScampCacophony Scamp, Fireblade ChargerFireblade Charger, and Heartfire HeroHeartfire Hero, that can deal additional damage to our opponents when they die, making them ideal targets for our effects that require a creature sacrifice. Elenda's HierophantElenda's Hierophant can be a big, evasive attacker once we modify it, and will explode into a bunch of valuable tokens when it dies. Similarly, Gleeful ArsonistGleeful Arsonist has the ability to come back to life with a counter on it and start dealing extra damage to our opponents.

But we won't be sacrificing all of our creatures; we'd like to attack with our 7/5s too. Paladin Elizabeth TaggerdyPaladin Elizabeth Taggerdy and Ryan SinclairRyan Sinclair can both let us cheat the mana cost of our spells once their powers are big enough, and our commander makes that a trivial requirement. Similarly, Krenko, Tin Street KingpinKrenko, Tin Street Kingpin can flood the board with Goblins quite quickly and has the ability to grow larger as the game goes on.

Ways to Modify Our Creatures

In order to make a Sephiroth deck work, we'll need some extra ways to modify our creatures. One of my favorites is Mikaeus, the LunarchMikaeus, the Lunarch. This Cleric enters the battlefield as a modified creature, and can tap to let us add +1/+1 counters to every creature we control. This is not only a super powerful buff, but synergizes perfectly with our commander's base power/toughness buff. I've also included Felidar RetreatFelidar Retreat and Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade for team-wide +1/+1 counter distribution. These cards are super strong in -based creature decks, and they're a perfect fit here.

Finally, Uncivil UnrestUncivil Unrest is a fantastic way to close out games. Because we've got so many ways to distribute +1/+1 counters among our creatures, this is essentially a damage doubler that can give our creatures haste if needed.

We'll also need a few ways to protect our board state, given how heavy we're leaning into having big creatures on hand at all times. One of my favorite new cards fits perfectly here: Duty Beyond DeathDuty Beyond Death. We'll usually have at least one creature on board that we don't mind sacrificing, and this protection spell will also add some bonus +1/+1 counters to our creatures.

Similarly, Bulwark OxBulwark Ox and Zack FairZack Fair can add some counters to our creatures and protect them from our opponents' pesky removal spells. There's been a lot of cool board state protection tools printed recently, and I'd rather run these than the obviously-powerful Teferi's ProtectionTeferi's Protection in a lower-bracket deck like this.

Sephiroth, Fallen Hero Fling Commander Deck List

Here's the full decklist:

The EndThe End

I hope you enjoyed this Final Fantasy-themed edition of Archetypes of Imagination. Before you go, I wanted to talk about this deck's board wipe package. I intentionally picked three wipes that work very well with the board states we plan to construct. Damning VerdictDamning Verdict is pretty close to being a one-sided wipe for just , and that's hard to pass up. Similarly, if we cast Spiteful BanditrySpiteful Banditry for X=4 after combat, we've got a good chance of hitting all of our opponents' creatures while sparing ours. And, finally, as one final fling effect, Chandra's IgnitionChandra's Ignition can both wipe the board and hit our opponents for some big damage.

Thanks once again for reading. I'll see you all next week, for another edition of Archetypes of Imagination: a group slug deck!