Jenova, Ancient CalamityJenova, Ancient Calamity Art by Ignatius Budi

Well Magic players, it's time to introduce you all to Jenova, Ancient CalamityJenova, Ancient Calamity, one of the biggest villains in Final Fantasy VII. For those of you that don’t know: Jenova, is an ancient Alien creature that's central to the plot of the story. It infects lifeforms like a virus, turning them into monsters, which is captured perfectly with this new card. Modifying a creature and then drawing cards when it dies is a powerful ability to build around.

So, join me, Tyler ‘Savesya’ Bucks, as I highlight 14 cards for under $14 that can get you started on a new deck! With this list, we'll look at a few creatures that are naturally Mutants, which makes it even easier to draw cards off of when they die, as well as show off some synergistic sacrifice outlets that will give you more control over when your creatures leave the board.

What Does Jenova, Ancient Calamity Do?

Let’s kick things off by taking a look at the commander, Jenova, Ancient CalamityJenova, Ancient Calamity, a four-mana 1/5 that hands out +1/+1 counter equal to their power to one of your creatures at the start of your combat. When that happens, that creature becomes a Mutant in addition to its other types.

But that’s not all. Whenever a Mutant you control dies during your turn, you draw cards equal to its power.

Budget Mutant Cards for Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Of course, throwing something like a Yargle and MultaniYargle and Multani into this deck would be great, but I wanted to first show off some creatures that are already Mutants.

Rampaging Yao Guai

The first Mutant we’re showcasing today comes with some counters of its own, as well as removal stapled to it. Rampaging Yao GuaiRampaging Yao Guai can be strong in the early game as well as the late game, allowing you to clear the board of pesky artifacts and enchantments while getting you a big body on the board.

It's also a great blocker and attacker that you won’t care about dying during combat, since you’ll be drawing all those cards with your commander.

Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma

Another card that comes with its own counters is Lily Bowen, Raging GrandmaLily Bowen, Raging Grandma. Even though she already has a way to grow her counters, throwing an additional one on with Jenova could be beneficial, since it'll only grow your Granny faster.

Now all but one of those counters will go away once Lily gets more than sixteen of them, which just means you should be attacking as much as possible or looking for one of the sacrifice outlets we'll talk about later to cash her in when she's at her most powerful.

Watchful Radstag

We'll be talking about a lot of big creatures on this list, but let’s take a look at a way to go a bit wider with our board. Watchful RadstagWatchful Radstag creates a token of itself whenever it evolves, which means that as you simply play out your game plan, you could be getting a bigger board of Elk.

Since Jenova doesn’t care about how your Mutants die, you can recklessly use those tokens for attacking, all while drawing cards in the process.

Lumbering Megasloth

If you already have plenty of counters building up on your board, well then Lumbering MegaslothLumbering Megasloth is here to come down for as little as two mana. It's naturally an 8/8, which is great for getting into the red zone, or just straight up sacrificing to draw an obscene number of cards.

Do yourself a favor and hold off on casting this Sloth until you’re ready to get full value out of it, because let’s be honest, 12 mana is just too high. Also, don’t overlook the fact that the mana reduction takes into account all counters on the board, not just yours.

Ursine Monstrosity

Let's step away from Fall Out Mutants for a second with Ursine MonstrosityUrsine Monstrosity. This creature has trample as well as a way to grow when you move to combat, milling you a card and then getting +1/+1 for each card type in your graveyard. Since it also gains indestructible, this will be a great target for the counters Jenova passes along, making it a constant threat on each of your turns for one random unlucky opponent.

As another bonus, since the Monstrosity only costs three mana, you can get it down the turn before your commander, and start the pain train as early as possible.

Feral Ghoul

In this deck a lot of cards will be going to your graveyard, whether it's from milling or sacrificing; the latter of the two is something that Feral GhoulFeral Ghoul loves to see. Gaining +1/+1 counters whenever another creature you control dies means that you could get this down early, then continue your game plan of sacrificing bigger creatures to draw cards, all while the Ghoul gets bigger and bigger, setting you up to cash it in for value later in the game. Then you draw a bunch of cards and throw a whole lot of rad counters onto your opponents in the process.

Evolution Witness

As I just mentioned, a lot of these value pieces we look at today will most likely end up in your bin - but that’s where Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness comes in. Whenever you add a counter to it, you’ll return a permanent from your graveyard to your hand, which makes for a great combo with your commander, since you can have a repeatable way to regrow something each turn if you need to build your board back.

Budget Sacrifice Outlets for Jenova

In this next section, we'll highlight some great sacrifice outlets, which always feel even better to run when you have more ways to bring your cards back, like Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness.

Wight of the Reliquary

Let's kick off this section on sacrifice outlets with Wight of the ReliquaryWight of the Reliquary. Not only is this a creature that grows in size, which Jenova would love to turn into a Mutant, but it also gives you the ability to grab any land from your deck.

If you’re drawing huge chunks of cards in this deck, the main thing that will hold you back is not having enough mana to cast those spells. Ramp like this that synergizes on multiple levels of your game plan makes it a slam dunk inclusion for this list.

Illuminor Szeras

Up next we have the most expensive card on the list, but its worth it since it helps us with that mana problem I was just referring to. Illuminor SzerasIlluminor Szeras can tap to sacrifice a creature, and gives you black mana equal to the creature’s mana value. Imagine using that ability with the Lumbering MegaslothLumbering Megasloth we talked about earlier: drawing eight cards, and making twelve mana could just push you towards closing the game out faster than anyone is ready for.

Flare of Cultivation

Keeping with the ramp theme, our next spell, Flare of CultivationFlare of Cultivation, can feed into everything you need and cost you zero mana in the process. As you cast it, you can sacrifice a nontoken green creature, which makes it free. This card is flexible since at its base, it’s just a CultivateCultivate. But when your game plan is humming, it can also refill your hand. Ramp and card draw for free sounds pretty nice to me!

Cultist of the Absolute

Not many cards on this list help grow Jenova’s stats, which you do want since you put counters on something equal to its power, but Cultist of the AbsoluteCultist of the Absolute was too good to pass up. Giving +3/+3, great keywords, and ward is amazing, but it's also a sacrifice outlet on your upkeep.

There's a chance that this card might put you in an awkward position where you don’t want to get rid of a member of your team, but if your commander gave four counters to a creature on your last turn, and then you cash it for cards, you'll likely be able to add a lot more fodder to the board from there.

Deadly Brew

If you want your opponents to join in the fun of sacrificing their creatures, then Deadly BrewDeadly Brew is here for you. Two mana to have each player get rid of a creature is a solid rate. When you add the fact that you want to be doing that with your creatures anyway, you’ll be sure to come out on top of this exchange. Plus, this sorcery allows you to then return something from your graveyard to your hand, which can help you get back a key piece you sacrificed earlier in the game for value.

Daemogoth Titan

Alright, let’s not mess around anymore… Daemogoth TitanDaemogoth Titan is a four mana 11/10. When you move to combat, Jenova can give it a counter, turning the Titan into a Mutant. Then you either sacrifice it to one of the effects we’ve mentioned before, or just attack with it on your turn. It’s a lose-lose situation for your opponents, since its sacrifice ability allows you to target itself.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

Closing things out this week, we have a little bit of redundancy for your commander with The Gitrog, Ravenous RideThe Gitrog, Ravenous Ride. When I first saw Jenova, my mind immediately went to Thunder Junction’s take on this Frog Horror, and they work perfectly together.

Here’s a little example: before combat, have that Daemogoth TitanDaemogoth Titan saddle The Gitrog. Then move to combat and place a counter on the Titan turning it into a Mutant. Then, when The Gitrog deals damage to someone, you’ll sacrifice the Titan, which will draw you 12 cards with Gitrog, and then you can put up to twelve lands into play. Jenova will also trigger, drawing you another 12 cards… At that point, you’ll be so far ahead that the best hope your foes will have to take you out is that you draw yourself to death.

In Closing

There you have it: 14 cards for under $14 to jump-start a new Jenova, Ancient CalamityJenova, Ancient Calamity deck. This list was a lot of fun to put together and allows you to have a lot of big splashy moments during a game, while still getting a little tricky with it at some points. Let me know in the comments below what cards you would add to this list so we can help our fellow players find more great cards!