Ardyn, the Usurper | Illustrated by Russell Lu

Jumpstart Commander Cube: Final Fantasy

Greetings everyone, and welcome back to my Megacycle of Jumpstart Articles! Back in 2020, I wrote about Jumpstart on CardSphere, then continued this pattern in 2023 when I first wrote about a Jumpstart Commander Cube on Commander’s Herald. I’m back to write about a set-specific version of the format, using Final Fantasy as the anchor point.

A proper Jumpstart Commander Cube can be a mechanically cohesive, fun, and rewarding experience, especially when you can hone in on a single, fantastic set. But first, what do all those words mean, exactly?

What is a Jumpstart Commander Cube?

• Cube: a draft environment with cards carefully selected by one person
• Jumpstart: a Limited format where players take two 20-card packs, shuffle them together, and start playing.
• Commander Draft: players draft like normal, but they also pick their commander as part of the draft to construct 60-card decks.

Alright, so smash them together and you get a format where you “draft” three random packs of 30 cards with a legendary creature, pick two, and shuffle them up to play. How does this work with commanders of different color identities? We’ll be going with the Commander Masters rule where mono-colored legendary creatures are treated as having the “partner” mechanic.

There’s the rough idea of the format. I spent a lot of time in my previous article talking about how many packs you need to have, but I won’t repeat myself here. Base size for an “in-house” Jumpstart Cube is 20 packs, four of each color. This lets a pod of 4 easily “draft” it multiple times without getting stale.

So a Jumpstart Commander Cube is going to look like this:

• Collection of packs
• Each pack has at least one legendary creature intended as a commander
• Packs are 30 cards, singleton
• The cube is not necessarily singleton
• Average ratio of nonland:land will be 17:13

Now for…

The Final Fantasy Twist

If I were to sit down and plot out a new Jumpstart Commander Cube, I would come up with a list of themes which could play well together, map them out to colors, and go from there. I could pull from all over Magic’s history and the 20,000+ cards to do it. That’s not what’s happening here; this is a “set-specific” Jumpstart cube. (Jumpstart actually had some set-specific versions released in 2022, to little acclaim, due to the lack of variety. We can avoid that pitfall, thanks to this being a more customized experience.) The themes are baked into the set, and I’ll have to pull from there.

Anyone sitting down to play a Final Fantasy cube is going to expect every card has Final Fantasy art, so we can only pull from the premier set and Commander decks. Including Through the Ages, we have 339 mono-colored cards and 53 colorless cards to pull from, so 392 in all. With packs requiring 17 nonland cards, this set could support 23 packs with zero repetition. I wouldn’t expect anyone to actually try that, because the three sets are going to be of very different power levels and some cards won’t make the cut. For that reason, I’ll have the following guidelines while building.

• Legendaries are restricted to 1 per cube
• Nonlegendary nonland cards can be in up to two packs
• Special exception: Command TowerCommand Tower is in every pack (like the Thriving lands in original Jumpstart)

As of writing, we have 78 commanders with a mono-color identity available, which makes this set one of the best for making a siloed Jumpstart Commander Cube around. While making one around every character is possible, I generally think it’s better when packs have a chance of working together. To that end, we need to keep in mind the themes of the set:

• Job Select: Equipment which enter the battlefield equipped to a 1/1 Hero creature token
• Noncreature spells: There is a “general” noncreature spells matter and also a “4 mana or greater” version of the archetype
• Graveyard
• Counters
• Saga Creatures

Obvious notes: counters and Saga creatures have some synergies. The Equipment clicks into the noncreature spell decks. Counters and Equipment naturally work together as ways to grow creatures into threats. Graveyard is the only odd one out, but graveyard is also often just a method for general value.

I could probably write 20,000 words about choosing each commander for each pack and the reasons for certain card highlights, but my editor would deal 9,999 damage to my fingers if I tried, so here’s the quick version:

There’s definitely the option to make each pack themed around a different game, but I think that risks some packs being pretty uneven. I’m going in on this with mechanical themes first.

There are “counters matter” commanders in white, blue, and green. Red and black both have commanders and a handful of effects that make or use counters, which means a full set of five is possible. Good idea to make sure every pack includes either a saga creature or a +1/+1 counter somewhere, if possible.

Likewise, Equipment commanders can be found in red, green, and white. Job select cards may make it possible to include a piece of Equipment in nearly every pack.

Noncreature spells matter is the theme of the Esper deck, but we have mono-color commanders in red, blue, and white. The aforementioned Equipment themes will help make this work, but noncreature spells will be in every pack anyways.

That gives us some direction for the packs, and what can’t be managed with general set themes can be picked up from either specific ideas from a particular commander (like Matoya, Archon ElderMatoya, Archon Elder’s Scry/Surveil) or a more generic strategy (like Lightning, Security SergeantLightning, Security Sergeant aggro).

Spoiler season is still in swing, but surely we’ve gotten most of the mono-colored legends by now… right? Either way, I’ve drawn up a starting point.

Outline and Pack Examples

White

1. Adelbert SteinerAdelbert Steiner - Equipment
2. Snow VilliersSnow Villiers - Tokens
3. Thancred WatersThancred Waters - Noncreature Aggro
4. Lord Jyscal GuadoLord Jyscal Guado - Counters Control

Blue

1. Edgar, King of FigaroEdgar, King of Figaro - Artifacts & Coin Flips
2. Hermes, Overseer of ElpisHermes, Overseer of Elpis - Noncreature Control
3. Ultimecia, Temporal ThreatUltimecia, Temporal Threat - Control
4. Rikku, Resourceful GuardianRikku, Resourceful Guardian - Counters Aggro

Black

1. Ardyn, the UsurperArdyn, the Usurper - Demon Reanimator
2. Shadow, Mysterious AssassinShadow, Mysterious Assassin - Sacrifice
3. Zenos yae GalvusZenos yae Galvus - Control
4. Vincent ValentineVincent Valentine - Counters Aggro

Red

1. Barret WallaceBarret Wallace - Equipment
2. Gogo, Mysterious MimeGogo, Mysterious Mime - Aggro
3. Prompto ArgentumPrompto Argentum - Noncreature Midrange
4. Umaro, Raging YetiUmaro, Raging Yeti - Big Red

Green

1. Maester SeymourMaester Seymour - Counters Midrange
2. Quina, Qu GourmetQuina, Qu Gourmet - Tokens
3. Tifa LockhartTifa Lockhart - Ramp
4. Professor HojoProfessor Hojo - Equipment

This is just a first draft based on what we have so far. Once we’ve had some time with the full set, it’ll be easier to tell what’s fully supportable and what themes are intended to be shored up with in-universe cards.

Here’s one example pack:

Any player drafting Adelbert will have a good time running out Equipment that innately boost the commander without even being equipped.

I don’t have any more full sample packs, just a quick blitz of key cards for four more packs.

For Edgar, King of FigaroEdgar, King of Figaro, you’ll want to consider any cards mentioning coin flips or with the artifact type. Currently, Final Fantasy only has one card in-color that cares about coin flips, but the artifact line makes him worth playing. His deck will synergize well with the Equipment decks, but he also provides material for the noncreature decks. The following cards fit the bill:

Shadow, Mysterious AssassinShadow, Mysterious Assassin wants to sacrifice nonland permanents, so a mix of recursion and powerful enters the battlefield abilities will make the most of this commander’s abilities. I’ll note that Shadow has a dog that can come back over and over again and let you make of that what you will. Shadow’s aggression makes him a generally useful pack, not built especially towards or away from any set themes.

Now, Prompto ArgentumPrompto Argentum goes hard on the noncreature themes. Restricting to just the one set, though, means we’re still going to be a fairly aggressive deck that gets a little extra juice in the late game. Making a Treasure token when spending four or more mana on a noncreature spell is nice, but not exactly game-breaking, after all.

Finally, our green sampler is Maester SeymourMaester Seymour, from the Commander decks! He’s very much a beatstick who makes more beatsticks. He wants creatures onboard, which isn’t a tough ask. Every card in his pack want to do something with counters so as to maximize his ability. Note that Sagas have lore counters, which still count towards his totals.

Where do we go from here?

This is a good baseline to consider: an outline of twenty packs. That alone would be enough, but this is Final Fantasy, after all, a game series that is relentlessly extravagant.

Two-Color Fun

Final Fantasy has over 50 two-color commanders, many of which would be perfect for a Jumpstart set, but there is an inherent problem. Jumpstart packs are usually mono-colored; it’s simpler to make them this way to better ensure mana isn’t much of an obstacle to play. We’re not constrained by the same problems Wizards would face, this is a carefully personalized experience. It’s fine if you choose to skip out, but I think this has something to offer.

Certain two-color legends in the set are clearly intended for the draft environment or bracket 1 Commander games, and I think they could shine here in a specifically constructed environment. Tidus, Blitzball StarTidus, Blitzball Star isn’t going to knock over tables, but he could be a fun run here. Similarly, the fun of Vanille, Cheerful l'CieVanille, Cheerful l'Cie is melding, hard to pull off consistently without a ton of draw and tutors that end up running the risk of making games feel same-y. Not so, here!

Every color combination has at least two options to pick from, and it should be easy enough to pick a set of 10. From there, we need to determine the ruling:

If a person picks a two-color deck, what happens? Can their two-color commander partner with a one-color commander? If not, what happens if they happen to pick the WU pack alongside a R and G pack? You’ll want to think through your systems of randomness (or if there even is one) if you decide to include something that throws off the traditional framework.

You may start off letting the two-color packs partner up (maybe only with one-color packs), but decide to pull back if they prove too much more powerful. The alternate rule could be that if someone pulls a two-color pack and doesn’t have either of its colors as options, they can “reroll” by putting back the mono-color packs and picking up a random pack in their color.

It’s good to keep these as simple and approachable as possible. The two-color addendum may make it more complex than it’s worth, but I think it adds a bit of fun that is unique to a Final Fantasy edition of the Jumpstart Commander Cube.

I’m currently planning out a set of color pair packs, and I also want to do a five-color Towns pack with The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel. We’ll see how it goes.

At the end of the day, this is your cube for your house. Tweak them how you like!

Conclusion

So, to quickly recap:

1. A Jumpstart Commander Cube themed around a singular setting or property will need enough legends, which isn’t too uncommon with how Wizards of the Coast makes sets these days.
2. Your limiting factor on packs will be how many cards are in the set; even if the cube isn’t singleton, you don’t want the same cards showing up too often.
3. The pack’s themes won’t all work beautifully together, but try to avoid anti-synergy. Building from a single draft set helps make this easier.
4. Consider whether you want to go with just the mono-color legends or if you want to find a way to bring the two-color commanders in on the fun.

This rundown went over Final Fantasy, but can be used with any setting printed in Magic. The upcoming Spider-Man set is going to be smaller and lack the accompanying Commander decks, so a Jumpstart Commander Cube themed around the webhead may only end up at 10-15 packs. Magic’s own multiverse has a mix of planes with only one set (Kaldheim, New Capenna, Thunder Junction) and planes with a ton of material (Dominaria, Ravnica, Zendikar). Each category will have their own difficulties and problems to overcome when building, but I think these are fun to work out.

Good luck, and may you cultivate your best experiences!