Lightning, Army of OneLightning, Army of One | Art by Shiyu

In a typical game of Commander, each player seek to do whatever it is that their deck does, hopefully pulling out a win in the process. At Bracket 2, that usually involves incremental advantage, snowballing into enough momentum to take out the table in a turn or two. But what if, instead of that, we just pick a fight with one opponent? Lightning, Army of OneLightning, Army of One is a commander with tunnel vision, and today we're looking at a decklist built in respect to Lightning's singular purpose.

The legendary Human Soldier comes courtesy of Final Fantasy XIII, in which she's a protagonist. As a result, she's used to seeing everything warp around her, just like Commander games will when this card hits the table.

What Does Lightning, Army of One Do?

In short, Lightning points to one opponent and says "Screw you, in particular."

According to EDHREC, the very site on which you're reading this deck tech right now, nascent numbers for the commander point to players looking to build a Lightning deck in the vein of taking extra combat steps. That's certainly one way to do it, but as a card, Lightning brings more of a "finish one task before starting another" energy.

Three mana gets you a 3/2 Human Soldier with first strike, trample, and lifelink. That's pretty good, though not anything particularly exciting in 2025. It's the Stagger trigger where Lightning becomes interesting.

With Stagger, we want to punch an opponent with Lightning. Successfully doing so causes that opponent, and all their permanents, to take double damage. That's where the extra combats strategy comes into play, as deckbuilders want to maximize that effect to spread double damage to multiple opponents.

We don't want to do that, because we're building around four little words in that Stagger text box: "...until your next turn..."

Lightning's double-damage effect doesn't end when our turn does. It ends when our next turn starts. In other words, we've got a full turn cycle of damage doubling to one opponent, wherever that damage might originate.

A Poke to the Eyes

While Lightning is a protagonist in FFXIII, we're fully embracing the role of the antagonist in Commander. We're not veering into Bolas territory, necessarily, but the very nature of Stagger means we're going to be picking on one of our three opponents more than the other two - at least for a full turn cycle.

You'll see in the decklist that we're featuring a total of 42 combined instants and sorceries, which will give you a hint about how we're playing Lightning. We're foregoing the idea of spreading the love and focusing on honing the hate. In other words, we're inciting a Bitter FeudBitter Feud.

At the core of the deck, we're looking to do three things:

1. Make sure Lightning connects.
2. Pour damage onto the head of the opponent Lightning has deemed to be Staggered.
3. Brace for retribution, because when you go after one player, that player is, in most cases, going to go after you right back.

Being hit with Lightning gives the defending player carte blanche to attack back with impunity. But that's totally fine, because we've planned for that contingency.

Greased Lightning

For the first part of our three-step plan, we need to make sure Lightning is reliably dealing combat damage every turn. For the first couple turns, the combo of first strike and trample will help that along, but eventually the battlefield's going to get gummed up with blockers.

• Magebane ArmorMagebane Armor
• Sword of Fire and IceSword of Fire and Ice
• Sword of Wealth and PowerSword of Wealth and Power
• Whispersilk CloakWhispersilk Cloak

Once we get the ball rolling, though, it'll be easier than it seems to attack with Lightning every turn. It's hard to block when you don't have any creatures, and Lightning applying double damage to that opponent's creatures means a simple Pigment StormPigment Storm can kill The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon.

Because of this, Lightning's going to be the focus of many a kill spell, which is why we have a few tools to protect her:

• Blessed SanctuaryBlessed Sanctuary
• Rem Karolus, Stalwart SlayerRem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer
• Mother of RunesMother of Runes
• Dawn CharmDawn Charm

So once's we've designated an opponent to be summarily burned to oblivion by hitting them with Lightning, what manner of kindling will we ignite?

Emptying the Tank

A hefty chunk of our decklist is devoted to making sure a Staggered opponent never regains their footing. Burn, as a strategy in Commander, is tricky, because modern cards are designed to put emphasis on creature interaction. As a result, direct damage is often less efficient. When we double that damage, though, we're finally getting our money's worth.

Lightning's going to die at one point, so we can't always rely on our commander. Another important aspect of Burn is redundancy, and we've got plenty of that:

• Solphim, Mayhem DominusSolphim, Mayhem Dominus
• Furnace of RathFurnace of Rath
• Bitter FeudBitter Feud
• Fiery EmancipationFiery Emancipation

But what's doing the damage to be doubled? That's the fun part - almost everything! Here are some highlights, but we've got no shortage of ways to apply pain:

• Dingus StaffDingus Staff
• Price of ProgressPrice of Progress
• RepercussionRepercussion
• Blazing SalvoBlazing Salvo
• Citadel of PainCitadel of Pain
• CharChar
• Acidic SoilAcidic Soil

The land-centric selections are especially amusing, because with a Stagger applied to an opponent, the damage won't be symmetrical. So casting an Acidic SoilAcidic Soil when everyone's got 10 lands in play? Everyone takes 10 damage. Except for you, opponent. You take 20.

Why Are You Hitting Yourself?

Now we're at the third step of our three-step plan. The part where our chosen enemy tries to ruin our fun by retaliating. But there's something we know that the opponents don't - we want them to attack us:

• Divine DeflectionDivine Deflection
• Harm's WayHarm's Way
• Captain's ManeuverCaptain's Maneuver
• Deflecting PalmDeflecting Palm
• Eye for an EyeEye for an Eye
• Honorable PassageHonorable Passage
• Mirror StrikeMirror Strike
• Take the BaitTake the Bait
• ComeuppanceComeuppance

Nine cards devoted to reflecting damage might seem like a lot. If you're a math person, it's technically 14% of our nonland deck selections. But there are two primary reasons we've got so many ways to reverse damage.

The first reason is because when we start bullying an opponent, they'll seek to bully us back, and cards like Deflecting PalmDeflecting Palm will see the damage it absorbs doubled after it's redirected. So we hit the opponent with Lightning, which then doubles all damage to that opponent and their permanents until the start of our next turn. They get mad and attack back with something large and scary, like, say, Gishath, Sun's AvatarGishath, Sun's Avatar. We cast Honorable PassageHonorable Passage. Damage to our face is prevented, nullifying any triggers, and that opponent takes 14 damage for having the gall to attack us.

The second reason we have these spells is that no one ever expects them, and they're hilarious.

By nature of our game plan, we want to avoid everyone ganging up on us, which is where some table politics might come into play. Get chatty with it, figure out who the consensus identifies as the problem, and become the instrument of swift justice. Convince the rest of the table to join you in your effort to eliminate the biggest threat, using to your advantage the fact that their damage is also doubled against that opponent and their permanents.

And if all that doesn't keep us alive? We can always just nuke everything, ourselves included:

Lightning, Army of One Commander Decklist

The Moment of Truth

Lightning, Army of One is a great commander to embody the philosophy of "We're here for a good time, not a long time." Win or lose, it'll happen fast. By nature of our strategy, we're going to invest a lot of resources in a short amount of time to reduce one player's life total to zero, and that means we might run out of steam before we can apply our Stagger to everyone. And that's okay. Winning is sometimes secondary to seeing how large of an explosion we can cause.

This deck is definitely at home among a Bracket 2 power level, and would need some upgrades to hang at higher brackets - namely, Game Changers like Jeska's WillJeska's Will would put a lot of work into keep us going. That said, we're looking to create havoc, have fun, and pick a fight. And it's that last one that might relegate the use of this deck to tables of friends. Strangers at an LGS or an event might not appreciate being singled out (even if they deserve it).

With the sheer number of legendary creatures in Final Fantasy, it's nice to see there are still some with enough ambiguity in their playstyle to support multiple game plans. How would you build Lightning? Would you go the Burn route as seen here, or load up on extra combat steps, equipment, or go full Voltron with Lightning?