Tom BombadilTom Bombadil | Art by Dmitry Burmak

Final Fantasy has brought a unique twist on a seven-year old card type: Saga creatures. Across the premier set and Commander decks, there are 33 cards which either mention Sagas, are Sagas, or turn into Sagas.

The set even brings its own five-color Saga commander in Terra, Magical AdeptTerra, Magical Adept. She looks to be a fun commander, don’t get me wrong, but there was a phenomenal commander of the archetype printed two years ago: Tom BombadilTom Bombadil. This funny little guy, who showed up briefly in The Fellowship of the Ring only to never be seen again, ended up the third most popular commander from the Lord of the Rings set and 32nd overall.

Tom and Terra have a similar desire to run a lot of Sagas, but there are some slight structural differences. It’s a valid choice to pick Terra, but if you’re already running the funny little God Bard, let me give you an idea of how to bring in some Final Fantasy spice to your established deck.

Let’s answer the age-old question: what if Tom Bombadil had been a gamer?

What Does Tom Bombadil Do?

Tom BombadilTom Bombadil has two abilities. The first is a protective one, granting him hexproof and indestructible while you have enough lore counters on Sagas. The second is key: whenever a Saga you control finishes, you reveal cards from your library until you find a Saga to put directly onto the battlefield (once per turn).

Tom Bombadil won’t be interrupted while telling a story, and when he finishes one, he starts another! Very cool.

This is a midrange deck through and through. The Saga subtype, by its very nature, is incredibly geared towards the turn-by-turn accrual of resources. Some can turn it into more of a combo-style deck with the use of proliferate and other effects, but that will be fairly minimal here.

Tom’s purpose is staying on the battlefield and keeping the stories rolling. The rest of our deck will be Sagas or ways to maximize them, with an emphasis on what the Final Fantasy set has to offer!

The Premise

EDHRec has a fantastic little starting point for looking at older commanders: Average Deck. I used this to generate a general form of a Tom BombadilTom Bombadil deck. The average deck function is a good starting point, but don’t treat it as a final product.

The “average” Tom Bombadil deck only ran 35 lands and ran non-synergistic ramp spells like Nature's LoreNature's Lore. I did some trimming and weeding, while trying to keep the general tune intact… and voila! I present the typical Tom Bombadil deck, pre-Final Fantasy.

According to a quick use of the Archidekt compare feature, my final rebuild and this deck share 73 cards. Let’s talk about it!

Key Cards for Tom Bombadil

The Tom Bombadil deck has three key needs: Sagas, ways to get value out of Sagas, and ways to manipulate Sagas. The high density of Sagas that we need to use means they need to fulfill basic roles like card draw, removal, and ramp. Some, like Binding the Old GodsBinding the Old Gods, do multiple!

As time goes on, we’ve gotten more and more role-filler Sagas that help this category become a stronger backbone for the old God Bard. An important new addition from Final Fantasy is Summon: FenrirSummon: Fenrir. Like The Weatherseed TreatyThe Weatherseed Treaty, this is a three-mana Saga that immediately puts a basic land onto the battlefield before helping our board presence.

Our Sagas are good; they provide a lot of value, be it utility or board presence. But a deck with just that and normal Good Stuff isn’t going to cut it. Our deck is bent around the card subtype and can take advantage of that.

We have a handful of cards like Historian's BoonHistorian's Boon and Narci, Fable SingerNarci, Fable Singer, which explicitly key off of Sagas. More generally, though, Sagas are enchantments, so we get to run some solid cards from your typical Enchantress build.

Our deck is running 29 Sagas in total, which leads up to the next need: manipulating them. This can be the act of removing or adding lore counters to either keep getting certain triggers or speed through to the big value effect. Sagas have three to four turns over which to accrue value, but sometimes that takes too long.

Satsuki, the Living LoreSatsuki, the Living Lore is an auto-include for any Saga deck’s 99, being able to advance all our Sagas at once and recur one with her death trigger. Another one is Barbara WrightBarbara Wright, who gives our Sagas the read ahead ability, which lets us choose which chapter to start it on. If we have a low-impact Saga in hand and no Sagas ending that turn, we can drop it on its final chapter to ensure Tom Bombadil can pull up another one from the deck.

The new Final Fantasy inclusions in this category are O'aka, Traveling MerchantO'aka, Traveling Merchant and Garnet, Princess of AlexandriaGarnet, Princess of Alexandria. They each remove lore counters and turn them into other resources. O’aka turns them into cards while Garnet turns them into power, both of which we’ll need to close out the game.

How Does Tom Bombadil Win?

In the mid-game, this is a graveyard deck. Sagas naturally put themselves in the graveyard, but we have several cards which help speed up that process, be it through mill, looting, surveilling, or what-have-you.

Once the dustbin is stocked, we can use cards like Anikthea, Hand of ErebosAnikthea, Hand of Erebos or Ghen, Arcanum WeaverGhen, Arcanum Weaver to start bringing those stories back. Bonus tech for Ghen: he can sacrifice a Saga in response to its final lore trigger to get a different one on the field.

We also get Yuna, Hope of SpiraYuna, Hope of Spira and Rydia, Summoner of MistRydia, Summoner of Mist for this category, reanimating or even just replaying our Sagas as the game goes long.

This graveyard angle will accelerate the kind of value we can get out of our Sagas.

I mentioned previously in the article that a lot of our Sagas need to serve basic utility functions like ramp, draw, and removal. Another utility Sagas must take over is the win condition slot - the big splashy card that can turn the game around for us or lock it in place. Not a literal Game Changer necessarily, but in that vein.

One of the number-one cards in traditional lists is Kiora Bests the Sea GodKiora Bests the Sea God. It creates a big threat, clears the way for a big swing, and then steals something on the way out. Classic, massive, very successful.

Similarly, Summon: Knights of RoundSummon: Knights of Round creates a massive board for us before pumping them and making them indestructible. Finally, Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut rounds out our trio of Big Spells With Big Impact.

A final trick that the Final Fantasy games gives us are a handful of creatures that transform into Sagas and back, much like Jin-GitaxiasJin-Gitaxias and the other Praetors from March of the Machine. These DFCs are impactful, and the fact that their final chapters still trigger Tom BombadilTom Bombadil’s ability makes them even more so.

We don’t want to go overboard (since Tom can’t “find” them), but these three will be capable of turning games around.

So there we have it. Tom deploys Sagas left and right, getting extra value out of them via lore counter tricks or graveyard shenanigans. If the overwhelming synergies from our light Enchantress core don’t pull it off, then one of our haymakers will.

Tom Bombadil Commander Deck List

And here’s our rebuild!

Conclusion

Tom BombadilTom Bombadil is basically a perfect Saga commander for those who want a straightforward experience with the fiddly card subtype. The hard commitment to a single card subtype narrows the field but increases the synergy. It’s a fun romp, strategically deploying Sagas and waiting for value until you start accelerating it.

The deck can stumble hard in the face of a Cleansing NovaCleansing Nova or Season of GatheringSeason of Gathering, but its graveyard and Enchantress lines help it rebuild. Just be aware when you’re playing lore counter manipulators of the potential choice fatigue or how turns can go long. It takes some learning, but it’s very rewarding.