Hildibrand MandervilleHildibrand Manderville | Art by Akagi

Final Fantasy has nearly 100 new legendary creatures you could build Commander decks around, and that's not even counting all the new legendary creatures found in Final Fantasy Commander! So it can be overwhelming scanning through a list of that size and figuring out which one or two you might want to build, especially if you're not familiar with the Final Fantasy video game series and don't have any particular favorite characters.

I'm here to help! I've got over 30 years experience playing multiplayer Magic, and nearly 18 years playing and writing about EDH/Commander, so I combed through the list and leveraged my expertise to highlight the 12 new legends that stand head and shoulders above the rest. Let's dig in!

Choco, Seeker of ParadiseChoco, Seeker of Paradise

From what I understand, chocobos are beloved Birds from the Final Fantasy games, so it's no surprise WotC created a legendary creature to put most of the chocobos under one deck with Choco, Seeker of ParadiseChoco, Seeker of Paradise. But even if you're not specifically a Final Fantasy game fan, there are tons of Birds throughout Magic's history that you can now pull together in a powerful Bant Bird typal deck.

There are cards that care specifically about Birds, like: Kastral, the WindcrestedKastral, the Windcrested; Soulcatcher's AerieSoulcatcher's Aerie; and MurmurationMurmuration. And if you'd rather focus more on non-Final Fantasy Birds in Magic (because the chocobos are flightless Birds), there are cards like Watcher of the SpheresWatcher of the Spheres, Empyrean EagleEmpyrean Eagle, and Warden of Evos IsleWarden of Evos Isle that care about creatures with flying.

Choco has an incredibly powerful ability that only requires that you attack with one or more Birds, so its ability can be used the same turn it enters if you have Birds already on the battlefield and ready to attack. The floor of this ability is attacking with one Bird, look at the top card of your library and either put it onto the battlefield tapped if it's a land, or put it into your hand. The more attacking Birds, the more bonkers it gets, since you get to put any number of land cards that you look at onto the battlefield. Having this sort of ramp attached to your commander makes it incredibly difficult to keep Choco off the battlefield, and the Bant colors gives you access to counterspells and things like Teferi's ProtectionTeferi's Protection to protect your growing Bird army from battlefield sweepers.

This is easily an Upgraded (Bracket 3) deck without too much work, and with a fistful of Game Changers you can push it to Optimized (Bracket 4).

Check out our Choco, Seeker of Paradise deck tech by Brandon Amico here.

Cloud, Planet's ChampionCloud, Planet's Champion

WotC has printed an endless parade of Equipment Matters commanders over the years, and there are even a handful more in this very set, but Cloud, Planet's ChampionCloud, Planet's Champion stands head and shoulders above most others for its sheer damage output capability.

Double strike is incredibly powerful to have on a creature that's looking to gear up with Equipment cards, and Cloud even reduces the cost of equip abilities targeting Cloud by ... which just so happens to be the equip cost for some of the strongest Equipment cards ever printed: Sword of Feast and FamineSword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Fire and IceSword of Fire and Ice, and Sword of Light and ShadowSword of Light and Shadow. And these all have abilities that trigger from equipped creature dealing combat damage to a player, so Cloud's double strike means you can potentially get two triggers. And that's before you start thinking about taking extra attacks from Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault or Full ThrottleFull Throttle!

While Cloud having indestructible on your turn means it can fearlessly attack into blockers, it also combines with many of the battlefield sweepers you would otherwise use to reset the battlefield; cast Wrath of GodWrath of God or Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act and Cloud suddenly has a clear path to attack. Now winning through combat damage gives way to combo kills the further up the brackets you go, but I can see Cloud decks rocking well in Core and Modified Brackets.

Emet-Selch, UnsunderedEmet-Selch, Unsundered

The front side of Emet-Selch, UnsunderedEmet-Selch, Unsundered is a nice collection of abilities, and the condition to transform Emet-Selch isn't all that difficult to accomplish given the amount of self-mill available in Dimir. So what happens if you get to transform into Hades, Sorcerer of Eld during your upkeep? You get Yawgmoth's WillYawgmoth's Will, one of the most powerful sorcery spells ever printed! Right there in your command zone!

Our own Kara Blinebry wrote up a nice deck tech detailing one way you can abuse the power of this commander, so if you love combo killing your high powered Bracket 3 or 4 Commander pod, be sure to check it out!

Gogo, Master of MimicryGogo, Master of Mimicry

Gogo, Master of MimicryGogo, Master of Mimicry's ability to copy activated or triggered abilities you control X times is exactly the sort of thing combo fans are going to be thrilled to explore when building their Gogo decks. While you might pause wondering how you're going to activate or trigger something, and then have mana to spend on Gogo's ability in a monoblue deck, fear not! There are a bunch of tools at your disposal outside of the usual mana rocks. You'll want to have:

• Training GroundsTraining Grounds
• Omen HawkerOmen Hawker
• James, Wandering DadJames, Wandering Dad
• The Enigma JewelThe Enigma Jewel

If you're running mostly Islands you can even run High TideHigh Tide to set up that one big turn.

So which abilities are you going to copy? The choices are nearly as deep as Magic's entire history, but some of the cards that spring to mind are: Ioreth of the Healing HouseIoreth of the Healing House for untapping shenanigans; Arcanis the OmnipotentArcanis the Omnipotent to load your hand with options; and even Aboleth SpawnAboleth Spawn so you can enjoy copying triggered abilities of your opponents' creatures. Blue has access to a ton of powerful cards for Commander, so you can make your Gogo deck as janky (Bracket 2) or as deadly (Bracket 4 or 5) as you want!

Hope EstheimHope Estheim

There are a ton of lifegain synergies available in Azorius which can make you difficult to kill, but with Hope EstheimHope Estheim all of your lifegain shenanigans can be turned into a victory condition by milling all of your opponents out. The problem of course is if your opponents are playing graveyard decks, you could accidentally turbo-charge their win conditions. But if that's the case you could just let Hope sit quietly in your command zone until you're ready to have a big life gain turn; you know, cast Beacon of ImmortalityBeacon of Immortality with Alhammarret's ArchiveAlhammarret's Archive or Rhox FaithmenderRhox Faithmender on the battlefield! Even CongregateCongregate might be enough if an opponent has gone wild with token creation.

Even though Azorius has plenty of cards that support mill strategies, I'd avoid those and just lean hard on lifegain synergies and let your commander seal the win. Go ahead and run a few ways to nuke graveyards, like Soul-Guide LanternSoul-Guide Lantern and Rest in PeaceRest in Peace, to help you out against graveyard decks in case you have to deploy your commander before your big, life-gaining, game-winning turn.

You could easily build your Hope deck to play in any of the Commander brackets, though in the upper ones your combo might be a bit slow compared to the combo kills other people will be playing.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIERSephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIERSephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is incredibly efficient for just three mana, and has two card faces worth of abilities supporting popular Aristocrats creature sacrifice strategies. It has a built in sacrifice engine that draws you a card and drains target opponent one life, which is pretty much everything these decks would want.

But what really kicks this up a notch is the emblem you get when it transforms: whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses one life and you gain one life. Imagine an Aristocrats deck that has a permanent Blood ArtistBlood Artist in play that can never be removed; that's the power of emblems! And opponents are going to be wary about killing your commander due to the threat of you replaying it, transforming it, and getting even more emblems. This is a powerful commander helming a relentless strategy that's going to be at home in higher power Commander brackets.

We've got two deck techs for this version of Sephiroth, including a full power list from Angelo Guerrera, and a budget-friendly list by Brian Cain.

Tifa LockhartTifa Lockhart

Bristly Bill, Spine SowerBristly Bill, Spine Sower has new competition for a powerful monogreen Landfall commander! While throwing +1/+1 counters around from your landfall is solid, Tifa LockhartTifa Lockhart's ability to double her power can quickly scale up to lethal commander damage levels due to her trample ability. With no other help, just five landfall triggers will give Tifa 32 power, and green has tons of ways available to have big landfall turns.

But what gives Tifa a much different flavor than Bill is green's ability to pump a creature's size; something as simple as Giant GrowthGiant Growth on Tifa before you begin the landfall cascade means you only need three triggers to push her power to 32. InvigorateInvigorate can be cast on Tifa for no mana, and three triggers will push her power to 40.

Our very own Cas Hinds did an article showing you all of Tifa's best cards.

Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier

While Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier is super cute, there's a reason why it's a mythic rare: the card is bonkers! If you like spellslinger decks and are fortunate enough to crack one of these, you've got an excellent new commander for your Commander deck. While it's activated ability doesn't do anything initially, it's going to be incredibly easy to boost its power by just casting the noncreature spells your spellslinger deck wants to be casting anyway. Then you can activate Vivi once during your turn to generate some number of blue and/or red mana equal to Vivi's power, which should help you keep chaining spells together or cast a really big one.

But that's not all. Vivi is also a win condition, dealing a point of damage to each opponent each time you cast a noncreature spell. There are a lot of ways a spellslinger deck can deal out chip damage to opponents with cards like GuttersnipeGuttersnipe and Coruscation MageCoruscation Mage, along with ways to amplify your damage output with cards like Ojer Axonil, Deepest MightOjer Axonil, Deepest Might and Mechanized WarfareMechanized Warfare. This deck is going to be a strong contender no matter which bracket your Commander pod is playing in, especially in the higher brackets where you can play your Game Changer "free spells" like Force of WillForce of Will, Fierce GuardianshipFierce Guardianship and Deflecting SwatDeflecting Swat.

Michael Celani did a great deck tech for Vivi, which you can check out here.

Zodiark, Umbral GodZodiark, Umbral God

Monoblack decks have a lot of powerful cards and strategies at their disposal in Commander, and having a removal spell in the command zone like Zodiark, Umbral GodZodiark, Umbral God is sure to terrorize your higher bracket Commander pods! It's an indestructible God with little downside except costing , and that can easily become an upside if you're interested in utilizing devotion to black cards like Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel and Erebos, God of the DeadErebos, God of the Dead.

There are actually a fair number of other God creatures you can play in this deck to break Zodiark's symmetry, like Aclazotz, Deepest BetrayalAclazotz, Deepest Betrayal, God-Eternal BontuGod-Eternal Bontu, and if you're in Modified Bracket or higher, Tergrid, God of FrightTergrid, God of Fright, which is particularly brutal alongside Zodiark. If you're in the upper brackets and running cards like Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor you can even play ConspiracyConspiracy and make all of your creatures Gods.

Keep in mind, even if you're not playing Game Changers in your Zodiark deck, the fact that your commander forces all of your opponents to sacrifice half of their non-God creatures when it enters will not be the sort of game a lot of more casual players will be looking to play, so make sure your pod is happy with difficult mode!

Gogo, Mysterious MimeGogo, Mysterious Mime

Over in Final Fantasy Commander, we have a monored version of Gogo that's going to be incredibly fun to build and play. At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may have Gogo, Mysterious MimeGogo, Mysterious Mime become a copy of another creature you control until the end of the turn - but since Gogo keeps its name, you're free to copy legendary creatures too! Gogo and that creature gain haste until the end of the turn... and if you use this ability, you have to attack this turn if able, which is okay - you want to smash in anyway, right? I've seen people salivating over the idea of playing Etali, Primal StormEtali, Primal Storm, copying it with Gogo and attacking with both. How about copying BloodthirsterBloodthirster, or Dragonhawk, Fate's TempestDragonhawk, Fate's Tempest?

Another angle is to play cards that borrow the best creature an opponent is playing and letting Gogo copy that. Think Furnace ReinsFurnace Reins, Act of TreasonAct of Treason, and Song-Mad TreacherySong-Mad Treachery - which doesn't even cost you a nonland slot! Leaning heavily in this direction means your deck power will scale depending on how powerful the creatures are that your opponents are playing. Just keep in mind that the higher the brackets go, the less creature combat matters.

Hildibrand MandervilleHildibrand Manderville

Hildibrand MandervilleHildibrand Manderville is a great example of where a handful of small, incremental value really adds up when attached to just one card. But what's most impressive is that, once you've cast Hildibrand from your command zone, you won't likely need to cast it from the command zone again, sidestepping the whole pesky commander tax that mere mortal commanders have to contend with. It reminds me of my Brokkos, Apex of ForeverBrokkos, Apex of Forever deck; whenever it dies I just mutate it back from the graveyard over and over again.

I see this as an incredibly fun Core (Bracket 2) deck, with games that go long enough for that value to add up. Orzhov has a ton of great token synergies you can take advantage of, like Intangible VirtueIntangible Virtue, Anointed ProcessionAnointed Procession, and Elenda, the Dusk RoseElenda, the Dusk Rose.

Professor HojoProfessor Hojo

Professor HojoProfessor Hojo's name and art kind of make me want to give Final Fantasy a try - what is this Human Scientist up to? This is another grindy value card that's going to be at home in Brackets 2 or 3, and is open-ended enough that each player's Hojo deck is going to be a highly personalized masterpiece.

That first ability makes me think of powerful Equipment cards; equipping Sword of the AnimistSword of the Animist or SkullclampSkullclamp is free! But don't overlook discounting higher equip costs on powerful cards like Helm of the HostHelm of the Host and Commander's PlateCommander's Plate.

Be sure to include cards that can target your creature on other players' turns to maximize Hojo's card draw - remember, Seeker of SkybreakSeeker of Skybreak can target itself to untap and draw a card!

Conclusion

No matter which Commander bracket you like to play in, you're sure to find something fun to build around in this list! Digging deeper, there are a lot of cool commanders to helm more niche decks if that's your speed. Because this a Standard set that's built to draft, there does feel like there is overlap in what some of the legends do, but that just means you can personalize your approach. Which new legends are you most excited to build around?