The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia | Art by Heonhwa Choe

The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy II. While he undoubtedly has drip (just look at all of those beads, and the golden kneecaps carved to look like dragon faces) he also has a bit of a branding problem. The Emperor has never really been able to elevate himself into the higher tiers of Final Fantasy villainy. He doesn't have much in the way of motivation beyond being an evil tyrant bent on world conquest. It takes reading an obscure novelization of Final Fantasy II that was only ever released in Japan to even learn his name (which is Mateus by the way), and to make matters worse he was only printed as an uncommon.

Let's revaluate this dapper despot, and try to brew a deck around him that can thrust him back into the spotlight.

What Does The Emperor of Palamecia Do?

For The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia is a 2/2 mana generator, although the mana that he makes can only be used to cast noncreature spells. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, if you spent at least four mana to cast it, the Emperor gains a +1/+1 counter. So far this all sounds pretty underwhelming. If you're looking for a mana generating Izzet spellslinger commander that's also a Wizard and a Final Fantasy character... First of all that's an oddly specific request, and second of all, why would you ever run this card over Vivi OrnitierVivi Ornitier?

Well let's flip this underwhelming Emperor over and have a look at his reverse side, The Lord Master of HellThe Lord Master of Hell. When The Emperor has three or more +1/+1 counters, he evolves into his final form. In his transformed state, the Emperor gains a +1/+1 bonus and becomes a Demon. More importantly, he gains the ability to deal X damage to each opponent whenever he attacks, where X is the number of noncreature, nonland cards in your graveyard. It's this effect that we'll be building the deck around, since it has the potential to end games in a single stroke - or, failing that, dish out pretty massive damage.

Functionally, what this effect says is that if you can attack with The Lord Master of Hell, and you have 40 or more cards in your graveyard that are neither creatures nor lands, you win the game. In order to reliably dump enough of these cards into the graveyard, we need to employ a self-milling strategy, where we burn through our deck, sending cards from the top straight into the graveyard.

The Emperor of Palamecia Commander Deck List

Here's what that list might look like...

Now let's break this deck down, and look at what it can offer.

Key Cards for The Emperor of Palamecia

Milling Cards

Regrettably, the Emperor doesn't have black in his color identity. This locks him out of being able to access some great self-milling tools, like Morality ShiftMorality Shift, Breach the MultiverseBreach the Multiverse, and Angel of SufferingAngel of Suffering. Nevertheless red and blue (especially blue) have plenty of great effects that will help you slice through your library like a Buster SwordBuster Sword carving through an Ice FlanIce Flan. Here are some highlights.

• Cut Your LossesCut Your Losses is one of the most powerful one-off mill effects that has been printed in recent years. In this deck, Cut Your Losses lets you mill half of your library, potentially twice, singlehandedly ensuring that you'll be ready to dish out massive damage with The Lord Master of Hell's effect.
• Fleet SwallowerFleet Swallower is less efficient than Cut Your Losses, but provides a 6/6 body to compensate. You'll need a turn to get Fleet SwallowerFleet Swallower ready to attack, but once it's good to go, it'll gulp down half of your library and get The Emperor primed and ready to finish the opposition off. If you're attacking with this card and your transformed commander together, make sure that you queue its effect up to resolve first, so that The Emperor's Starfall can go off at full power.
• Increasing ConfusionIncreasing Confusion gets around the issue facing some of the other mill cards in this deck. However useful Cut Your Losses and Fleet Swallower may be, you won't be able to cast them if they get milled themselves. Since Increasing Confusion has flashback, even if it ends up dumped straight into your graveyard, you'll still be able to get value out of it. Not only that, but its effect mills twice as many cards when cast from the graveyard.
• Jace, Memory AdeptJace, Memory Adept has a loyalty ability that lets you mill ten cards. Since this ability has no loyalty cost, it can be activated turn after turn. This version of Jace isn't hugely threatening to other players at the table, so it's likely not to draw too much ire, and get immediately killed. The last thing to note about this card is that, since it's a planeswalker, it's neither a creature or a land. This means that it's counted by the Lord Master of Hell's ability, so it contributes extra damage when it's in the graveyard.
• Riverchurn Monument'sRiverchurn Monument's basic ability to make any number of players mill two cards each is fine; it's marginally better than MillstoneMillstone. It's the exhaust ability (an exhaust ability can only be activated once, while the card is in play) that makes it really worth looking at. It allows you to mill cards equal to the number of cards in your graveyard, which makes it the perfect tool to double up the number of cards in your graveyard, right before going in for a final swing with The Lord Master of Hell. Riverchurn Monument is useful in the early game, as it can slowly but steadily mill you on each turn, and it's great in the late game where it can double the amount of cards in your graveyard.
• The Tale of TamiyoThe Tale of Tamiyo provides four turns of continuous milling and allows you to recast a selection of instants or sorceries from your graveyard once this has wrapped up. While this deck hasn't been fully optimized to exploit the effect of The Tale of Taimyo, it's still a useful self-mill tool.

Cards That Can Be Cast From the Graveyard

Browsing through this list you'll notice there are a large number of cards with flashback and other mechanics that let you cast them from the graveyard. Since we're going to be milling so many cards from our deck, cards like this turn the graveyard into a resource that we can use to keep our game plan going. Let's talk about some of our best options.

• Seize the StormSeize the Storm is a fantastic include for any mill-focused spellslinging deck. It creates an Elemental token with trample and power and toughness equal to the number of instants and sorceries in the graveyard, and the number of cards with flashback in exile. The stats of this card update automatically, so it'll grow stronger as the game goes on and you mill more cards. Not only that, it has flashback, enabling you to cast it if it gets milled, or to get two Elementals out if you're able to cast it from your hand and grave.
• Isengard UnleashedIsengard Unleashed trebles the damage that sources you control deal to each of your opponents and can be cast from either your hand or the graveyard. This brings the number of cards you need in your graveyard to finish everyone else off down dramatically. You only need 14 noncreature, nonlands in your graveyard for Isengard Unleashed to wipe out the rest of the table.
• Summons of SarumanSummons of Saruman is our second card from Isengard, and it does a little bit of everything that this deck wants: it generates a blocker in the form of an Army token, it mills you, and it lets you cast another instant or sorcery from your graveyard. All of these effects are small individually, but they add up to a useful package.
• Agent of KotisAgent of Kotis is a bulk common from Tarkir Dragonstorm. She wasn't the most effective spy for the Sultai Brood, and she may have been a Palamecian double agent all along, because she's a massive help for getting the Emperor to transform. Just mill Agent of Kotis into your graveyard, and use her effect to grant him two +1/+1 counters, and you're already two thirds of the way to getting The Lord Master of Hell online.
• Decaying Time LoopDecaying Time Loop demonstrates that milling cards isn't the only way of getting them into your graveyard. This card lets you chuck your hand away and draw a new one. Since plenty of cards in this deck have flashback, you may still be able to access several of the cards from your hand even when they're in the graveyard, and you'll be able to draw into some genuinely new possibilities. Since Decaying Time LoopDecaying Time Loop has retrace, you'll be able to repeat the effect again and again, filling up your graveyard and letting you dig through your deck for relevant cards.

Maintaining a Board Presence

Aside from the The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia himself, this deck only has nine creatures. That might initially seem alarming; won't the opposition simply overrun us before we can get the Emperor online? Not to worry, many of the instants and sorceries in this deck are token generators that can get blockers out there to keep us protected. We've already looked at Seize the StormSeize the Storm, now let's explore some more options...

• At seven mana, there's no doubt that Call the SkybreakerCall the Skybreaker is a costly card. With that said, it has the potential to generate as many 5/5 flying Elementals as you have lands ready to discard to pay its retrace cost. By the time you're able to generate seven mana, you'll be more keen to get a flying threat out, than to hit yet another land drop. Call the Skybreaker provides an alternative win condition if The Emperor is taken out of commission by an effect like Song of the DryadsSong of the Dryads or Imprisoned in the MoonImprisoned in the Moon. If you can no longer win using effect damage, then winning by amassing an unbeatable army of Skybreakers will do nicely. Even if the Emperor isn't taken out of action, having plenty of 5/5 flyers in play certainly doesn't hurt.
• Notorious ThrongNotorious Throng synergizes beautifully with The Lord Master of Hell's ability. Sometimes you don't have quite enough ammo in your graveyard to finish everyone off in a single swing; when that happens, Notorious Throng helps you finish the job. Let's assume that you're playing against three other players, and you have five noncreature, nonland cards in your graveyard (which is very conservative considering how many milling effects this deck contains). The Emperor will deal five damage to everyone, meaning that if you then cast Notorious Throng you'll get 15 1/1 flyers. That will hurry things to a speedy conclusion.
• Retrieve the EsperRetrieve the Esper isn't the most glamorous card in the world, but it's still a useful role player in this deck. If it ends up in your hand, you'll be able to get a 3/3 and a 5/5 out of it. If it ends up getting milled, you'll only get the 5/5, but it also won't cost you a card to do this. Don't worry, even though this deck is Izzet, not Esper, you're still able to cast this card.
• Crackling DrakeCrackling Drake and Haughty DjinnHaughty Djinn are some of the few creature cards in this deck. They both have power which scales based on the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard. Haughty DjinnHaughty Djinn discounts every instant and sorcery that you cast while it's in play, while Crackling Drake also counts instants and sorceries that are in exile, allowing it to maintain its power even when you've cast several flashback spells, or if your graveyard gets hit by a Bojuka BogBojuka Bog. These cards can apply plenty of pressure, and dish out some big damage.
• This deck runs a variety of cloning effects to get creatures out. Some, like QuasiduplicateQuasiduplicate and Cackling CounterpartCackling Counterpart, can be cast from the graveyard, making them useful even when they're milled. Others, like Irenicus's Vile DuplicationIrenicus's Vile Duplication, can clone legendary creatures, allowing you to create a second copy of The Lord Master of Hell, doubling its potential damage output.

Conclusion

Self-mill decks can be great fun, but can also be a bit samey. There are only so many times that you can win using Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle before they all begin to blend together. Fortunately The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia offers a novel new win-con for self-milling strategies, allowing players to engulf the rest of the table in damage, rather than merely closing out the game using a Merfolk Wizard.

Like all decks based around maximizing the power of a single card, this deck is vulnerable to disruption if the rest of the table keep gunning for the Emperor. Fortunately, there are plenty of protection effects here, like Slip Out the BackSlip Out the Back, Octopus UmbraOctopus Umbra and Shore UpShore Up to try and keep Mateus safe. Hopefully, he won't need to claw his way back from hell like he does in Final Fantasy II. However your games go though, just know that you're only ever a Starfall away from a win.