5 Modern decks supercharged with Final Fantasy
As Final Fantasy is making its grand entrance into the Magic: the Gathering Universe, it’s time to take a closer look at how this set is shaking up the Modern format.
In this article, we go over 5 Modern decks that get upgraded with the new Final Fantasy cards.
Thijs Weytens
Thijs Weytens
Ruby Storm
As a card with tons of potential, Vivi Ornitier slots into many different Izzet-based decks. This might be one of the most powerful cards in the Final Fantasy set so let’s dive in and explore what shells get upgraded thanks to this powerful Izzet Wizard.
Creatures (7)
4 Ral, Monsoon Mage
3 Vivi Ornitier
Spells (34)
4 Preordain
2 Serum Visions
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Grapeshot
4 Manamorphose
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Reckless Impulse
4 Wrenn’s Resolve
2 Wish
2 Past in Flames
3 Sink into Stupor
Artifacts (4)
4 Ruby Medallion
Lands (15) + 3 MDFCs
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
1 Thundering Falls
Sideboard (15)
1 Vivi Ornitier
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Into the Flood Maw
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Noxious Revival
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Defense Grid
1 Grapeshot
1 Pyroclasm
1 Untimely Malfunction
1 Flame of Anor
1 Galvanic Relay
1 Mystical Dispute
1 Stock Up
1 Past in Flames
Vivi Ornitier is a natural inclusion in the Ruby Storm combo deck. As a three-mana 0/3 that gains +1/+1 counters for each noncreature spell you cast – while also pinging your opponent – it slots perfectly into a deck that’s all about chaining spells with reckless abandon. Better still, it can refund you the mana the same turn you play it, making it the ideal follow-up to Ral, Monsoon Mage. Drop Ral on turn two, follow up with Vivi on turn three, and you’re just one Ritual away from going off.
It’s also an excellent play after a turn two Ruby Medallion, since Vivi benefits from the cost reduction as a red spell. That discount can often be the difference between a strong turn and an explosive one, potentially allowing you to Storm off as early as turn three.
Beyond combo potential, Vivi offers a secondary path to victory thanks to its permanent +1/+1 counters. Can’t quite get your Storm count high enough to close out the game with Grapeshot? A 13/16 Vivi swinging in will usually get the job done.
This particular build also runs two copies of Wish, so the fourth Vivi isn’t in the main deck—it’s chilling in the sideboard, ready to be fetched when the moment calls for it.
Izzet Prowess
Creatures (12)
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Vivi Ornitier
Spells (26)
4 Stormchaser’s Talent
4 Lava Dart
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Violent Urge
4 Preordain
4 Expressive Iteration
Artifacts (8)
4 Mishra’s Bauble
4 Cori-Steel Cutter
Lands (18)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Steam Vents
1 Thundering Falls
3 Mountain
1 Fiery Islet
Sideboard (15)
4 Consign to Memory
4 Unholy Heat
2 Meltdown
1 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
2 Soul-Guide Lantern
To truly unleash Vivi’s full potential, this build ditches Dragon’s Rage Channeler in favour of Stormchaser’s Talent—a tidy upgrade that not only synergises with Vivi’s ability, but also boosts your other Prowess threats.
Every single spell in this deck triggers Vivi. Lava Dart now deals a whopping four damage across both halves and nets you two mana. Lightning Bolt: also four damage and one mana. Even Mishra’s Bauble becomes absurd: it pings for one, draws a card, and gives you a mana. Preordain and Expressive Iteration? Cantrip, ping, and make mana. It’s value stacked on value.
And then there’s Mutagenic Growth, which takes the pairing with Vivi to another level. It gives free protection against Lightning Bolt, Galvanic Discharge, and even a full-powered Unholy Heat if you’ve cast a spell beforehand. But the real kicker? On Vivi, Mutagenic Growth is basically an instant-speed Black Lotus. No joke.
A typical turn three after playing Vivi might look like this:
Crack a Mishra’s Bauble, flashback a Lava Dart, and watch your mana pool grow as quickly as Vivi’s stats. All the while, you’re triggering your early-game Prowess cards—Monastery Swiftspear, Cori-Steel Cutter, and Stormchaser’s Talent—with every cheap spell. Before you know it, you’re staring at a 4/7 Vivi and an opponent who’s either dead or one spell away from it.
Izzet Artifact Wizards
Creatures (12)
4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Vivi Ornitier
Spells (17)
4 Expressive Iteration
4 Flame of Anor
4 Counterspell
2 Spell Snare
3 Unholy Heat
Artifacts (12)
4 Mishra’s Bauble
4 Mox Amber
2 Mox Opal
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Vexing Bauble
Lands (19)
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
4 Steam Vents
2 Thunder Falls
2 Island
4 Urza’s Saga
Sideboard (15)
2 Ashiok, Dream Render
4 Consign to Memory
3 Force of Negation
3 Harbinger of the Seas
1 Pithing Needle
1 Shadowspear
1 Unholy Heat
This deck is a classic Aspiringspike brew—an ideal home for Vivi in a more control-oriented shell. With ten free artifact spells and Flame of Anor, it’s hard not to feel like Vivi Ornitier was tailor-made for this list.
Izzet Wizards is all about keeping the opponent in check with interaction like Counterspell, Spell Snare, and Flame of Anor, alongside pinpoint removal such as Unholy Heat. Meanwhile, it generates steady card advantage through Expressive Iteration, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, and Urza’s Saga. The only real bottleneck for this sort of strategy tends to be mana—but with Vivi, that pressure gets massively alleviated. It’s a natural fit.
The Urza’s Saga package lets you run a suite of silver bullets to fetch in a pinch. Right now, Soul-Guide Lantern is doing serious work in the metagame—it can shut down Phlage’s escape plan, interrupt Tameshi shenanigans in Belcher, or stop Emperor of Bones from fuelling Orzhov Midrange reanimation plays.
Then there’s Vexing Bauble, a cheeky tech choice that blanks free spells like Force of Negation, Solitude, and Lotus Bloom. It does also hinder your own Moxen and Mishra’s Baubles, but you can always crack it when needed to turn your own engine back on.
Spikes’ original list featured Cori-Steel Cutter, but it was swapped out to make room for our new Final Fantasy Wizard. That change leans the build more towards legendary creatures and fewer artifacts, hence the switch to four Mox Amber and just two Mox Opal.
This list also gets clever with a recent rules tweak concerning Urza’s Saga and Harbinger of the Tides. Previously, under Blood Moon-style effects, Urza’s Saga would self-destruct due to state-based actions. But thanks to a subtle change in CR 714.4, that’s no longer the case. Can you spot the important update?
“CR 714.4. If the number of lore counters on a Saga permanent with one or more chapter abilities is greater than or equal to its final chapter number, and it isn’t the source of a chapter ability that has triggered but not yet left the stack, that Saga’s controller sacrifices it. This state-based action doesn’t use the stack.”
The key revision? “With one or more chapter abilities.”
When a Blood Moon effect is active, Urza’s Saga has zero chapter abilities—meaning it dodges the sacrifice clause entirely.
This means, depending on the number of lore counters when the Blood Moon effect hits, your Saga can end up with one of several text boxes: if you time it correctly, you can end up with a continuous Construct-creating land on the battlefield!
Gruul Landfall
Tifa Lockhart has the potential to reach 20 power or more with relative ease, and could very well inspire an entirely new archetype—one reminiscent of Infect, aiming to kill the opponent outright in the blink of an eye.
Creatures (16)
4 Akoum Hellhound
4 Sazh’s Chocobo
4 Tifa Lockhart
4 Brushfire Elemental
Spells (20)
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Scale Up
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Groundswell
2 Royal Treatment
2 Explore
Lands (24)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
1 Commercial District
Sideboard (15)
3 Blood Moon
4 Endurance
4 Force of Vigor
2 Veil of Summer
2 Damping Sphere
Modern is a format defined by fetchlands, and Tifa needs only a single pump spell and one fetchland to swing in for 20 damage or more. Blockers are rarely an issue, as Tifa comes with built-in trample, making her the first card to grow exponentially while also having natural evasion.
While this list is largely theoretical at present, it offers a solid foundation for testing—to explore what clicks and what falls flat.
Green Sun’s Zenith is crucial for consistency, effectively giving you up to eight virtual copies of Tifa while also serving as a land drop when it fetches Dryad Arbor. To protect Tifa, the deck includes Royal Treatment and Vines of Vastwood, the latter doubling up as a pump spell. Alongside Scale Up and Groundswell, you’re running 12 cards that, when paired with a fetchland, ensure a lethal Tifa attack.
The rest of the deck is rounded out with additional Landfall creatures to maintain pressure. You’ve got eight one-drops to come out swinging straight away, while Brushfire Elemental is an ideal late-game threat thanks to its haste and near-unblockable nature.
Esper Goryo’s Vengeance
Last but by no means least, we’ve got two Final Fantasy cards that could well earn a spot in the Goryo’s Vengeance Reanimator deck. Emet-Selch acts as a looter, letting you discard a hefty creature to reanimate later, while also being a strong target for Goryo’s Vengeance once your graveyard is well-stocked.
Sin, Spira’s Punishment, on the other hand, pairs perfectly with your other heavy hitters like Griselbrand and Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and can conveniently be pitched to Force of Negation when necessary. The real draw here is that Sin’s ability triggers both on entering the battlefield and when attacking, ensuring you generate a serious amount of card advantage when you bring it back with Goryo’s Vengeance.
Creatures (19)
3 Fallaji Archaeologist
4 Psychic Frog
2 Emet-Selch, Unsundered
3 Solitude
4 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
1 Griselbrand
2 Sin, Spira’s Judgment
Spells (18)
4 Ephemerate
4 Goryo’s Vengeance
2 Late to Dinner
3 Force of Negation
3 Tainted Indulgence
2 Otherworldly Gaze
2 Prismatic Ending
Lands (21)
3 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Meticulous Archive
1 Undercity Sewers
1 Shadowy Backstreet
1 Hedge Maze
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Cephalid Coliseum
Sideboard (15)
1 Solitude
4 Consign to Memory
2 Deafening Silence
2 Pest Control
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Subtlety
2 Wrath of the skies
The aim of Esper Reanimator is straightforward: put a hefty creature into your graveyard, then bring it back using either Goryo’s Vengeance or Late to Dinner. More often than not, this combination provides such an overwhelming card advantage that it paves the way to victory.
Ephemerate is a low-key all-star in the list, offering incredible flexibility.
Blink a Sin, Spira’s Punishment that was reanimated with Goryo’s Vengeance, and it returns as a new object—meaning you no longer have to sacrifice it at end of turn.
Combine Fallaji Archaeologist with Ephemerate to essentially build your own Dig Through Time.
Evoke a Solitude and respond with Ephemerate while the Evoke trigger is on the stack to get a second exile trigger and keep your Solitude on board.
And if none of the above applies, it still doubles up as a way to protect your creatures from removal.
Fallaji Archaeologist, Emet-Selch, Psychic Frog, Tainted Indulgence, Otherworldly Gaze, and Cephalid Coliseum all contribute to the same goal: fuelling your graveyard and helping you find either a reanimation spell or a juicy target. This also supports your Plan B—flipping Emet-Selch by filling your graveyard with 14 cards. From that point, closing out the game is usually academic.
To round things off, the deck packs a bit of interaction to safeguard your combo or simply buy time. Force of Negation is the counterspell of choice, while Solitude and Prismatic Ending provide answers to troublesome permanents along the way.
Final words
Final Fantasy is proving more than just fan service — it’s injecting real power into Modern. Whether you love combo, aggro, control, or graveyard shenanigans, there’s something new to explore.
These five decks are just the beginning. Expect more innovation as the community digs deeper into these cards. Have a list you’re brewing with Final Fantasy tech? Let us know — the metagame is evolving fast, and there’s never been a better time to experiment!
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