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Like every major set release, the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set introduces ten unique archetypes for its Limited formats, including Draft and Sealed. In these formats, players use cards exclusively from the designated set, with each color combination featuring its own distinct archetype.
It’s important to remember that Limited archetypes are merely suggestions for deck construction. You’re free to build a Draft or Sealed deck however you like, even incorporating more than two colors. However, if you’re looking for guidance on which cards to focus on, the Limited archetypes are a helpful reference.
Artifacts (White/Blue)
The Azorius (white/blue) archetype in the Final Fantasy set revolves around artifacts. The blue cards particularly capitalize on artifacts, featuring solid card options like Valkyrie Aerial Unit and Rook Turret that reward you for using them.
On the white side, cards help you find artifacts from your library. If you have multiple copies of Magitek Infantry, you can flood the battlefield with artifact creatures for just three mana. Cards like Ashe, Princess of Dalmasca and Delivery Moogle ensure you keep your momentum going without running out of resources.
Control (Blue/Black)
Dimir (blue/black) represents straightforward control. A control deck counters spells as they’re cast and removes troublesome creatures that come onto the battlefield. It’s a slow strategy, focusing on exchanging resources and deploying powerful threats to finish the game.
The black cards manage removal with options like Overkill and Sephiroth’s Intervention, while the blue cards provide counterspells like Syncopate and Louisoix’s Sacrifice. The aim with Dimir in Final Fantasy Limited is to establish early threats while keeping your opponents from unleashing their best cards, slowly leading to victory.
Black Mage Aggro (Black/Red)
As indicated by its name, the Rakdos (black/red) archetype focuses on generating Black Mages that inflict burn damage. In this context, a Black Mage is typically a token creature that deals one damage each time you cast a noncreature spell.
The goal of Black Mage Aggro is to create numerous Black Mage tokens and cast multiple noncreature spells, allowing you to deal damage without even needing to attack. This pairs well with burn spells in red (like Choco-Comet), while the black aspects can handle threats on the board through removal or forced sacrifice, such as Cornered by Black Mages.
Landfall Aggro (Red/Green)
For Gruul (red/green), it’s all about landfall. This ability triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield, ensuring that even late-game land draws maintain utility by triggering landfall effects.
If you happen to get a Chocobo Racetrack in your pool, aim to build a landfall-themed deck as it’s one of the standout cards in Limited.
Notably, there are only eight landfall cards in the set. The only one above the uncommon rarity is Tifa Lockhart, so you can still draft this archetype despite its limitations. Most landfall cards are predominantly green, but red cards like Call the Mountain Chocobo can create Bird tokens with landfall abilities.
Go Wide (Green/White)
Selesnya (green/white) serves as the main aggressive archetype based on low-cost creatures and tokens. It encourages you to cast many creature spells to overwhelm your opponent before they can set up effective defenses.
If you choose to go with the Go Wide strategy, battle tricks like Auron’s Inspiration, Tifa’s Limit Break, and You’re Not Alone can be especially useful to ensure your creatures hit and deal significant damage. Several cards, like Riona Heartilly and Snow Villiers, encourage you to adopt the Selesnya strategy if you draft them.
Artifact and Creature Sacrifice (White/Black)
Orzhov (white/black) is the archetype that thrives on sacrificing your own creatures. There’s not a wide selection of sacrifice outlets, but you might find cards like Ahriman and Phantom Train in your pool. Judge Magister Gabranth rewards you for losing creatures, gradually increasing in power each time a creature or artifact dies.
This sacrifice archetype can be one of the weaker options, as it often relies on high-rarity cards to be effective. Both black and white have strong cards outside of this theme, so don’t feel pressured to focus solely on sacrifice if you choose Orzhov.
Many artifacts also have self-sacrificing effects to trigger particular benefits, such as Instant Ramen and World Map, making it easier to activate the effects of your permanents. While there are few lower-rarity cards to support sacrifice strategies, you can find powerful cards like Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER and Zodiark, Umbral God at higher rarities.
Big Noncreatures (Blue/Red)
In keeping with Izzet’s style (blue/red), this archetype emphasizes casting noncreature spells. It specifically encourages playing noncreature spells that cost four mana or more to trigger various effects of permanents. There’s a wealth of costly noncreature spells, making it easy to activate these effects. However, you may find your turns often reduced to casting one spell at a time.
Cards with “X” in their casting cost have a mana value equal to the amount of X paid plus any additional mana. For instance, Choco-Comment costs X and two red mana; if you pay two for X, its total mana value is four.
A lot of Equipment also costs four mana or more, often creating a token when they enter the battlefield. Cards like Lion Heart, Warrior’s Sword, and Ultima Weapon are excellent choices that can activate your permanent effects. The best options typically add counters to themselves (like Tellah, Great Sage and The Emperor of Palamecia), making them larger threats in combat as you cast expensive noncreature spells.
Graveyard Value (Black/Green)
Golgari (black/green) focuses on graveyard mechanics within the Final Fantasy set. The strategy relies on triggering effects from cards in the graveyard. Many of these cards have flashback abilities or other means to recycle themselves back into your hand.
However, payoffs from permanents in the graveyard are somewhat limited, with only Cloud of Darkness, Diamond Weapon, and Exdeath, Void Warlock as standout options. Recursion can be quite easy to achieve with cards like Summon: Titan, which returns all lands from the graveyard to the battlefield, and Evil Reawakened that brings any creatures back onto the battlefield, while Fight On! can return any two creatures to your hand.
Equipment Aggro (Red/White)
This set features a high number of Equipment, making Boros (red/white) the primary pairing for this theme. The aggressive strategy heavily relies on playing cards with the job select mechanic, such as Dragoon’s Lance, Monk’s Fist, and Red Mage’s Rapier. You’ll want to consistently cast job select cards to quickly build your battlefield and start attacking.
Boros also offers extensive support for Equipment, with cards like Freya Crescent providing mana acceleration, Adelbery Steiner gaining bonuses from each Equipment, and Firion, Wild Rose Warrior granting haste to equipped creatures and duplicating any entering Equipment.
Town Ramp (Green/Blue)
Simic (green/blue) revolves around the new Town land type. This archetype aims to accelerate your ramp using cards like PuPu UFO and Reach the Horizon to bring as many Towns onto the battlefield as possible. However, there aren’t many Towns to be found, especially if you’re sticking to a two-color deck. The main payoff is Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy, which can transform into a useful Vehicle.
Town Ramp synergizes well with landfall, a mechanic that numerous green cards possess. Generally, it’s not worth overloading your deck with Towns just for minor effects. It’s often best to treat Simic as a landfall archetype, which can sometimes be more effective than the advertised Gruul landfall archetype.
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