Counter Blitz Upgrade Guide: 17 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on May 24, 2025

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian | Illustration by Nijihayashi

The Final Fantasy Magic set promises to bring loads and loads of new players to the game, so its Commander precons are some of the most important we’re going to see in a while. They need to be functional so that the new players have a chance in the Wild West of the LGS.

The Counter Blitz deck, helmed by Tidus, Yuna's Guardian, surprised me as a fairly cohesive deck that ought to work quite well out of the box. But you can do better, and I’m here to show you how!

Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy X Commander Deck - Counter Blitz

• FINAL FANTASY X-THEMED DECK—Battle your friends with FINAL FANTASY X’s iconic heroes, villains, and spells with the strategic gameplay of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game
• WHEN YOU GOT THE BALL, YOU GOTTA SCORE.—Embark on a journey to Zanarkand alongside Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian as you buff your creatures with counters and pass them around to boost team spirit
• 25 NEW CARDS plus ALL NEW ART—All 100 cards in this ready-to-play deck feature new FINAL FANTASY-themed art, including 25 Commander cards entirely new to Magic: The Gathering
• 2 FOIL LEGENDARY CARDS—Each deck includes 2 Legendary Creature cards with a shiny Traditional Foil treatment that can be played as your commander
• COLLECT SPECIAL ALT-BORDER CARDS—Each deck also comes with a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack containing 2 alternate-border cards of rarity Rare or higher

$54.44

Buy on Amazon

Counter Blitz Deck Overview

Yuna's Decision | Illustration by Yuu Fujiki

The average precon has a handful of weaknesses present across sets:

• Too Many Themes: Most precons package two or three themes within their box, resulting in a messy deck with some random, unsupported cards.
• Bad Cards: Cards in the precon might be bad because they’re just weak, or because they don’t mesh with the overall game plan.
• Structural Weaknesses: Too little card draw or interaction or ramp, or interaction that doesn’t work with the game plan, the curve’s too high… these are big-picture issues that have little to do with mechanical minutiae.
• Weak Mana: Mana rocks aside, precons always have too many tapped lands, too many basics, etc. A general tip for upgrading the precons is replacing cycles of tapped lands with untapped lands where you can (play Prismatic Vista instead of Evolving Wilds, Hallowed Fountain instead of Idyllic Beachfront, etc).

The first thing that stood out to me about Counter Blitz was its cohesion. It doesn’t have conflicting themes. There are some anti-synergies—it contains a high enchantment count and Bane of Progress—but most of the cards are either generally strong or care about counters in some way.

The deck still contains weak cards, just not due to thematic under-support. You have cards like Pull from Tomorrow and Sunscorch Regent that just don’t hold up in the current Commander format, at least for this deck.

Counter Blitz’s weaknesses lay within its structure. Though it has plenty of card advantage, it could use more ramp and interaction, including an interactive suite that’s better tailored to its game plan. It also lacks protection given that it wants to commit to the board in a format known for sweepers.

Overall, I expect this to play pretty well out of the box, and if I had to pick an FIC precon to play, it would be this one. But let’s try and make it better.

Upgrade Plan

This upgrade doesn’t changes the deck’s themes at all. It cares about counters adequately, and it doesn’t have any weird synergies, like a flying sub-theme or whatever.

With that in mind, I’m aiming to shore up the structural weaknesses. I want to get in more ramp, card draw, and better interaction, with a focus on cards that synergize with your existing counters theme. I also swap out a handful of cards that are fine but don’t synergize with this deck for cards that do; lastly, I tightened the curve, just a bit.

Dusk Legion Duelist

Suggested Cut: Generous Patron

This deck has so many ways to trigger Dusk Legion Duelist, from Tidus shifting around counters to it proliferating to everything else. It’s a great, efficient threat that draws plenty of cards, more than Generous Patron ever would, given how few ways you have to put counters on opposing creatures and how little you’d want to.

Danny Pink

Suggested Cut: Pull from Tomorrow

Danny Pink is among the best counter payoffs printed in the last two or so years. It has an incredible ceiling, especially with a commander that proliferates, putting a counter on each creature you control and drawing a card for each one.

Pull from Tomorrow isn’t bad, but Danny draws more cards for less mana while working within this deck’s themes; it’s a much better card for this specific deck.

Herald of Secret Streams

Suggested Cut: Altered Ego

Altered Ego is one of several cards that seemed to make the deck because they happened to say “+1/+1 counters” in the textbox. I’m much more interested in Herald of Secret Streams as a nice, clean finisher that even works with Tidus’s Coastal Piracy riff.

Court of Garenbrig

Suggested Cut: Tireless Tracker

Tireless Tracker is a spell that draws cards and pops up in the Scryfall search for “+1/+1 counters,” but you can do far better. Court of Garenbrig is a far more cohesive card advantage engine that kickstarts Tidus and friends.

Falco Spara, Pactweaver

Suggested: Path of Discovery

Path of Discovery looks really strong but always underdelivers. It just doesn’t impact the board! But Falco Spara, Pactweaver does, and it gives you access to a shield counter to protect Tidus, Yuna's Guardian. It even grants card advantage! It does so much more at the same mana value.

Innkeeper’s Talent

Suggested Cut: Inexorable Tide

Though Inexorable Tide is one of the most popular cards in +1/+1 counter decks, it’s quite weak. It’s amazing when you’re ahead with a huge board, and it spews counters… but one board wipe leaves you wondering why you paid 5 mana for a card that only works if you have a bunch of other stuff in play.

Innkeeper's Talent also relies on you having additional creatures, but at a fraction of the price. This class enchantment puts up numbers in Standard and should be in more of your EDH decks.

Biophagus

Suggested Cut: Blitzball Stadium

Blitzball Stadium is cute, but it’s pretty mama-intensive, especially considering that this deck doesn’t particularly emphasize spreading multiple types of counters around; it’s heavily focused on +1/+1 counters.

Biophagus gives you a powerful early play that accelerates you while setting up your counter synergies. Simple, but effective and cheap.

Kami of Whispered Hopes

Suggested Cut: Rampant Rejuvenator

This deck doesn’t need a card like Rampant Rejuvenator that wants to die given its lack of sacrifice effects, and even then I don’t know about a 4-mana piece of sacrifice fodder.

Kami of Whispered Hopes is a much stronger play; it’s a better, cheaper source of ramp and actively enhances the deck’s synergies instead of just profiting off them.

Devoted Druid

Suggested Cut: Gatta and Luzzu

Gatta and Luzzu feels more like a Limited card than something I want in my Commander deck. Devoted Druid is far stronger. You aren’t going infinite with it, but a 2-mana dork that taps for 2 mana once is pretty strong, and it works well with all your +1/+1 counter distribution to squeeze even more mana from this iconic card.

Devoted Druid also creates a nice mana and card advantage engine when combined with Falco Spara, Pactweaver. Also note that removing Gatta and Luzzu eliminates the 3-card infinite combo with Walking Ballista and Hardened Scales-type effects.

Thrummingbird

Suggested Cut: Sunscorch Regent

Sunscorch Regent just doesn’t wow me as a big, expensive play. I’d much rather have Thrummingbird as a cheap card that benefits all my other cards while being an evasive threat to get extra Tidus triggers.

Grasp of Fate

Suggested Cut: Collective Effort

Collective Effort is another one of those “it happens to say the theme” cards. Grasp of Fate provides solid, multi-target removal that scales nicely in this multiplayer format.

Contest of Claws

Suggested Cut: Yuna's Whistle

Yuna's Whistle has a lot of words for what amounts to a combat trick that cantrips, and you don’t even have control over how much power you get from it. Contest of Claws is much more impactful, both because it affects the board and because it casts the spell it “draws.”

Stubborn Denial

Suggested Cut: Sin, Unending Cataclysm

Sin, Unending Cataclysm has some interesting utility, specifically when it comes to removing lore counters from all your Summon cards, but this deck doesn’t have enough of those to make this seem exciting. Sin’s also a nonbo with your commander; Tidus’s proliferate trigger actively wants counters on as many creatures as possible, so stacking them on one just doesn’t work.

Counter decks rarely have trouble enabling Stubborn Denial, especially since it just takes one counter on Tidus. It’s mostly here for protection.

Ripples of Potential

Suggested Cut: Bane of Progress

Out of the box, this deck has too many enchantments to run Bane of Progress; I don’t know who thought curving Summon: Valefor into Bane of Progress was a good idea, but they should be kept away from deckbuilding.

Ripples of Potential provides this deck with some much-needed protection; you have upwards of 30 creatures and must protect them in the format with players who consider board wipes mandatory.

Heroic Intervention

Suggested Cut: Yuna's Decision

The conceit most modal cards make is mana: They cost a little more than either effect is worth, but the flexibility makes up for it. Even with that in mind, Yuna's Decision costs too much for me. Maybe if it were an instant so that the sacrifice effect could blow out a removal spell; maybe if it drew cards equal to the sacrificed creature’s power, so it worked within the deck’s themes. As is, I’d rather have one of green’s best protection spells with Heroic Intervention.

Wave Goodbye + Winds of Abandon

Suggested Cuts: Promise of Loyalty and Farewell

One day, WotC will stop putting symmetrical board wipes in their creature-focused precons that win by developing a thriving board state over a series of turns. Until then, I get a free header when I upgrade decks. Promise of Loyalty and Farewell undo all the work you’ve done to develop your board, while Wave Goodbye and Winds of Abandon sweep away all your opponents' hard work, putting them on the back foot. Sometimes they even win the game outright by removing all blockers.

The Final Deck and New Cards

New additions:

Here’s the brand new decklist, plus my suggested upgrades for your convenience. If you want to pick them up, you can use the shopping cart button!

Commanding Conclusion

Court of Garenbrig | Illustration by Sam Guay

I’m quite excited to see how these precons play out for the new players coming to Magic. I don’t know much about the flavor of the games, but Counter Blitz at least has a solid mechanical theme that can be easily enhanced with a few upgrades to important deckbuilding pillars like card draw and interaction.

I could easily see this commander going in a few different directions, though; this might be the best Summon commander since it manipulates lore counters so well, and I bet you could do some interesting stuff with ability counters off cards like Crystalline Giant and Arwen, Mortal Queen.

Are you looking forward to playing with Tidus, Yuna's Guardian? How would you upgrade the deck? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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