New Final Fantasy Commander is a 1-Card Mono Black Wincon

Last updated on May 8, 2025

Zenos from FFXIV – illus. Akihido Yoshida

Zenos yae Galvus, the ruthless antagonist from Final Fantasy XIV, is making his way into Magic: The Gathering through the upcoming Final Fantasy x MTG crossover set, scheduled to release on June 13, 2025.

Revealed yesterday via a post on Final Fantasy XIV's official English account on X, Zenos yae Galvus immediately sparked discussions among MTG players for his unique dual-faced card featuring abilities titled “My First Friend” and “Burning Chains.”

Zenos yae Galvus: Flavor-Drippin' Hot!

Zenos from FFXIV – illus. Akihido Yoshida

“This might be the biggest flavor win of all the FF cards so far,” says u/tallwhiteninja. “Absolutely glorious.”

Zenos yae Galvus is one of the antagonists of the Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG, and THE antagonist in the Stormblood expansion, who's pretty callous and bloodthirsty but is ultimately utterly obsessed with finding worthy adversaries. And the way he is portrayed in his Magic cards has gotten universal acclaim from MTG players.

“Basically the guy is a battle-obsessed lunatic who is so insanely strong that almost no one can even put up a fight against him,” summarizes u/Akuuntus on Reddit. “The player character is the first person to ever give him a challenge which leads to him becoming utterly obsessed with fighting them to the death, to the extent that he fuses himself with a dragon spirit and orchestrates a world-ending catastrophe just to bait you into fighting him.”

Mechanically, Zenos yae Galvus is a double-faced card that can trasnform into Shinryu, Transcendent Rival. And Shinryu will be the 40th or so card in Magic history with an “You win the game ability,” but it introduces a groundbreaking twist. When Zenos turns into Shinryu, Transcendent Rival the alternate win condition reads, “When the chosen player loses the game, you win the game.” While somewhat reminiscent of cards like Ramses, Assassin Lord, Zenos asks you to jump a lot less hoops, and can be activated at instant speed during your opponent's turn if you kill your “first friend”.

Zenos yae Galvus‘s alternate wincon can pack quite a punch in multiplayer games, either by basically letting you kill the whole table by killing just one foe, or as a political tool… but that same line of text is causing a bit of ruckus among players who are wondering, why print such a card on the main Standard set?

Standard Issues

The main pushback against Zenos yae Galvus is that his “You win the game” ability does exactly nothing in Standard. In other words, it's only relevant in multiplayer Magic formats, even though Zenos yae Galvus is a main-set card rather than slotting in one of the Final Fantasy Commander Precons.

Making things worse, Zenos yae Galvus‘s front side is basically a worse Harvester of Misery. Which is itself not a bad Standard card by any means… But in the current fast-paced Standard metagame, where mice and buffed monks can get you very dead very soon, it's hard to see how a worst Harvester may find its way into top-tier decks.

Then again, we've only seen a glimpse of what Final Fantasy x MTG has in stock: Zenos yae Galvus in particular, or Black-leaning decks in general, may get a lot more tools to make games last longer.

Voltron Versus Win-Stealer

Zenos from FFXIV – illus. Akihido Yoshida

With Zenos yae Galvus clearly being a multiplayer card, it's among Commander players where the hype for him is higher, above all as a fun Voltron commander. Some players find his flip ability a bit too telegraphed, perhaps more suitable in the 99 than a mono-black commander. And thus far the cEDH community doesn't seem overly impressed with Zenos, so K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth‘s as the top mono-black commander doesn't seem at risk.

That hasn't stopped plenty of brewers trying their hand at Zenos yae Galvus decks.

Currently, most Zenos early brews go down the Voltron route, packing Voltron commander staples like Swiftfoot Boots, Commander's Plate or Blackblade Reforged. These strategies not only put Zenos yae Galvus‘s wincon to good use (you kill one of 'em with commander damage, you kill 'em all!), they are also perfectly in character – and many players are perfecting their Zenos' quotes for when they go for the throat!

But Zenos yae Galvus has another, subtler use. Notice that the opponent who controls the creature you choose as “My First Friend”, and the opponent you choose as Zenos yae Galvus transforms into Shinryu, don't have to be the same player. And “Burning Chains” just requires the chosen player to lose; you don't have to kill them yourself.

Which in turn means that you can choose a creature from Player A as “My First Friend” and then, if Player C is about to die from Player D's attack, you can kill “My First Friend” at instant speed, flip Zenos into Shinryu, choose Player C (who's about to die), and when C does die you win the game on the spot.

And there's even a politicking angle here if you choose player A and then they threaten to concede the game. Conceding is treated as a loss, so if player A concedes, you win; player A and you could use that as a bargain chip against whatever the other players are trying to do.

Voltron commander, stealer of wins, and massive flavor victory: Zenos yae Galvus will join Magic as Final Fantasy releases next June 13!