Summon: Bahamut | Illustration by Arif Wijaya
JRPGs are famous for the legendary pieces of equipment you can give your characters, or the powerful artifacts you’ll find in your journey. The Final Fantasy set delivered new, formidable pieces of equipment, and many of these are finding their way into players' decks. We also got strong reprints of tried and true cards in the Commander set.
Today we’re taking a look at the best colorless cards from Final Fantasy, those that fit every deck. Because they don’t follow strict color pie rules, these cards have the most potential to be broken, often offering a color an effect it doesn’t have natural access to.
Let’s dive in!
What Are Colorless Cards in Final Fantasy?
Skullclamp | Illustration by Josephine Chang
Colorless cards in Final Fantasy are cards that have no color identity for Commander. That includes colorless creatures, enchantments, artifacts (mainly equipment), and most nonbasic lands, excluding those that generate a specific color of mana, like dual lands. We’re considering cards from the Final Fantasy Standard set (FIN), Final Fantasy Commander set (FIC), and Through the Ages bonus sheet (FCA).
Honorable Mention: Commander Staples
These cards tend to see play in most, if not all EDH decks, as WotC often reprints them in precons to keep the price from going up. Cards like Command Tower and Arcane Signet are among the best in what they do since you’ll generate whatever colors of mana you need without downside.
#27. Solemn Simulacrum
Solemn Simulacrum is a card you’ll include in most casual decks as a body that fetches a land and offers card draw when it’s gone. People say it’s a ramp spell and a speed bump, because opponents are less likely to attack into it and give you a card, or worse, trade with it.
#26. World Map
World Map is a kind-of Expedition Map and a cheap option for mana fixing. Three mana is a steep cost to play, but redundancy is good, and sometimes you only need to fetch a basic.
#25. Armory Automaton
A reprint from Commander 2016, Armory Automaton makes a lot of sense around all the job select cards and premium equipment this set has. It’s also a good way to circumvent high equip costs on the Colossus Hammers of this world.
#24. Excalibur II
In dedicated lifegain decks, or decks that have plenty of lifelink threats, Excalibur II can get huge pretty fast. It’s an Ajani's Pridemate equipment of sorts. Besides Field-Tested Frying Pan, it’s one of the only equipment in MTG that cares about you gaining life, and the first colorless one, so there’s that.
#23. The Regalia
The Regalia is a lot like a vehicle version of Sword of the Animist. It’s nice that it has haste, crew 1, and that you can get any kind of land. Landfall decks like this as a potent turn-4 play.
#22. Capital City
Capital City is not an excellent card, but it’s like a charm land. It’s a town, it cycles, it filters your mana, and it doesn’t enter tapped. Small things that make this card a weak but flexible land, and comparable to cards like Hidden Grotto.
#21. Clive’s Hideaway
Hideaway is an ability with a lot of potential, and in this case, you only need four legendary creatures to meet the condition. In some decks, this is almost impossible to trigger. Clive's Hideaway, therefore, will find its way into “legends matter” decks. Many Commander creatures also make legendary tokens, which can be two of the four you need.
#20. The Gold Saucer
The Gold Saucer is an interesting land with a mana sink, allowing you to flip coins and create treasure, or to sac artifacts and draw a card. Considering that coin-flip decks are few and far between, you’ll probably add this one to artifact decks or decks that produce artifact fodder, be it Clues or Treasure. This card fixes and ramps too, though not reliably.
#19. Ultima Weapon
Ultima Weapon is a pretty powerful equipment, one of the best we’ve ever seen. The thing is… expensive as hell to say the least. But equipping it can be game-winner, and backbreaking in the long run. So as usual, try to find ways to cheat it into play, like Stoneforge Mystic, or ways to auto-equip it.
#18. Inspiring Statuary
Inspiring Statuary looks like a do-nothing 3-mana artifact, but giving your spells improvise is a very strong effect. This card can even tap for mana later. If you play this card when you already have some artifacts in play, following it with a big spell is huge. It’s heavily played in treasure decks as a way to utilize them without cracking them for mana.
#17. The Masamune
Who’d think that The Masamune, Sephiroth’s sword, fits Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER pretty well? This card can fit into decks that want to double creature’s death triggers (Teysa Karlov), or that have a hefy amount of menace or deathtouch creatures (usually BR). It’s a synergy equipment overall since it doesn’t raise P/T, so it’s not an auto-include in every deck, but once you get a strong creature, it’s a good, repeatable lure effect.
#16. Adventurer’s Inn
There’s nothing special about Adventurer's Inn, but these cards end up seeing a lot of play across different formats. The added town synergies might even matter here and there. Control decks enjoy the extra life, while WB decks have more reasons to want the lifegain.
#15. Aettir and Priwen
A little cheaper to equip than Ultima Weapon, Aettir and Priwen turns any creature into a must-kill threat. Since it changes base P/T, it’s interesting to equip onto 1/1 trample creatures, or 1/1 fliers. Unless you’re on the verge of dying, this card is very powerful, and all the better if you have the means to cheat on the cost.
#14. Conformer Shuriken
Conformer Shuriken is very interesting in a scenario where you need to attack and they have a big blocker, or just a huge-statted dinosaur of sorts. It gives your equipped creature evasion and a +1/+1 counter buff, which is ideal when attacking with a single Voltron creature.
#13. Wrecking Ball Arm
Wrecking Ball Arm is a nod to EDH and to the amount of legendary creatures this set has. Equip for this benefit is huge, being very similar to Blackblade Reforged, a card that sees a lot of play. And like Blackblade, sometimes you’ll pay the full amount and be happy about it.
#12. Genji Glove
Genji Glove grants any creature the “additional combat phase” clause, while also giving the creature double strike. Take that red decks, now every color has access to this effect! It’s a little expensive, but effective quadruple strike is worth it.
#11. Ultima, Origin of Oblivion
Hosing lands from your opponent is nice, but the best part about Ultima, Origin of Oblivion is to double the colorless mana you produce from your lands. Untapping with this commander and following up with a 10-mana play is no joke, and a 4/4 flying creature isn't bad either if you don’t have an expensive spell to follow.
#10. The Strahl (Smuggler’s Copter)
The Strahl, or Smuggler's Copter, is one of the finest vehicles ever designed, at least for 1v1 Constructed formats. While being easily crewable, attacking as a 3/3 flier and looting at the same time gives you nice card selection, as well as turning on graveyard synergies.
#9. Starting Town
Starting Town is a 5c land that has similarities with lands like Mana Confluence or City of Brass. It’s bad that it enters tapped later, but the fixing is more critical on the first few turns anyway.
#8. Herald’s Horn
This Commander reprint is a staple in typal decks, offering everything you want there. Herald's Horn makes your spells cheaper and gives you creatures from the top of your library. If only we also got some +1/+0 effect attached into it.
#7. Sword of the Animist
Sword of the Animist is the classic ramp equipment. It offers a simple attack trigger than can be given to anything, even a chump attacker. Bonus points if you pair this with landfall. Fixes your mana too!
#6. Summon: Bahamut
Yes, it’s 9 mana, but it’s one of the best colorless cards to cheat into play. Summon: Bahamut is a giant 9/9 flying dragon that functions as a removal spell right away, and the longer it stays into play, the more value you get. The Mega Flare ability (gotta love the deal with me in three turns or lose JRPG reference) in particular can be game winning, and you can combo with Barbara Wright and read ahead.
#5. The Warring Triad
The Warring Triad is a 3-mana rock that turns into a damn fine creature. It’s a very juiced-up Millikin, and decks interested in self-milling will play this card for the mill and for the eventual god creature.
#4. Colossus Hammer
Cheap to cast, hard to equip. Colossus Hammer is an important card in Voltron decks, considering that you have the means to equip it for free. +10/+10 is a huge benefit, and with double strike, it’s usually a win. Many Commander decks are built around powerful equipment, with ways to change equipment between creatures for free, or effects like Sigarda's Aid to turn equipment into combat tricks.
#3. Walking Ballista
Walking Ballista is a classic combo piece, easily facilitating infinite mana combos, infinite counters combos, or winning on the spot with cards like Heliod, Sun-Crowned. It’s also very solid on its own as a kind of removal spell attached to a creature. It’s even good if you play it in +1/+1 counter decks and proliferate.
#2. Buster Sword
Buster Sword is very similar to the classic Sword of X and Y cycle, offering similar stats and benefits when the equipped creature deals combat damage. Just drawing a card is fine, and the times when you get to follow the damage with a 4-mana spell or higher is just nasty.
#1. Skullclamp
Skullclamp is still one of the better ways to cash in small creatures for cards. Few cards will give you a repeatable draw-2 effect for only 1 mana. It's also kind of a sacrifice outlet for decks that want one.
Wrap Up
Solemn Simulacrum | Illustration by Kevin Glint
Final Fantasy delivers some pretty strong colorless cards, namely the good equipment. It helps that one of the EDH precons cares about power 7 or greater, or that the different Cloud designs synergize with equipment. But equipping characters is at the core of JRPGs, and even with job select cards, WotC’s team did a good job in this department. I expect equipment decks to incorporate some of these new cards into their decks.
What about you? Any colorless card or equipment card that’s an auto-include in your decks? Let me know in the comments section below, or over in our Draftsim Discord.
Stay safe people, and battle on!
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