Last updated on May 30, 2025
Canyon Jerboa – art by Antonio José Manzanedo
The Final Fantasy x MTG crossover is bringing plenty of flashy mythics, but there's also room for humble, yet flavorful, commons. In this case, a plant that looks like the love-child of Iridescent Vinelasher and Tunneling Geopede: Leaner than the latter, one mana pricier than the former, and perfectly positioned to ping foes to death.
And an absolute flavor win: Meet Sabotender!
Reading the Plant Explains the Plant
Jumbo Cactuar – art by Jason Kiantoro
Sabotender, the prickly newcomer from Magic’s Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy, is definitely no headline mythic, but Magic players know that consistent pings can get the job done.
Sabotender costs and gives you a 2/1 with reach and “Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Sabotender deals 1 damage to each opponent.” Which brings to mind two other landfall pingers:
- Sabotender's baby brother, Iridescent Vinelasher – the black one‑drop lizard from Bloomburrow that shined in Standard Rakdos Aggro in the second half of 2024 (an archetype that may be making a comeback as of late), and who's quite solid in Commander, and
- Sabotender's big brother, Tunneling Geopede – the 3‑mana insect that’s been draining Commander pods since Battle for Zendikar.
Sabotender in Standard: Vinelasher's Big, Red Brother
When Rakdos Aggro was at its peak last year, every list packed four copies of Iridescent Vinelasher. The archetype then faded away, with the Standard meta preferring either Gruul or mono-Red as aggressive options (and, since Tarkir: Dragonstorm, dropping Gruul for Izzet). But news of Rakdos Aggro may have been exaggerated, as shown by a very recent Top 8.
Sabotender slots nicely into Rakdos Aggro as far as colors go, but costing 1 more mana than Iridescent Vinelasher is not nothing: red and black both have tons of good options at 2, from mice to Cori-Steel Cutter, and none of the colors play extra land drops.
The other possible home for Sabotender is an archetype that doesn't exist in Standard, but that Final Fantasy may be the foundation for: Gruul Landfall, or perhaps even Jund.
Sazh's Chocobo into Sabotender into Summon: Fenrir, and all of a sudden you have a 3/4 Bird that will keep growing, plus land pings, plus a 3/2 that makes your 4-drop bigger.
PuPu UFO and Zell Dincht give you extra land drops, and Zell's drawback (bouncing a land back to hand) may actually be a plus with Sabotender, giving you more ping fuel.
Traveling Chocobo future-sights for lands and gives you twice the pings, and both Tifa Lockhart and Summon: Titan (not to mention Standard all-star Monstrous Rage) brings trample to bear, to overrun enemy blockers.
Brewers are even experimenting with Standard Jund lists featuring both Sabotender, Vinelasher, and some of Final Fantasy's new green toys .
Last but not least, rotation is right around the corner. It may be easy to forget with the breakneck speed at which WotC flings Standard sets at us these days, but Final Fantasy happens to be the last set before Standard rotates next August, with the release of Edge of Eternities. Between current powerful decks losing some of their pieces (Monastery Swiftspear, for example, should be gone) there may be more room for a solid 2-drop like Sabotender.
Sabotender in Commander
While in 1-vs-1 formats Sabotender's effect is practically the same as Vinelasher's, in multiplayer formats, things change a lot: Pinging every opponent is a whole lot better than pinging every opponent.
“That is a strong landfall effect,” notes u/lemonfont17, “and now in more landfall appropriate colors.”
And, in fact, it's the cheapest this effect has ever been, costing one mana less than Tunneling Geopede.
Which means that pretty much every + EDH deck that wants Vinelasher will likely want Sabotender too (above all since costing an extra mana is not such a big deal in Commander). And Sabotender will also find homes in every red-leaning deck that packs a Tunneling Geopede.
Popular Jund Land Matters commander Lord Windgrace and King of Pings Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin often have a jig for Vinelasher, even at the cEDH level. Seems easy to expect they'll extend the welcome to a 2-drop that can ping the whole table, not just a single opponent. And there's also Yuma, Proud Protector, who even has some synergy with plants.
Another extremely solid Rakdos commander is Gev, Scaled Scorch, but we'll see how open this mercenary is about hiring outside of his lizard tribe.
Then there's the real King of Pings, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph, who's fairly fond of Tunneling Geopede and will certainly welcome a cheaper version.
FF Flavor Win: Death By a Thousand Pings
As far as Final Fantasy flavor goes, Sabotender is a one-shot hit. The red plant nails the iconic 1,000 Needles attack, reminiscent of Sabotender‘s jumbo-sized sibling: Jumbo Cactuar.
And even the naming is getting a lot of thumbs up from the Magic community.
“In the Final Fantasy series,” shares u/Enlog, “these cactus monsters have always been called ‘Sabotender' in Japanese: ‘Saboten' means ‘Cactus' in Japanese, plus ‘Pretender'. A cactus pretender. However, the localization of Final Fantasy 6, where the creatures first appeared, called them ‘Cactrot', which was later modified to ‘Cactuar'.”
Interestingly, later Final Fantasy games adopted both names!
“The really fun fact,” says u/IkariLoona, “is that as an acknowledgement of the localisation, the ones in eastern Altepa are sabotenders and the ones in western Altepa are cactuars.”
Sabotender's Solid!
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph – Illustration by Aaron J. Riley
Sabotender is shaping up to be a sneaky-good common that might not look flashy at first glance, but has a lot going for it in both Standard and Commander. In Standard, its fate will depend on whether Gruul landfall or Rakdos burn strategies can compete with the format’s top decks… but if they can, Sabotender should be a piece of the puzzle. And in Commander, it’s almost certainly going to see play in any Red-x deck that enjoys mass pings.
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