Oddball Final Fantasy Lifegain Commander Moves Market

Last updated on July 14, 2025

Shabraz, the Skyshark | Illustration by Paul Scott Canavan

Among the hundred-something new commanders released in Final Fantasy, Hope Estheim might just be the most bizarre. There's nothing particularly complex about it, it's just that Hope asks players to combine two strategies that, until now, haven't really had an incentive to co-exist. Mill and lifegain aren't exactly an Oreo & Milk duo, but Hope gave players a reason to scour the bulk boxes for some long-forgotten lifegain cards.

And it's more than evident that these top-tier Final Fantasy commanders have the power to move card prices in droves. With Hope slotting in as the 8th most popular main set commander from Final Fantasy, it was only a matter of time before the numbers on a few lifegain cards started climbing.

A Shark and a Sun Walk Into a Bar

Shabraz, the Skyshark

Source: MTGStocks

Shabraz, the Skyshark has seen its first real movement since it was released in Commander 2020. Rarely peaking its shark-fin above $2 over its 5-year tenure, Shabraz flew up to a comfortable $7-9 average price over the last few days. Market price still hovers between $2-3 at the moment, but it's more action than Shabraz has seen since Ikoria made Shark Birds a thing in Magic.

And this seems like a pretty obvious nod to Hope Estheim. Lifegain during your turn plus the ability to jump Hope into the air for a nice lifelink hit all adds up for the Azorius commander.

Unfortunately, Shabraz loses some of its luster in a Hope deck since the color combo excludes Brallin, Skyshark Rider, but that saddle looks like it's only fitting one Human at a time anyway. Interestingly, Brallin's also up about 25%, perhaps because they often get sold as a package deal.

Shabraz is also part of some fairly niche combos that make perfect sense in a Hope Estheim deck. Drogskol Reaver and Shabraz combine to draw your entire deck (you'll need a sac outlet or a way to shut off the chain), and the same is true of Marina Vendrell's Grimoire, another card that turns lifegain into card draw. These combos result in you drawing your deck, gaining life equal to the number of cards you drew, and consequently milling each opponent for an equivalent number of cards.

Beacon of Immortality

Source: MTGStocks

Beacon of Immortality saw a pretty big jump recently, up to as much as $47 for a 10th Edition version. Again, not to be misleading, this is the current average price, while the market price remains slightly below $10. Granted, the market price has been steadily increasing over the last month, though not by huge amounts. The original Fifth Dawn version has climbed above $10 for the first time in over 10 years.

This is even more of a no-brainer than Shabraz. Beacon of Immortality doubles your life total, which counts as lifegain, which in turn converts to mill with Hope in play. Since Hope decks are already tuned to gain tons of life, it's not hard for the Beacon to gain upwards of 60-70 life for 6 mana and mill everyone out in one swing. It's not exactly some shocker revelation, since people had Beacon on their shortlist as soon as Hope was spoiled, but the speculation's coming to fruition, if the price jump is any indication.

Holding Out Hope For More Spikes

Will, Scion of Peace | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

The Final Fantasy price changes have been coming in waves, though maybe that'll start settling down as people turn their attention to Edge of Eternities. Hope Estheim is just one example of a FF commander that has incredibly obvious synergies, and therefore has the potential to swing card prices. There's still plenty of room for future Hope-inspired price jumps, too. Maybe next week it'll be Will, Scion of Peace that people latch onto, or The Water Crystal/The Wind Crystal once people finally finish sorting through all their Final Fantasy Collector Booster chaff.

And basically any Azorius lifegain card printed from here on out will be held in scrutiny as a potential Hope Estheim card. Hope just exudes potential like that, especially for a commander that gets completely shut down by a stray Sulfuric Vortex.