Revival Trance Upgrade Guide: 23 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on May 24, 2025

 Terra, Herald of Hope | Illustration by Marta Nael

Every new set brings a slew of precons, but the ones associated with Final Fantasy are some of the year’s biggest. Their face commanders bring some of the games’ most iconic characters to life, in a Magic-al fashion.

For many FF fans, these decks are their first foray into the Magic space. Parsing 100 cards in an unfamiliar game can be overwhelming, let alone understanding which are good and bad. I hope to shine some light on this struggle with my upgrade guide for the Revival Trance deck, commanded by Terra, Herald of Hope.

Sale

Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy VI Commander Deck - Revival Trance

• FINAL FANTASY VI-THEMED DECK—Battle your friends with FINAL FANTASY VI’s iconic heroes, villains, and spells with the strategic gameplay of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game
• YOU CAN’T DESTROY EVERYTHING—Fill your graveyard and revive your fallen heroes as you fight alongside Terra, Herald of Hope to restore balance to the world.
• 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

$47.64

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Revival Trance Deck Overview

Celes, Rune Knight | Illustration by Néstor Ossandón Leal

Revival Trance falls into the classic precon trap of cramming too many strategies into a single deck, and it falls apart; this deck has an identity crisis between its commander, a mishmash of sacrifice cards, and a strong reanimation theme. It also has a slew of random legends; something I recognize in several Universes Beyond precons, and it likely has to do with printing as many legendary Easter eggs as possible.

In addition to too many themes, the deck’s curve is incredibly high, and it has one of the worst interaction packages I’ve seen in a precon in a while—nothing but 3-mana, single-target removal and a board wipe.

There’s some nasty tension between the mostly reanimator-focused deck and Terra, Herald of Hope. While Terra wants to reanimate small, impactful creatures, most of the deck focuses on reanimating big creatures that exceed the 3-power restriction on Terra. There’s a lot of weaknesses to shore up in this one.

Upgrade Plan

First and foremost, let’s address that snarl of themes. When your deck has a mishmash of themes, you lose tons of consistency and power because you’ll draw random cards that just don’t do anything. I’m cutting the sacrifice stuff to focus on that strong reanimator theme, since cutting the latter seems like it would take more of an overhaul than a strict upgrade.

Supporting the reanimator theme in this case means adding additional reanimation spells, better reanimation targets, and more ways to get those targets into the graveyard. In addition to those changes, I’m including extra ramp because you might need to cast those reanimation targets, and I’m fixing up the removal suite with more appropriate board wipes and removal better suited for Commander.

I also want to address the issues with Terra, Herald of Hope. It doesn’t hold up to this theme, in the upgrade or the regular deck; your commander should do better than mill two cards each combat, and maybe get back a random weenie. With this in mind, I heavily recommend swapping it for the alternate commander, Celes, Rune Knight. Cycling away your hand both dumps reanimation targets into the bin and digs towards your reanimation spells, which is better than Terra doing half that. I’m making these upgrades with that swap in mind.

Animate Dead

Suggested Cut: Key to the City

Animate Dead is one of Magic’s strongest reanimation spells due to its incredibly low mana cost, so you definitely want it here. Key to the City loses its luster since Celes, Rune Knight doesn’t care about combat damage, and I’m adding better self-mill effects.

Breach the Multiverse

Suggested Cut: Interceptor, Shadow's Hound

Interceptor, Shadow's Hound provides a resilient, grindy threat that would be effective if you went in on the sacrifice synergies, but this deck wants to do something more explosive like put multiple threats into play off Breach the Multiverse. I appreciate that Breach fuels itself and future reanimation spells by milling everybody.

Afterlife from the Loam

Suggested Cut: Edgar, Master Machinist

This deck doesn’t care about artifacts, so Edgar, Master Machinist is completely out of place. I’m much more interested in Afterlife from the Loam to provide another mass reanimation effect so I get ahead on board.

Incarnation Technique

Suggested Cut: Sun Titan

Being so iconic gives Sun Titan some style points, but this deck’s moving away from the small creatures (not that it properly cared about them before). Incarnation Technique meshes with the strategy much better. A reanimation spell that gets back two creatures and stocks the graveyard for the next one is always welcome in my library.

Too Greedily, Too Deep

Suggested Cut: Tragic Arrogance

Board wipes are complicated in Commander; they’re one of the best ways to handle multiple threats at once, but they reset your board to zero. The best way to handle this is with synergistic or asymmetrical board wipes.

Tragic Arrogance has its uses, but I prefer Too Greedily, Too Deep—a board wipe that doubles as a reanimation spell drips with synergy, and this deck’s focus on large creatures should leave you with the best threat in play each time. It also doesn’t wreck the mana base by sweeping away Talismans and Signets.

Living Death

Suggested Cut: General Leo Cristophe

Another card that vaguely works with the smaller creatures this deck doesn’t have, General Leo Cristophe doesn’t have a home here. But Living Death, a card that straddles the line between mass reanimation effect and board wipe, absolutely does. All the self-mill and discard ensures you have a better graveyard than your opponents.

Will of the Abzan

Suggested Cut: Coin of Fate

I love Will of the Abzan. Modal cards give your deck awesome flexibility, and this one shifts between interaction and reanimation, making it perfectly thematic and shoring up two of the deck’s weaknesses at once.

Coin of Fate is a reanimation spell, but it’s a pretty bad one. Six mana to reanimate the weakest of two creatures is pretty weak, even if it comes with the monarchy. Will of the Abzan does so much more for two-thirds the cost.

Kroxa and Kunoros

Suggested Cut: Sabin, Master Monk

Sabin, Master Monk hits pretty hard, but this deck wants more from a reanimation target than “hits hard.” Kroxa and Kunoros provides that quite neatly, serving as both reanimation spell and target in one Mardu () package. Oh, and it still has a decent left hook.

Buried Alive

Suggested Cut: Solemn Simulacrum

Solemn Simulacrum has long enjoyed status as a Commander staple, but I don’t know if it should be as ubiquitous as it is. I'd be down if I could flicker or copy it, but in a deck like this? I’d rather have Buried Alive to set up several turns of reanimation, or perhaps a single, explosive mass reanimation spell.

Mesmeric Orb

Suggested Cut: Swiftfoot Boots

Speaking of staples that might be overplayed, you can let go of Swiftfoot Boots. It’s an amazing haste enabler, and I’d probably keep it around if Terra, Herald of Hope were still the commander, but Mesmeric Orb is way too efficient to pass up. And I hear you in the comments, clamoring about using the Boots for protection, but you need more robust protection than something that protects exactly one threat from one targeted removal. This equipment doesn’t save you from board wipes, and your reanimation spells provide a decent riposte to Doom Blade.

Ripples of Undeath

Suggested Cut: Terra, Herald of Hope

Oh, did you think I was keeping around the card that’s so unsynergistic that I wanted to get it out of my opening hand before the game started? Look, Terra, Herald of Hope is a fine card, and I look forward to building a deck around it in the future, but this isn’t the deck for it.

Ripples of Undeath proves that point nicely. It mills more cards for less mana, and the occasional card it gets back also costs less. It’s a far stronger enabler.

Archon of Cruelty

Suggested Cut: Meteor Golem

Meteor Golem exists in a space similar to Solemn Simulacrum for me: If I’m not flickering, copying, or otherwise exploiting it, I don’t want it.

Archon of Cruelty generates oodles of card advantage by drawing cards and stripping your opponents of their resources; it’s been regarded as one of the best reanimation targets in Commander since it was printed.

Tyrant’s Familiar

Suggested Cut: Cyan, Vengeful Samurai

Cyan, Vengeful Samurai would probably be fine in a dedicated Terra deck, but with this brew, I’d rather my expensive cards be worth reanimating. Tyrant's Familiar is far from the flashiest play, but it pressures life totals and expands the paltry removal suite.

Summon: Bahamut

Suggested Cut: Ruin Grinder

I detest expensive cards that have to die to do anything. Death triggers aren’t inherently bad, of course, but the fact that Ruin Grinder must die to get its value makes it weak. I’d rather get the immediate impact of Summon: Bahamut, a summon that probably wins the game if it survives to the final chapter.

On-Color Signets

Suggested Cuts: Pitiless Plunderer, Morbid Opportunist, and Shadow, Mysterious Assassin

This deck needs more ramp; you may need to cast your reanimation targets the hard way, and some of your mass reanimation spells like Breach the Multiverse and Rejoin the Fight cost a pretty (mana) penny themselves.

Morbid Opportunist and Pitiless Plunderer are the payoffs for a sacrifice theme that barely exists, and they aren’t worth keeping around without regular ways to trigger them. Shadow, Mysterious Assassin is a little more interesting, but ultimately a sacrifice outlet you have little decent fodder for; dropping these three cards eliminates the sacrifice theme altogether and leaves the deck stronger for it.

Toxic Deluge

Suggested Cut: Setzer, Wandering Gambler

Toxic Deluge is one of the game’s best board wipes due to its flexibility and low mana cost. That flexibility plays nicely with your reanimation targets; you should generally have the largest creatures around, so you can often sweep away board of small, aggressive creatures while leaving at least a few of the big ones untouched.

Setzer, Wandering Gambler looks neat with vehicles and Treasure synergies, but Revival Trance has neither, and I’d rather not risk my ramp on a coin flip when I can play a better card.

Sign in Blood

Suggested Cut: Phoenix Down

I could get behind Phoenix Down if it reanimated anything or had a broader application as a removal spell; as is, it’s too narrow for this deck. Sign in Blood isn’t a strict synergy piece, but cheap card draw is always welcome to smooth out your hands.

Grasp of Fate

Suggested Cut: Legions to Ashes

Legions to Ashes works wonders against token decks, and it doesn’t matter against anything else; while your Commander deck should run some single-target removal, it shouldn’t be this expensive or slow.

Grasp of Fate scales to the multiplayer nature of Commander by exiling a threat from each opponent, generating enough card advantage to overcome the weakness of being sorcery speed.

Soul Shatter

Suggested Cut: Mortify

Removal that hits multiple card types, as Mortify does, provides lots of value. But not as much as killing three creatures for the price of one card the way Soul Shatter does; this instant often kills the biggest threat at the table and takes another creature or two for free.

Swords to Plowshares

Suggested Cut: Bedevil

Single-target removal isn’t ideal in Commander, because it puts you and another player down a card while leaving the others untouched, but it has its place; sometimes you really need to remove that Archon of Cruelty while investing as little mana as possible. Bedevil gets part of the way there by hitting multiple card types, but it costs a terrible amount of mana while Swords to Plowshares costs next to nothing. It’s a very simple upgrade.

Dawn’s Truce

Suggested Cut: Strago and Relm

I’m assuming the characters represented on Strago and Relm have some lore ties to Terra, Herald of Hope because I can’t see another reason for the card to be in the list. I’d much rather have Dawn's Truce around to give me an out to a board wipe; I’m not super concerned about them since you can reanimate whatever your opponents Wrath of God away, but sometimes you don’t want to go through that.

The Final Deck and New Cards

And that wraps up my changes to Revival Trance! I’ve posted the upgraded decklist plus a list of the upgrades here for your convenience; if you want to pick up either group of cards, you can use the shopping cart button in the top corner!

Commanding Conclusion

Animate Dead | Illustration by Bastien L. Deharme

This was a doozy of an upgrade; I don’t think I’ve ever changed this many cards or cut the face commander of a precon. I typically maximize the face commander, but this time I enhanced the deck’s primary reanimation strategy by trimming under-supported sacrifice cards and generally weak or unnecessary cards for better synergy pieces and interaction.

If you wanted to keep Terra, Herald of Hope around as the commander, you could absolutely upgrade this deck to focus on small creatures by cutting the mass reanimation spells and some of the bigger creatures for more efficient, aggressive threats like Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate, but that would trend closer to a total rebuild than an upgrade.

Do you look forward to playing with Revival Trance or any of the other Final Fantasy precons? How would you upgrade this deck? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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