Image credit: Wizards of the Coast and Squqare Enix
Happy June! It's June 1st, and our fifth day counting down towards the release of the Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set. Yesterday, we went over FFIV and all the best cards that this article series wished to cover. What that means is, today we get to cover the best cards from Final Fantasy V!
The criteria we're working with for this superlative list are as follows:
- Honorable Mention - These usually will be a cycle or group of cards that are great but don't quite measure up to the "best" in the categories we have chosen to cover. (Today's list will only have one card.)
- Best as a Commander - This category covers, as advertised, the best commander to lead a deck in Commander, but may also look briefly at other Command Zone-driven formats.
- Best in the 99 - This section discusses my choice for the best card in a given 99 of a deck. It may be a ubiquitous card, but it might also just be a card with a fair amount of utility.
- Most Flavorful - The most fun to play card in a storytelling context will be deemed Most Flavorful. For example, we covered Town GreeterTown Greeter in our FFI list for its fun lore synergies with Towns, especially those with specific Final Fantasy town names.
- Best In Show - The very best of these cards in a balance of the above categories.
Furthermore, cards from the Commander precons, Through the Ages, and promotional/Secret Lair cards are ineligible for consideration. We want to keep this strictly from the main set.
With that, let's dive into this game!
Honorable Mention
Bartz and BokoBartz and Boko is our Honorable Mention for FFV. This card, while cute-yet-potent for what it aims to do, isn't quite as effective of a commander as, for instance, Choco, Seeker of ParadiseChoco, Seeker of Paradise. It is fine in the 99 of a deck like Choco, Seeker of Paradise, but that's hardly ubiquitous or utilitarian. Furthermore, when looking at it for flavor, there may be something to show here, but there's a bigger choice in FFV's card list that suits this part much more. What card is that? You'll have to wait and read on.
However, Bartz and Boko is not a card to sniff at. The creature can come in cheaply, at a minimum cost of , and immediately have your other Birds stomp something to death. It's a fine card for what it is and does. Other cards just outclass it in this subset, which is why it only attained an Honorable Mention here.
Best as a Commander
Get ready for all the SakuraCon 2009 memes people will sourcelessly reference when they play this commander! Gilgamesh, Master-at-ArmsGilgamesh, Master-at-Arms is a powerhouse in mono-red. It is very similar to Godo, Bandit WarlordGodo, Bandit Warlord and even synergizes quite well with that card. Just imagine if you manage to grab a Helm of the HostHelm of the Host with Gilgamesh! It's also a faithful depiction of a famed and beloved character from within Final Fantasy V, so there's really very little to dislike here if anything.
Best in the 99
Restoration MagicRestoration Magic is this set's obligatory Teferi's ProtectionTeferi's Protection analogue, but boy howdy, is it ever versatile! For just you can make something indestructible and hexproof; plus, for one more mana you can gain 3 life on top of that. However, if you pay a total of , you can protect your entire board and gain 6 life! While I don't see many players using the Cura mode on this card, I can foresee common cases for either Cure or Curaga's uses.
Most Flavorful
If you're going down a dimly lit path at night and you suddenly see a lantern in the distance, keep away! TonberryTonberry is one of those extremely iconic creatures from the Final Fantasy series, and as always, this time it's out for blood. The creature is understandably slow, which here is represented by a stun counter on entry, but when it gets going, it's positively deadly (It's also sure to be scary in Limited, but that's not the point here). The card gets the Most Flavorful pick because of all that it accurately implies in the scope of both Magic and Final Fantasy.
This brings us to our FFV Best In Show. There were quite a few spots on this list already vying for this one. So, what card could have outclassed them?
Final Fantasy V Best In Show
...It's Genji GloveGenji Glove!
This card is my Best In Show pick for its mechanical might a little bit more than its flavor impact. The card does have some big flavor implications (for example, being able to attack twice with two weapons in a turn). But generally speaking, the card is a very powerful piece of Equipment. At 5 mana, it is great with a commander like Tetsuo, Imperial ChampionTetsuo, Imperial Champion. It's great with really any Equipment-based Voltron strategy, though. Truly, its relevance can't be understated if you have a cool or impactful trigger on attack or combat damage.
That's it for my picks for the best cards in Final Fantasy V! Tomorrow, we'll be looking at FFVI, my personal favorite entry in the series, and I have some thoughts on that game for this list series! So please, if you're interested, keep reading on because there are still eleven more days and eleven more games to go!
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