New Final Fantasy Cards for Old Precons!

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a minute but we’re back! 

Precon Playground is all about upgrading old precons with new cards. I believe there are enough precons out there that every new card printed could find a home in one of them. This blog post took a lot of time and energy but I’ve taken every single rare and mythic rare from the Final Fantasy main set and picked out what precon that card would go great in. I plan to do this for all main releases so Edge of Eternities is on the way soon! The only 2 conditions for picking precons are: 

• I won’t pick a Final Fantasy Precon as an option since it's too easy for a lot of these. 

• I will be picking precons released before the FIN set released (so no Edge of Eternities precons even though they’re out when this post goes up)  

This blog post is an extension of some tiktoks/reels/shorts that I’ve posted covering the first 17 cards so make sure to check those videos out if you want to see the first few but the rest of them are here alphabetically. There’s 106 rares and mythics (89 in this post) in the set so let’s dive right in!

Cloud, Planet’s Champion - Arm for Battle

Good Boros Equipment card goes in the good Boros Equipment deck. Not to be short about the first one of the article but there is a large equipment theme in this set and not many equipment precons to slot them into. Arm for Battle is one of the equipment precons and you’ll see it come up a few times throughout the post.

Dark Confidant - Witherbloom Witchcraft

This deck cares about lowering your life total and then turning that life loss into counters. Dark Confidant is an easy way to get some extra cards and help with the game plan there.

Deadly Embrace - Sworn to Darkness

This deck has tons of mass removal so Deadly Embrace serves as a really effective card draw spell in this shell.

Dion, Bahamut’s Dominant - Cavalry Charge

Giving all knights flying is a crazy buff to provide for your whole team since this precon deck is almost completely composed of knights.

Edgar, King of Figaro - Heads I win, Tails You Lose

No other deck cares about coin flipping as much as this precon to make the most of Edgar’s second ability. Very easy addition

Emet-Selch, Unsundered - Mind Flayarrrs

This may not be a horror but Emet-Selch flips very easy in this deck since there is a ton of self mill.

Esper Origins - Enduring Enchantments

This art is SO FREAKING COOL

Both sides of Esper Origins have great utility in this deck. With the front you can surveil away the enchantments that you want to reanimate and with the Summon: Esper Maduin side you can give your enchantment army +2/+2 and trample to close out a game.

Excalibur II - Eternal Bargain

Whether Oloro is on the battlefield or in the command zone, you can ensure that Excalibur 2 is going to be getting charge counters at a minimum of once per turn. The rest of the deck has a ton of other life gain effects so if this card comes out early, it can definitely be an efficient closer.

Firion, Wild Rose Warrior - Rebellion Rising

Firion is a great utility card for any equipment deck with red in its color identity but it works especially well here. Playing any of the equipment with the For Mirrodin Ability gives you extra creatures since they come with their own 2/2 rebel attached. You don’t have to deal with equipping the token since the rebel equips it automatically Even when the token copy of the equipment leaves you get to keep the rebel. 

From Father to Son - Buckle Up

I almost called this card a dud since I couldn’t find any decks with vehicles in white until I remembered about the Neon Dynasty precon. Early game, this card can get you a Peacewalker Colossus to animate your other vehicles for just two mana. Late game, From Father to Son can get you a Parhelion II to fill the board up with angels and close out the game in a few turns.

Genji Glove - Arm for Battle

This is one of the most game breaking equipment in the Final Fantasy set. Giving Wyleth this ability lets you draw a ton of cards TWICE and gives you a way to close out the game a bit quicker.

Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms - Arm for Battle

I think the Arm for Battle precon has the most equipment in it out of all the precons making it the best precon to get the full potential out of Gilgamesh’s ability.

Gogo, Master of Mimicry - Peer Through Time

Gogo is a great card that can slot into almost any deck whose commander has an incredible ability you want to trigger multiple times. I recommend it here because copying planeswalker abilities is ridiculously great value. Any of Teferi’s abilities happening even just one extra time is incredible value. 

Golbez, Crystal Collector - Urza’s Iron Alliance

The deck is mostly artifacts and artifact creatures so you’ll get to surveil often, find your best creatures, and get them back to hand over and over again while draining your opponents. 21 out of 36 creatures are artifact creatures and the deck has another 14 artifacts so you’ll be in stellar shape with Golbez out early.

Hope Estheim - Eternal Bargain

With Estheim on the battlefield you are milling your opponents every turn for a minimum of 2 cards each turn and this precon has more than enough life gain payoffs to get that number much higher.

Ishgard, the Holy See - Aura of Courage

This deck has the highest combined total of artifacts and enchantments. (35 = 18 artifacts + 17 enchantments) This is a great upgrade to a land slot to be able to recur some of the most crucial artifacts and enchantments that you may lose during the game. 

Jecht, Reluctant Guardian - Obscura Operation

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus lets you guarantee combat damage by making something unblockable. Even though Jecht has menace, it’s great insurance to guarantee you get to flip it and get the bonuses on the Sin side.

Jenova, Ancient Calamity - Counterpunch

Ghave lets you do everything Jenova needs you to to maximize value. You can sacrifice the mutants during your turn to grow Jenova and just put more counters onto Ghave to try and close out the game with commander damage. With these two you can draw obscene amounts of cards while pumping your team.

Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital - Mind Flayarrrs

Going through half of your opponent’s library, you are almost guaranteed to hit your opponent’s best creatures with Captain N’gathrod.

Jill, Shiva’s Dominant - Evasive Maneuvers

There’s a ton of great blink targets/creatures with ETB abilities that you can recycle with the front of Jill’s card. Derevi definitely benefits from being able to get in unblocked with the back side of Jill’s card.

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant - Legend’s Legacy

Another great legendary creature for Dihada to fetch. Added bonus that the Phoenix side of this card is still legendary so Dihada can give it lifelink. Very useful to gain 6 life while burning out your opponents. 

Judgement Bolt - Arm for Battle

Fantastic creature removal that can do some serious damage late in the game based on having a board of equipments.

Jumbo Cactuar - Riviteers Rampage

The meme & the dream

The hardest part about trying to close a game out with Jumbo Cactuar is getting it to stick around for a turn while everyone is staring it down. Blitzing it in with Henzie helps as you can surprise your opponents and get someone out of nowhere.

Kain, Traitorous Dragoon - Cavalry Charge

This is a really hard card to place but Kain is a knight so it can slot well into Cavalry Charge. Since it gets flying on your turn you can more safely attack with it to activate Sidar’s ability.

Kefka, Court Mage - Mind Seize

Kefka can definitely flourish as with its own commander deck but all of its abilities just line up perfectly with Nekusar. You can force your opponents to discard the extra cards they’re drawing and then the backside of Kefka further fuels the tons of card draw by being a massive 5/7 beater.

Kuja, Genome Sorcerer - Arcane Wizardry

Kuja makes additional wizards to deal damage and the deck already has a ton of wizards to assist in flipping Kuja. Once Kuja is flipped you can tap 5 wizards with Inalla to deal 14 damage instead of 7.

Lightning, Army of One - Arm for Battle

Getting Lightning equipped with a ton of equipment can get very scary. Since Lightning has first strike and trample, you can make any creature attacking with Lightning just as frightening.

Lightning, Security Sergeant -  Exit from Exile

This version of Lightning is great for exiling extra cards and casting them once you need them with Faldhorn.

Lindblum, Industrial Regency - Arcane Wizardry 

Another way to create wizard tokens which can go in whatever deck Kuja can slot into or whatever grixis deck runs a ton of wizards.

Lousoix’s Sacrifice - Any Blue Deck

This is just a great flexible counterspell that can work well in any blue deck. Due to the nature of commander, there’s almost always a legendary creature that you can make the most out of this with.

Machinist’s Arsenal - Lorehold Legacies

If you target this equipment with Osgir’s second ability, you’ll get two copies of the equipment, each coming in attached to a Hero token. Even if you control no other artifacts, they’ll see each other and be two 5/5s. The rest of this deck is packed with artifacts that will make these two Hero tokens massive creatures.

Magitek Scythe - Upgrades Unleashed

With Chisiro as the commander, you can have the scythe come in and instantly attach to the token that Chisiro creates. It can also be used on another creature that Chisiro has already been growing to serve as a removal spell when it attacks.

Matoya, Archon Elder - Elven Council OR Revenant Recon

Both of these precons make Matoya a crazy value engine with how much they revolve around scrying and surveilling respectively. It may be marginally better in Elven Council since the card you scry away stays in the deck whether up next or at the bottom.

Memories Returning - Mystic Intellect

Sevinne cares about casting instants and sorceries from the graveyard and Memories Returning has a flashback cost, a steep one, but a flashback cost nonetheless. I think that Sevinne letting you copy the spell makes the 9 mana cost worth it for a total of 6 cards in hand in the late game.

Midgar, City of Mako - Plunder the Graves

Meren of Clan Nel Toth wants to see creatures die just to reanimate some bigger ones. This replaces a land slot with some useful utility in an easy way to get an experience counter and a few extra cards in hand.

Minwu, White Mage - Party Time

While this deck doesn’t have a lot of lifegain, it has a ton of clerics that can benefit from Minwu’s ability with either Nalia or Burakos as the commander. 

Moogles’ Valor - Hail, Caesar

This deck does a great job of making a ton of different kinds of creature tokens and could always benefit from making more. Doubling the amount of creatures makes Caesar’s third ability a lot more vicious too.

Nibelheim Aflame - Heavenly Inferno

You can cast this spell with the initial target being one of the big beaters that you cheat in with Kalia. With the board clear, you can continue to get in with the last creature left after this board wipe.

Ninja’s Blades - Revenant Recon

This deck has some massive threats that want to be in the graveyard to be brought back with Mirko. This equipment is a great way to filter your draws and load up the graveyard while doing damage along the way.

Noctis, Prince of Lucis - Urza’s Iron Alliance

There’s tons of small artifacts that you can recur with Noctis. It’s a shame they come in with finality counters but if you throw in something like a nesting grounds, this card can generate some insane value.

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo - Arm for Battle

Another red card that works way too well in the equipment themed decks. 

Rosa, Resolute White Mage - Breed Lethality

Atraxa combos with a ham sandwich but Rosa provides +1/+1 counters that Atraxa can proliferate with ease. Also having lifelink on your biggest creatures helps you battle through all the hate you’ll get for running Atraxa to begin with.

Sazh Katzroy - Peace Offering

I’m not sure if the first ability has many bird targets. But the second ability works great with all the +1/+1 counters you’re getting for casting spells.

Seifer Almasy - Open Hostility

This deck cares about big creatures getting in for big damage as well as direct damage spells to take out multiple players at once. Seifer lets your largest creatures get in with double strike and if he is able to connect, you can cast some impactful spells from your graveyard. There’s a total of 10 instants/sorceries that can be cast with his second ability so there is definitely some value to be had.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER - Mardu Surge

Here to sacrifice your favorite character...

A bunch of these cards make disposable creature tokens which are perfect sacrifice fodder for Sephiroth.

Sephiroth, Planet’s Heir - Master of Evil

This may seem like a weird decision but I think this card works great when using one of the backup commanders, Missy. Sephiroth essentially is a wrath that can load up your battlefield with cybermen. The deck has a ton of ways to make sure that you’re always destroying your opponent’s creatures which ensures that this Sephiroth is growing at an alarming rate.

Serah Farron - Blast from the Past

This Doctor Who precon has 27 creatures and only one of them isn’t a legendary creature. Serah is a great cost reducer in this deck since a lot of the legends cost 3-4 mana (2 colorless and 1 or 2 colored pips) Serah is almost guaranteed to flip as long as you’re casting creatures.

Seymour Flux - Silverquill Statement

While this card doesn’t have many things to politic over, it definitely benefits from getting counters every turn along with some much needed card draw. Honestly this card can function as some additional card draw in any deck being an optional Phyrexian Arena on a stick.

Sin, Spira’s Punishment - Devour for Power

Whether the Mimeoplasm gets this ability or you just cast it, you can get massive amounts of value by getting a ton of lands and big beaters out of the bin.

Squall, SeeD Mercenary - Symbiotic Swarm

When you’re giving your creatures a ton of keyword counters, also giving them double strike is a quick way to close out a game. Also, the deck features a lot of small value permanents that you can make the most of Squall’s second ability with.

Starting Town - Any Multicolor Deck

This is just a versatile card that can tap for any color and go into any deck. The only precons I wouldn’t put this into are mono-colored precons since there is no need to fix your colors and take unnecessary damage. The more colors your deck is, the more reason you can run this card if you can snag a copy.

Stilzkin, Moogle Merchant - Political Puppets

This is just an additional Zedruu effect for less mana and extra immediate card draw. An absolutely perfect fit into this precon.

Summon: Bahamut - Enduring Enchantments

This is an enchantment creature that you definitely want to recur/exile with Anikthea. Since you’re reanimating pretty large enchantments each turn, you can laser someone out of the game with the fourth ability pretty reliably.

Summon: Brynhildr - Mardu Surge

This deck really benefits from getting in with creatures with haste so being able to give haste to two creatures after you cast Brynhildr is pretty good value along with a free impulse-drawn card.

Summoner’s Grimoire - Jump Scare!

This deck has a few massive threats meant to close out the game. You are expected to manifest them and then flip them face up but if you ever get stuck with them in your hand, you can cheat them in with this equipment. 

Summon: G.F. Cerberus - Prismari Performance

This precon offers tons of ways to copy spells and has more than enough massive instants and sorceries worth copying. Definitely a perfect fit for the deck and another creature is always a welcome addition since you always need some creatures.

Summon: Knights of Round - Deadly Disguise

This precon offers many different ways to cheat in creatures by bringing them in as face down creatures first. I’d actually build this with Duskana as the commander since all the 2/2 Knights could lead to some insane card draw.

Summon: Leviathan - Explorers of the Deep

While it isn’t a merfolk, it is a great utility creature as it acts similarly to a 6 mana cyclonic rift. It then refills your hand when you attack with the merfolk army which is what you want to be doing in this deck anyways.

Summon: Primal Odin - Obscura Operation

I’m biased as I have this precon and love this card in it. At six mana you have time to get your commander ready. With the second lore counter you can ensure that one player loses the game once you make Odin unblockable. The deck also has some ways to get creatures out of the graveyard so you can do it again!

Summon: Titan - Sultai Arisen

With this precon you want to aggressively mill and return things from the grave to the battlefield. That’s exactly what Titan does. Even if it is removed with one lore counter, five mana to mill five isn’t terrible. It is especially worth it when you get to lore counter three almost ensuring that you take someone out of the game with that pump effect.

Tellah, Great Sage - Prismari Performance

Another card that cares about big splashy spells. Casting a huge Muse Vortex can easily knock out a player especially with some spell doublers/copiers in the deck.

Terra, Magical Adept // Esper Terra - 20 Ways to Win

Some of my favorite art from the set

Terra doesn’t include a built-in wincon but this deck is the WUBRG deck that has the most enchantments. A lot of those enchantments are “win the game” enchantments so it’s definitely nice to have a second copy with Esper Terra.

The Darkness Crystal - Sworn to Darkness

The Darkness Crystal wants to see your opponents’ creatures get destroyed and this deck packs a ton of removal to make it happen. That plus making the removal cheaper makes this card a welcome addition to this precon.

The Earth Crystal - Call for Backup

This precon is all about giving +1/+1 counters to creatures so getting to hand out twice as many is always a welcome addition. This gets absolutely brutal with the backup commander, Shalai and Hallar. 

The Fire Crystal - Veloci-RAMP-tor

The only thing scarier than a 9/9 dinosaur is a 9/9 dinosaur that came down a turn earlier with haste. I feel that haste is often overlooked as a keyword and it deserves a lot more respect. Late in the game when you drop your big creatures, you can surprise opponents by getting in with haste instead of waiting a turn cycle and potentially have your creature removed.

The Lunar Whale - Mishra’s Burnished Banner

You don’t necessarily need to crew the whale in this precon as Mishra can make a creature copy of it. In a deck that cares a ton about value, this card slots in nicely.

The Masamune - Blood Rites

If you run this precon with Elenda, The Dusk Rose as your commander, The Masamune is a great card to quickly buff up Elenda and make the most out of the death trigger.

The Regalia - Mishra’s Burnished Banner

Another fantastic attack trigger on a vehicle that Mishra can make copies of. The Mishra’s warform copy can safely attack while keeping the actual card behind for safety. Super cool way to get ramp effects in a Grixis deck. 

The Wandering Minstrel - Painbow

This card honestly needs its own commander deck. If you slot it into Painbow along with a bunch of towns for the manabase, it can turn any of the Kavu that Jared makes into massive threats. It’s definitely a strange one but it does fit since upgrading some of those enters tapped lands to towns instead isn’t that bad of a move anyways.

The Water Crystal - Mutant Menace

Making each rad counter mill for five is a very efficient way to make enemies and close out the game.

The Wind Crystal - Breed Lethality

With the amount of counters your creatures will be getting, The Wind Crystal’s activated ability is a quick and surefire way to get back into any game. 

Tifa Lockhart - Desert Bloom

This is a newer landfall deck that can ensure you double Tifa’s power almost every turn. There are a bunch of fetches (not the good ones but fetches nonetheless) and “play lands from the graveyard” effects to consistently get Tifa’s power to at least 8 or 16. There’s also cards like World Shaper that will get a massive amount of lands back into play at once making Tifa a one-shot creature.

Traveling Chocobo - Land’s Wrath

This precon doesn’t feature many birds but almost everything has a landfall ability. Doubling any one of the landfall abilities in this deck is incredible, especially if you’re getting it multiple times a turn.

Triple Triad - Exit from Exile

The card game in the card game from the video game.

Faldhorn doesn’t care whose cards you’re casting/playing as long as they are coming in from exile. This six mana enchantment guarantees at least one 2/2 wolf token since you get your card for free. This deck has some pretty big spells that if hit with Triple Triad could mean three or four wolves instead.

Ultima - Bedecked Brokers

Ultima is just a great boardwipe that can go in any deck that can run it. It’s a good rate for a board wipe at five mana and it has the bonus of hitting everyone’s mana rocks. I like it in Bedecked Brokers since you can dodge some of the wrath effect by giving your creatures shield counters.

Ultima, Origin of Oblivion - Bedecked Brokers

Another one for the Bedecked Brokers but this time it’s for another differently named counter, Blight counters. They are great to ramp yourself and great to shut down some of your opponent’s pesky utility lands.

Ultima Weapon - Aura of Courage

This is just a great equipment for any of the precons that care about equipment. It can go into Aura of Courage, Rebellion Rising, Arm for Battle, and any other precon where the goal is to equip as much stuff as possible to your creatures.

Ultimecia, Temporal Threat - Evasive Maneuvers

I wanted to try and break the first ability as much as possible since the second ability is just a little overcosted (usually found at 4 mana like enduring curiosity, coastal piracy, and Thassa’s Bident.) If you find a way to blink this every turn you’re going to get in tons of damage and draw tons of cards doing it.

Vaan, Street Thief - Ahoy Mateys

This would go great in the Rogue precon but that one is only Blue & Black. This slots in just as well into this Pirate precon. There’s also a second theme in the deck of theft (both permanents and spells) which Vaan perfectly assists with too.

Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn - Legend’s Legacy

Another fantastic card made for a deck that is packed full of legends. No better home for this one.

Vincent Valentine - Witherbloom Witchcraft

Vincent is a great creature to target with Willowdusk’s activated ability. Especially once it flips over and gains lifelink, it can get extra vicious.

Vivi Ornitier - Quick Draw

The scourge of standard.

The perfect precon for the villain of the current standard format. Vivi’s mana ability is amazing for continuing the storm count as you sling as many spells as possible in one turn. There are many izzet decks that care about spell slinging but Stella Lee is the best when it comes to casting multiple spells a turn.

Xande, Dark Mage - Revenant Recon

33 cards in this deck can make Xande larger and Mirko is great at filling the graveyard. In the late game if you have a stacked graveyard, Xande is a wonderful target after a boardwipe since it can come in cheap and strong.

Y’shtola Rhul - Master of Evil

This card can go into any deck that has blue and has a great endstep ability. Forcing your opponents to make multiple villainous choices a turn can accrue tons of value over the course of a game.

Yuna Hope of Spira - Enduring Enchantments

Anikthea already gives enchantment creatures menace. Yuna adding trample, lifelink, and ward 2 makes even the smallest of boards ridiculously difficult to deal with. 

Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis - Land’s Wrath

This is a fantastic utility land in any deck that can ramp a ton and get a bunch of lands onto the battlefield. With a bunch of ways to recycle lands from the graveyard and also some +1/+1 synergies, this slots in best into Land’s Wrath for sure.

Zell Dincht - Nature’s Vengeance

Having extra land drops in this deck is insanely good even if you need to return one to hand afterwards. It gives you more chances to trigger landfall and more chances to discard them for extra value in Lord Windgrace’s +1 ability.

Zenos Yae Galvus - Ruthless Regiment

Zenos slots in as a great utility human creature to wipe out small creatures and set up some destructive late game turns. There’s enough ways to destroy Zenos’ target and wreak havoc with an 8/8 flyer that can win you the game.

Zodiac, Umbral God - Necron Dynasties

Since you also have to sacrifice the creatures, it’s best to put this card in a deck that can recur a lot of those creatures. There’s more than enough ways to get your board back after sacrificing a ton. Also it has to go into a mono-black deck with how restrictive the casting cost is. 

And that (along with the short videos on my social media) is all 106 rares and mythics! There’s a good spread of precons that these cards cover and definitely a few repeats due to the nature of precon themes. If you have any alternative precon ideas let me know! Edge of Eternities will be the next thing I work on and then Spiderman so make sure to follow along if you want to see what precons can get some sweet new tech. And as always…

Remember to Play Nice and No Shoving.