Over the course of one hot Florida summer in the late 2000s, I found myself sitting in my garage playing video games late into the night with my siblings. There was no air conditioning, just big fans cooling us down as we did so. In that time I got my first taste of playing through the incredible gaming experience of Final Fantasy VI.

Playing through this legendary RPG experience - alongside equally legendary Chrono Trigger - is a moment burned into my brain. It's often hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time, and for good reason. It pushed what an RPG could be, with a massive cast of characters, stellar storytelling, a villain who actually wins mid-way through the game, and even an early attempt at an open world experience in the game's back half.

Many of those characters and moments stuck with me, but none quite like Terra Branford, the arguable main character of the story. Players meet Terra at the start of the game, enslaved by the Gestahlian Empire using a mind control crown. After an advance on the mining town of Narshe to seek out a Magical Esper, the other Empire members she's with are wiped out and she's saved by the Returners, a rebel group fighting against the Empire. When she comes to, however, she ends up amnesiac.

The rest of the game centers around her struggle for identity and trying to better understand who she is as a person. Eventually, she discovers that she herself is part Esper, explaining her tremendous Magical capabilities. When the world is decimated late in the game, she finds purpose in saving and protecting a town of kids who were orphaned during the devastation. This leads to her taking a stand and saving the world.

Being someone coming out of high school as well as being queer, this resonated tremendously for me. It felt like the character of Terra represented a lot of what I was personally dealing with, and I even turned it into part of my identity for some time. I'd use images of her for profile pictures or would include "Terra" as part of my online usernames. I love Terra Branford just as I love the whole of Final Fantasy VI and the transformative experience it brought me.

So imagine my excitement when we got our first looks at the upcoming Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy set. While we would get our true First Look on last Tuesday (you can read a recap of it here), we got an early start courtesy of IGN. They were given the privilege of showing off the four Commander decks that would accompany the Standard legal main set.

All four represent what are arguably the most beloved titles in the Final Fantasy series, and helming the deck for Final Fantasy VI - Revival Trance - was Terra.

While I often say that Final Fantasy VII was a real life-changing experience for me, seeing Terra get her very own Magic card had me infinitely more excited than seeing Cloud. Naturally, I was unbelievably excited to get my hands on a copy and play with her, but why wait when I can just build a deck now?

Check it out!

Terra Branford, Bracket 2 | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Terra, Herald of Hope

• Creatures (37)
• 1 Accursed Marauder
• 1 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah
• 1 Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
• 1 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
• 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• 1 Anathemancer
• 1 Anger
• 1 Ankle Shanker
• 1 Biting-Palm Ninja
• 1 Blood Artist
• 1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 1 Charming Prince
• 1 Corpse Connoisseur
• 1 Cruel Celebrant
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 Frontline Medic
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 1 Imperial Recruiter
• 1 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Monastery Mentor
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Myrel, Shield of Argive
• 1 Reidane, God of the Worthy
• 1 Seasoned Dungeoneer
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Silverblade Paladin
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1 The Wandering Rescuer
• 1 Thief of Blood
• 1 Werefox Bodyguard

• Spells (15)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Damn
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Gamble
• 1 Painful Truths
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Wrath of God
• 1 Archangel Elspeth

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Dictate of Erebos
• 1 Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1 Reconnaissance
• 1 Virtue of Loyalty

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Plains
• 1 Arena of Glory
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 High Market
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Savai Triome
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Sundown Pass
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 War Room
• 1 Windbrisk Heights

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If you thought this deck looks a little familiar, that may be because it looks like how a typical Alesha, Who Smiles at Death deck does. In fact, it was something many players commented on right away, as both get the opportunity to bring back a small creature with an attack once a turn for two mana. The big difference is that Terra allows you to get back a creature with a power of three or less, while with Alesha it's two power. As a result, a very large chunk of the deck is going to look quite similar given the comparable effects of both legends in the command zone.

Thankfully, the three-power slot adds a fair bit of options to the mix that you can't get in a typical Alesha deck. I included ten of these - not including the original Alesha herself - in the list and had plenty more to choose from. Cards like Corpse Connoisseur and Frontline Medic are excellent at helping the deck with some of its core strategies. Others like Seasoned Dungeoneer and Hero of Bladehold make for great thematic options that also provide powerful effects.

A big angle I tried to take here to separate it a little bit from your typical Alesha list was to lean a little more heavily on thematic aspects. Could I find cards that represented Terra's protective nature? Can I represent a bunch of the other characters of the game in some form or fashion? Are cards like Mindslaver and Enslave flavorful inclusions if Terra herself is the one casting them. Part of me really wanted to include Deicide in this list given how Kefka epitomizes the RPG trope of "attack and dethrone god" meme. However, exiling enchantments feels too niche of an inclusion over something like Return to Dust.

So instead I tried to lean a bit more heavily into the characters she partners with throughout the story. Several classic Alesha classics work great here already. For example, Anathemancer is an outstanding card to repeatedly buy back as it allows you to rip apart opponents' life totals if they're going in too heavily on non-basic lands. It also just so happens to have a bit of a Tonberry-esque look to it, which works as a typical Final Fantasy enemy. Duplicant is also an awesome representation for the hidden mimicking character Gogo, providing a great shapeshifter option that also acts as premium removal in games of Commander.

Some came remarkably easy, though, when I started looking at other options. If Charming Prince isn't a perfect analogue for the daring playboy king Edgar, I don't know what is, and it just so happens to work great for this deck as well. Biting-Palm Ninja provides a powerful ninja option to represent Shadow, Monastery Mentor represents Sabin as the resident monk, and Blood Artist is a bit more of a more morbid take on the child painter Realm. Heck, Thalia, Heretic Cathar is an awesome way to show Celes, the former Gestahlian Empire general cast out and turned traitor against them.

All of these creatures and more are excellent at utilizing powerful ETB triggers, static abilities, or relevant abilities that trigger throughout the game. There's no shortage of other mighty creatures either. Anger is great at giving your team haste and Braids, Arisen Nightmare provides a devastating method of restocking your graveyard for the next turn's combat. Want to get that Gray Merchant of Asphodel back for another massive life drain? Just pitch it away, eat up your opponents' boards a little, and have it come back for more! You can also use Inti, Seneschal of the Sun to get creatures out of your hand and into the bin.

Most of the non-creature spells are a bit more utilitarian. All of the instants and sorceries are basically removal, protection spells, or a touch of card draw/filtration. Gamble does provide a fun way to represent the character Setzer's love of gambling, and it even gives you a great way to fill your graveyard in the process. That's really it for interesting effects, though, so the more permanent options are far better.

That brings us to the artifacts and enchantments. These offer some really sweet effects that you can keep using over and over again. The only one among the artifacts is Skullclamp, which even just as the lone utility artifact, it does serious work in a deck like this. Since you're trying to put your creatures back into your graveyard turn after turn to accumulate additional value, Skullclamp provides you with a way to draw more cards to push your strategy even further.

The enchantments are where the real action is, however. Reconnaissance is a classic Alesha piece, allowing you to attack and then untap to make sure your creature sticks around. So too is Dictate of Erebos, which allows you to have your creatures die and take out your opponents' as well. If played well, this can even act as a small prison plan, making it difficult for your opponents to gain footing. Alternatively, you can just go for safe attacks and then have Virtue of Loyalty untap your creatures and make them bigger at the end of the turn.

This is just the start of putting together awesome new decks using classic Final Fantasy characters. Having grown up on these games and even having made my own Magic card designs based off of many of them, I can't wait to do so much more with these characters in the future. However, it's awesome that I got to start with one of my all time favorites, especially as someone who's played quite a bit of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death decks in the past.

Play Final Fantasy VI, save the world, and then take this deck to your future Commander nights and have an awesome time.

Paige Smith

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