Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy's Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER Commander Deck Guide

The main villain of Final Fantasy VII makes an appearance in Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond crossover set with Final Fantasy. Sephiroth has multiple cards across all the products, with Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier being Sephiroth's main set card.

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Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier is a fantastic mono black commander that utilizes an aristocrat strategy. An aristocrat deck is one that sacrifices its own creatures for value, which is something that you will always want to be doing with a Sephiroth Commander deck. Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier wants you to sacrifice your creatures to advance your game plans, allowing you to take on the role of the villain.

Decklist

Commander: Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel

Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Accursed Marauder

Al Bhed Salvagers

Ayara, First of Locthwain

Blood Artist

Bloodghast

Butcher of Malakir

Carrion Feeder

Doomed Dissenter

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

Felshbag Marauder

Gravecrawler

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Greedy Freebooter

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

Marionette Apprentice

Nether Traitor

Ophiomancer

Pawn of Ulamog

Pitiless Plunderer

Plaguecrafter

Priest of Forgotten Goods

Reassembling Skeleton

Sheoldred, Whispering One

Sifter of Skulls

Syr Konrad, the Grim

Venerated Stormsinger

Viscera Seer

Vraan, Executioner Thane

Warren Soultrader

Warren Soultrader

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Zodiark, Umbral God

Zulaport Cutthroat

Damnation

Feed the Swarm

Mutilate

Toxic Deluge

Consuming Corruption

Deadly Dispute

Defile

Infernal Grasp

Nasty End

Tragic Slip

Village Rites

Withering Torment

Arcane Signet

Ashnod's Altar

Bontu's Monument

Commander's Sphere

Fellwar Stone

Jet Medallion

Mind Stone

Phyrexian Altar

Skullclamp

Sol Ring

The Darkness Crystal

Thought Vessel

Bastion of Remembrance

Bitterblossom

Black Market Connections

Dictate of Erebos

Dreadhorde Invasion

Grave Pact

Barad-dur

Castle Locthwain

Fountainport

Mirrex

x27 Swamp

War Room

Witch's Cottage

The decklist contains one planeswalker, 34 creatures, four sorceries, eight instants, 12 artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. Many of the permanents either create creatures to sacrifice or benefit from creatures being sacrificed.

Key Cards

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel

The commander of the deck, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is your primary way to deal burn damage and lifegain, pinging an opponent for life whenever a creature dies. You want this to trigger four times quickly so you can flip to the backside of Sephiroth as soon as you can.

The backside of Sephiroth provides an emblem that permanently gives you Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIERS effect. Emblems cannot be interacted with, so even if Sephiroth gets removed, you'll still be able to burn your opponents for creature deaths.

You get an emblem every time Sephiroth transforms into One-Winged Angel. This allows you to stack multiple emblems to have more instances of the effect.

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

The deck has a ton of death triggers, allowing Drivnod, Carnage Dominus to double up on all of them. It is important to note that only death triggers will be doubled, not effects that sacrifice for cost. Regardless, Drivnod, Carnage Dominus makes it much easier to deal more burn damage to your opponents to close games out quicker.

Drivnod can easily be given indestructible so long as you have three creatures to exile from your graveyard. Since you're playing an aristocrat deck, your graveyard always has creatures in it. Drivnod's effect can be activated for just four life, and can be done at instant speed, making it easy to keep resources for other effects and still give it protection.

Gravecrawler

Gravecrawler is a staple of aristocrat decks since it can easily be re-cast after being sacrificed multiple times in one turn. It's the most recurable creature in the deck, so long as you have another Zombie on the battlefield (which is something the deck can easily provide).

The main attraction of Gravecrawler is its potential to combo infinitely with sacrifice outlets. The combo is very easy to compile all the parts together, allowing for potential infinite burn damage to close out any game. Here is how the combo works.

Prerequisites: Gravecrawler, another Zombie creature, and Phyrexian Altar on the battlefield.

Step 1: Sacrifice Gravecrawler to Phyrexian Altar, adding one black mana.

Step 2: Cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard since you control a Zombie.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1-2.

Results: Infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite death triggers

Black Market Connections

Black Market Connections provides card draw, ramp through Treasure tokens, or creates creature tokens for you to sacrifice. The creature tokens have changeling, so other permanents that need specific creatures, like Gravecrawler, can utilize these.

The strength of Black Market Connections comes from its utility. It makes up for everything that mono black is weak for, though at the cost of life. It is mandatory to choose at least one effect, so no matter what, you'll have to lose at least one life every turn. This can hurt in the long run if you use all three effects constantly in the game, so be careful about your life total.

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How To Play The Deck

A Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER Commander deck is constantly sacrificing its own creatures, burning your opponents with Sephiroth's effects and other permanents that have similar effects​​​​​​. You actively want your creatures to die so you can keep these triggers going, so blocking with weak creatures turns into major burn damage.

There are multiple permanents with effects that deal damage when a creature dies. Each one of these permanents triggers individually, so if a creature dies with both Sephiroth and Blood Artist on the battlefield, each will provide one burn damage for a total of two.

The mana curve of the deck is rather low, meaning you can cast a lot of spells without much mana investment. Since you're in mono black, permanents like Bontu's Monument and The Darkness Crystal make it even easier to cast spells, allowing you to hold mana up for interaction.

Not every creature can be re-cast from the graveyard, so permanents that generate tokens are vital for this strategy​​​​. These often provide tokens at your upkeep or when a creature dies, which gives you creatures to sacrifice to your sacrifice outlets. The best choices for token generators are Black Market Connections, Bitterblossom, and Ophiomancer, and should be put onto the battlefield as quickly as possible.

The primary win condition of the deck is winning through burn damage. While you can amass a large battlefield, they do not have much in the stats department, making them weak in combat. However, with how much burn damage your permanents can do, this is hardly a downside since you can deal damage directly to your opponents instead.

You can also control the battlefield through forced sacrifice with Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact, which will force your opponents to sacrifice a creature whenever one of your creatures dies. This helps you to chip in for minor combat damage with your creatures that can attack.

The biggest downside of the deck is its requirement of multiple permanents to work. The deck needs both a sacrifice outlet, as well as sacrifice fodder in order to make the most out of all of its effects. This makes removal potentially backbreaking if used on a key card.

There aren't many ways to bring permanents back from the graveyard once they're removed, so once something is gone, it's likely gone for good. Luckily, there are a lot of different permanents that have the same function, so even if one gets removed, you can draw into a different one.

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