Final Fantasy is the first release in a long while that has a number of Commanders I find interesting, and in a curious twist of fate, they’re all Monored. Red has consistently been my favorite color in Magic, often tied with White, for what it largely can’t do, being aimless value loops. When Red is trying to do something, it will do so quickly, or die trying…and the inverse of that philosophy is what brings me to Firion, Wild Rose Warrior. This is a card that reads as extremely Red, but in truth enables some absolutely backbreaking value plays, and incentivizes one of my favorite ways to build a deck, being a Polymorph theme. There’s a lot of cheap Equipment—and I’m speaking both in terms of mana and monetary cost—that generates some form of token on ETB, and we intend to abuse them to their fullest extent.
The other massive boon that comes with our best cards being pennies on the dime is that this is actually tailored to Bracket 2, and a budget version, at that. I’ll be focusing largely on what the least expensive parts of Firion’s kit can accomplish, leaning into upgrades as we go, because this is a Commander where some of your best tools are entirely budget-accessible. At the time of writing this, the list comes just shy of ~$400, and 100 of those dollars is in two cards, both cuttable with minimal overall impact. This is an Artifact Combo deck at the price of a Combo meal; there’s no expensive manabase or reserved-list must-haves here.
With all that being said, I’m incredibly excited to dive into what makes Firion unique, and why it’s got everything both a combo player and Voltron fanatic could ask for. Strap in, because we’re going to be reading Eon Hub today.
Why Firion, and Why Bracket 2?
Before we get into the actual deck, I feel it’s important to cover the reasons why this particular Commander interests me in the context of Bracket 2. With minimal access to tutors, no game changers, and no two-card combos, it strikes away some of Red’s most powerful tools, especially in the context of Equipment, such as Godo, Bandit Warlord—that’s a good thing. Not only is Red the weakest color in Commander, but its game changers are likely the weakest among the various colors, meaning we have to play catch-up less compared to our peers. Furthermore, by removing Godo from the equation, we can focus on a different streamlined gameplan revolving around 1-4 specific creatures, using a quartet of Artifact synergy pieces with incredible Tap abilities. The fact the power level is so much lower means that not only do we get to experience the fun of old-school Voltron, but use deckbuilding opportunity costs to get the most out of a minimized tutor lineup, as you’ll see.
First, though, it’s time to talk about Voltron. This concept, of suiting up one big creature for massive damage, is a storied tradition in EDH tracing all the way back to the format’s inception. Currently, there are scant few decks that actually manage to make it work, however, as you tend to put too many eggs in one basket, and then fall from atop your plinth with one board wipe. Firion makes that a little more reasonable, though, by providing instantaneous value to your Equipment where you’d otherwise need to wait, or pay more mana. Underrated cards like Junk Jet and Infantry Shield do incredible things here, and your Commander poses a legitimate threat to opposing life totals in the Bracket that tends to be most ‘Battlecruiser’. Still, though, this deck has the ability to shift modes from unassuming Voltron to Artifact combo pile, and that begins not with Firion’s ability to copy, but its modest upper text.
Firion’s less flashy effect is to provide Haste to equipped creatures, which is a great mechanism by which we can turn on these normally-slow Tap effects. That may seem obvious, or redundant, given Red is innately a color with cards like Anger, but we need to be highly selective in the Creatures we’re playing. That quartet begins with the duo of Goblin Engineer and Goblin Welder, who can toss away Artifacts that were going to die next Upkeep to grab other options from the bin. Engineer as well is one of our three allowed tutors, meaning we’re concentrating quite a bit of power in its role. The next key Creature is Audacious Reshapers, the most contentious of these options in my eyes. While it does something very similar to the Goblins, in turning an artifact on its way out into a new piece, the randomness and damage means we’re unable to loop it, even if it represents actual advantage. Finally, we have Kuldotha Forgemaster, which tutors an Artifact from our deck, by similarly pitching away Artifacts. These four creatures are our bread and butter, and seeing any of them means our gameplan is going well. That said, given two of them are tutors, we only have room for one more, so finding them should be difficult, right? To rebut, Firion enables one other package I’ve covered before to truly shine: Polymorph.
Polymorphing Tokens
One of the first things someone may notice with Firion is the exceptional synergy with Equipment that comes in with Enters effects that persist beyond the card itself. For Mirrodin!, Living Weapon, and now even Job Select all supplement the Equipment they’re bound to with a body, and we can use that body for a variety of engines. Of course, these are blockers, and might wear a Skullclamp nicely, but what they’re really here for is the sauce that turns our deck into a butter-smooth machine. I’m talking about polymorph effects, specifically Red’s version, Transmogrify. There are a total of 5 of these effects in the color, each of which turns a creature of ours into the one closest to the top of our Library. This is normally fairly random, but as we’ve shaved down to only the above-described quartet, we always know we’re getting some powerful Artifact synergy piece with a relevant Tap effect. Moreover, if we can do this in the same turn as an Equipment with an Equip cost of {2} or less, it can immediately be tacked onto the polymorphed Creature, which can then do its thing.
This sounds fairly far-fetched, and inconsistent, but I assure you that there are plenty enough means of both making Tokens via Equipment and then turning them into threats from the deck. I’ve had the luxury of playing a deck based around Reality Scramble before, in Volo//Street Urchin, and you’d be surprised how often the gameplan actually works. Our opponents are expecting Voltron, but that’s really just first gear for this Commander; you’re actually aiming to assemble the necessary pieces to kill the table, or do heinous things with value, through a semi-deterministic polymorph line. That might sound like a bit much for Bracket 2, but because it’s somewhat random, and we lack the necessary tutors to approach it in the early game, it plays extremely well with its peers in the format.
In addition, as with any polymorph or scramble deck, we’re on a few pieces to get back into the targets, should they be destroyed. Perpetual Timepiece doesn’t just mill us for the goblins, it also shuffles them back, and Vessel of Endless Rest is a mediocre mana rock that also resets a lost Creature. If you wanted to spend a bit more, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron would be an exceptional inclusion, to spread your Tap effects across multiple bodies, but Paleontologist’s Pickaxe does a decent impression. So, that’s the gameplan: Play Voltron until the pieces emerge to polymorph, and then use your minimal Creature lineup to accrue enough value to win from there. What are the actual pieces to do so, however?
Penny Cards and Untaps
The actual best cards for Firion’s endgame are three unassuming cards, Gilded Pinions, Junk Jet, and Gold Pan. These, coupled with one of the goblins (preferably Welder), an untap effect like Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns, and Krark-Clan Ironworks make infinite mana and get back whatever Artifact we need from the Graveyard infinite times. Junk Jet is a little stickier, as it can’t do the combo with exactly Engineer, as it doesn’t make Treasure, but in turn has lines that exile our whole Library to play that turn, on top of helping the Voltron gameplan. This combo seems convoluted, of course, but because cards like Forgemaster and Transmutation Font are both repeatable, these pieces can be fetched over multiple turns. Better still, the majority of these cards are less than a dime at most LGSs.
In fact, the great majority of Firion’s closet of various equippable doodads are cheap, from Hexgold Halberd to Chainsaw. You could probably build the entire deck where not a single card breaches the $20 mark, aside from exactly KCI, and have it be roughly as competent as the version I’m putting forth. Each component of this great machine, from Equipment that double dip on Enters effects, to polymorph cards, to Voltron goodies all tend to be affordable. This is another check in the direction of Bracket 2, as many players use monetary price as a measuring stick for power level; while I don’t wholly agree with that means of assessing power, the fact you can probably cut the deck to the sub-$300 mark doesn’t hurt either.
Eon Hub, Odds and Ends
You have never read Eon Hub before this article, statistically speaking. Printed a single time in Fifth Dawn, and with a deeply niche effect and unimpressive mana value, there’s not really a reason the average Magic player should have. It’s precisely this card that brought me to actually write this article, though, because good lord does it help this Commander go long. Unlike a lot of these effects, Firion’s sacrifice trigger is in each Upkeep step, rather than in the End Step. Due to this, Eon Hub being on the board means these triggers are delayed until Eon Hub leaves the board before another Upkeep comes around. What does that entail? Keeping a Skullclamp with Equip {0} around certainly seems nice, and it’s absolutely lovely to sit on a spare copy of Sword of Fire and Ice, I’m sure. Eon Hub is a fantastic way to recover from a Creature-based board wipe as well, as you need only recast Firion to suit him up with reduced Equip costs from remaining pieces.
In a similar way, Firion works wonderfully with two cards that aren’t quite polymorphs, but still in that same vein: Indomitable Creativity and Saheeli’s Directive. Because Equipment lack inherent tap effects, they’re excellent fodder for Improvise on Directive, and you can pop copies using Creativity to simply see more cards. Creativity makes great use of both the weird spare Creatures that tend to come with your value Equipment, and those Token copies themselves. Speaking of tapping them, though, what about Ghirapur Aether Grid? You know you’ll have two untapped Artifacts with each Equipment alongside Firion, so we’re able to flex Aether Grid as a means to remove chump blockers. Menace (or a lack of evasion) becomes all the scarier when you don’t have spare 1/1s sitting out to take the Wild Rose Warrior’s swing.
One notable set of cards we aren’t running, though, are Dan Lewis and Bludgeon Brawl. While the idea of copying every single non-Token Artifact that enters is adorable, I think this doesn’t so much play to the strengths of Firion as Dan. If you want to see just how crazy it can get, though, definitely give Jeskai Dan Polymorph a whirl, turning your UW Doctor (Likely 1st or 11th) into Firion from the deck. In a similar vein, yes, Firion and most Equipment go functionally infinite with Crackdown Construct at Sorcery-speed, by shifting an Equipment with an Equip cost of {0} between the two of them. This does get the Construct infinitely large, but because that’s vaguely a 2-card combo, even if it doesn’t win the game, I’ve struck it out of the spirit of this Bracket 2 list.
A Note on Linked Abilities and Copiable Values
Given we’re aiming to copy cards with a deep and thorough profusion within this deck, it’s important to cover what does and doesn’t work with Firion’s effect. This begins with a brief aside on ‘linked abilities’, note 607 in the comprehensive rules. Linked abilities refer to effects that are linked to specific cards, and do not carry over if copied, or other effects might seem to have synergy. This is noteworthy when looking at cards with Imprint, or Craft, such as Paleontologist’s Pickaxe. While this card is a great tool for copying a dead Creature, the token copy of Dinosaur Headdress has no cards exiled to craft it, and thus doesn’t do very much. This is also true of an effect like Imprint, although unlike the previous example, you can certainly exile another card to the token copy, should you desire, and thus Strata Scythe could still have some use here.
This stands in contrast to the wonderful Bloodforged Battle-Axe, which requires we reference 706.2, copiable values. This clarifies that a copy of a copy also inherits the modified costs, rule text, etc of its originator, meaning copies of the axe made by Firion also inherit the reduced Equip cost, being {0}. It’s extremely important to note the reason Firion’s reduction applies, where a copy of a token made by Jaxis, the Troublemaker lacks Haste and the draw on death, is because of the “except”. In order for something to modify the effect that gets copied, that effect needs to be phrased as “copy {X} except {Y}”, with {Y} being part of the copiable values. If you have “except”, rather than making that token “gain” an effect(s), the gravy train keeps rolling if copied. Lengthy explanation aside, this quickly gets out of hand, as you might imagine; every combat step, so long as you connect, you’re doubling your axes, and because Firion only sacrifices “that token”, these stay on board until removed, all equipping freely.
This also means that cards like Sculpting Steel and Masterwork of Ingenuity will enter as non-Token versions of the already-reduced Equip cost Equipment, and cause Firion to produce new Token copies whose Equip abilities cost…how much less? This was described way back when a card called Unstable Shapeshifter was printed, in October of 1997. If you have one Unstable Shapeshifter enter while controlling another, and then a different Creature, how many copy triggers will that first Shapeshifter have? Our answer lies in the fact that you can have (and stack, per 706.9a) exceptions to copying effects. This means a copy of a copy of a copy made by Firion would have a whopping 6 mana cost reduction in its Equip effect, although that’s too inconsistent to build around. Still, I felt it important to have this rules breakdown in my coverage of Firion, as in my third game with the Commander, this very question came up. Personally, I know a Commander is for me when it requires a deep dive into Magic rulings and old Judge posts to parse.
Example Decklist: Firion’s Goblin Polycule
Firion is one of those Commanders that has required pretty much constant tweaking since I initially found interest. The intricacies of copy rules, honing in on the exact Creatures for our Polymorph suite, and going over ratios for our Equipment that is less than stellar on its own without Firion has been an arduous task, but a fun one. This is a template more than it is a deck, and I’ve tried to keep it fairly budget-conscious, barring cards I already own, because I put my money where my mouth is and sprung to purchase this list.
Decklists are kept updated, and may change with set releases.
I think a lot of the magic of Firion is lost as you ascend the brackets, in much the same way light flees the eyes of a Voltron player coming up against their third board wipe. By lacking Godo and additional tutors on purpose, you’re forced to creatively conquer the deck’s inherent inconsistency, and play more of what makes the Commander fun. As with every single deck I play, my aim is to find something this card does that cannot be replicated better, or in more colors, and Firion certainly fits the bill with an incredibly unique means of making Equipment feel better to play. That being said, you’re fairly Commander-reliant, as one might expect of a Voltron strategy, so even though Firion often will have Haste when he hits the board a second time, as soon as you’re casting him for 7+ mana, you’re having a rough time of it—Command Beacon or even Campfire could be considerations to get Firion back in the game, with special mention of Campfire also shuffling lost Creatures back into the Library for further polymorphs.
In this list specifically, cards like Battlemage’s Bracers just barely missed the cut, doubling up on our Tap effects while only paying their cost once, and the brand-new Buster Sword was only excluded based on its price (though I expect most of Final Fantasy to crater within the next month). There’s a deep anti-synergy between Legendary Equipment and Firion, however, which is why I’m less bullish on cards like Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus than most. For reasons I don’t know as someone who thought of Buster Sword as “The Buster Sword”, that card being non-Legendary is a massive boon for the strategy, and I would highly recommend it.
Copy That
I tend to find the modern Commander design of ‘If X, do X twice’ a bit overplayed; my first ever set was Aether Revolt, so I got into the game at the advent of Panharmonicon fever. Yet, Firion does just enough different to a normal doubler, and in my favorite color, to make him one of the absolute stand-outs from Final Fantasy. Between finally prompting a use for Eon Hub beyond ignoring Cumulative Upkeep triggers, and making great use of tools I’ve already explained my love of (Umbral Mantle-likes), this is my chance to dive headfirst into non-precon Bracket 2. I’ve heard the water’s fine, but it’s hard to say whether Voltron can still swim in 2025. Even if it can’t, I’ll have the Artifact combos to float regardless. Long-winded metaphor aside, I truly do urge you to give Firion a shot, at basically any price point!
Until next time, suit up.
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