As Magic: The Gathering's previews for the Final Fantasy set are winding down, I wasn't expecting to see too many more cards that really blew me away. I figured there might be a few cool designs saved for the end to keep the excitement up for next week's Prerelease events. What I wasn't expecting was a new commander card that I would be very excited about, even if I haven't played the Final Fantasy game that it comes from.

For the most part, the cards that excited me the most about Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy set was how well the Universes Beyond set that's also Standard legal. I hadn't given too much consideration to the cards from the set strictly from the perspective of a Magic player, until I saw this recent preview. As soon as I saw it, I couldn't help but see the possibilities for a deck built around this commander.

Wandering Minstrel Makes Tap Lands More Powerful

Wandering Minstrel Makes All Your Lands Enter Untapped

One of Magic: The Gathering's most recent previews is a card featuring Final Fantasy XIV's Wandering Minstrel. This legendary creature card is five-colors and has a variety of effects, but the most notable is its static ability that causes all lands to enter untapped. It may initially seem like a relatively weak effect, given that lands enter untapped by default, unless otherwise specified on the land itself. However, the proliferation of tap lands means that this card is not just powerful, but could also save you some money.

There are plenty of lands in Magic: The Gathering that would be much more powerful if they entered untapped. For instance, Molten Tributary is essentially the same as the true dual-land Volcanic Island, so long as Wandering Minstrel is on the field. The difference? Molten Tributary costs less than a dollar, whereas Volcanic Island has a TCGPlayer Market Value of $545. Other tap lands like Ikoria's Triomes, which tap for three colors and can be searched for by other cards, have no equivalent that enters untapped because they would be far too powerful to print.

Wandering Minstrel can also save you money on fetch lands. These are lands in Magic: The Gathering that allow you to search your library for a card with certain basic land types and put it onto your battlefield untapped. There are cheaper and slower alternatives, such as Mountain Valley, a $0.30 card that functions the same way, but enters tapped. With Wandering Minstrel, these cheap alternatives work just as well as the real thing.

Wandering Minstrel Could Be The Perfect Five-Color Commander

Wandering Minstrel Makes Five-Color Decks Possible To Build On A Budget

Aside from allowing you to construct a much cheaper mana base than five-color decks typically have, there are other reasons why Wandering Minstrel makes a great five-color commander. Typically, I wouldn't build a deck that leans heavily on consistently having my commander on the field. However, because Wandering Minstrel is so easy to cast, it's a good exception to this rule. Because it gains its five-color identity from its text box, not its casting cost, Wandering Minstrel can also be easier to cast than other five-color commanders.

There are a few ways you could build a Magic: The Gathering deck around Wandering Minstrel. If you want to stick with a Final Fantasy theme, many of the set's towns are dual-colored tap lands, and Wandering Minstrel is built specifically to interact with them. Personally, I'm excited to try this out as a new commander for my five-color Maze's End deck, since it will help speed up the Gates that make up the mana base. You could also easily just use this for a budget five-color "good stuff" deck to save some money on lands.

Source: TCGPlayer