Spoiler Highlight: Cloud, Midgar Mercenary in Standard and Pioneer

When we think of Final Fantasy, it is common for one of the recurring figures that permeate the popular imagination of the gaming audience to involve Final Fantasy VII.

Whether due to the cultural and historical impact that the original game had in 1997 when it opened the gates for the popularization of the JRPG genre in the West, or due to the ambitious episodic Remake project started in 2020, FFVII is the most popular game in the franchise and competes only with the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV in this spot.

The expectations of the partnership with Magic: The Gathering were met, and the extensive storyline of the franchise's characters has emerged in cards that will be legal in all competitive formats — the first time that the Universes Beyond series will be in Standard and Pioneer — and can impact the Metagame with cards like the new Cloud, Midgar Mercenary.

Cloud's version that will be available in Boosters — the character is the leading commander of one of the precons and also has a Starter Kit version — is another take on creatures that interact with equipment, with the ability of one of the greatest staples from the past decade: Stoneforge Mystic.

To be more precise, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is the fair half of Stoneforge Mystic, but with a heavier color requirement in exchange for a more offensive body. The second line of text, however, is where the FFVII hero stands out on certain occasions, while being notoriously worse than his predecessor at cheating mana costs.

While fetching artifacts and shuffling provided plenty of value with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Squadron Hawk, who could carry a Sword of Feast and Famine for pseudo-extra turns, Batterskull was the nail in the coffin for Stoneforge Mystic when she was the first Standard ban since Affinity, in 2011 — with her second ability, you could play equipment for just , a common line to this day in Modern and Legacy with Kaldra Compleat.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary doesn't have the same ability for obvious reasons, and makes up for this drawback with the ability to double triggers from equipment attached to him, expanding the potential of, for example, the entire Mirrodin swords cycle, Umezawa's Jitte and any other card whose triggered abilities can generate value.

Overall, the greatest challenge for Cloud in competitive formats is answering a question that another card from the expansion, Dark Confidant, will also need to answer: does a design over a decade old still have a place after waves of power creep in the last five years?

Disregarding Final Fantasy cards (at the time of writing this article, we still don't know the text of the Buster Sword, for example), Cloud's main function is to facilitate finding artifacts such as Cori-Steel Cutter, although this is not as efficient in an archetype dedicated to equipment, or specific pieces such as Cryptic Coat, Chainsaw and, with enough courage, The Aetherspark.

For the second ability, we need equipment that has efficient triggered abilities that are not just ETB. While Chainsaw and The Aetherspark fit into this category, the Swords we have in the format today help both protect Cloud — after all, a two-mana 2/1 dies literally anything — while, if he connects, the amount of value can outweigh the costs of casting and equipping.

Of these, Lost Jitte probably has the best synergy: it's very cheap to cast and equip, it can be followed up on turn three with a one-mana removal to get a blocker out of the way, and Cloud is magically generating two extra mana for its controller, serving as half of the pseudo-Time Walk that made the combination of Sword of Feast and Famine and Squadron Hawk so effective in the past.

Despite these synergies, Cloud technically favors an archetype that doesn't exist today. Even for strategies that care about targeting their creatures, spells like Sheltered by Ghosts and Monstrous Rage are simply better at creating synergies than most of the equipment available in the format today, putting him in a weird spot in the pre-FF metagame.

Fortunately, equipment is one of the major themes of the Final Fantasy set. Cards like Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms and Firion, Wild Rose Warrior already demonstrate a commitment from the design team to making an archetype with these synergies work, and if this succeeds, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary will probably be a centerpiece of the deck, enabling a toolbox that should initially have Lost Jitte as its main target, but also include other efficient cards like Basilisk Collar against Aggro or Sword of Once and Future against removals.

In addition to the interactions we've already discussed with Lost Jitte — which has more challenges in a faster format and with access to Fatal Push like Pioneer —, Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is also the new best friend of Colossus Hammer and Sigarda's Aid.

Cloud trades the Double Strike from Kellan, the Fae-Blooded for the possibility of having a creature in play that searches for Colossus Hammer and can start the combo turn the following turn if we have Sigarda’s Aid in hand, or in play, in addition to opening more space for toolbox cards besides Shadowspear and Lavaspur Boots, such as the already mentioned Lost Jitte or even more interactive spells like Chainsaw.

Creature type also matters: most Final Fantasy protagonists are Human, and with Dark Confidant's reprint, it’s possible to factor in some interactions with cheap drops and equipments in a Human list that will certainly benefit from many of the creatures coming in the set — a notable example includes Lightning, Army of One, which will double the combat damage of other Humans if she connects and has the right combination of abilities to work in go-wide Aggro archetypes.

Instead of going for something like Colossus Hammer, we can settle for Lost Jitte and Shadowspear for more explosive turns, as well as adding other specific cards in flexible slots in the maindeck and sideboard, such as Lion Sash, Blade of the Oni, The Reality Chip or even Embercleave if we're not running Confidant.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary has the fair share of Stoneforge Mystic and its second ability requires specific conditions to work. His type and the interactions he has with Lost Jitte are probably the card's biggest draw for Standard and Pioneer, but the speed of both formats doesn't seem to support a scenario where the Final Fantasy VII hero becomes an instant staple at this point.

I can imagine it as a potential one-of in Legacy as a target for Recruiter of the Guard in Yorion, Sky Nomad lists in games where we need to get the most out of a card like Umezawa's Jitte, and he could also work in Modern in Hammer Time lists that require a new tutor, although the archetype doesn't lack them between Stoneforge Mystic and Urza's Saga, but in both cases, we're talking about extremely hypothetical situations that are unlikely to put it in the competitive spotlight.

Thanks for reading!