#bahamut zero

Bugenhagen is the best name this series has ever known.

2 mana for 1/3 is right on rate. Reach is very nice as a cheap blocker for flying creatures. His abilities are:

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a creature with power 7 or greater, draw a card. Solid little card draw engine for 2 mana if you have a creature with 7 power or more.

Tap Bugenhagen to add 1 mana of any color. This is also a mana dork? Very very nice, very solid support to have.

So this guy is pretty good for big creature decks, which is what Green is known for. I wouldn't recommend him as your commander, despite his fantastic name, but he's very solid as a support piece in Green big creature decks. Card draw and ramp is very very nice.

Now for the art. Credit to Racrufi/Raúl Cruz. Link to their ArtStation. That sure is Bugenhagen with his planetarium. Neat!

Now we get to what is the actual villain of FF7, Professor Hojo...

Man, screw Professor Hojo. Absolute freaking creep. This is also one I'd disagree with the colors. Hojo to me strikes me as mono Blue or Blue/Black. Definitely not Green. Either way, let's a go!

2 mana for a 2/2 is perfectly on rate, so good job there. His abilities are:

The first activated ability you activate during your turn that targets a creature you control costs 2 mana less to activate. This is pretty decent. Keep in mind that for this precon specifically, Equip costs do count as an activated ability that target a creature you control, so he does help in that way.

Whenever one or more creatures you control become the target of an activated ability, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn. That is not too bad, though it is only 1 card every turn. Keep in mind that your activated ability reduction is only on your turn, so you aren't reducing that on other people's turns, where this ability is primed to work on those.

This is definitely a card you will put in the 99 of decks with some activated abilities on permanents. As a commander, he's just kind of cruddy with being just alright card draw and reducing activated abilities by 2 once on your turn. I'd avoid running him as your commander, but there are worse options out there.

Now for the art. Credit goes to Dancaio. Link to their Twitter. Hojo looking appropriately unhinged. He also looks grimy as hell, which is perfectly in character for him and exactly how I'd want him to look. This is fantastic, I really like this.

Now for the last foretell card, Lifestream's Blessing!

For 6 mana you get an instant that allows you to draw X cards, where X is the greatest power among creatures you controlled as you cast this spell. If this spell was cast from exile, you gain twice X life. You can also foretell this, at which point it is 1 Green mana cheaper.

This is not bad, just pricey. It depends on how much card draw you get from this, since if your biggest creature is like 3 power, this is really bad. If it is like 20 power, this is obviously worth it, especially since the only way to deny this card draw is to counter the spell. This specifies that this checks for the power as the spell is cast, so the second you put this spell on the stack, that power is locked in and can't be shifted. The lifegain from the exile effect is mostly irrelevant, unless you able to keep casting this from exile often.

Now for the art. Credit to Kotakan. Link to their Twitter. Planet's Core is sure looking like Planet's Core. It looks nice and the effects are done well, just not much else to say!

Last of the Green cards, Summoning Materia!

3 mana for an Equipment that says:

You may look at the top card of your library at any time. Keep in mind, this isn't linked to being attached to something, so you can just always do this when this Equipment is on the battlefield.

As long as this Equipment is attached to a creature, you may cast creature spells from the top of your library. That's a bit restrictive. It makes sense, but needing to have it equipped is a bit restrictive compared to similar effects. Not too bad though.

Equipped creature gets +2/+2, has vigilance and "tap this creature: add 1 Green mana." That's already a good bit better. You can swing with your creature, not have it get tapped by swinging and then use it as a Green mana dork. Very solid.

Equip 2, which isn't bad at all for everything you get for this Equipment.

This is a very pushed Equipment. Main thing is that you'll still only use this with Equipment decks, specifically Equipment decks that kind of want to go wide and run more than like 5 creatures. This is solid, you won't ever be angry about getting this on the field.

Now for the art. Credit to Ryu Fujinaka. Link to their Twitter. Bahamut ZERO flying behind what I think is the thing he just nuked with Tera Flare. Looking pretty cool, very nice!

Now for the multicolored cards, starting off with Aerith, Last Ancient!

4 mana for a 3/5 is perfectly on rate, so good job. Lifelink too, so she will healing you when you block with her. Her ability is that at the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. If you gained 7 or more life this turn, return that card to the battlefield. This ability is crazy. They could've just shot your 7 mana drop, but because you gained 1 life, you can bring it out of your graveyard and into your hand. If you build heavy lifegain synergies, you will be bringing things back directly into the battlefield on all of your turns. The only thing stopping this card is exile graveyard stuff, which Green/White aren't super capable of dealing with. Also the fact that Aerith will have a genuine target placed on her head, but Green/White will have ways to deal with that.

She works great as either your commander or a big recursion piece in the 99 of a lifegain deck. Hell, some tech: Y'shtola Rhul from the main set gives you multiple end steps, so if you're in Green/White/Blue, put these together and you will be bringing 2 things out of your graveyard on all of your turns. Go crazy with this.

Now for the art. Credits to Marta Nael. Link to her ArtStation. It very much looks like Aerith and the spell effects are very nice. I really like this one, this is fantastic! Interesting color choices too :O

Now we move to Barret, Avalanche Leader!

4 mana for a 4/4 is perfectly on rate, good job again. Reach is nice, gotta shoot down them pesky birds. His abilities are:

Whenever an Equipment you control enters, create a 2/2 red Rebel creature token. So we heard you liked "For Mirrodin!" a lot, so we made all your equipments almost act like they are "For Mirrodin!" Equipment. Neat, token strategy will be pretty good with this card.

At the beginning of combat on your turn, attach up to one target Equipment you control to target Rebel you control. A way to get Equipment onto the very tokens you generate. A little reserved with how many Equipment cards you can put on a Rebel, especially with the token subtheme of this guy, but alright.

This is perfectly fine. You will try to flood the board with Barret via Equipment entering and then having slightly better than usual tokens attack and hopefully put some dents into your opponents' board states or even HP. I think he will work as either the commander or in the 99 of a deck fine, though keep in mind that Red/Green has historically not been much for equipment based decks.

Now for the art. Credit to J. Schirmer and M. Verhasselt. I don't have links, I can't find either (or both) of them. J. Schirmer might be Jana Schirmer, but she hasn't posted anything in like 7 years anywhere. Jana Schirmer has collaborated on art pieces before, so that would be my best guess, but I'm genuinely uncertain. If someone can find anything, let me know, I would love to credit the artists! Anyway, Barret looks nice and it is cool that Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are there beside and behind him. Very neat.

Now we go to Red XIII, Proud Warrior!

3 mana for a 3/3 is perfectly on rate, good job yet again. Vigilance and trample is nice and makes him safe to attack with and tricky to block. His abilities are:

Other modified creatures (aka creatures with counters on them or that has an Equipment or Aura on them) you control have vigilance and trample. Neat, the same ability keywords he has. Also definitely puts him in the camp where you want to go wide with creatures, not super tall with all of them.

When Red XIII enters, return target Aura or Equipment card from your graveyard to your hand. Very minor Aura or Equipment recursion. Nice, you can definitely use that for Auras, since those go to the graveyard if the creature they are attached to leaves the battlefield in some form.

Hmm... he's not bad, but ultimately doesn't do too much himself aside from being buff stick. He can get scary due to his trample, but you mainly need other things to buff him with enough power so that it becomes a big problem to block him. I'd advice against running him as your commander for that reason, but in the 99 of an Equipment, Auras, counters or modified deck, he will work pretty well!

Now for the art. Credit to Anna Podedworna. Link to her Twitter. I've said this before about one of her arts and I'll say it again: this looks like it could be a screen taken from the game and that is wholly a positive thing. This looks awesome, it is so on point!

Now we get to sir silver haired swordsman with mommy issues, Sephiroth, Fallen Hero.

So, let's start with color identity. This is Sephiroth right after he has abandoned his ways. Not quite fully insane, cold and dead inside. This is still him coming to grips to what he has learned of his existence. So Boros in that sense makes sense in a similar vein that it does for Cloud currently.

5 mana for a 7/5 is pretty hilariously above rate and in this case there is no drawback, unlike the Warring Triad. His abilities are:

When Sephiroth attack, you may put a cell counter on target creature. Until end of turn, each modified creature you control has base power and toughness 7/5. This is really good, since this can make even the weakest of creatures huge threats, especially if this has been allowed to spread or if you have Equipment or Auras to back this up, since that will go fast.

For 3 mana and sacrificing a modified creature: return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Oh and this prick evades his taxes and death itself. Fantastic. Yeah, this is really really good to have.

So yeah, this is pretty obviously the best creature card to build around from this commander deck aside from the face commander and alt commander, Cloud Ex-SOLDIER and Tifa, Martial Artist respectively. Pretty simple, but highly effective first ability. Fantastic way to avoid commander tax. Really, you can't go wrong with this guy as either your commander or in the 99 of a modified deck. I wouldn't recommend Auras with him, since if you sacrifice a creature with an Aura on them, that Aura goes into the graveyard.

Now for the art. Credit to Ittoku. Link to their Tumblr, please go follow them, they are actively posting their art on there! This does look like Sephiroth in the middle of a contemplative moment in the middle of the burning of Nibelheim, in the middle of him going insane and trying to reach for godhood. What an amazing art, it is conveys that moment from Sephiroth's point of view so amazingly.

Alright, let's go through the artifacts and then we're done! First up, Conformer Shuriken!

2 mana for an Equipment that says that equipped creature has "Whenever this creature attacks, tap target creature defending player controls. If that creature has greater power than this creature, put a number of +1/+1 counter on this creature equal to the difference." Also, it equips for 2. This can be really good against big stompy decks that will get absolutely disgustingly huge creatures. Just keep in mind to give your equipped creature some way of evasion: flying, trample, menace, landwalk, etc. I recommend it for Equipment based decks or if you have a trauma response to even thinking about a creature having more than 10 power.

Now for the art. Credit to Nakamura 8. Link to their pixiv. Yuffie throwing Conformer, her ultimate weapon. Very anime, but very nice. Looks great honestly!

Last but not least, Wrecking Ball Arm!

2 mana for an equipment that gives the equipped creature base power and toughness 7/7 and the ability to not be blocked by creatures of 2 power or less. You can equip it for 7, or equip it to a legendary creature for 3. This is significantly less good than Conformer. 7/7 base power/toughness is nice, but the ability to not be blocked by 2 power or less creatures isn't as good of evasion as trample for example, since a lot of creatures hit the 3 power benchmark. I suppose it does allow you to smash through boards that mainly rely on self buffing creatures, since you'd force them to spend mana to block them or at least take 7 damage. Keep in mind by the way that this does lower power/toughness if you have a creature with base power/toughness that is higher.

Now for the art. Credit to Norikatsu Miyoshi. Link to what I think is their Twitter? It is linked on their pixiv. That sure is Barret with his Wrecking Ball... a weapon notably not in the original version of FF7, only in the Remake. Weird that they chose this weapon, since they have said that they are focusing the story that they are telling on the original, but alright, that's cool. Art looks great!

At first he was going to pay them no mind, expecting it to be one of his companions coming to seek him out. They usually did whenever he went out like this... but the more he listened to the steps the more it was becoming clear that this was someone new. Each of his companions had a unique way of carrying themselves and he knew those ways by heart at this point. He could tell each of them apart by the way they carried themselves, the vibrations that they made with each step made and the weight of those steps. This... this was someone new. And so Jacques would begin to crane his head, slowly at first... until he heard that deep feminine voice and just the way it spoke to him... which got his attention to snap almost immediately to see just who the source was.

As the dragon’s head snapped those horns that crowned it flared out ever so slightly, the long ‘whip’ like appendages flowing like a raging wind was blowing them as his lips curled up into an ever so slight snarl revealing jagged fangs. Scales along his body puffed up ever so slightly and the ones along his tail gave off a loud rattling as those eyes set their sights on the woman who dared to disturb him. A purple-red hue starting to rise from them as long claws dug into the snow and bit into the ground... growl rumbling deep in his throat as he stared. Jaws twisting into a deeper snarl as he was taking in the Miqo’te’s scent... a very familiar scent... her looks also didn’t help her situation either. 

More of that rumbling came from deep in his throat as Jacques slowly pushed himself up to his feet, tail swinging behind him and flinging snow up in a flurry as he did so. Wings stretching ever so slightly as he carefully positioned himself in a way that was almost... elegant but intimidating. A show of power... and a show that he was not about to take this Keepers ways if she decided to press further with her words. Jacques kept his attention on her, head craned only ever so slightly as to give her just enough so that she knew he had heard her “Found...?” he muttered out, the growling was easily heard with his words and how they vibrated from his throat “I wasn’t aware that you were searching for -him-...” oh how he made it a point to correct her... and he would continue to do so the more he spoke. After having spoken to Sebha’to, watching as he finally broke down with him... and knowing just what kind of person the Keeper was, Jacques was -willing- to give her a chance. Barely.

“He needs no training from you either...” those scales along his throat quivered as those words left his mouth. He was -holding- back... mostly because he knew well enough that this woman would be nothing more than a smouldering pile of ash should he truly desire to end it there “Because whatever training that you might want to do will go against what he is, -who- he is...” claws dug further into the ground... fragments of rock actually crumbling down from the cliffside that Jacques was resting beside as they bit down deeper. Oh how easily he could end this... but again, he was willing to give her a simple chance. A chance to run... or the chance to continue with her stupidity and goading him. Prodding this dragon was potentially the worst idea anyone could have, especially when it came to the people he loved.

“I’ve put no ideas into -his- head... nor is -he- lost...” Jacques was slowly starting to lose his patience with her... his lips were quivering as he continued. Why was he bothering with this? After everything this... woman had done to Sebha’to... why was he giving her a chance at all? Perhaps he was hoping somewhere that she would simply turn around and leave... that she would just give up and forget everything. Or perhaps he was hoping that she would finally see some sort of ‘light’ and realize her wrongs... but of course she wouldn’t. After the things he heard from Sebha’to, Jacques knew well enough that none of those hopes would ever come true... she was too set in her ways, too set in how she was “You’re the one who is lost... you’re -deprived-... and -very far from home-...” 

The implications were there now... leave him be and go back from where she came or suffer. The way his scales rattled again, how those ‘tendrils’ on his head flared with his horns as those eyes were surrounded by a haze of purple-red that was almost like a fiery mist around them. What would she do... the choice was hers and the pieces of this twisted game were now set.

@skyysinger / @deathofapansexual - HE’S GIVING HER A CHANCE! Even if he really... REALLY doesn’t want to...