#heidegger ff7

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

Equipment and Vehicle spells you cast 1 mana less to cast. Neat, slightly cheaper Equipment and Vehicles. This might make him an auto include for Equipment and/or Vehicles decks.

During your turn, Cid has flying. Since he's a Dragoon. Yeah, this checks out.

For 2 mana and tapping Cid: Return target Equipment or Vehicle card from your graveyard to your hand. So Cid has Equipment and Vehicle recursion. Yeah, with the first ability, this definitely makes him an auto include for an Equipment or Vehicle deck.

That last line basically sums up my opinion on this card. This is an auto include for any Equipment or Vehicle decks that have White in their color identity. I wouldn't run him as your commander self, since while he's certainly not bad, he also doesn't particularly do anything himself aside from making Equipment and Vehicles cheaper, which is fine, but not buffing himself or making the board state particularly scarier. If anything, he's a ramp piece for Equipment and Vehicle decks. Not bad to have in the command zone, but you can also have something more actively threatening.

Now for the art. Credit to Billy Christian. Link to his ArtStation. Billy can't miss, it is actually impossible. Cid looks fantastic, the Tiny Bronco in the background is great. Good color choices as well. It's fantastic, this is great!

Now we move on to Elena, Turk Recruit!

3 mana for a 1/4 is slightly behind rate, but it is manageable, since it is only one point of power or toughness. Her abilities are:

When Elena enters, return target non-Assassin historic card from your graveyard to your hand. Okay, the non-Assassin qualifier is very interesting and also mostly useless? If you are running her in the 99 of a deck, fair enough, but still. Also, historic cards are Artifact cards, legendary cards and Saga cards. So she has some minor historic recursion. Neat.

Whenever you cast a historic spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Elena. She gets bigger with every historic spell you cast. You'd ideally get her out as soon as possible so you can fully benefit from this. Also, be sure to run protection pieces for her if you want to be swinging with her. Equipment go great with her, since those are historic cards and can further augment her.

Hmmm... I'm not blown away by her, but she will be a perfectly viable historic commander. She will be punching hard if a few historic spells enter while she is on the board, plus the fact that she guarantees to bring one back. Could be an Artifact or Saga that has sacrificed itself so you can get those benefits again. She also works perfectly well in the 99 of a historic deck.

Now for the art. Credit to Magali Villeneuve. Link to her BlueSky. Magali back with a banger. I love how cozy the building behind her looks, while Elena self looks incredible. Not overly threatening, but definitely ready for a fight. Love love love this art!

Now we go to Heidegger, Shinra Executive!

4 mana for a 3/3 is below rate. Not hugely so, but it can be noticeable. His abilities are:

At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Soldiers you control. Ah, this is "Soldiers typal: the card," isn't it? Alright, pretty decent buff for 1 target creature. Kind of weird, since Soldiers are generally more token based, but this makes one very beefy creature.

At the beginning of your end step, create a number of 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens equal to the number of opponents who control more creatures than you. H... huh. This is a way to generate tokens when you are behind on creatures. That's... neat, but like I just said, Soldier typal usually have some sort token generation already, so you will rarely get benefit from this. It's not bad though if you are put behind, but only 3 tokens every turn is also not fantastic.

Put this in the 99 of a Soldier typal deck. As your commander, while he does have turn 1 value, only half of his card is consistent. The other half is very much not consistent, which is what prevents me from saying you should run him as your commander. It can be used to build up your board state again after a board wipe, but... it is not super fast. Oh well.

Now for the art. Credit goes to Dancaio. Link to their Twitter. What a big goofy grin! I'm sure he's a good guy :) Honestly, this is fantastic. I really like how you can see all the troops behind him, really goes to show that he is a higher up at Shinra. Very very nice!

Now we go to Helitrooper!

2 mana for a 1/2 is slightly below rate, but with flying to compensate, you won't notice it too much. Its abilities are:

Whenever this creature attacks, another target attacking creature gains flying until end of turn. That's decent if you have no other ways to give flying to other creatures, otherwise this is just alright. Especially in flyers typal, this is worthless, but to be fair, you don't want to be running this with flyers typal, because...

Equip abilities you activate that target this creature cost 2 mana less to activate. You want to be equipping this guy. Maybe not with everything, but at least a little bit of equipment on them would do them some good. That also makes it so you are generally running less flying creatures, so his first ability is more relevant.

Not a bad little creature. I don't think this will see too much play, since there are a bunch of ways to give your creatures evasion with equipment, but I suppose this isn't too bad to have as a way to support a heavily equipped creature.

Now for the art. Credit goes to Haikei. Link to their Twitter. That sure is a helitrooper. That's really all I got to say. Looks good tho.

Let's go to Cloud's Limit Break!

Oh hey, a new Tiered spell! Instant speed, so that's already nice.

For 2 mana, you destroy target tapped creature. That's pretty on rate and keep in mind that aside from a creature with Vigilance, you can destroy an attacking creature with this, since it is tapped right when it attacks.

For 3 mana, you destroy ant number of target tapped creatures with different controllers. So 3 mana for 3 potential destroyed creatures. Very nice, that's actually very on rate. They do need to be tapped, but it works.

For 6 mana, you destroy all tapped creatures. Keep in mind that this does include your own creatures, so try to do this whenever your creatures aren't tapped, especially if you have mana dorks running around.

This is just a flexible removal spell. You can basically run this in any deck ever that has White in its color identity. Very adaptable, so that's great. Good spell.

Now for the art. Credit to Billy Christian. Link to his ArtStation. My man doesn't miss! The face looks a bit wonky on the main Cloud, but that's also the angle. Having the after images of Cloud, who is probably in the middle of Omnislash, is fantastic. I love this art!

Now we get to the first of three Foretell cards in this deck, Ultimate Magic: Holy!

3 mana to have all your permanents gain indestructible until end of turn at instant speed, which is pretty solid. For 2 mana, you can foretell this card for 2 mana, at which point it is in exile. Then, for 3 more mana, you can flip it up at a later turn, at which point you also prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn. That's pretty solid, a mini Teferri's Protection, though it doesn't make all your permanents untouchable. Still solid, but it is a bit rough to try and get this going for the full effect. However, keep in mind that the play from exile doesn't care about it specifically being from the foretell, any play from exile works. If you can get that going, that could make this way better.

Now for the art. Credit to Ashley Mackenzie. Link to their BlueSky. This sure is the lifestream working back against Meteor and casting holy. I have not much to say, it just looks good.

Now we go to the last mono White spell, SOLDIER Military Program.

3 mana for an enchantment that gives you one of two effects at the start of combat on your turn, though if you control a commander, you may choose both instead.

Create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token. Not bad, but also not super fast. Definitely just kind of... exists as a mode.

Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two Soldiers you control. That's a lot better, especially if you already have at least 2 Soldiers on the field. Very much starts pumping your board and starts to make it scary. Still a little slow though, but that's where counter enhancers are for.

This will definitely go into Soldier typal decks. Especially the pumping effect will be able to catch people off guard out of nowhere. Getting both at the same time each turn definitely makes this way better, but even without it, the pumping can at least get to be dangerous.

Now for the art. Credit to Yoshio Sugiura. Link to their Twitter. This looks like a propaganda piece to join Shinra's military and it looks WONDERFUL for that angle. Showing you the 3 SOLDIERs as they are posing with Midgar in the background really makes this seem like this could be on a poster somewhere in Midgar (or Nibelheim for example) to convince you join. It's great, really love this one!

We now move to the Red cards, starting with Avalanche of Sector 7!

Love how they covered Biggs, Wedge and Jessie on the card, very nice to see them represented.

3 mana for a */3 is... well, it depends on the exact power it comes in with whether it is on rate or not. Their ability is:

Menace, so they will be slightly more likely to get in when attacking.

Avalanche of Sector 7's power is equal to the number of artifacts your opponents control. This... is very dependent on what your opponents play. Against artifact heavy decks, this will feel like some real hater stuff. Against artifact light decks, this is gonna feel pretty bad, since their power won't be that high.

Whenever an opponent activates an ability of an artifact they control, Avalanche of Sector 7 deals 1 damage to that player. This is super hater stuff. Keep in mind that equip costs being paid counts, so you can absolutely be a gigantic hater.

And that's the review for this card. This is anti-Artifact: the card. This is a hard card to recommend in any deck, honestly, since this really is just anti-Artifact: the card. I guess if you have a trauma response to a certain activated ability of an artifact, you can include this, but keep in mind that you might become the target of that artifact instead.

Now for the art. Credit to Arif Wijaya. Link to his ArtStation. These sure as Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. Nothing wrong with that, but also nothing much to say here, they are looking quite good!

Now we get to Cait Sith, Fortune Teller!

4 mana for a 3/3 is below rate, but that's not super much. His ability is that at the beginning of combat on your turn, then exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. When you exile a card this way, target creature you control gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is that card's mana value. So this is pretty decent, especially since you are given the chance to see the card you would flip in advance and can put that on the bottom of your library if it is like a land, which would get you no buff. It is a bit random, but it is a random you can force to be more in your favor with having more draw, scry and surveil effects in your deck, especially at instant speed.

I don't rate this card super highly as your commander, but you can do it. My main thing actually doesn't have to do with his ability, but more his mana cost. Like, actually, at 1 mana cheaper, I'd be a good amount more positive about him, but due to him being 4 mana, he's in this awkward "expensive enough" position. In the 99 of any given deck, I'd think he'd be pretty decent. As the commander... paying 6 mana for a 3/3 is rough, man.

Now for the art. Credit to Kevin Sidharta. Link to their ArtStation. That sure is Cait Sith and the giant toy moogle he's riding. He does look very cheerful. I like this art, it is nice c:

Now we move on to Vincent, Vengeful Atoner...

3 mana for a 3/3 is perfectly on rate, good job. His abilities are:

Menace, so he will be a bit tougher to block, since you need 2 creatures to block him.

Whenever one or more creatures deal combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on Vincent. Only 1 +1/+1 counter is a little low, though keep in mind that this goes for every single player, so if you are able to hit 3 players, that does mean 3 +1/+1 counters on Vincent, so this card incentivizes you to swing wide and towards all your opponents.

Whenever Vincent deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to each other opponent if Vincent's power is 7 or greater. And now we're getting into mass burn territory. A Vincent on 7 power (or more) is horrifying, since he can basically end the game if not properly blocked and/or removed.

Uh... yeah, this is basically a finisher and you can basically build him in whatever combat oriented way you want. If you are wanting to run him as your commander, I'd recommend going for Equipment to give him stuff that can protect him. Otherwise, go ham. At 7 power, if Vincent ever comes through, he will start chunking health bars. Also good in the 99 of an aggro deck.

Now for the art. Credit to Lius Lasahido. Link to their Instagram. This basically looks like an in-game screenshot or promotional artwork for Vincent. Yeah, this is really good. Not much to say here.

Let's go to Yuffie, Materia Hunter!

3 mana for a 3/3 is perfect on rate, so good job again. Her abilities are:

Ninjutsu for 2 mana, so you can bring her in from your hand for 2 mana in place of an unblocked attacker, so she does the damage instead of the attacker. Get tricky with this, since this is already after blockers are declared and so the creature she replaces is the evasiveness you have to keep in mind.

When Yuffie enters, gain control of noncreature artifact as long as you control Yuffie. Then you may attach an Equipment you control to Yuffie. This is fantastic. You get to steal an artifact and equip any Equipment you have laying around. Steal their Sol Ring and just have more mana for as long as Yuffie is around.

This is a hard card to rate, since ideally, you want to bring her to hand somewhat often, due to the Ninjutsu ability being great for in and out attacks. On the other hand, you kind of want her to stick around for a while so you can have someone's artifact for a long while. I wouldn't recommend her as your commander, to be honest, but in the 99 of an Equipment deck, I think she could be very powerful at disruption.

Now for the art. Credit to Touge369. Link to their Twitter (they don't post much art). That sure is Yuffie. Pretty anime styled, but that isn't a bad thing for a character like Yuffie, I feel. Good art, I like it!

Let's go to the summon of this deck, Summon: Kujata!

6 mana for a 7/5 is perfectly on rate. Trample and haste too, so it will be immediately able to strike and go through enemies if they don't block it with 7 toughness or more. Let's go through the abilities:

Lore counter 1: This creature deals 3 damage to each of up to two target creatures. This means that you can even weaken the creatures that would create enough toughness to full block you or just outright destroy 2 creatures. Very good first ability.

Lore counter 2: Up to three target creatures can't block this turn. Make one opponent sweat bullets as a good part of their board can't block, meaning you will chew through the chaff or just straight up smack them in the face.

Lore counter 3: Discard a card, then draw two cards. When you discard a card this way, this creature deals damage equal to that card's mana value to each opponent. Drop a huge thing in your graveyard, do huge damage to opponents. Also handy if you just need something in your graveyard because it benefits you somehow, like an Anger.

Overall, pretty solid. It gets to attack twice, has some good removval and evasion and then draws you two cards and does some burn. Pretty dang solid, though probably not an auto include in decks, since it is pretty obvious and it is a 6 mana creature, so removal is definitely gonna get slung its way.

Now for the art. Credit to Alexandre Honoré. Link to his ArtStation. That sure is Kujata with elemental effects surrounding it. It looks good though, so no complaining in the slightest!

As for the alternative art (this is a trend with the summons):

Credit to YOSHIYA. Link to their Twitter. The same thing as before, but more classic Japanese style. Still looks great, very very nice!

Let's move on to the final card of this part and the counterpart to Holy, Ultimate Magic: Meteor!

For 6 mana, this is a 7 damage based board wipe for all creatures. If you choose to foretell it (or in some other way cast it from exile), it also takes with it an artifact or land of each opponent. This is just alright. 6 mana for a 7 damage based board wipe is rough, since there are enough ways to prevent damage, and the exile effect is marginally better, but foretelling does say that people have to play more careful, regardless of which card you foretell. Also, sorcery speed, so you can't even flip it at instant speed.

Now for the art. Credit to Ashley Mackenzie. Link to their BlueSky. That sure is Meteor threatening to destroy the planet. Also, good on you Wizards to hire the same artist for both Holy and Meteor. That's actually good thinking. Aside from that, not much to say.