In case you may have missed it, last week gave us a whole plethora of new details and reveals for Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy set, and suffice it to say I’m beyond excited.
I wholeheartedly believe that, out of the endless options of Universe Beyond worlds to explore, Final Fantasy makes more sense than practically every other choice we’ve seen so far, save for Lord of the Rings. So when some of the extremely flavorful cards were shown off, I couldn't help but begin to brainstorm on how to best utilize them in Commander.
Jumbo Cactuar
With all the exciting reveals we got, there’s a variety of subjects I could focus on for this article. I could talk about Power Conduit and Ferropede being top choices for keeping the newly-announced Summons on the battlefield. I could also discuss potential group-hug cards based on Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant, or landfall picks based on the announcement that all Chocobos will revolve around that mechanic. Ultimately, the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed, especially since I’m a lover of big, heavy-hitting green creatures, has to be Jumbo Cactuar.
There's no way around it, this card is a big deal - the biggest deal one might say, as Gavin Verhey himself said this was the largest number ever printed on a black-bordered card. And when all it takes is a single card, no combos required, to attain literal Yu-Gi-Oh! level power on an MTG board state, you best believe it's going to see play.
So what are some of the best ways to further take advantage of the ridiculousness that is Jumbo Cactuar in Commander that won’t break the bank? Let's dive in.
Creature Removal
With the ubiquitousness of fight spells in green, there’s no doubt that Jumbo Cactuar is going to be seeing its fair share of one-on-one brawls. But these spells are not all created equal, and there’s an important distinction between putting something like Bushwhack in your deck as a means of creature removal, versus other cards that can give you more of an upside relevant to Cactuar’s colossal power.
It’s also crucial to try and implement more of the “one-sided” fight spells that deal Cactuar’s damage to another creature but receive no damage in return, as once you start trying to handle more powerful creatures above seven toughness (not too difficult to attain in Commander) you’ll have to find ways to keep Cactuar alive; and at that point things have become too convoluted and unreliable. No one wants to watch their 10,000 power creature die to a 7/7, so it’s best to explore options that avoid this situation.
The first, and arguably most powerful damage-dealing effect that Cactuar can take advantage of (notwithstanding the obvious choice of cards outside green such as Chandra's Ignition) has to be Windswift Slice, a single-printing card from Commander: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth that for just three mana can even further warp the game in your favor at instant speed. Windswift Slice can not only take out basically any creature of your choice once Cactuar gains its +9999 power, but also give you an instant army of 1/1 green Elf Warrior tokens. And not just a handful that any other standard large creature might give you, an absolutely absurd game-warping amount. Imagine you have Cactuar on the field with one of your three opponents open - even if the others can retaliate after you attack, a single Windswift Slice on any target gives you enough blockers that any counterattack would be futile. This card truly is Cactuar’s best friend, and for less than $0.50 for a standard copy and just $3.00 for a foil showcase scrolls variant, this seems like a no-brainer pickup if you’re going to be running our new Jumbo friend.
Another card that turns Cactuar into a bigger threat, while also providing creature removal, is the relatively new Class card from Bloomburrow, Hunter's Talent. Every mode of this card benefits from being played alongside Cactuar, from the one-sided fight effect on the first level, to combat tricks on the second level, to card draw on the third. If you’re playing aggressively with Cactuar, there’s really no time when this card is on the battlefield that you shouldn’t be taking advantage of it. Even better, this is another one that’s going for less than half a dollar. And while it doesn’t have as high of a chance of gaining as substantial value over time as something like Windswift Slice might, due to a variety of factors, it’s undoubtedly powerful in the right deck - especially for an uncommon.
Lastly, while there are some other one-sided removal spells that just barely come close to utilizing Cactuar’s power (looking at you Contest of Claws… you’re so close), I’d like to touch on an old favorite of mine: Monstrous Onslaught. Look, are there better mass removal spells in other colors? Of course. But in a world where you may be running mono-green, you have to take what you can get. And to be honest, even in 2025 you could do far worse than a sorcery-speed, one-sided board wipe for five mana. This is another dirt-cheap option for less than a quarter this time, so why not pick one up if you foresee yourself running Cactuar?
| Windswift Slice | | |
| Hunter's Talent | | |
| Monstrous Onslaught | | |
Mana Overload
While Jumbo Cactuar has an undeniable board presence, sometimes it takes more than a single creature with 10,000 power to overwhelm your opponents; and it’s in these instances where we can try to take Cactuar’s absurd power number and shuffle it around to other properties to push our game to the next level. In this mindset, when I see such a high number present on a card in any capacity, I have to ask myself, how can I turn that number into the available mana I have at my disposal?
Firstly, if you’re specifically looking to play lands versus simply producing mana (for some landfall-related Chocobo shenanigans perhaps?), then look no further than Traverse the Outlands, which puts lands on the battlefield from your deck equal to the greatest power among creatures you control. This card climbed as high as $15 before its 2022 reprint in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate; and while I don’t think it’ll ever rebound to that range again given Wizards’ recent reprinting patterns, this just shows how strong it’s been and how much demand it’s held over time. Prerelease foils have slowly but steadily risen from $2 to $4 in this time though, so that would be the version I would pick up if I were in the market for a way to drop every land in my deck on the battlefield in one fell swoop.
If it’s simply mana you’re after, and you don’t need the physical lands themselves, then there are a variety of different options at your disposal. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a classic, giving you the potential of a bit of extra draw in addition to producing mana equal to Cactuar’s power; of the green cards that have this type of effect, Selvala is arguably the most powerful. And while she is easier to kill than the comparable Bighorner Rancher, she hits the board faster and can produce different combinations of mana in colors besides green. If you’re on a budget, Bighorner Rancher is cheaper at around $0.50, but Selvala is easily worth the pickup for $5, especially considering she was as high as $60 not five years ago; she will always prove useful if you find yourself running larger creatures, both in and out of green.
Another recent pick in a similar vein to these is Tanuki Transplanter from Commander: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. While it requires more setup than Selvala or Bighorner Rancher, it can also provide you with an astronomical amount of mana for less than $0.50.
If you happen to be branching into red with Cactuar (which you very well may be with all the extra combat effects in that color) there’s Neheb, the Eternal, which, due to reprints, has fallen from a lofty $30 to just $2. Neheb has closed out more games than I can remember, and assuming you can get a hit in with both him and Cactuar on the battlefield, it’ll likely close out your game too.
| Traverse the Outlands | | |
| Selvala, Heart of the Wilds | | |
| Bighorner Rancher | | |
| Tanuki Transplanter | | |
| Neheb, the Eternal | | |
Other Picks
Jumbo Cactuar has so much potential for being such a simple and straightforward card that the recommendations for different ways to take advantage of it are truly staggering. With that in mind, here are a handful of other picks that you may want to consider if you’re running this new monstrosity in your Commander decks.
First up is Tend the Pests, which, like Windswift Slice, will give you an amount of creature tokens proportional to your creature’s power, although this one works a bit differently. You do have to sacrifice your Cactuar, but in return you will receive a similarly-sized army to Windswift Slice, only with the caveat that when each of these tokens die you gain a life - not bad as an instant-speed reaction to someone trying to Path your creature. After this resolves your opponents’ only outs are a mass exile, bounce, or tuck effect - any traditional board wipes and you’ll be sitting at more life than they’ll know what to do about. Even more, if you combine this with a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer, you can basically control your life total at will, making all your opponents dread taking you out for the low low price of just $0.25.
Next pick is Essence Harvest - a nice, single printing life drain effect from Avacyn Restored that will be sure to further stack the tables in your favor on your second main phase after you declare attackers. It’s simple, it’s straightforward, and it’s effective - target opponent loses 10,000 life, you gain 10,000 life. You need to be in black, but for three mana and only $.25, you could do so much worse, especially if your deck has other large creatures that can take advantage of this.
And finally, while I could use this time to focus on all the neat ways to help Cactuar connect (Access Tunnel, Escape Tunnel, Hazoret, Godseeker, etc.), those are so plentiful that I thought it would be worth it to mention a card that could actually help you if you find yourself on the receiving end: Inkshield. Take that pesky 10,000 power and throw it back in your opponents’ face with this cute combat trick that gives you an army in similar style to previously mentioned cards, only for whoever is on the receiving end of spiky menace. This card is at its cheapest price in years, so it might be worth snagging one if you think you’re going to be facing down Cactuars left and right come June.
| Tend the Pests | | |
| Essence Harvest | | |
| Inkshield | | |
In Conclusion
Whether or not Jumbo Cactuar will make as much of an actual impact on Commander as its initial reception makes it seem remains up to time, but if you’re one of the many hopping aboard this green hype train when Final Fantasy comes out, hopefully this article gave you some interesting cards to play around with. Have fun brewing!
Further Reading:
The New Game Changers in Commander
