Magic: The Gathering - Vivi Ornitier Commander Deck Guide

Vivi Ornitier is one of the many legendary creatures available in Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy crossover set. Vivi is a plucky little Black Mage, and one of the playable party members in Final Fantasy 9, acting as one of the game's main characters.

Magic: The Gathering - Norin The Wary Commander Deck Guide

Here's how to play the Norin The Wary commander deck in Magic: The Gathering.

A Black Mage in Final Fantasy, Vivi's Magic card involves a lot of casting spells. In Final Fantasy IX, Vivi is your primary offensive spellcaster, and it's no different in Magic. He's a very strong spellslinger commander (a deck that wants to cast as many spells as possible in one turn). So if you like casting spells and burning opponents, you'll love Vivi Ornitier as a commander.

Vivi Ornitier Commander Decklist

Commander: Vivi Ornitier

Ral, Crackling Wit

Archmage Emeritus

Ashling, Flame Dancer

Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty

Bria, Riptide Rogue

Caldera Pyremaw

Coruscation Mage

Displacer Kitten

Galazeth Prismari

Guttersnipe

Harmonic Prodigy

Hullbreaker Horror

Kitsa, Otterball Elite

Ovika, Enigma Goliath

Ral, Monsoon Mage // Ral, Leyline Prodigy

Storm-Kiln Artist

Stormsplitter

Third Path Iconoclast

Valley Floodcaller

Young Pyromancer

Blasphemous Act

Gitaxian Probe

Grapeshot

Jeska's Will

Mind's Desire

Ponder

Preordain

Serum Visions

Treasure Cruise

Will of the Jeskai

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Arcane Denial

Brain Freeze

Brainstorm

Chaos Warp

Consider

Counterspell

Dig Through Time

Dramatic Reversal

Frantic Search

Gut Shot

Lightning Bolt

Opt

Pongify

Rapid Hybridization

Seething Song

Snap

Aetherflux Reservoir

Arcane Signet

Commander's Sphere

Fellwar Stone

Isochron Scepter

Izzet Signet

Lightning Greaves

Lotus Petal

Mind Stone

Mishra's Bauble

Mox Amber

Sol Ring

Swiftfoot Boots

Talisman of Creativity

Thought Vessel

Arcane Bombardment

Rite of the Dragoncaller

Thoushand-Year Storm

Cascade Bluffs

Command Tower

Desolate Lighthouse

Exotic Orchard

Ferrous Lake

Fiery Islet

x11 Island

x11 Mountain

Mystic Sanctuary

Riptide Laboratory

Shivan Reef

Spirebluff Canal

Stormcarved Coast

Sulfur Falls

The decklist contains one planeswalker, 19 creatures, ten sorceries, 17 instants, 15 artifacts, three enchantments, and 34 lands. The deck is heavily focused on noncreature spells, hence the high number of them, while the suite of creatures all benefit from noncreature spells being cast along with Vivi Ornitier.

Key Cards

Vivi Ornitier

The commander of the deck, Vivi Ornitier is what's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting. All noncreature spells turn into +1/+1 counters on Vivi and minor burn damage to your opponent. It's like a permanent prowess boost that can be turned into blue and red mana without using the counters.

You will want to hold up mana for your opponents' turns to make sure you have mana available for counterspells. As such, if Vivi has the power for it, it's better to use Vivi's effect for mana rather than from lands or mana rocks to cast spells on your turn.

Vivi's effect costs zero mana to activate, but does require you to have cast a spell before it can do anything. Vivi can only be used be turn and only your turn, so you won't be able to have excess mana to work with on your opponents' turns. Luckily, you'll often only be casting spells on your turn to begin with (minus interaction like counterspells).

Bria, Riptide Rogue

Bria, Riptide Rogue does a whole lot for the deck. It gives all your creatures prowess, which will give them a stat boost whenever a noncreature spell is cast. This helps to improve the mana generation of Vivi and turns the rest of your creatures into better attackers.

Bria is one of the main ways to help you win through combat. It's best combined with cards that create token creatures when you cast spells, as it'll give you a large number of creatures to attack with. Bria can even make your strongest creatures unblockable, since it triggers every noncreature spell cast and isn't once per turn.

Hullbreaker Horror

Hullbreaker Horror is what you can consider to be a "cleanup" creature. It helps to clear the battlefield of any problematic permanents whenever you cast a spell, helping you to set your opponent back while advancing your plays.

There are cases where you want to bounce your own permanents instead. In fact, Hullbreaker Horror's best use in the deck is a part of an infinite combo that lets you cast an infinite amount of noncreature spells. Here is how the combo works.

Prerequisites: Hullbreaker Horror and Sol Ring are on the battlefield. Permanent that costs zero mana (Lotus Petal will be used in this example), or one that costs two mana that can produce at least one mana (Arcane Signet will be used in this example) in the hand.

1. Tap Sol Ring to add two colorless mana.
2. Cast Lotus Petal or Arcane Signet
3. Hullbreaker Horror triggers, bouncing Sol Ring back to your hand.
4. Tap Arcane Signet to add one mana. You can skip this step if you are using the Lotus Petal, since you will still have two mana from Sol Ring available.
5. Cast Sol Ring, bouncing Lotus Petal or Arcane Signet back to your hand.
6. Repeat this indefinitely for infinite casts of noncreature spells, infinite colorless mana (if taking the zero mana permanent route), infinite burn damage (if Vivi, Guttersnipe, or Coruscation Mage are on the battlefield), infinite creature tokens (if Third Path Iconoclast or Ovika, Enigma Goliath are on the battlefield)

Harmonic Prodigy

Harmonic Prodigy doubles all your triggers of Wizards and Shamans, which is the creature type of nearly every creature in the deck. As such, Harmonic Prodigy is a creature you want on the battlefield as quickly as possible.

The creature only costs two mana to cast, so getting it out as early as turn one is within the realm of possibility. Harmonic Prodigy helps to get your battlefield set up much quicker than normal, allowing you to get a head start on all your opponents.

Magic: The Gathering - SpongeBob SquarePants Commander Deck Guide

Here's how to play the SpongeBob SquarePants Commander Deck in Magic: The Gathering!

How To Play The Deck

A Vivi Ornitier Commander deck is all about casting as many spells as you can, converting them into damage and extra mana through Vivi. Even if Vivi isn't on the battlefield, your creatures help to make up the difference by providing token creatures or excess mana generation to make it easier to cast multiple spells a turn.

Cards with storm aren't plentiful, but are very useful in the deck. They copy themselves for each spell cast before it, so it's possible to cast enough spells to burn all your opponents with Grapeshot, or mill them all with Brain Freeze if you're able to cast a ton of spells in one turn (made easier with the Hullbreaker Horror combo).

Normally, some of the better spellslinger support cards cost a bit too much mana to take advantage of. Luckily, Vivi helps you get around that downside and makes playing cards like Arcane Bombardment and Thousand-Year Storm much more realistic and impactful. These cards lead to larger turns that help push your advantage in the game even further towards victory.

The primary win condition of the deck is winning through burn. This is done through cards like Vivi, Guttersnipe, and Coruscation Mage. Alternatively, you can win through combat by creating a ton of creature tokens off of Rite of the Dragoncaller, Ovika, Enigma Goliath, and Third Path Iconoclast. If you have Bria, Riptide Rogue, these tokens have prowess which can make for enough damage to take everyone out of the game in one turn.

The biggest weakness of the deck is its early game. Izzet (blue/red) decks are not known for the ability to ramp, so you'll be spending the first few turns setting up mana rocks for mana generation, leaving your defenses open. Getting creature token generators out early is very helpful, as this will help you to start forming a battlefield to block incoming attackers while you work on setting up your battlefield.

Magic: The Gathering - Deadpool, Trading Card Commander Deck Guide

Master the Merc with a Mouth in Magic: The Gathering with our Deadpool, Trading Card Commander deck guide.