It isn’t hard to win a game of Magic: The Gathering with the newly revealed Final Fantasy card Jumbo Cactuar, which gains 9,999 power when it attacks. Just use one of 50 different ways to give it Trample, or some form of evasion, and that’s game. But true Magic: The Gathering connoisseurs know that winning without style is barely winning at all.
So in this article, we’re going to take this ridiculously statted MTG Final Fantasy card, and figure out just how you can use it to ruin your Commander pod’s day. The goal is to find an interaction so awesome that your friends won’t even be mad about how hard they just got dunked on.
Perhaps the most obvious combination with Jumbo Cactuar is Fling, which lets you sacrifice a creature to deal damage equal to its power to any target. It’s a well-known ‘funny card’, and obviously pairs brilliantly with Jumbo Cactuar. The problem is, all this does is instantly kill one player at the table, leaving the rest unscathed. Even worse, it leaves you down a Jumbo Cactuar, and once you’ve shown your ruthlessness, the remaining two players will have no qualms about responding
Escape Tunnel is likely to be another popular interaction. This land can make a creature with less than three power unblockable for the turn. Even though Jumbo Cactuar gets ridiculously big once it attacks, whoever guards that escape tunnel apparently doesn’t know that – and before combat, it qualifies. Again though, this only gives evasion for a single turn, making it. Surely we can do better.
It occurs to me it’s a bit risky having all that power wrapped up in one, wardless, creature, so why not dilute it amongst 10,000 zombies, with Ghoulcaller Gisa. Now you can go-wide and take down everyone at once!
If you’re worried about a board wipe like Ritual of Soot, Tend the Pests only gives you 1/1s, but A: that’s more than enough damage to kill every player at the table many times over, and B: They gain you life when they die. If they’re all wiped out, you basically become unkillable (except, perhaps, by another Jumbo Cactuar).
For those who love tokens and choices, Ghalta and Mavren is the perfect card to pair with Jumbo Cactuar. You get two options and both of them are great: either an enormous army of vampires, or a 10,000 power/ 10,000 toughness dinosaur, with trample, that spawns in already attacking one of your opponents.
If you just want a clean, straightforward one-turn kill, Chandra’s Ignition is a pretty good option, able to smite every creature and player in such dramatic fashion that they probably won’t really mind. The only problem is, it’s sorcery speed, so you’d need your Jumbo Cactuar to survive combat.
Pathbreaker Ibex is another good way to spread the damage around. It gives your whole board the same power as Jumbo Cactuar, plus trample, ensuring all the damage definitely gets through. Thundering Craterhoof eat your heart out!
If combat damage feels like too violent a way to win, you can always use turn to good old psychological warfare with The Mindskinner, milling every opponent out at once in a single turn. You could, alternatively, choose to turn that mill on yourself with the combination of Greater Good and Laboratory Maniac.
One of the most dangerous cards you can play with Jumbo Cactuar is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Now there’s nothing to fear from blockers, or fog effects, and you can kill everyone without connecting, at instant speed.
But, if you want to really get silly, my favorite card to play with the supersized succulent is going to be Sovereign Okinec Ahau. You’ll need a lot of dice, because when you attack with Okinec he’ll put 9999 +1/+1 counters on your Jumbo Cactuar.
The turn after that, it’ll be 19,998 counters. If I’ve done my sums right, by the third time you attack, you’ll be swinging with a creature that’s a 79,993/70,000. Now does that help you out much? Not really, but it’ll be a fun story (you can and should do this in Standard by the way)!
I’m not sure we’re going to top that, so let’s end this thing on a high note. Hopefully one or more of these options gives you a few ideas for your own Jumbo Cactuar deck. Let’s just hope your foes don’t have Ink Shield or Deflecting Palm in hand, eh?
For great Magic: The Gathering reads, here are the best Commander precon decks you can buy, or check out the MTG release schedule to find out about upcoming sets like Tarkir Dragonstorm.
Source: Wargamer
