Final Fantasy Limit Break Upgrade & Review

Limit Break is the red green and white precon from Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy. It features characters and moments from beloved title Final Fantasy VII, such as Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barrett, and Yuffie – and, of course – Sephiroth. Limit Break is all about attacking, with a focus on hitting power 7. It also cares a lot about equipment. For this $50 Budget Upgrade guide, we’ve got Seven upgrades for the Seventh game’s deck.

LIMIT BREAK PRECON REVIEW

For this review and upgrade guide, we’ll go over the two face Commanders first. Then, we’ll cover the new cards and reprints, before moving onto the upgrades we’d like to make. The final section will include our picks for Game Changers for Bracket 3: Upgraded gameplay, and pricier includes that will serve you well.

CLOUD, EX-SOLDIER

Cloud, Ex-Soldier is a 4/4 Haste for five, with two more than solid abilities. The first lets him grab an equipment when he enters, auto-equipping it to Cloud. The second cares about going wide to draw cards through equipped attackers, and if Cloud is big enough, you’ll also get two treasure tokens. In many ways, Cloud is a Naya (RGW) version of Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale. Both cheat equip costs and draw you cards, and both will generate consistent value for you. 

For this upgrade guide, we’ll focus on Cloud, as the deck is much better set up to build on the equipment theme. 

TIFA, MARTIAL ARTIST

Tifa, meanwhile, is an extra combat powerhouse. If you attack three opponents, she’ll end up as a   7/7, fulfilling her own trigger requirement. That second ability might be a little hard to parse, but basically, you’ll always get to untap your creatures regardless of what combat phase you’re in, as long as you hit with a 7 power or higher creature. 

Now, because she cares about dealing damage in the first combat phase, that means you can get up to three extra combats by hitting with three large creatures. And, if you give them Double Strike? Well, that’s up to six extra combats. She’s an incredible card, but needs much more build-around to enable her.

MIDGAR CARDS ARE ANYTHING BUT MID

These precons each feature twenty new designs, which is twice as many as usual. We’ll cover the best cards in our usual precon highlights piece, but let’s still look at the more interesting designs in Limit Break here, too. 

Professor Hojo is a shoe-in for any green deck that runs equipment, ever. He can also slot into a number of other green decks and be a crucial role-player, offering cost reduction and card draw for just two mana.

Yuffie is a red version of Thieving Skydiver, right? I love that card, and while Yuffie doesn’t give you control of the artifact in perpetuity, she is a welcome effect in mono red, or indeed, red decks not playing blue.

Barret, Avalanche Leader is a sweet card. Making 2/2 Rebels whenever equipment enter is awesome, and getting to free equip a Rebel each combat is a lot of value, too. Barret can also cover your back by sitting tight with Reach. 

Sephiroth, Fallen Hero is a recurrable threat – or Commander – in RW, which is a first for the color pair. His ability to gradually upgrade your board into 7/5s means that eventually, you’ll overrun whatever stands in your way.

Ultimate Magic: Meteor is a fantastic board wipe, and the fact it can take out problem lands or artifacts as well as creatures makes it a very high pick for me.

Conformer Shuriken is an ideal way to swing past arbitrarily large tokens owned by green players, and the fact it also grows your own board is fantastic.

SOLDIER Military Program might well be the sleeper hit of the precon. In a deck that thrives on extra combats, you’re getting these bonuses multiple times a turn. If that Commander gives extra combats? Well, let’s just say any Aurelia decks that play lots of Soldiers already are going to be thrilled.

REPRINTS? YES REPRINTS

While this deck isn’t choc(obo)-full of reprints, the ones it does have are pretty nice pickups. Clever Concealment is best in slot for many decks, beaten out only by Game Changer Teferi’s Protection. It also has a very fun reference on. 

The deck has some equipment that always need reprints: Skullclamp and Sword of the Animist. Conqueror’s Flail joins them, offering ways to stop interaction during your turn, which is always appreciated.

FINAL FANTASY VII: SEVEN IN, SEVEN OUT – $50 BUDGET UPGRADE

For this upgrade, I stuck to Seven impactful swaps. More than just because Seven is thematic, it’s also because the deck out of the box performs quite well already. And, admittedly, because I really wanted to add the other Cloud, who is pretty expensive.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is synonymous with FFVII, and not including him in this form would be a real bummer. He can search up new additional equipment in this build too. Blackblade Reforged is another way for us to make a power 7 attacker; Sword of Hearth and Home ramps us and lets us re-use our great Enter-the-Battlefield effects; Celestial Armor helps buff Cloud, Ex-Soldier’s power, gives him evasion, and crucially acts as a protection spell, too.

Because the deck wants to go wide with equipped creatures, I’ve added Goldwarden’s Gambit, which is an instant board. Battlefield Improvisation is the cheaper option compared to Inventory Management, but the +2/+2 buff is actually relevant here too. Finally, more protection from Silkguard that, again, buffs our power. Synergy is really important in deckbuilding.

I took out the following cards. They were either low impact, or didn’t mesh with our overall theme.

• Elena, Turk Recruit
• Aerith, Last Ancient
• Barret Wallace
• Heidegger, Shinra Executive
• Bronze Guardian
• Hellkite Tyrant
• Summon: Kujata

ADDING GAME CHANGERS

If you’re wanting to add some powerful Game Changer cards and take this deck firmly into Bracket 3: Upgraded, then you can pick from a bunch of options. The most impactful that I’d personally pick would be:

Deflecting Swat, which is always good when you need to protect a Commander that attacks for value and damage.

Teferi’s Protection, which will protect not only your whole board, but also your life total from changing. 

Enlightened Tutor, which can help us find crucial equipment and synergy enchantments.

FURTHER UPGRADES

There are many cards outside of Game Changers to consider, though, and many of them will have a higher impact.

Stoneforge Mystic and Esper Sentinel are in most equipment lists for a reason: they are the most efficient and powerful early drops available in most instances. 

Sword of Feast and Famine is one of the most powerful Equipment cards every printed, and remains a high pick for any Equipment deck.

That’s not to say that The Reaver Cleaver hasn’t caught up to it, though. It makes a boat load of treasure, and also fuels Aggravated Assault. 

In green, I’d want to be considering Kodama of the West Tree, who gives you a Rampant Growth every time a modified creature you control connects. Yes, it’s as strong as it sounds.

Shadowspear’s lifelink and trample prove invaluable in converting Commander Damage wins, and in staying alive. The optional debuff mode comes up rarely, but when it does? It’s a life saver.

Excalibur, Sword of Eden provides the biggest stat increase for mana value available on an Equipment. In many decks, this ends up costing very little mana indeed.

Finally, being in green means I’m very tempted by Legolas’s Quick Reflexes. It does a hell of a lot for a single green mana.

END STEP

Limit Break is a great place to start if you like Final Fantasy. Equipment and combat are some of the most accessible ways to play Magic, but also the ways with the arguably highest ceiling. The precon offers fabulous new cards for veteran players, and a fun experience, whichever upgrade route you go down.