Lightning can strike more than once, actually.
There are a lot of Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY Commanders to consider building around, but if you’re an aggressive player, then there’s one option that shines above all of the others, and that’s Lightning, Army of One. This incredible Commander is sure to help you blitz your way to victory with an early lunch on the horizon, and we’re excited to try it out.
We’re also excited to run it through the classic Commander Bestiary treatment here at TCGplayer. We’re going to talk about Lightning’s lore as a character, then go through the card and the best options to play alongside her. This also means acknowledging any strengths and weaknesses of the card, as well as building a whole deck that you can take or tweak as you wish.
Lore Intro
Lightning, Army of One
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
Lightning (born as Claire Farron) is the protagonist of Final Fantasy 13 (XIII), and also a key part of Final Fantasy 13-2 (XIII-2), and the only playable character in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. She is a mighty warrior who protects a goddess, the sister of Serah Farron, and throughout the three games, she eventually becomes the savior of all people.
Strengths
Lightning, Army of One is aptly named as when she deals combat damage to a player, she doubles any kind of damage to that player or a permanent that player controls instead, and this effect lasts until your next turn. As Lightning attacks with first strike, any normal combat damage you would deal to any permanent or opponent is doubled. However, it also means that double strike damage would end up being quadrupled and that any extra combat steps will continue to boost the damage output even further. This works with any damage from anyone to a specific player, meaning you can hit a player with Lightning, and then someone else can deal double damage to them.
Weaknesses
While incredible on offense, Lightning, Army of One isn’t great on defense. Two toughness is really soft in the world of Commander, and there’s no built-in protection here. You’re going to want to incorporate some protection spells because Lightning is going to (literally) be a lightning rod for removal and board wipes from the rest of the table. This is definitely something you’re going to need to address early on, but there are plenty of cards to get around the issue.
Recommended Archetypes
There’s only one real way to build Lightning in Commander, and that is as an aggressive strategy. There’s no reason to choose Lightning, Army of One as your Commander otherwise, but the specifics of the kind of aggression can vary. Lightning could easily lead a Token strategy, or even an Equipment (Voltron) one, or maybe even one that focuses on chaining as many combat steps as possible. We’re going to lean into the idea of doubling damage, and we’re going to do that via a little bit of everything.
Key Cards
If you’re hoping to build your own Lightning, Army of One Commander Deck and just want a few starting cards, then here are the ones we recommend:
- Full Throttle
- Whispersilk Cloak
- Bastion Protector
- Fiery Emancipation
- Aettir and Priwen
- Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar
Strategy
Our general strategy here is just to really lean into what Lightning, Army of One can do, which is make everything deal more damage. The easiest way to do that is by using extra combat steps, and when it comes to extra combat steps, Full Throttle is a really good starting point. If you hit with Lightning once, its next damage will go from three to six, but if you hit again, it’ll go up to twelve instead. Every hit doubles the damage, so if you can give double strike alongside all of this (like with Lizard Blades), then you’ll be finishing your opponents off without much issue.
While the trample on Lightning can help enable all of this, it’s nearly always better to just avoid being blocked at all. Whispersilk Cloak is an equipment that makes the equipped creature unblockable, but it also grants shroud. While powerful, do be careful how you stack your equipment as shroud means a creature cannot be targeted with any spells of abilities, including your own. You can also grant pseudo-unblockability by using something like Trailblazer’s Boots, which grants nonbasic landwalk.
Fiery Emancipation
Core Set 2021, Mythic
Fiery Emancipation causes for sources you control to deal triple damage, and yes, this does stack with the Lightning, Army of One damage boost. This means hitting with Lightning once would be nine damage, and hitting again would scale up to 18 damage. Aettir and Priwen gives the equipped creature a base power and toughness equal to your life total, meaning at full health, Lightning will become a 40/40, which is a one-shot hit to any other player thanks to Commander damage. Finally, we’ve got Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar who makes it so when your Commander (so Lightning) deals combat damage to a player, eat deals that damage to every other opponent too. This covers the biggest issue with aggro decks in Commander, which is that it’s hard to beat everyone up at once.
Commander
Lightning, Army of One
Market Price:$179.43
Maindeck, 99 cards
- 1Lightning, Army of One
Creature (20)
- 1Bastion Protector
- 1Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar
- 1Lizard Blades
- 1Aurelia, the Warleader
- 1Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
- 1Combat Celebrant
- 1Mother of Runes
- 1Lightning, Security Sergeant
- 1Sephiroth, Fallen Hero
- 1Odric, Lunarch Marshal
- 1Heartless Hidetsugu
- 1Moraug, Fury of Akoum
- 1Solemn Simulacrum
- 1Port Razer
- 1Balefire Liege
- 1Cid, Freeflier Pilot
- 1Mangara, the Diplomat
- 1Neheb, the Eternal
- 1Seifer Almasy
- 1Karlach, Fury of Avernus
Sorcery (10)
- 1Full Throttle
- 1Open the Armory
- 1Relentless Assault
- 1Faithless Looting
- 1Disrupt Decorum
- 1Boltwave
- 1Spectacular Showdown
- 1Cut a Deal
- 1Nibelheim Aflame
- 1Sevinne’s Reclamation
Instant (15)
- 1Chaos Warp
- 1Legion Leadership
- 1Lightning Helix
- 1Generous Gift
- 1Great Train Heist
- 1Stroke of Midnight
- 1Take the Bait
- 1Dawn’s Truce
- 1Sejiri Shelter
- 1Haste Magic
- 1Big Score
- 1Rebuff the Wicked
- 1Lightning Bolt
- 1Lightning Strike
- 1Deflecting Palm
Artifact (13)
- 1Whispersilk Cloak
- 1Aettir and Priwen
- 1Genji Glove
- 1Swiftfoot Boots
- 1Lightning Greaves
- 1Sol Ring
- 1Arcane Signet
- 1Basilisk Collar
- 1Blackblade Reforged
- 1Two-Handed Axe//
- 1The Fire Crystal
- 1The Wind Crystal
- 1Sunforger
Enchantment (4)
- 1Fiery Emancipation
- 1Duelist’s Heritage
- 1City on Fire
- 1The Sound of Drums
Land (37)
- 1Rogue’s Passage
- 1Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
- 1Slayers’ Stronghold
- 1Reliquary Tower
- 1Ishgard, the Holy See
- 1Access Tunnel
- 1Command Beacon
- 1Axgard Armory
- 1Buried Ruin
- 1Myriad Landscape
- 1Command Tower
- 1Clifftop Retreat
- 1Battlefield Forge
- 1Rugged Prairie
- 1Furycalm Snarl
- 1Boros Garrison
- 1Exotic Orchard
- 1Sunscorched Divide
- 1Inspiring Vantage
- 1Sunbaked Canyon
- 1Evolving Wilds
- 1Terramorphic Expanse
- 1Path of Ancestry
- 1Boros Guildgate
- 1Abraded Bluffs
- 1Wind-Scarred Crag
- 1Temple of Triumph
- 5Mountain
- 5Plains
With all of that behind us, you’re ready to bring the thunder and lightning. If you want to lean into the storm a little bit more, you could always check out Zurgo Stormrender, Neriv, Heart of the Storm, or Storm, Force of Nature. There’s a lot of storm in Magic (that isn’t just the Storm mechanic), as it turns out. Alternatively, you can sign up for the Commander Bestiary newsletter to receive the latest content directly to your inbox!