Spoiler Highlight: Vivi Ornitier in Standard, Pioneer & Modern

In every set, there is that one card that leaves every player wondering whether it will be a new multi-format staple, or just the latest target of the hype zone that preview season always puts the Magic community into. The card of the moment with Final Fantasy has been Vivi Ornitier!

Vivi Ornitier

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In addition to being many people's favorite character in the franchise, Vivi is now a potential staple. His abilities combine both win conditions, ramp, and increased pressure on the board for a relatively low cost, and there are several interactions that we can consider in the main competitive environments today.

In Standard, for example, Vivi turns Monstrous Rage and Turn Inside Out into improved Dark Rituals, cantrips now cost free, and there are some loops involving Stormchaser’s Talent and This Town Ain’t Big Enough that can eventually culminate in paying for level three way sooner than we should.

Pioneer has one of the most efficient free spells with the new card: Mox Amber. Its combo with Rona, Herald of Invasion and Retraction Helix is already widely known in the Mono Blue versions, and perhaps the mix of ramp and infinite damage that Vivi provides, in addition to the increased versatility of answers with , will make the combo gain a second color again.

Modern expands Moxens with Mox Opal, who has already starred in several combos with Emry, Lurker of the Loch in a deck that now has Jeskai Ascendancy since the banning of Underworld Breach. Vivi offers a new possibility in this combo while interacting with some of their main staples, such as Flame of Anor, in addition to also being a mid-game bomb for Prowess lists with interactions that transform Mutagenic Growth into Black Lotus and Lava Dart into Lotus Petal. The black mage is also a potential tool to try Izzet Storm again.

In the absence of free spells Vivi Ornitier can be used in archetypes that can make sequences with non-creature spells, or run several cheap cards to deal damage or draw more cards, allowing Vivi to turn all of them into “free spells”, since each one will add a +1/+1 counter on him, which will then be converted into mana.

Pumps turn into Dark Rituals, and Standard has a considerable number of one-mana cards that increase the target creature's power by three. Added to the +1/+1 counter that Vivi receives, they generate the equivalent of four mana when we activate his ability, convertible into more pumps and/or draws or even to cast more powerful spells or activate abilities.

Vivi, therefore, works on several fronts: first, he will increase his own power and deal damage to the opponent, the pumps will make him generate more mana and this mana can be used for possible lethal damage. Ideally, we can mix cantrips and Stock Up with these to streak more spells per turn.

The problem, however, is his mana cost: is too high for Prowess lists that today have a much less all-in plan with Cori-Steel Cutter for and the artifact type that avoids the most relevant removals of the current Metagame, while Vivi does not avoid Cut Down or Lightning Strike the moment he enters. In practice, Vivi Ornitier doesn't compare in effectiveness with Cori-Steel Cutter and requires more actions to finish games than Slickshot Show-Off.

The new mage works with decks that already have some loopings. For example, it guarantees a Thermo-Alchemist that generates mana for Temur Otters and can create archetypes with similar structures if we have enough support in Final Fantasy or Edge of Eternities, since it is the closest thing to a Dark Ritual that we will have in Standard in a long time, perhaps becoming the key to some archetype around Stormscale Scion, despite requiring many pieces and concessions to work.

Splash Portal is the only one-mana blink effect in Standard today. It turns Vivi into a new object in the game and allows him to generate mana again in exchange for the +1/+1 counters he already had. Since the spell also interacts with otters and birds, it's possible that Valley Floodcaller or Slickshot Show-Off could actually be some of the new card's best friends in Standard.

Despite the combo potential, it's possible to use Vivi as a fair threat. Yes, the first turn with it is unpleasant because Vivi dies to almost everything, but that only if we don't have instant-speed cards and only on the third turn. From the first trigger, he already survives against most conditional removals in the format today and becomes a powerful snowball the longer he stays in play, after all, the extra mana will mean more spells being played per turn.

Things get more interesting for Vivi when we get to Pioneer, since we have Mox Amber, the centerpiece of a dozen combos in the format that commonly involve Retraction Helix or Emry, Lurker of the Loch.

With Rona, Herald of Invasion and Retraction Helix, Vivi automatically turns into infinite mana and damage in a single card, while cantrips and other spells to dig the combo virtually cost less, allowing you to dig deeper with Sleight of Hand or Stock Up while the addition of can guarantee more flexibility in interacting with the opponent, be it with removals or with Sideboard cards.

Pioneer also adds Essence Flux if you need to blink Vivi, and cards like Ancestral Anger offer the mix of Pump + Draw to build your own Storm, although these will probably run into the same problems they would in Standard: a high mana value that will most likely force you to untap with it to start the streak.

The amount of free spells available in Modern amplifies Vivi Ornitier's potential the moment he enters the battlefield. While three mana for a card that dies to Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Discharge means it must be really worth it, Vivi arguably has the most potential in Modern

The black mage interacts with several non-creature spells in the format: Mishra’s Bauble turns into Lotus Petal, Mutagenic Growth becomes Black Lotus while also protecting Vivi from damage removal, and cards like Gut Shot and Lava Dart double their damage and offer free mana that can be used to play other spells, which will amplify both Vivi’s power and the power of other Prowess cards on the board.

His potential also extends to Jeskai Ascendancy lists, which runs a mix ofMox Opal and Mox Amber as well as cheap interaction, artifacts that also trigger Vivi Ornitier and Flame of Anor, which the new card is conveniently in the right type while virtually “reducing” its mana cost.

It can also be used as a solid win condition without the combo if we push the list a bit more towards card advantage with Expressive Iteration, Preordain and more cheap removals, where Vivi becomes the bigger threat as the game progresses while being protected by Counterspell and Force of Negation in a sort of Izzet Wizards shell

His place in Prowess decks is a bit weird: while the opening of Slickshot Show-Off / Cori-Steel Cutter followed by Vivi Ornitier demands too many answers, Modern has a lot of mana efficiency, and it works on both fronts.

On the one hand, if we play Stormchaser’s Talent on turn one, plot Slickshot Show-Off and play it with Vivi followed by a free spell and any other one-mana spell on turn three, the amount of pressure we extract from him the moment he enters is absurd. On the other hand, he is one of the worst topdecks you could want for an Aggro deck, since he doesn’t add any pressure without casting other spells.

Jeskai Ascendancy is probably the combo where Vivi has the most potential in the first few weeks, but he also deserves testing in Storm. The most successful versions today are Boros/Mono Red with Ruby Medallion, which also reduces his mana cost, and the moment Vivi enters the board, Desperate Ritual transforms into Dark Ritual, Manamorphose starts generating extra mana, and Vivi itself works as another win condition in the list, which could justify returning to Izzet colors.

Vivi Ornitier is, at the moment, one of the most powerful Final Fantasy cards for competitive Magic. The possibility of growing it quickly, the interaction with pumps and the way that every format has a list that can take advantage of his abilities might eventually lead him to be a multi-format staple.

The deckbuilding concessions for him today are low, and the biggest impediment is its cost on archetypes that generally want to be close to winning the game at the time they would be casting Vivi. However, he also opens up the possibility for new combos in Standard and Pioneer, and offers ideal support for archetypes with free spells in Modern, be it Lava Dart and Mutagenic Growth, or Mox Amber and Mox Opal.

Thanks for reading!