Final Judgment – Betrayers of Kamigawa
Date Reviewed: May 22, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.25
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
It’s hard to imagine now, but Final Judgment was once styled as the ultimate sweeper. The operative word was, of course, “styled”, because the card was in Standard alongside Wrath of God, and there were almost never any sweepers that could compete with Wrath of God in competitive environments. Four mana is a very low cost for what Wrath of God does, and players and designers of the time blinded themselves to that fact for the simple reason that Wrath of God had been around for so long. (It was in every core set from Alpha through Tenth Edition, and even M10 had Day of Judgment.) We blinded ourselves, but testing invariably showed that you wanted the early-game Wrath more than you wanted the variants’ upsides. Stopping recursive effects is good, but in the mid-2000s those tended not to be as powerful as we’re used to now. There was also some value in getting around the Kamigawa dragons’ death triggers and, in block constructed, the soulshift ability.
Final Judgment was historically seen more at casual tables and theme decks, and I would have said that was a good niche for it. Some casual settings have decks that broadly resemble constructed archetypes like aggro, control, and midrange, but less efficient. There’s no shame in using a card like Final Judgment for a taste of the Keeper tradition that’s a little less flexible and thus a little more friendly, and additionally makes people think in different ways. It’s plenty good enough that they didn’t need to make certain infamous newer cards with its text plus extras, especially when those newer cards make Commander games take even longer than they usually do. Of course, redundancy is one way to build Commander decks, and the fact that there are multiple six-ish-mana exile sweepers undoubtedly gets control instincts up and running. There’s also no shame in using Final Judgment to encourage your Commander group to find something for Golgari-plus decks to do other than dredge variants.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Add two mana onto a standard board wipe, and you can make sure it sticks, so to speak. That said, Final Judgment is a card that has aged oddly since its last review in 2005…in particular, two cards have come out that are effectively this card, but better. Farewell is the more famous version, but Descend upon the Sinful is a more direct upgrade to the card.
That being said, being the third-best version of a good card…is still actually not that bad. Final Judgment does what it sets out to do quite well: six mana, clear the board of creatures. While I do not think this should be the one you reach for first of the trio, it’s good redundancy and may have upside in being the version of the card you’re least likely to see (which might have upside with things like Meddling Mage or the like trying to block sweepers). It’s a step too slow for deeper formats anymore, but in a more casual setting (or Commander), that can be all you need to save a game.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4 (Kamigawa did have a fair few death triggers, and this bypasses all of them)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4 (it might have been power-crept, but this can still put in work)
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 5,000 more MTG Card of the Day Reviews!
Daily Since 2001.