Vivi Ornitier – Final Fantasy
Date Reviewed: May 24, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.38
Casual: 5.00
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 4.50
Commander [EDH]: 4.63
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Spellslinger decks are getting positively terrifying – the support for them has added up faster as the years have passed. Vivi outright changes the game: while his second ability is fairly standard spellslinger fare, providing a one-card engine for you to turn it into mana and keep the chain going is unprecedented. And his mana ability directly addresses a problem some such decks face, where they run card selection or cantrips for obvious reasons but have to slow down due to mana constraints (including blue being generally poor at ramping). He reads like a card that takes a while to get going, but I think this is deceptive. It only takes a couple of spells to put him into the range where a single activation generates curve-breaking amounts of mana, and after that you will literally run away with games.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
Without going too in the weeds about his home game, I’d dare to day that Vivi Ornitier, the plucky little black mage from Final Fantasy IX, might be one of the most universally liked characters in the series. He’s a charming little presence who adds a good amount of emotional underpinning to his game’s story and makes it richer, and while IX is not the most represented game in this set, him getting the mythic rare is fitting.
It might also be fitting because Vivi is very scary, and he might well wind up being the set’s “chase card” for sheer power. He plays well with the “spellslinger” strategy of most Izzet decks, and while he does need to get going a bit, keep in mind that his mana ability does not restrict you in any way and can also stack well with any power buffs you may have running around. Spells fuel more spells, and while 3 toughness is a bit shaky at first, one additional spell will get him to a trickier range to kill for most effects that hit on toughness.
Vivi Ornitier feels like one of the most powerful cards we’ve seen from the set, and it’s not even all that subtle. He’s equal parts threat, finisher, and enabler, and all of those combined certainly make the plucky black mage a force to be reckoned with. I would be very surprised if he goes unplayed…card evaluation is a bit of an art form, and I certainly have been wrong before, but this just doesn’t feel like a card I’ll be wrong about.
Constructed: 4.75
Casual: 5
Limited: 4 (Limited revolves more around creatures, and Vivi needs a bit more help to shine here, but he can really take off with a bit of help)
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.75
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