Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER leads a Voltron-style Equipment deck. It suits up Cloud and a crew of legendary Final Fantasy heroes, then attacks, drawing a card for each equipped attacker and making Treasure whenever Cloud reaches 7 power. A recurring threshold of power 7 or greater ties the list together: base-setting Equipment, big pumps and Sephiroth's modified-creature boost push attackers to 7 power, which unlocks Treasure, upkeep draws, extra combats and spread damage. Cost reducers, free-equip effects and Equipment tutors keep the gear moving cheaply each turn. How it wins: It swings with one or more heavily equipped, evasive or double-striking legends, taking extra combat phases and chaining combat-damage triggers until opponents fall to commander damage or overwhelming combat damage. Key roles: - Equipment tutoring and deployment: These find the right Equipment and put it into play or straight onto a creature, often at instant speed, so Cloud's attack trigger counts as many equipped attackers as possible (Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper's Gift, Hammer of Nazahn). - Equip cost cheating: These shrink or remove equip and casting costs so multiple pieces can be moved onto Cloud or other legends in one turn, and some reward each Equipment cast or target with cards (Puresteel Paladin, Forge Anew, Sram, Senior Edificer). - Seven-power payoffs: Cloud's Treasure clause and several heroes care about creatures with 7 or more power, rewarding pumps that cross that threshold with draws, untaps, extra combats and damage copied to every opponent (Wrecking Ball Arm, Tifa, Martial Artist, Vincent, Vengeful Atoner). - Extra combats and doubled damage: Double strike and additional combat phases multiply every attack trigger and combat-damage trigger, turning one suited-up hero into a lethal threat (Genji Glove, Cloud, Planet's Champion, Sword of Feast and Famine). - Legendary voltron package: Many Equipment grant extra bonuses or cheaper equip costs only to legendary creatures, and the creature suite is almost all legends, so any hero can carry the gear and pass it along (Blackblade Reforged, Hero's Heirloom, Champion's Helm). - Protection and recursion: Hexproof, indestructible and phasing keep the equipped threat alive, while graveyard recursion rebuilds lost creatures and Equipment after removal or the deck's own sweepers (Darksteel Plate, Heroic Intervention, Unfinished Business).

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER decklist

• Arcane Signet
• Behemoth Sledge
• Blackblade Reforged
• Buster Sword
• Champion's Helm
• Colossus Hammer
• Conformer Shuriken
• Conqueror's Flail
• Darksteel Plate
• Genji Glove
• Hammer of Nazahn
• Hero's Blade
• Hero's Heirloom
• Inspiring Statuary
• Lightning Greaves
• Sol Ring
• Summoning Materia
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Sword of Feast and Famine
• Sword of the Animist
• The Reaver Cleaver
• Trailblazer's Boots
• Wrecking Ball Arm
• Battlefield Forge
• Bonders' Enclave
• Brushland
• Canopy Vista
• Cinder Glade
• Clifftop Retreat
• Command Tower
• Evolving Wilds
• Exotic Orchard
• Fire-Lit Thicket
• 3× Forest
• Fortified Village
• Furycalm Snarl
• Game Trail
• Jungle Shrine
• Mossfire Valley
• 3× Mountain
• Path of Ancestry
• 5× Plains
• Rootbound Crag
• Rugged Prairie
• Scavenger Grounds
• Slayers' Stronghold
• Spire of Industry
• Sungrass Prairie
• Sunpetal Grove
• Sunscorched Divide
• Aerith, Last Ancient
• Akiri, Fearless Voyager
• Barret, Avalanche Leader
• Bastion Protector
• Bugenhagen, Wise Elder
• Cid, Freeflier Pilot
• Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
• Cloud, Planet's Champion
• Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• Firion, Wild Rose Warrior
• Helitrooper
• Professional Face-Breaker
• Professor Hojo
• Puresteel Paladin
• Red XIII, Proud Warrior
• Sephiroth, Fallen Hero
• Sram, Senior Edificer
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Tifa, Martial Artist
• Vincent, Vengeful Atoner
• Yuffie, Materia Hunter
• Zack Fair
• Fighter Class
• Forge Anew
• Sigarda's Aid
• Chaos Warp
• Clever Concealment
• Cloud's Limit Break
• Dispatch
• Heroic Intervention
• Path to Exile
• Swords to Plowshares
• Ultimate Magic: Holy
• Austere Command
• Cultivate
• Nature's Lore
• Rampant Growth
• Steelshaper's Gift
• Unfinished Business
• Vandalblast
• Vanquish the Horde