Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Rydia, Summoner of Mist: Modern vs Legacy Demand
Two colors, two archetypes, and a cross‑set wink to Final Fantasy. Rydia, Summoner of Mist lands in MTG with a splashy set identity and a pair of abilities that don’t neatly fit into one classic archetype. On one hand you have Landfall, a mechanic that rewards you for developing the battlefield. On the other, a Summon ability that can fetch a Saga card from the graveyard and bring it back into play with a finality counter, complete with haste for a turn. It’s a card that begs to be piloted with a specific plan, and that plan looks notably different in Modern versus Legacy. 🧙🔥💎⚔️
What makes this card tick
Oracle text: Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Summon — {X}, {T}: Return target Saga card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it. It gains haste until end of turn. Activate only as a sorcery.
In short, Rydia rewards you for building a land-focused engine (discard to draw with landfall can smooth your hand, accelerate gas, and enable longer gambits) while offering a graveyard-based resurrection trick for Sagasy love letters from MTG’s lore. The card’s RG identity is a deliberate nod to cross‑franchise flavor, and its uncommon rarity hides a surprisingly spicy play pattern that can surprise opponents who underestimate the back half of its text. 🎨
Modern perspective: speed, consistency, and multi‑step lines
Modern players chase efficiency, redundancy, and consistency. Rydia’s strength in Modern hinges on a few practical ideas. First, the landfall trigger combined with the option to discard a card to draw creates a form of card advantage when you’re willing to trade hand size for inevitability. In the right shell—think fast mana, fetch lands, and ways to ensure you’re often seeing a new card—Rydia can fit into a 2‑color aggressive tempo shell that likes to slam threats while smoothing draws. The second pillar is its Summon ability. Returning a Saga from the graveyard with a finality counter and granting haste for a turn can enable quick, targeted replays of important sagas, potentially enabling stacked spell explosions if your graveyard already contains the right Saga pieces. It’s not a trivially fast combo, but in a metagame that values answer density, Rydia adds a novel line that can punish stalled boards. 🧙🔥 > Practical Modern considerations: > - Build around reliable mana sources to ensure early land drops and a healthy hand to maximize discard-for-draw payoffs. > - Include Saga-related enablers in your graveyard strategy so the X in the Summon line hits cleanly when you need a revival. > - Expect that you’ll win more by pressure and value than by attempting a single explosive combo; resilience and looting-like effects help here. In short, Modern demand for Rydia rests on a delicate balance: enough card advantage from Landfall to justify the discard, plus a graveyard recursion route that’s fast enough to threaten a timely endgame. It’s not a slam-dunk archetype, but it’s the kind of card that can carve out a niche in a meta where players love engines that combine hand‑tempo with graveyard redundancy. 🧩🎲
Legacy perspective: graveyard, synergy, and thank-you Sagas
Legacy is a different animal altogether. The format thrives on graveyard interactions, fast mana, and a broad suite of permission spells. Rydia’s ability to extract value from Sagasy in the graveyard—returning them with a finality counter and haste—slots into decks that want to leverage recursion in a high‑velocity environment. The landfall component, while less central in Legacy than in some Modern landfall shells, still provides a credible engine for fueling card draw and pressuring opponents through repeated threats. The real draw here is the potential to chain Saga holdings with graveyard fetches, reanimating a saga card again and again across a single game, especially when supported by cheap, efficient ways to play extra land drops. Legacy’s toolkit—think efficient cantrips, accelerants, and graveyard interaction—gives Rydia a sturdier runway for turn-by-turn value and tempo swings. ⚔️🎨 > Legacy builders might emphasize a dual‑purpose engine: a ramp/landfall base to churn through your grip, plus a robust graveyard recursion plan to keep the Saga machine humming even when opponents clear the board. The strength of Rydia in Legacy is less about raw power and more about its fun‑and‑flexibility factor—how it enables a creative deck to race toward value with a back-up plan that rewards meticulous sequencing. It’s the kind of card that makes long, flavorful Legacy sideboard games feel fresh, as you tease out lines you wouldn’t ordinarily consider. 🧙♀️
Power, synergy, and deckbuilding notes
- Color identity: Green and red, enabling a broad range of fetches, fast mana, and graveyard interactions. This duo opens up a lot of high-velocity options in both formats.
- Landfall synergy: Works best when your plan includes multiple lands entering the battlefield per turn, and when you have reliable draw engines to offset the discard cost.
- Saga recursion: The Summon ability can be a powerful engine enabler if your graveyard already has viable Saga cards with mana values that hit the target well.
- Card values and price realities: As of release data, Rydia sits around a modest price tier in nonfoil form, with foil options providing a bit more depth. In the Collector’s market, it’s a niche piece that shines in players’ hands who love creative, multi‑layered builds. The card’s EDH/Commander footprint is part of its ongoing collectability, even if it isn’t a staple in every meta. 🧙♂️💎
- Strategic caution: The landfall discard-draw loop is a double-edged sword; you’ll want ways to reload your gas and protect your battlefield against disruption. Prepare to lean on cantrips and filtering to keep your engine online.
Collector value and market intuition
From a collector’s viewpoint, Rydia, Summoner of Mist is a flavorful, unique piece—especially appealing to fans of the Final Fantasy crossover and players who enjoy gravity‑defying graveyard plays. Its set, the Final Fantasy expansion, marks it as a cross‑franchise homage rather than a purely traditional MTG card, which tends to attract a certain subset of collectors and players who chase novelty alongside power. The rarity (uncommon) keeps price points accessible, while foils, if sought, tend to ride higher on demand for players building showpiece decks or completing playset goals. For casual investors, the card offers an interesting speculative angle: a mechanistic engine card in a setting that frequently revisits nostalgic IPs. 🧿🎲
Practical takeaways for your next Friday Night Magic
If you’re curious about incorporating Rydia into your Modern or Legacy lineup, start with a clear plan: maximize your land drops, curate a hand that can safely discard for draw, and assemble a graveyard plan rich enough to justify the Summon line. It’s a card that rewards curiosity and patience—two traits every MTG fan has in abundance. And if you’re not chasing a tournament run but still want a deck that sings with flavor and unexpected interactions, Rydia offers both a thematic hook and a practical engine. 🧙♀️💥
For enthusiasts who love to blend real-world collectibles with in-game prowess, this card also serves as a conversation starter about how Universes Beyond takes familiar archetypes and hands them a new, cinematic spin. The Final Fantasy crossovers aren’t just flavor; they’re a reminder of how Magic’s multiverse keeps evolving—one well-timed landfall at a time. ⚡🧭