Estinien Varlineau
Legendary Creature — Elf Warrior
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Estinien Varlineau. It gains flying until end of turn.
At the beginning of your second main phase, you draw X cards and lose X life, where X is the number of your opponents who were dealt combat damage by Estinien Varlineau or a Dragon this turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Final Fantasy Commander
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #10850
Estinien Varlineau hits the board as a five-mana threat that generates immediate value through its connection to the darkness-counter ecosystem, rewarding decks that want creatures dying or exiling on both sides of the table. The cost is real — five mana is a commitment — but the payoff scales with how aggressively you're fueling the graveyard or exile zone, making Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness the natural home.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness is the premier shell for Estinien Varlineau because Ardbert's darkness-counter engine turns every opponent's creature dying into a resource, and Estinien plugs directly into that loop to accelerate the board state or drain the table.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Estinien Varlineau is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but Commander is the only format where it's genuinely relevant — the five-mana cost and build-around nature are a non-starter in Legacy and Vintage, where games end before synergy-dependent mythics get traction. In Commander, it lands in a specific niche: darkness-counter decks and aristocrats-adjacent strategies that want a payoff piece rather than an engine piece. Oathbreaker could theoretically support it if the planeswalker and signature spell align with the exile or death theme, but the card pool depth there limits how consistently you assemble the supporting cast.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Current pricing data for Estinien Varlineau isn't available in this dataset, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before picking one up. As a mythic rare from a Final Fantasy crossover set with a built-in fan base, expect demand to outpace pure gameplay utility — buy on card strength, not hype.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.