MagicTheGathering.fyi

Lightning, Army of One

Legendary Creature — Human Soldier

First strike, trample, lifelink
Stagger — Whenever Lightning deals combat damage to a player, until your next turn, if a source would deal damage to that player or a permanent that player controls, it deals double that damage instead.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{R}{W}
Color identity
RW
Rarity
mythic
Set
Final Fantasy
Price
$29.22
EDHREC rank
#2838
Buy on TCGplayer
Lightning, Army of One card art
Lightning, Army of One hits the table as a recursive, self-buffering threat that generates counters through combat — closer in spirit to Walking Ballista than to any traditional creature, but with a combat-focused engine that rewards aggressive shells. Tifa, Martial Artist is the clearest home, but the card earns its slot in any deck that cares about +1/+1 counters or repeated damage triggers.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Tifa, Martial Artist

Tifa, Martial Artist

47.3% of decks · synergy 0.43

Tifa, Martial Artist's ability to track and reward combat damage makes Lightning, Army of One a near-automatic include — every swing grows Lightning and feeds back into Tifa's escalating power threshold.

02
Bre of Clan Stoutarm

Bre of Clan Stoutarm

36.6% of decks · synergy 0.30

Bre of Clan Stoutarm wants creatures that scale through combat, and Lightning, Army of One obliges by accruing counters organically, giving Bre a threat that gets more dangerous the longer it survives.

03
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER

31.4% of decks · synergy 0.27

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER's counter-synergy engine turns Lightning, Army of One into a card that snowballs fast — each counter placed feeds Cloud's own triggers, compounding value across both cards.

04
Amy Rose

Amy Rose

31.4% of decks · synergy 0.25

Amy Rose rewards frequent, low-cost attacks, and Lightning, Army of One's ability to grow through combat damage makes it a perfect repeatable threat in that low-to-the-ground aggressive strategy.

05
Sephiroth, Fallen Hero

Sephiroth, Fallen Hero

29.5% of decks · synergy 0.23

Sephiroth, Fallen Hero's damage-based trigger package pairs cleanly with Lightning, Army of One, which puts itself in position to trigger those effects turn after turn as it accumulates counters and keeps attacking.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is the obvious home for Lightning, Army of One — the longer game gives it time to accumulate counters, and the multiplayer environment means repeated attack triggers fire against multiple opponents. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer, it faces steep competition from faster, more deterministic threats, and its combat-centric growth engine is too slow to race the format's best decks. Standard gives it the cleanest shot outside Commander if a dedicated counters or combat shell exists in the format's pool. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters for a card that asks you to attack multiple times before it becomes threatening. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander closely enough that the same counter-heavy commanders that want it there will want it there too.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Walking Ballista fills a similar counter-sink role at a lower price point and can be tutored more easily, though it lacks the recursive combat engine that makes Lightning, Army of One uniquely threatening in aggressive builds. Managorger Hydra grows at a comparable rate and costs under $1, but it's purely offensive and gives up the damage-trigger interactions that define Lightning, Army of One's best draws.

Price Context

Current price

$29.22 premium tier

At $29.22, Lightning, Army of One sits firmly in the premium tier — a price driven by its exclusive set origin and immediate demand from Final Fantasy Commander players. It's a real card with real synergies, but that price reflects novelty as much as power, and it's worth watching whether it settles lower as supply catches up.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.