I almost always use Celes and Locke in my party, and before the last time I played it with Strago and Shadow in my party, I almost never used magic. I just used Locke, Edgar, Sabin, and Celes as physical attackers more than anything. Last time I played through the game though, which was a couple months ago, I used Shadow and Strago in my main party for the first time. Strago can kick some hard core ass with magic, and Shadow's throw is way better than I thought it would be. The game can be quite fun when you play through it again using characters that you don't normally use. I had no idea until I tried, because I always used the same 4 character format, give or take a Celes or Locke for Terra.