Rounding up the best Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY previews from PAX East.
The next set is Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, which is already the best-selling Magic product of all time, even though it’s neither out nor fully previewed yet! Needless to say, it seems that players are pretty darn excited about getting their hands on the classic RPG series in MTG form, even with the increased pricing to accommodate the licensing with Square Enix.
Well, we’re now getting close enough to the set to have some official card reveals, and it looks as though all of the growing hype could well be met with the release. Let’s go through everything that was revealed at PAX East this past weekend and see what we’ll be introducing into Magic when the set drops on June 13.
The Not So Final Fantasy
As mentioned before, every mainline game from the series will appear in this set, which is a frankly staggering amount of games (and history) to try and represent within Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY. Of course, it does mean that we’re not getting the one true Final Fantasy game Stranger of Paradise represented here, and that means we’re all going to be severely lacking in fist bumps and angst. Moving on…
Final Fantasy (1)
Market Price: $11.79
Our quick look at the first game in the series showed off the mighty Garland, Knight of Cornelia. Garland is a two-mana black and red 3/2 that allows you to surveil whenever you cast a noncreature spell. You can then pay seven-mana to transform it into Chaos, the Fallen. As Chaos, this card is a 5/5 with flying that goes to the bottom of your library when it dies.
Along with Garland, there’s a new crop of equipment cards with Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY. White Mage’s Staff is a two-mana white equipment featuring the new Job Select mechanic, which creates a 1/1 Hero token as it enters and then attaches the equipment to that token. The equipped creature then gains +1/+1, and whenever the equipped creature attacks, you gain a life. Interestingly, it also turns the equipped creature into a Cleric, and each Job Select equipment creates a token but messes around with creature types.
Then there’s Black Mage’s Rod, a two-mana black equipment with Job Select granting the equipped creature +1/+0, and it deals one damage to each opponent when you cast a noncreature spell. It also offers the Wizard creature type to the equipped creature.
Final Fantasy II (2)
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
The second game only saw a handful of cards revealed this time around, with one of them being incredibly strong. Firion, Wild Rose Warrior is a three-mana red 3/3 that gives all of your equipped creatures haste. Firion also creates a copy of any nontoken equipment cards that enter the battlefield, and the token costs two less mana to activate, but you have to sacrifice it in your end step.
Doubling up cards like Cori-Steel Cutter or even the Job Select equipment cards means you can get a decent amount of value from Firion. We’re expecting to see this one in a decent number of decks, certainly in Commander.
Final Fantasy III (3)
Market Price: $19.62
Market Price: $39.12
For Final Fantasy III (3), we saw The Darkness Crystal. The Crystals are part of a cycle of five cards (one for each color), and this is the black one. It costs four-mana, reduces the cost of your black spells, and exiles any nontoken creatures your opponents control when they die. You can tap it and pay six mana to put one of those creatures into play (tapped) under your control and with two +1/+1 counters.
Each of these cards will reduce the cost of a different color and have powerful effects like The Darkness Crystal. We’re expecting these to be massive for mono-colored Commander strategies, and frankly, K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is laughing at this being added to the deck.
Final Fantasy IV (4)
Market Price: $37.30
Market Price: $22.13
Market Price: $20.00
Moving onto Final Fantasy IV (4), Cecil, Dark Knight is a one-mana black 2/3 with deathtouch that loses you life equal to any damage it deals. However, if Cecil does this and puts you under half your starting health, the card transforms into Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. The second version of Cecil is a white card, and it’s a 4/4 with lifelink that grants all of your other attacking creatures indestructible whenever it attacks.
The second card is arguably more interesting. Kain, Traitorous Dragoon is a three-mana black 2/4 comes with flying on your turn. When it deals damage to a player, that player gains control of it, then you draw that many cards, create that many tapped treasure tokens, and lose that much life. This is going to be a blast to play within political Commander games.
Final Fantasy V (5)
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Final Fantasy V (5) only showed off a couple of cards, but Wizards of the Coast did highlight the mighty Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms. This absurdly cool card is a six mana red 6/6 that lets you look at the top six when it enters or attacks. Then, you may put any equipment cards you find during that process into play, and when you do so, you can attach one of them to a Samurai you control. Yes, Gilgamesh is a Samurai, but maybe now is the time for Samurai-matters in Commander?
Final Fantasy VI (6)
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $50.00
Market Price: $101.27
Along with the Commander Deck headed up by Terra, Herald of Hope, we saw a few new cards from Final Fantasy VI (6). The first is Summon: Esper Valigarmanda, a four-mana 3/3 Saga with flying and haste. It comes with four chapters, the first of which lets you exile an instant or sorcery card from each graveyard. From there, you add a lore counter on the card in your upkeep and add one red mana to your pool for each lore counter, and you can spend that mana as if it were any color when casting spells you exiled with the Saga. The summoned creatures are all Saga cards, and it’s a fun way to capture the temporary power boost they offer in the games.
Terra, Magical Adept
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
Terra, Magical Adept is a three-mana red and green 4/2 that mills you for five as it enters play and then you put an enchantment from among those into your hand. You can also pay six and tap it to transform it into Esper Terra, who is a Saga herself and a 6/6 flying Wizard, letting you copy a nonlegendary enchantment you control and put three lore counters on it if it happens to be a Saga. However, you do have to sacrifice that Saga in your end step. The final lore counter on Esper Terra lets you add two of each mana color and then flip back into Terra, Magical Adept again.
Kefka, Court Mage
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
We also got to see Kefka, Court Mage, a five-mana blue, black, red 4/5 that makes everyone discard a card whenever it enters play or attacks, you then draw a card for each card type amongst those discarded cards. You can pay a whopping eight mana to make each opponent sacrifice a permanent of their choice and then transform the Court Mage into Kefka, Ruler of Ruin. Our ruinous Kefka is a 5/7 with flying that lets you draw cards equal to any life opponents lose during your turn. Funnily enough, works infinitely with Psychosis Crawler.
Final Fantasy VII (7)
Market Price: $199.59
Market Price: $200.00
Market Price: $20.00
Final Fantasy VII (7) really showed up at the PAX East Panel. Traveling Chocobo is a three-mana green 3/2 that lets you look at the top card of your library whenever you want. Then, you can play land and Bird cards from the top of your library and whenever a land or Bird enters, you can double the triggers of those cards.
Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
The non-Commander version of Cloud is Cloud, Midgar Mercenary, a white two-mana 2/1 that lets you find an equipment card from your library and put it into your hand. Then, when Cloud attacks and is equipped, you double any triggers it or your equipment would trigger. That’s incredibly strong. There will also be a Buster Sword card in Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, but we only got a tease saying it would work well with Cloud.
Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is a three-mana black 3/3 that lets you sacrifice another creature when it enters the battlefield or attacks to draw a card. Sephiroth also forces each opponent to lose a life and gains you one life when another creature dies. Then, if this trigger occurs four times during one turn, it turns into Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel, a 5/5 with flying. When it transforms, you receive an emblem that gives you the life-drain ability the Sephiroth’s first side had. When Sephiroth attacks, you can sacrifice as many other creatures as you want and draw that many cards. Sheesh, talk about pushed!
Aerith Gainsborough
FINAL FANTASY, Rare
Aerith Gainsborough is a three-mana white 2/2 with lifelink that gains a +1/+1 counter on it whenever you gain life and then puts that many counters onto every other legendary creature you control when it dies. This is an incredibly dark design, but we’re here for it. We also saw Tifa Lockhart, a two-mana 1/2 with trample that doubles its power whenever a land you control enters the battlefield — expect to die to Tifa a lot, especially with Fabled Passage in Standard.
Final Fantasy VIII (8)
Market Price: $27.63
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $54.32
Final Fantasy VIII (8) showed off a couple of cards, with Squall and Rinoa being the notable reveals. Squall, SeeD Mercenary is a four-mana white and black 3/4, which gives double strike when a creature attacks alone. Furthermore, when Squall deals combat damage to a player, you can return a permanent with a mana value of three or less from your graveyard to play.
Rinoa Heartilly
FINAL FANTASY, Uncommon
Rinoa Heartilly is a five-mana green and white 4/4 that creates Angelo, a legendary 1/1 Dog token when Rinoa enters play. And when Rinoa attacks, you give another creature you control +1/+1 until the end of the turn for each creature you control.
Final Fantasy IX (9)
Market Price: $74.36
Market Price: n/a
Final Fantasy IX (9) gave us one of the most beloved characters of all, Vivi Ornitier. Vivi is a three-mana blue and red 0/3 that gains a +1/+1 counter on it whenever you cast a noncreature spell and deals one damage to each opponent too. Frankly, that’s already plenty to work with, but there’s more. You can also pay zero mana to gain any combination of red and blue mana equal to Vivi’s power, but you can only activate this once per turn and during your turn. This variant of Vivi is bound to see plenty of play and could easily make an impact in competitive Commander circles.
Fire Magic
FINAL FANTASY, Uncommon
We also saw Fire Magic, which comes with the new Tiered mechanic, so you can pay additional mana on top of the one-red mana cost to upgrade the effect. For no extra cost, Fire Magic will deal one damage to each creature, for two additional mana, you can deal two damage to each creature and for five mana, you can deal three damage to each creature. We’re really keen to see what other spells will have Tiered and how strong they’ll be upon release.
Kuja, Genome Sorcerer
FINAL FANTASY, Rare
Kuja, Genome Sorcerer is a four-mana black red 3/4 that lets you create a 0/1 Wizard token dealing one damage to each opponent whenever you cast a noncreature spell. Once you have four (or more) Wizards on the battlefield (note, the Wizards don’t just have to be the tokens), Kuja turns into Trance Kuja, Fate Defied, which is a 4/6 that doubles any damage a Wizard would deal to any target. Yay, damage?
Final Fantasy X (10)
Market Price: $99.97
Market Price: $64.99
Market Price: n/a
We got another look at Tidus here from the Counter Blitz Commander Deck, but we also saw Yuna, Hope of Spira from Final Fantasy X (10), a five-mana green and white 3/5 that gives itself and enchantments trample, lifelink, and ward 2 during your turn. That’s already a lot of abilities, and you can bring an enchantment back with a finality counter during your end step.
Summon: Bahamut
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
Our second summon is Summon: Bahamut, a massive nine-mana 9/9 saga creature with flying. It has four chapters, and the first two let you destroy a nonland permanent of your choice. Chapter three has you drawing two cards, and the final chapter deals damage to each opponent equal to the total mana value of your other permanents. Make no mistake, this is a game-ending card.
Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis
FINAL FANTASY, Rare
The final card from this game that we saw is Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis, a land card that enters tapped but can also be cast as an Adventure called Lasting Fayth, which costs six mana and lets you create a 1/1 Hero token and then put a +1/+1 counter on the token for each land you control. Zanarkand comes with a new Town typing, which will end up being relevant in the set (per Wizards of the Coast).
Final Fantasy XI (11)
Market Price: $27.66
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Final Fantasy XI (11) was the first Final Fantasy MMO, and Wizards of the Coast only showed off one card, and that’s because why would you show off anything else here? Absolute Virtue is an eight-mana blue and white 8/8 with flying that cannot be countered, and it gives you protection from all your opponents. This also happens to be a legendary creature, so just keep in mind that if you show up to play games with your friends with this as your Commander. Also, you’ll need to bring plenty of treats for your friends.
Final Fantasy XII (12)
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $44.99
Market Price: $43.67
Final Fantasy XII (12) only saw one card in Balthier and Fran, a three-mana red and green 4/3 with reach and gives your vehicles +1/+1 reach and vigilance. The card also lets you pay three mana if a vehicle crewed by Balthier and Fran attacks to obtain an extra combat phase. This isn’t too bad at all, and it suggests new vehicles are coming in the set, too.
Final Fantasy XIII (13)
Market Price: $98.29
Market Price: $44.99
Market Price: n/a
For Final Fantasy XIII (13), Lightning, Army of One is a three-mana red and white 3/2 with first strike, trample, and lifelink. When Lightning deals combat damage to a player, that player will take double damage from any other sources you control until the start of your next turn. Look, this is a must-have for every Boros (white/red) deck going in Commander.
Market Price: $13.93
Market Price: $18.88
We then got a really cool glimpse at a one-off mechanic return. Fang, Fearless l’Cie is a three-mana black 2/3 that lets you draw a card and lose a life when a card leaves your graveyard. Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie is a four-mana green 3/2 that mills you for two when it enters the battlefield but does let you return a permanent from your graveyard to your hand.
Then, if you control Fang and Vanille, you can pay five mana and meld them together to create Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance, a 7/6 with vigilance, menace, trample, reach, and haste, that destroys a permanent and return a nonlegendary permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield when Ragnarok dies. We think it’s a bit odd these two don’t have the Partner mechanic, but it’s a cool card nonetheless.
Final Fantasy XIV (14)
Market Price: $105.99
Market Price: $17.94
Market Price: $34.81
With Final Fantasy XIV (14) as the last game with a Commander Deck, we did see Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed again, but in terms of new cards, we saw Summoner’s Grimoire. The Grimoire is four-mana green equipment with Job Select that makes the equipped creature into a Shaman, and allows you to put a creature into play whenever it attacks. If that creature is also an enchantment (like one of the summons), it comes into play tapped and attacking.
Zodiark, Umbral God
FINAL FANTASY, Rare
The other card revealed was Zodiark, Umbral God, a five-mana black 5/5 with indestructible that makes everyone sacrifice half of their non-God creatures when it enters. It also gains +1/+1 whenever a creature is sacrificed, and this is another card that will be very silly in mono-black Commander decks.
Final Fantasy XV (15)
Market Price: $78.67
Market Price: n/a
Noctis, Prince of Lucis was our only Final Fantasy XV (15) reveal. Noctis is a four-mana white, blue, and black 4/3 with lifelink where it lets you cast artifacts from your graveyard by paying their mana costs along with paying three life, but they enter play with a finality counter. It’s a cool card, but we’re hoping to see the car from the game revealed at some point, too.
Final Fantasy XVI (16)
Market Price: $38.99
Market Price: n/a
Now, long-term MTG fans know these sets take around four years to design, so how are there cards from a video game that launched last year? Well, Gavin Verhey explained that they kept some spots open for the game, and as soon as Final Fantasy XVI (16) launched, the team went hard making sure they could make it work.
Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant
FINAL FANTASY, Mythic
The only notable we saw this time was Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant, a six-mana red 5/5 that lets you discard your hand when it enters the battlefield and then draw cards equal to your devotion to red. You can also pay six mana to transform it into Ifrit, Warden of Inferno, a 9/9 saga creature that starts by fighting another creature and then gives you four-mana red (twice), before exiling itself and entering as Clive again, letting you once again draw a bunch of cards.
Market Price: $158.99
Market Price: $708.79
Market Price: $165.95
Lastly, let’s look at the product line-up for Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY. We’re getting a Starter Kit with Cloud and Sephiroth, which is a great way to get into the game for newer players. There are four Commander Decks with four Collector variants, with each of the cards coming in the stunning Surge Foil treatment. Along with that, there’ll be Play Boosters, Prerelease Kits, Bundles, and Gift Bundles to collect upon release.
Market Price: $197.95
Market Price: $149.99
Market Price: n/a
We’re also getting Collector Boosters, and these are how you can potentially get one of the 77 Gold Traveling Chocobo cards. However, they also give you the best chance of getting some original artwork on reprinted Magic cards. The ones revealed so far are Firion, Swordmaster as Sram, Senior Edificer, and Zidane Tribal, which is a reprint of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. There’ll be 64 of these in the set to collect, four being from each of the 16 games.
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Oh, Traveling Chocobo is also getting the Neon Ink treatment first seen in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, so it comes in different colors at different pull rates. That’s everything from the incredibly long first look at Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY at PAX East, though. We’re will be seeing a lot more previews in the coming weeks, and already feels like an incredibly powerful set and one that’s sure to impact multiple formats (and multiple wallets).