Images courtesy of Square Enix and Wizards of the Coast
Magic: The Gathering just unveiled its first look at the upcoming Final Fantasy set. As a long time fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, I am incredibly excited for it to come out. My first game in the franchise was Final Fantasy IV on the Super Nintendo, which at the time was released as FFII in America. I played all of them after that, and even went back to try the original.
So this mixture of some of my favorite franchises has me extremely excited. I remember talking to my friends about which of the characters would be what colors at my high school lunch table when some of these games were coming out. And now we’re getting four Commander deck and a standard set!
So let’s have some fun and make some guesses about what’s to come based off what we know and what we’ve seen so far.
Iconic Final Fantasy Monsters and Their Abilities
We saw a Cactuar with the iconic 10,000 Needles, so I know there will be a few specific monsters coming that showed up in every Final Fantasy game. On the stream Gavin Verhey, the head designer for the set, said if you think there will be a specific iconic card in there, it probably will be.
Aside from Cactuar and the Tonberry we already saw, there will definitely be a Marlboro with the Bad Breath ability. In the game it hits your entire party with a slew of status effects that can lead to all sorts of difficult scenarios to get out of. On an MTG card I bet it will be some sort of mass debuff. It could even end up being a re-skinned Massacre Wurm!
I also would guess we see some of the iconic starting bad guys, like the Bomb and his Self-Destruct ability that it uses if you attack it. Perhaps something like “During your end step if this creature took damage, sacrifice it and deal damage to any target.” I’d also expect to see some take on the Flan/Jelly/Mousse archetype creature that look like little Oozes and often have elemental typing.
The Behemoth has shown up in every single Final Fantasy game, and in many of them has the ability Meteor. Perhaps we see him as a reskinned Meteor Golem? Or maybe he deals two damage when he enters, like the card where it gets its namesake, Meteorite!
Another monster that has shown up in most games is the Basilisk, with his ability Glare which can do some form of paralysis or petrification to a single target. Sounds a lot like a Ravenous Chupacabra to me.
Iconic Final Fantasy Locations on Basic Lands
One of the main things that stuck out to me on the stream was the discussion of iconic settings throughout the franchise’s history. They said there will be all sorts of little, recognizable locations throughout the set to build up how the worlds from the games felt. They also said they would be showing up on a lot of basic lands. So I wanted to predict a few of the most famous Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, and Forests from the franchise that we might see on cards.
Islands: Exploring the world map is a key part to many Final Fantasy games, and islands are a natural way to gate the player from late game content. As such, there are many great island locations throughout the history of the game. To name a few: the Cadian Islands from FFI, where Bahamut resides; Adamant Isle Grotto from FFIV, where a small family collects different types of tails; Crescent Island from FFVI, where the Esper Caves are found. In FFVII, the Temple of the Ancients where Sephiroth attempts to gain the Black Materia is on a lonely island south of Junon. The entirety of FFX takes place in an archipelago, so Besaid, Baaj, Kilika, and Bikanel are all important island locations.
Swamps: There are not a ton of major swampy or marshy areas throughout the series, but I can think of two incredibly important ones. In FFVII, the player cannot progress the game until they get a Chocobo from the Chocobo Farm to be able to avoid the Midgar Zolom, which is a giant snake monster that poses a huge threat if they try to cross on foot. The second is Qu’s Marsh in FFIX, which is home to the Qu, a genderless race. One of the player’s party members is a Qu, named Quina, who is from that marsh.
Mountains: The series is rife with lots of great mountains to choose from. Castle Palamecia/Pandaemonium is located atop a mountain range in FFII. In FFIII, you open the game on a mountain called The Dragon’s Peak. FFIV has Mt. Hobs and Mount Ordeals, as well as a mountain range you can land on when you reach the Red Moon. FFVI has Mt Kolts and Mt Zozo where major plot elements show up. FFVII has some truly iconic mountains, such as Fort Condor, Mt. Corel, and Cosmo Canyon, each of which the characters spend significant time in moving the story along. In FFX, one of the hardest fights in the game is on the side of Mt. Gagazet where the Ronso live. In FFXII, Mt Bur-Omisace is the center of the religion The Light of Kiltia.
Forest: Every single overworld throughout Final Fantasy‘s history has forests in it. They’re a staple feature of the map, and, as early as FFII, were where the player would first encounter Chocobos. Allow me to predict some of the most iconic named forests we could see: the Phantom Forest from FFVI where the dead must travel through to reach the afterlife; the Sleeping Forest and the Ancient Forests from FFVII; the Balamb Garden’s Training Center can turn into a forest where the party has to fight a giant T-rex. FFIX has an Evil Forest that the player must navigate through that can petrify itself, and the Black Mage Village is located deep within an enchanted forest. In FFX, we visit the Macalania Woods to get some ultimate weapons among other things, and Kilika Temple is also located at the center of a of forested island.
Dual-Faced Cards — This Isn’t Even Their Final Form!
One of the types of cards revealed were a cycle of dual-faced cards that show either character growth, or a second, more powerful form that a villain turns into. There are many opportunities throughout the series for this to come into play. We saw a villain from FFI and a redemption arc from FFIV already shown. Who else could be out there ready to level up?
I think Kefka, the flamboyant, maniacal villain from FF6 would be a great choice. At a point in the game he essentially becomes God and does a whole monologue about it. Given that Gavin said there will be quotes from the game on flavor text, Kefka would be perfect. He is a quote machine, and has two clear modes to make.
I also have a feeling we will see Jenova, Sephiroth’s science project of a mother, as a dual-faced card. Throughout the game Cloud and the gang must fight her in several forms as more of her lore gets revealed. Given how many fantastic quotes there are about her by other characters, it would be a great opportunity to fit them on the card.
Is a dual-faced summon too much to hope for? In FFX, each summon has its own overdrive move, and my favorite, Seymour’s mother, was named Anima. She literally flips herself into an upside down universe and attacks her target in it over and over. It would fit perfectly with a flip card!
What Final Fantasy Game is Complete Without Side Quests?
One of the biggest reveals of the day was another style of dual-faced cards: the Sidequests. As with every RPG, the side quest is an enormous draw for players. So it makes sense that we’re getting them as a set of cards. Given how many side quests in Final Fantasy end up being essential to enjoying the game to its maximum, I want to make a few predictions about which are the biggest ones, and what the rewards might be.
I expect we will get a series of the “Ultimate Weapons” on the backs of Sidequest cards. Every playable character has a best weapon, and they all take some sort of side quest to track down. So I expect a cycle of them with some type of powerful Equipment card on the back.
In that same style, I think we could see the the strongest abilities in the FF series show up. They’re colloquially known as Limit Breaks, but have also been called Desperation Attack, Overdrive, Trance, Quickening, and Overclock too. Just like their weapons, all the playable characters will have a side quest they need to do to unlock their strongest level.
There are also a few iconic side quests that move the story narratives along. I bet we see the Blitzball Championship and the Fort Condor mini-games, but would it be too meta to hope for a Tetra Master reference, which was the trading card game from FFIX?
Summons of Every Kind!
We’ll be getting Summons from every game, at every rarity. They’ll be Saga enchantments that are also creatures – a first in Magic. Like previous Sagas, they’ll come into play with one lore counter and you carry out the first stage. For the following stages, you’ll carry them out after your draw step, then after the last stage’s effect happens, you sacrifice it. The big difference here is that the Saga is also a creature the whole time it’s in play!
I think this is such a great idea and I am so excited. We already saw Shiva at uncommon, so I expect the early-game, lower-power Summons with elemental themes to be the more common rarities, like Ifrit, Ramuh, Valefor, and Leviathan, while the more unique or more story-critical ones will end up at higher rarities. A Summon like Knights of the Round, which took many hours of hard work to raise a Gold Chocobo to acquire, will be a five-color mythic rare.
Bahamut could show up in more than one card, given how often it’s been used for major plot points in the writing throughout the series. Likewise, Alexander is a huge plot point in FFIX, appearing to save an entire city from Bahamut’s imminent attack. We’ll also likely get the Summon of the main antagonist of FFX.
Final Final Fantasy Fantasies
I hope you’re as excited for these cards as I am. I had to hold myself back; I could have easily fit twice the number of predictions in here. If you have your own predictions, shout them out on bsky or reddit posts so we can chat about it!
Look for my next article featuring a commander from the new Aetherdrift set coming next week, and if you don’t mind, drop me a follow on all my socials. See you next time!
