At long last, Magic: The Gathering—Final Fantasy has finally arrived, fusing the world’s premier trading card game and Japanese role-playing game franchise. Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix have collaborated to make a massive, three-pronged love letter to the series and a great way to steep newcomers in its tropes and characters.
Since two of my dearest games have united in such spectacular fashion, this is a dream come true for me, as someone who likes to lean toward the Vorthos side of MTG. Concocting decks that speak to my favourite video game series and doing drafts with friends has been the most fun I’ve had since we first started playing regularly 15 years ago.
And so, after almost two weeks of playing around with new builds, themes, and combos, I’ve come up with some of my favourite deck themes so far—drawing from the set itself, aiming to get the flavour of Final Fantasy while also holding your own ground in Magic Arena.
Villains (Black, Red, Blue)
Final Fantasy is well-known for its iconic villains, and MTG put them to good use in this set as double-faced cards. Most of the final bosses from the 16 main games are accounted for; some games’ ultimate antagonists are missing, while others have had their final boss swapped with a more recognizable and compelling alternative (ie. Final Fantasy IV‘s Golbez appearing instead of final boss Zeromus).
What’s more, there are some pretty common threads in terms of colour identity. Of the 14 cards representing big baddies (including both FFXIV‘s Zenos and Zodiark), black appears on 11 of them, while blue and red each appear on 4. Since they’re all from disparate worlds and games, they each do pretty distinctive things with little common ground, but nonetheless it’s possible to build a fun themed deck around cramming in a bunch of final bosses.
Each of them makes a substantial splash when they come into play, enabling some nasty blue-black-red shenanigans befitting of the final battle in a Final Fantasy game. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is a clear standout with his powerful abilities, especially with all the various ways to ensure multiple creatures hit the graveyard in a single turn and enable his transformation—pair him with Ardyn or Garland/Chaos, and you’ll have an intimidating presence on the board.
(This sort of villain team-up may be the closest thing we get to a fulfilling Dissidia Final Fantasy revival for some time, so enjoy it.)
Summons (Green/White/Red)
Even more iconic than the villains are the summons, mighty beasts that can be called down to rain devastation upon a battlefield. Magic: The Gathering—Final Fantasy represents their temporary assistance via Sagas, a form of Enchantment Creature that triggers various effects each turn, but only survives for a few turns. It’s an elegant way of translating the game effect into MTG terms (and the cards are stunningly illustrated).
While there are a plethora of Summon cards to suit various types of decks, a deck dedicated to summoning and summoners is viable in its own right. Garnet, Princess of Alexandria can remove lore counters from Sagas when she attacks and turn them into +1/+1 counters; she buffs herself, keeps the summons in play longer, and lets their effects retrigger. Should those summons hit the graveyard, Rydia, Summoner of Mist can call them back into play, as can Rydia’s Return and Yuna, Hope of Spira.
There are plenty of Sagas to consider in this tri-colour combo. Summon: G.F. Cerberus thrives with an array of instants and sorceries when Garnet keeps his double-casting ability triggering, and Summon: Fenrir has some handy utilities. Or, call upon heroes who can become summons like Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant / Ifrit, Warden of Inferno; Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant / Phoenix, Warden of Fire; and Terra, Magical Adept / Esper Terra.
(In fact, with this colour combo, you can also make a powerful team of Final Fantasy heroines: Rosa, Rydia, Terra, Aerith, Tifa, Rinoa, Garnet, and Yuna can all have a place here.)
Vivi / Wizards (Blue / Black / Red)
There’s something poetic about using sweet little Vivi, the Best Boy, to bully players in a card game. There’s also a bit of psychological warfare at play—who could drop a Doom Blade on that innocent little guy?
Yet, Vivi and his fellow Black Mages (or Wizards in MTG parlance) are proving to be an incredibly powerful tribe. The basic idea is to use abilities like Vivi Ornitier’s to deal your opponent 1 damage whenever you cast a noncreature spell… and then start slinging noncreature spells like it’s going out of style. Vivi gets stronger each time you do, and there are plenty of methods to get Wizard tokens into play that also ping opponents.
The idea works really well in just Izzet Blue/Red, but splashing some Black gives access to the mighty Kuja, Genome Sorcerer. Each turn he creates one of those Wizard tokens, and transforms once you have four Wizards total at the end of a turn. As Trance Kuja, he doubles the damage that Wizards deal to permanents or players. Burn spells like Thunder Magic get cranked up to 11 this way, and if you can also get Kefka, Court Mage in play and transformed, you should have no shortage of spells to cast.
Want an extra diabolical touch? Add The Darkness Crystal to exile creatures you destroy and gain 2 life from it. This is another great place for Summon: G.F. Cerberus, too, though as an Enchantment Creature—Saga, it won’t trigger the pinging effect.
Chocobos (Green/White/Red, [Blue])
Every Final Fantasy fan loves Chocobos. What’s not to love about adorable birds that are big enough to ride like horses, sweet enough to be pets, and also vicious enough to destroy your enemies?
Chocobos make a big splash in MTG as Bird-tribal creatures that thrive on Landfall effects, usually gaining +1/+0 for each land you put out. You can summon Chocobo tokens with effects like Sidequest: Raise A Chocobo, Chocobo Racetrack, and Gysahl Greens.
They can really take off, however, with some help from special creatures like Bartz And Boko, Sazh Katzroy, and Traveling Chocobo (not the super-expensive serialized version). Sazh’s Chocobo is an essential early-game piece that starts at 0/1 but gets permanently stronger with each land; Sazh himself can call up a vital land or Bird card, while Bartz can make your flock gang up on a particular enemy when he enters. Traveling Chocobo brings it all together by enabling some top-deck play and doubling triggered abilities, like Bartz’ attack.
Where it’s worth splashing just a teensy bit of Blue into this deck—I’ve had great results from adding only dual-colour Towns like Baron, Airship Kingdom and Guadosalam, Farplane Gateway—is Choco, Seeker of Paradise. The star of Final Fantasy IX’s beloved “Chocobo Hot & Cold” sidequest lets you look at the top cards of your library for each attacking Bird creature, and put them either in your hand, on the battlefield, or in the graveyard, depending on the circumstances.
Once this flock of Chocobos gets up to speed, it’s hard to stop them.
Equipment (White/Red/Black)
However, the most fun I’ve had with Magic: The Gathering—Final Fantasy so far is with its iconic weaponry. This archetype combines three of my favourite colour combos (Boros, Orzhov, and Mardu) with legendary arms like the Buster Sword and gunblades, then puts them in the hands of beloved protagonists like Cloud, Squall, and Lightning.
Final Fantasy II‘s Firion, Wild Rose Warrior helps speed up creatures if you can put them on the battlefield and equip them on the same turn; he also helps greatly by making copies of newly-cast Equipment cards. Play Lion Heart with him in play, and you get not only a gunblade, but a twincast Shock. General Beatrix can help with equip costs later in the game.
Despite their antagonistic past, Squall and Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII get along nicely thanks to their triggers when dealing combat damage. But the true stars here may be Lightning, Army of One and Cloud, Midgar Mercenary.
As is only fitting, if you can deal combat damage to your opponent with the Buster Sword, good things happen. Two free spells from your hand that cost 5 mana or less can swing any situation in your favour. Meanwhile if you can give Lightning double strike (with Squall or Seifer) and any Equipment from this set, her Stagger ability can also turn the tide with a single combat round.
I’ve always loved Equipment decks, and the options within MTG‘s Final Fantasy crossover have made them feel more effective than… maybe ever. And that just makes sense, given the importance of iconic weaponry within the franchise.
(All of this says nothing of the options for Commander, which is a whole other game of Triple Triad.)
