One of the most anticipated trading card game releases of the year is Magic: The Gathering‘s crossover with the Final Fantasy video game series, and now Wizards of the Coast has announced a special three-day event to celebrate the occasion with fans.
The event, Magic Spotlight: FINAL FANTASY will be held in Chiba, Japan, from June 27-29. Its main draw is a two-day, open-field Standard Constructed tournament with a shared $50,000 USD prize pool. Those fortunate and skilled enough to place in the Top 8 will also earn an invite to the Pro Tour Edge of Eternities tournament at MagicCon: Atlanta in September.
Just for participating, players will receive a non-foil Japanese-language borderless promo card from Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, and the Top 128 finalists will also be awarded a traditional foil copy of it. (No word yet on what that card will be, with most of the set yet to be revealed.)
The Standard tournament will not be the only event on the docket, however. Wizards of the Coast promises “multiple side events with a variety of formats on display.” (Expect any Commander play to heavily feature new-made decks based on different Final Fantasy characters, however.) The event is free to enter, but there is a maximum capacity, and purchase of a ticket will be required to buy into the main Standard Constructed event and enter the prize pool.
Full details will be available when the Magic Spotlight: FINAL FANTASY website goes live on Wednesday, April 16. Tickets will then go on sale on April 17 at Noon JST (or in Eastern time, 11 PM on April 16).
Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY is the trading card game’s next major set release and the latest in a series of crossovers with other influential intellectual properties such as Lord of the Rings, Fallout, and Doctor Who. Wizards of the Coast collaborated with the developers at Square Enix to reinterpret elements from all 16 core, numbered entries in the storied RPG series in Magic‘s signature style. It will contain over 100 legendary creature cards across a full-size set and supplementary products like premade Commander Decks, as well as special variant cards featuring illustrations by the series’ legendary artists Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura.
Prerelease events will be held at participating stores worldwide from June 6-12, ahead of the set’s official release on June 13. Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY will also be added to Magic Arena on June 10. Stay tuned to CGM for more information on the set as previews go into full swing in May.
