Wizards of the Coast has launched its Final Fantasy crossover set for Magic: The Gathering bringing decades of RPG history into the card game's mechanics. The set features 10 notable cards that translate iconic series elements into playable strategies for Commander and other formats.
Top Cards and Mechanics
The design team focused on capturing the essence of the Final Fantasy series through specific card abilities:
- Sin, Spira's Punishment: A seven-mana creature that exiles random permanent cards from the graveyard and creates token copies, designed to synergize with graveyard recursion decks.
- Buster Sword: An equipment card that provides a +3/+2 boost and allows players to cast a free spell if the equipped creature lands a direct hit.
- Jumbo Cactuar: A 1/7 creature that utilizes its "10,000 Needles" ability to gain +9,999/+0 when attacking.
- Lightning, Army of One: A three-mana creature featuring first strike, trample, and lifelink, with a "stagger" ability that doubles damage dealt to opponents and their permanents.
- Zack Fair: A 0/1 creature that can be sacrificed to grant another creature indestructible and transfer its counters and equipment, acting as a tribute to his legacy.
- Aerith Gainsborough: A 2/2 creature that gains +1/+1 counters as you gain life, and distributes those counters to other legendary creatures upon her death.
- Yuna, Hope of Spira: Designed to support enchantment creatures, she grants them trample, lifelink, and ward 2, while returning enchantments from the graveyard to the battlefield.
- Summon: Knights of Round: An eight-mana Saga that creates 12 Knight tokens over four chapters before buffing the board and granting indestructible counters in the final chapter.
- Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel: A double-faced creature that transforms after its life-drain engine triggers four times, granting a permanent emblem for creature deaths.
- Absolute Virtue: An eight-mana 8/8 that cannot be countered and provides protection from opponents, making the controller immune to attacks and targetable spells while it is on the battlefield.
These cards represent a range of mechanical interpretations, from the high-power combat tricks of the Jumbo Cactuar to the complex, board-state-altering abilities of Absolute Virtue.