Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy Commander Decks Are Packed With Fun, Surprising References

Wizards of the Coast has been gradually rolling retired what it's got successful store for Magic: The Gathering and its large Final Fantasy crossover this summer. Over the weekend, the squad debuted a important chunk of cards, from some the main acceptable and the Commander decks, and fans are enjoying immoderate of the amusive and adjacent astonishing cuts from their favourite Final Fantasy games.

The Universes Beyond collaboration with Final Fantasy is getting some the accustomed Commander attraction and a booster-driven series, truthful determination are a lot of cards to spell over. The main acceptable tinkers with the entirety of Final Fantasy's mainline, numbered games, moving from Final Fantasy 1 to Final Fantasy 16. The Commander Decks, meanwhile, absorption connected 4 circumstantial games: Final Fantasy 6, 7, 10, and 14, with their respective Commanders of Terra, Cloud, Tidus, and Y'shtola.

Some of the cards shown astatine past Saturday's Magic: The Gathering sheet astatine PAX East captured the travel of idiosyncratic characters passim their games. Final Fantasy IV's Cecil, for example, has an full mechanic astir transforming from a Dark Knight into a Paladin. The summons of Final Fantasy utilize a "Saga Creature" set-up, to enactment arsenic almighty but impermanent forces connected the field, melding Magic and Final Fantasy concepts successful the process.

Then you person cards similar Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, with artwork from Square's Tetsuya Nomura. The translation on the paper illustrates Sephiroth's assorted forms passim the FF7 universe, from a young combatant into, eventually, Safer Sephiroth connected the paper Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel.

And what would a Final Fantasy beryllium without immoderate Cids? The Final Fantasy acceptable volition see a Cid from each of the numbered Final Fantasy games, though Wizards is opting for the older Cid from Final Fantasy XV implicit his daughter, Cindy.

After Saturday's panel, though, Wizards of the Coast released the decklist for the 4 aforementioned Commander decks, and fans started poring implicit the creation and additions to spot however the squad adapted those 4 Final Fantasy games into Magic. Pretty well, it turns out.

Reprints, oregon caller versions of existing Magic cards, get immoderate clever crossovers with Final Fantasy lore. Skullclamp, for instance, draws connected the Jenova task successful Final Fantasy 7 for its art.

Together, Forever besides takes an affectional stab astatine the Final Fantasy 10 fans retired there. It shouldn't beryllium astonishing that Final Fantasy 10 has immoderate affectional wellsprings to gully from, with its cardinal protagonists' travel done a ruined land, connected a somber pilgrimage. Several decks' cards notation immoderate notable quality moments, by the way, truthful you mightiness privation to spell into these decklists alert that determination volition beryllium immoderate communicative spoilers for each respective game.

But to lighten things up, 1 of Final Fantasy 10's much iconic, and often memed, moments besides made the chopped with Inspiring Call.

In fact, Wizards recovered much than a fewer ways to incorporated Final Fantasy's less-serious moments into cards. Clever Concealment puts a rotation connected the Wall Market country with Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa successful dresses, heading to Don Corneo's, and adjacent has a mechanic that seems fitting for the occassion. I'm a large instrumentality of the Secret Rendezvous card, which has 4 antithetic versions of the Golden Saucer day country from Final Fantasy 7 with each imaginable date: Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, and Barret.

Even still, fans person been discovering the tiny details that amusement however overmuch homage is being paid to the root material. The Final Fantasy 14 set, successful particular, has rather a fewer references to the critically acclaimed MMORPG. The Hildibrand Manderville paper mimics the infamous gentleman's wont of disappearing and returning, making for rather an absorbing White/Black paper successful the process.

One idiosyncratic connected the FFXIV subreddit noted that the Archaeomancer's Map paper uses a existent imaginable determination recovered successful a Gaganaskin Treasure Map, for instance.

In turn, Final Fantasy 14 players person been having amusive with the cards. There are immoderate jokes astir wondering who the Thancred paper represents, referencing the "This is Thancred" meme. And there's the alternate spirit substance a idiosyncratic added to the Rite of Replication card, commemorating everyone's favourite code from A Realm Reborn:

Even the Tome of Legends paper depicts a Wondrous Tails book, with each the small details you spot in-game erstwhile a subordinate picks up their Tails and, of course, respective missed four-in-a-row connections.

There's immoderate wide attraction to item enactment into these cards, and it's surely got maine intrigued to spot the afloat set. While the Commander games got a batch of emotion successful these cards, a fewer reveals from Saturday's sheet similar Commune With Beavers person maine anxious to spot however immoderate of the different Final Fantasy games got adapated into the afloat Magic set.

Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy acceptable is retired connected June 13, 2025, with pre-release play 1 week prior.

Eric is simply a freelance writer for IGN.