Since we got our first look at this crossover set between Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy, people have been going crazy reading about card reveals, how Wizards of the Coast will handle the characters of one of the biggest RPG franchises in video games, and then bought out the set in droves. It’s safe to say that this set is one of the biggest Magic: The Gathering releases in many years.
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we got a chance to see this product ourselves. Scott got a lovely promotional bag of merchandise when he recently attended Summer Games Fest, which he might show off over on our social media if we are lucky. But others got a chance to open some of these amazing products, which you can view above.
The Big Pulls of Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy
Starting things off with the video above, some of the “big pulls” from that opening were a mixture of good, bad, and the amazing art that this set has to offer. Of course, people are wanting as much of the Final Fantasy VII cards as possible, as it is one of the most popular games in the franchise (Personally, Final Fantasy IX is a much better game that many overlook these days), so pulling both Cloud and Aerith in their standard format cards from the Play Boosters was a bit of good luck.
On the art side, we see that Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy captures some of the memorable moments from the games, such as the ‘Nibelheim Aflame’ card seen above, showing the epic moment of Sephiroth turning away in the flames of his burning home as he walks away. A classic moment that looks so good in the standard format, but is more impressive if you can pull the full art version of the card… Which we did not.
The flip side with all these different games to pull from is that some things are a bit of a “WTF” when pulled… Such as The Lunar Whale vehicle card. For those of you who do not know, this card comes from Final Fantasy XIV Online, or more so, the online store that is attached to the game. The joke is that The Lunar Whale is one of the most expensive real money mounts to buy in the game, coming in at £28.00 (I couldn’t find the US price).
Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy Fixes one of the Worst Card Sub-types
One of the big things with the Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy set is that saga cards, one of my more hated cards in Magic: The Gathering, have become Summons, the big beasts and gods that are used for big attacks in every Final Fantasy game. Because of this change in the name, saga cards are now cool and might be worth using for once. If you get some of these cards in the Full Art format, then you’ll see some of the best art from the games used for these cards, such as the Ifrit and Shiva cards (above) that were pulled in the video.
Some of the Best Final Fantasy Art in Card Form
One of the biggest things that Magic: The Gathering in recent sets has been the inclusion of Art Cards, a special set of cards that show the art of specific cards in their full glory, or in this case, some special art from some of Final Fantasy’s biggest and best artists of all time. I was lucky to pull two of these cards, a signed Dancer card from Final Fantasy XIV, and a non-signed version of Kefka, the villain from Final Fantasy VI. Seeing these art cards are really cool because you get to see the effort and detail that goes into something that most people will ignore when playing the card game.
Too Lucky: Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy Surge Foils
As a part of Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy, we see the return of Surge Foil cards. These special textured foil cards are some of the most sought-after when it comes to this set, with some of the cards going for hundreds of dollars on the second-hand market. The odds of pulling these cards from what I was told is one in a BOX of Collectors Boosters, so about one in every 12 packs… I pulled 3 in 3 packs. The big two were Kefka, Court Mage and Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER. These two alone are going for around $200+ if you look at trading card price sites like Card Kingdom and TCGPlayer. The third, Vincent Valentine, is worth about $40… Not that I’m wanting to sell them, as these cards are really cool looking, and the foiling on them is pretty.
Too Many Pretty Cards That I Still Need
There are so many cards in this Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy set that I could spend forever and a day talking about every card I pulled from 15 Play Boosters and 3 Collector’s Booster packs, but you can watch the video to see all that. But, as much as I got a lot of cool cards, there are still quite a few that I want to get, such as:
- Vivi Ornitier – The card that everyone is going to fear soon enough. There are a lot of combos for this card that can be activated in turn one or two, leading to people who will flip a table when facing off against this as a Commander.
- Jumbo Cactuar – I just want this one to be able to pull it off in a Commander/EDH game. Giving something +9999/0 would be a great laugh at any table.
- Suplex – For the memes, and because anything that shows someone suplexing a train is awesome
- Edea Kramer (Full Art) – My favorite character from Final Fantasy VIII. I love the fact that they used the FMV model from the original game for this card, showing that some graphics never get old.
- Anything with Y’shtola Rhul – Anyone who has played Final Fantasy XIV Online in any form will tell you that there is a lot of love for “Momma Y’shtola”, and I’m one of those people.
I did, however, get the meme card: Instant Ramen… That was cool.
Capturing One of Final Fantasy VII’s Funniest Moments
If you have played Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation, you will know about the “date” scene (FF7 Rebirth has a version of this, but it’s not as good), where you end up taking either Yuffie, Aerith, Tifa, or Barrett on a date at the Gold Saucer. (The FF7 Rebirth version only has Aerith and Tifa as options) This scene is represented in the original format with 4 cards. While the cost and ability are exactly the same, the fact that you have 4 copies of this card showing the different options from that scene are amazing to see. It’s little touches like this that make this set into a love letter to a great video game franchise… And I need all 4 of them.
If You Pull One of These, You’re Rich
I mentioned earlier about there being Surge Foil cards that are currently (At time of writing) fetching hundreds of dollars on the second-hand card market, there are three cards that are going for much more than that. These cards are the “Traveling Chocobo”, showing the franchise’s bird mascot in different colors, with the rarest three being the Neon Green, Neon Pink, and Gold Chocobo. Getting one of these birds is going to make your chocobo deck into something special, but getting one of these three is going to make you rich. The Neon Green and Neon Pink versions are going for around $1500 each, and there is no price data online for the Gold version, even though there is footage of people pulling this card, which is limited to 77 cards in existence. Sure, it’s not The One Ring, but the Gold Chocobo is going to be THE pull of this set.
A Crossover That Will Be Hard to Top
Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy is one of the biggest and fastest-selling sets in the Magic: The Gathering franchise in many years, and could go on to be a record setter. To summon some of this set for yourself, visit the official page here (https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/final-fantasy). To find your local WPN store to play Magic: The Gathering, use the search page here (https://wpn.wizards.com/en)
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Review Disclosure Statement: Maigc: The Gathering x Final Fantasy was provided to us by Wizards of the Coast for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more details.
