Cards to Watch for the Upcoming Final Fantasy MTG Set
Here in this column, I find it’s often beneficial to think outside the box when it comes to picking out solid cards for speculation. When picking “specs,” people usually only focus on what's coming out in the next set or two - the constant bombardment of new products makes it nearly impossible to think past this short-term, after all.
I’m here to tell you that one set coming out in 2025 is going to get some more details soon. And before everyone turns their attention towards it, you might want to consider picking up some of the cards laid out here. It’s the upcoming Final Fantasy set, due sometime next year.
Mind you, these spec picks are based on, well, speculation - meaning every prediction I lay out could be incorrect - but if you're trying to pad out some trades between now and when more details are revealed (which I predict might coincide with the upcoming February 29 release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to build hype), these are some of what I would look out for.
Level Up
Final Fantasy may be the ultimate RPG series, and what is more indicative of RPGs than leveling up? Starting at level 1 and watching your characters grow is crucial to the experience, and I would honestly be shocked if we didn't see any presence of leveling up in one way or another. It would be really interesting to have a creature know something like Fire, and see it level up to Fira and Firaga as the board state progresses, and I think they will try to find a way to make this work.
That being said, everything that holds value from leveling up holds that value because they are useful for all sorts of counter shenanigans. Things like
With this in mind, we have to think of what cards could benefit from this - while stuff like
This would also be a great opportunity to pick up any copies of
| Brimstone Mage | ||
| Echo Mage | ||
| Hedron-Field Purists | ||
| Joraga Treespeaker | ||
| Venerated Teacher |
Party Mechanic
Another core part of Final Fantasy is not just leveling up your main character, but spending time with and strengthening your entire party as well, while you grow together as a team. I imagine we'll see some sort of mechanic present that powers up your creatures relative to what other types of creatures you have on your side, although Wizards wouldn't have to look too much further than their existing Party mechanic.
Introduced in
The current cards that benefit from Party are, to be quite frank, a bit underwhelming. But there is room to expand and more or less build this mechanic from the ground up in a newer, exciting way. In my mind,
If we’re looking to see what cards can benefit from reintroducing Party to the game, it’s not those that benefit from the mechanic, but those that help set it up - namely,
| Coveted Prize | ||
| Tajuru Paragon |
Legendary Creature Abundance
We’ve seen it a lot recently, especially with
Reprinted in
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the potential of
| Irenicus's Vile Duplication | ||
| Spark Double | ||
| Spark Double (Anime Borderless) | ||
| Mirror Box | ||
| Mirror Box (Showcase) |
Two Other Quick Picks
These are the three biggest predictions I have for the set, but there is so much potential content Wizards can draw from these games that there are a few other quick picks I would like to bring to your attention to get you thinking on the possibilities of this upcoming set.
Equipment - With such iconic weapons as the Buster Sword, Masamune, and the gunblade from FFVIII, there’s a small chance for a pseudo-equipment theme. These are all weapons that, narratively, require great strength to handle, so they will probably have high Equip costs, meaning anything that makes things Equip for zero or auto-equips, like
Summons - In Final Fantasy these are spells, but they are also creatures, so I'm thinking there is room for some overlap with these in the form of an Adventure-style mechanic, where they somehow exist as creatures and spells on the same piece of cardboard. Summons are also usually overly powerful, so I imagine we will see the return of legendary instants and sorceries, but with a twist. In the case of a high mana value historic creature/spell hybrid card, anything to help cheat it out will become relevant, including oddball picks like
| Puresteel Paladin | ||
| Sigarda's Aid | ||
| Thran Temporal Gateway | ||
| Peri Brown |
In Conclusion
Final Fantasy has so much depth of content that I could go on and on with potential speculations based on aspects of the games they could implement - I haven’t even touched on what they can do with materia, airships, and so much more. The sky is truly the limit for this set. If you’re looking to fill out your carts or trades between now and when more information is revealed, these are some solid choices to look out for.
Further Reading:
Shocklands and the Ramifications of Staple Reprints in Magic
Jason is a longtime lover of Magic, falling in love with the game at Seventh Edition, as well as an EDH enthusiast for both casual and competitive metas alike. He's also a screenwriter with a produced feature and plans to proceed with many more creative projects in and out of film. His favorite card is Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, but he firmly believes that Mana Drain is the best card.
