Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set features new artwork by Amano and Nomura and all 15 Cids

We are a month away from the release of Magic: The Gathering's latest set based on Final Fantasy, and the anticipation feels like I'm waiting to see if my party survives Safer-Sephiroths's Super Nova attack. Even though it hasn't been released yet, Final Fantasy is already the best-selling set in the 32-year-old card game's history, and RPGSite had a chance to preview some brand new cards and hear from some of the creative designers behind the set. From everything we have seen so far, this release is shaping up to be one of the biggest of the year across games, video, and tabletop.

It is easy to tell that this Final Fantasy set has been built by fans for fans, with care and creativity taken to ensure that all 16 of the main games are represented appropriately and with reverence. The Wizards team has worked closely with the teams at Square Enix to ensure that mechanics, characters, and locations all feel right in this new world of Magic. The Job Systems, for instance, have made the jump, but behave differently from the Classes featured in the Dungeons & Dragons set from a few years back. Jobs come in the form of special equipment artifacts with the 'Job Selected' mechanic, which will create a 1/1 hero token when the card is played, with the equipment automatically equipping to the token. These Job artifacts will not only provide new bonus abilities to the creature it is equipped to, but also add additional creature types - the White Mage's Staff card will turn a creature into a Cleric, or Wizard for the Black Mage's equivalent. As much as I enjoyed the enchantment-based approach with the Classes, I prefer these artifacts because they offer a more versatile approach, since you can pass the jobs around. Plus, they will stick around if the creature they are assigned to get destroyed, to pass along the torch.

The same care with which the team adapted the jobs and previously revealed Summon cards has been put into creating cards that capture the essence of the characters they represent. New cards like 'Aerith Gainsborough' that get's stronger when you gain life but then disperses her +1/+1 counters to her teammates when she dies or with 'Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms' who let's you draw a bunch of cards and freely play any equipment cards onto the battlefield (too bad the card doesn't also play 'Battle on the Big Bridge' track). The image of Gilgamesh rummaging around in his bag to get the sword he wants is incredibly on-brand for the character, and had me chuckling when they showed him off.

Places you visit in these games are just as memorable as their cast of characters, and we got a taste of what we can expect from these landmarks in this adaptation. Representing Final Fantasy X's “Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis” introduces a new style of land that can be played either as a land, tapping for green in this case, or played as a Sorcery-Adventure. Alongside gorgeous art that depicts the city both in its heyday and as ruins, Zanarkand features the ‘Town’ type for land, which will be sure to raise some eyebrows.

It’s always exciting to see a familiar kind of card get a new variation, and with each of the five main colors will get a corresponding Adventure land, so I can’t wait to see what other spots will get featured in such a way. As long as I can get a Big Bridge land that features some battle going on, I will be happy.

Magic cards are known for their art, and for a set based on Final Fantasy—also known for its art—it only makes sense that legendary artists like Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura would pop up somewhere. Wizards has brought on nine special guest artists who were given the freedom to create art for any character they desired, regardless of whether they were from a game they had worked on or not. 

This has resulted in some gorgeous artwork, but seeing brand new Final Fantasy VII art from Nomura and IV pieces from Amano is on a whole other level. Amano’s new Terra artwork, featured on the ‘Terra, Magical Adapt’ double-sided card, is perhaps my favorite, featuring both her human and Esper sides, conveying her strength and conviction, with some really powerful card abilities too! 

For Nomura, we were also shown a double-sided card, this time featuring Sephiroth, in a way that looks like it would be right at home on a wall scroll. At the very bottom, featuring the younger SOLDIER featuring in Ever Crisis, before rising up to the form we know and love, before featuring his final Safer-Sephiroth form on the other side as ‘Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel'. 

This Final Fantasy set focuses on the 16 core games of the franchise, which unfortunately means that spin-offs like Final Fantasy Tactics or direct sequels like Final Fantasy X-2 or Dirge of Cerberus are missing. That said, these omissions have allowed the team to focus on making this latest Universes Beyond product, which is already larger than usual, the best it can be, full of moments and characters that are beloved by fans worldwide. Representation from one game to the next will vary a bit, with it sounding like Final Fantasy VII, thanks to its impact on the franchise as a whole and the recent Remake trilogy, will be heavily featured. However, you can still expect the cast from the other games to be on display as well.

This recent round of previews showed off some versions of Tifa, Kain from Final Fantasy IV, Squall, Rinoa, and Angelo from VIII, Zidane (with one version being an alternate for competitive powerhouse Ragavan), and Vivi, and even a couple of versions of Firion from the divisive second entry. And, if you were concerned at all by the Cid representation in this game, worry no longer, all 15 Cids are here! They are all just alternate art versions of each other, but the fact that Wizards knew to make all 15 show up means a lot and shows just how much they care. 

For as much as this set feels like a love letter to fans made by fans, there is one specific aspect that really rubs me the wrong way and adds a slight blemish to it. Ironically, that tarnish comes by way of the Golden Chocobo card. One of the new cards you can find is the beloved Chocobo, which can be found in its various color pallettes from green, blue, black, and the classic yellow, but if you were hoping to get the whole set, your chances aren't good. Only 77 copies of the majestic golden variety of the series' signature bird will be printed, on a solid gold, mostly foiled card, that can only be potentially found in the costly Collector Booster packs.

While this concept of a serialized card isn't new for Magic, cards with very limited printing with each copy uniquely numbered, with arguably the most well-known offering being the 1 of 1 The One Ring from the Lord of the Rings set a few years ago. Players could still get and play unserialized versions of the card to play, which is to some extent the same here as each of the chocobo is the same color, but while the art used for the One Ring cards would be different, it was still just the same ring, just with a different picture. For those of us who have struggled to breed and earn our gold chocobo in the past, we know that these birds are so much more than color swaps, and it's a bummer that only 77 people in the world over will have a shot at having a complete set of the wonderful fantasy birds. Keep the serialized cards all good and release a version, maybe where just the Chocobo’s feathers are gold foil, and have it be unserialized.

Blemish aside, I'm getting increasingly excited about this set with every new bit of info shared and the additional card revealed. Over the next four weeks, players have previews and more reveals to look forward to as we get closer to when the prerelease festivities begin on June 6, leading up to the full release on June 13.

In general, I agree with the voices that say that Universes Beyond has gone a bit too far, with too many releases and too many crossovers happening. Final Fantasy feels different. There is a different air about it, and I have seen so many non-Magic players jumping on board with this set and suddenly become interested in the game, who have never touched it before. That sort of thing is good. I am already beginning to brainstorm how to incorporate my favorite characters into my existing decks and brand new concoctions to surprise my playgroup. Magic is good. Final Fantasy is good. Final Fantasy and Magic together are shaping up to be great.

Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond—Final Fantasy will be released on June 13, both physically and digitally, on Magic Arena.