Final Fantasy - Final Preview
- Mike Sigrist
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
We're not quite done yet with preview season, but the highly anticipated Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set is right around the corner. After seeing almost all the spoilers, there's a lot of skepticism about the power level of the set, which is concerning for a massive release. With pack prices at a premium, it will be disappointing if a lot of these cards aren't Standard staples.
Let's look at a couple of the more interesting cards left in the set.
Terra, Magical Adept is interesting if you can find a shell where you have enough sagas and other enchantments. I suspect decks that meet those qualifications are few and far between, but evaluating this as a 4/2 for three that draws a card would put it in the category of playable. While it doesn't quite do that, there are potentially some use cases for Terra.
If you're able to flip it, you can likely win the game if it's unchecked. Terra provides a lot of self-mill, so it could enable Delirium or even various threshold cards we've seen recently.
I'm not too high on Terra. It will take the stars aligning for it to be a solid role player, but the potential is there, so it's worth keeping an eye on.
Memories Returning is an extremely interesting draw spell. It plays a lot like the beloved Fact or Fiction, in which your opponent gets a choice in what you get. Memory Deluge would be the most recent closest comparison, but instant speed carries more value than an extra card. For that reason, I'm lower on Memories Returning than a card like Memory Deluge. In 2025, raw card advantage drawn to hand isn't as valuable as the optionality you get from holding up mana on the opponent's turn. Also, nine mana to flash back is far too much to be reliable, but it's a nice bonus for control mirrors that can go for a while.
This card may have its use cases, such as a better Harmonize. I'm not too keen on Memories Returning and will look elsewhere for control deck draw spells. I could see decks sneaking a single copy of this somewhere in the 75 because it can provide so many raw cards, which is sometimes all you want in specific matchups. It's potentially playable but definitely not a competitive staple.
I'm only showing The Masamune because it was a highly anticipated card, as Sephiroth is one of the most beloved characters from the IP, and people really wanted to see what they'd do with his Masamune.
Well, this is one of the biggest letdowns of the set. The Masamune is functionally unplayable since it's extremely expensive to cast and equip, and it requires on-death effects from other cards to be relevant.
The card may play out well in Limited because it can be cast for five mana, force a favorable block, and continue to provide value. Outside of that, this card is laughably unplayable across the board.
I would have liked to see WotC be more aggressive with The Masamune, as equipment as a card type is largely outdated unless there's already a creature attached.
The Gold Saucer is one of the most beloved locations from the Final Fantasy series. My favorite part of Final Fantasy VII was going to the Gold Saucer and playing the snowboarding game. I played it for literally years here and there, more than the game itself probably.
For MTG's sake, The Gold Saucer is not a bad card. It's a value land that would look better if Fountain Port didn't exist. While The Gold Saucer is cheaper to activate, it likely won't see any play while Fountain Port exists. It is an interesting card that has some upside, but it likely won't see play outside of niche circumstances.
I enjoy the gambling aspect of the card since The Gold Saucer is essentially a casino, but I wish they had pushed it further and made it a rare with real Standard implications.
I would not be surprised to see The Gold Saucer show up as a one-of in some spots, but that's extremely unlikely, especially as long as Fountain Port is legal.
Wandering Minstrel is potentially the best card in the set. The issue is that it's a one-trick pony and a bullet creature for Modern Amulet Titan as an effective redundant amulet effect that you can find with Summoner's Pact. Most of the text on the card is largely irrelevant, but your lands coming in untapped is a big game, and it falls into the right color pair for the deck.
I don't foresee this card being played or built around as a town card, but it will be a happy accident in Limited.
Wandering Minstrel adds yet another form of redundancy to one of Modern's most powerful and complicated decks. Maybe, just maybe, Wandering Minstrel will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and we finally get a key piece of Amulet Titan banned in Modern. I largely doubt it, but it is a nice add for the deck. It shouldn't break it and will just make its slower kills more consistent.
Wandering Minstrel, Spelunking, and Scapeshift are all legal in formats like Pioneer, so maybe there's something there as well, perhaps some kind of Lotus Field deck.
We'll have to see the best ways to utilize Wandering Minstrel. It's all but guaranteed to see play in Amulet. It's safe to say that Wandering Minstrel will be one of the most played cards from the set for years to come.
Balamb Garden is an interesting spin on a creature land. It's expensive to flip, but that could be mitigated by playing a few extra towns. In true creature land fashion, it enters tapped.
When flipped, Balamb no longer produces mana and instead provides a large flying win condition that draws extra cards. I'd say The Gold Saucer would play nicely with Balamb, but Fountain Port is likely still better because it can provide tokens to crew Balamb to close out the game rather than just make it cheaper to transform. It's worth noting that it won't have summoning sickness once transformed, so you can flip and attack immediately, which is big for a card like this that really can swing a game if it connects clean just once.
Balamb will likely see play in some numbers, but lands that come into play tapped have become more punishing as threats get more powerful, so you need to pick your spots.
There's not much to see with Balamb. It is incredibly powerful when transformed and is likely worth playing in decks that can afford to play tapped lands and crew it reliably.
Ignis Scientia finding Balamb may end up being a common sequence. Ignis being able to find and crew Balamb is a great upside added to a Simic deck that wants to play these cards. Ignis Scientia is unironically one of the better cards in the set. It digs deep enough that you'll basically never miss putting a land into play with it, and it provides you with a piece of ramp that puts a body into play. While its activated ability is irrelevant, it does provide some utility.
One of the biggest problems with a three-mana ramp is how far it puts you behind, but like Wood Elves, Ignis adds a much more relevant body to the battlefield.
Ignis Scientia is not broken, but it's a solid addition to any deck that wants to hit five mana regularly. I would have loved to play this in a deck like Slogurk during the last iteration of Standard.
Ignis is a solid card that is playable mostly in decks that want to cast cards that cost five mana or more.
I'm excited to see how much of this card we see because it looks excellent. I could also see it not lining up well in the format with how fast it's shaping up to be.
The set's flavor and design are true to Final Fantasy, and the essence of the Final Fantasy universe is captured. However, I'm perplexed that the set feels weak on the surface despite everything it has going on. Granted, we need to play with some of the cards to understand how well they'll function, and it's possible cards like the saga creatures end up being better than they look.
Regardless, I'm excited to start playing with these cards and can't wait to draft the set. It looks super fun for Limited at the very least.
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