More Final Fantasy Previews

This week we're going to dive right into more previews from Final Fantasy, likely the most anticipated set ever. Here are some more interesting cards to take a look at.

Astrologian's Planisphere

Astrologian's Planisphere is an equipment I've seen compared to Cori-Steel Cutter. This is not a great comparison, as Cori-Steel Cutter has the strength of continuously producing tokens, even on both turns of the game. That doesn't make Astrologian's Planisphere a bad card, and it may play well in the same decks in Standard.

Both cards want a lot of cantrips and cheap spells that, in order to fully get rid of, require your opponent use multiple game pieces. Two-mana cards often don't do this in Standard, so I can see Astrologian's Planisphere being played specifically in Izzet in addition to Cutter.

If you got confused like I did reading the card, "Diana" is just flavor text, it has an equip cost of two.

This is a solid card that will need to be tested in Izzet, especially given that the two-drop slot beyond Cori-Steel Cutter is in flux between Slickshot and Drake Hatcher.

Ultima

Ultima looks bland at face value, like it's just another five-mana Wrath, but it likely will be an omnipresent part of Standard, especially as long as Cori-Steel Cutter is around. Ultima destroys creatures and artifacts, so it will clean up almost all threats that are currently played in Standard.

The interesting part of this card is the "end the turn" line. It initially looks like a downside and likely is in a format like Limited- you can't cast your sweeper and follow up with a threat immediately. However, Ultima allows you to safely play a Wrath into a flash creature. A common play pattern is holding up your Faerie Mastermind to cast after a sweeper, but when this resolves, it will immediately end the turn. This will also eat any end-of-turn effects you or your opponent may have. Your opponent's end-step trigger effects will also be skipped.

Ultima will undoubtedly see play and push decks like Izzet to respect it with counter magic or at least not dumping their hand into it as they would with a Temporary Lockdown. You can always bounce a Lockdown and swing for lethal later, but it's all gone with Ultima.

Summon: Knights of Round

This is another extremely powerful creature-saga. Knights of Round was one of the more powerful abilities in FF7, and the same is true in MTG's Final Fantasy universe.

Eight mana for a a 3/3 that brings three more tokens immediately and another three subsequently for the next three turns. On top of that, it gives you an overrun effect to follow up if you weren't able to kill the opponent. A massive key to this card having any playability is the indestructible keyword. If for 8 mana you put a couple of tokens into play and then it gets taken out with enchantment removal, then it wouldn't be nearly as powerful. Because it's indestructible, it immediately puts the pressure on your opponent to find a way to beat you or ultimately die at the hands of the knights put into play.

Eight mana is too much by today's standards for anything. However, this is a creature, and we know there are plenty of ways to cheat creatures into play. I don't foresee Knights of the Round as a card that will have a massive impact in Standard, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong because it's going to inevitably win the game on its own.

We won't be seeing players play four copies of the card with intentions of casting it fairly, but I could see a copy slipping into controlling decks for certain matchups as a way to close the door on the opponent, but it's unlikely. I suspect where we'll see this the most is in the MTGO Vintage Cube as a target to Reanimate.

This is a cool card that we won't see many copies of, but I personally want to own one because of the iconic lore.

Buster Sword

Buster Sword is reminiscent of the swords we all know and love from prior sets. That said, those Swords, even by today's standards, were a lot more playable. Once equipped, their protections made it difficult to interact with the creature. However, in most cases, Buster Sword only plays well into no interaction and a completely clean attack. Additionally, you need more juice in your hand to get the big impact of spending your 5 mana, doing 5 or 6 damage, and getting another 5- or 6-mana card into play.

Buster Sword doesn't look particularly good in a vacuum in Limited, so I have low expectations for the most iconic weapon from Final Fantasy in MTG.

While I'm glad they didn't push Buster Sword hard like they did The One Ring for Lord of the Rings, it would have been nice to see it pack a little more punch.

Unfortunately, I don't see Buster Sword being played in any format outside of people just liking the card and shoehorning it into Commander decks for fun.

Summon: Bahamut

Bahamut is one of the most iconic characters from Final Fantasy. It's almost always an epic event when Bahamut is involved, and this card is fairly epic.

While it's different than Knights of the Round, I ultimately see it being used in the same way. It's a big dragon that can be cheated into play and will win you the game in many cases. Bahamut seems worse for that than Knights of the Round because it's missing the indestructible keyword. You can spend a lot of time and effort trying to put Bahamut into play, have it eat a Doom Blade, and it wasn't any better than an Angel of Despair.

Bahamut has the added upside of being a colorless dragon, making it easier to get into play, potentially with Tron lands, but this is a worse payoff for that than a card like Ulamog or even Ugin.

While I love the card's cool abilities and how flavorful it is, it probably won't be played much. It's too expensive for competitive formats and will likely live in Commander decks for eternity.

Yuna, Hope of Spira

Even though Knights of the Round and Bahamut are too expensive to see play. Yuna can put them directly into play.

While I'm evaluating the other cards in a vacuum, there's potentially some kind of shell where we can play those sagas with Yuna and various self-mill for a midrange plan that has this combo upside. The problem is Standard is too fast and punishing for any cute stuff. It would have all worked a decade ago, and been quite good, but the game is now too fast with Izzet and Mono Red still being two of the best decks in the format.

Yuna is strong, and that it gets ward right off the bat means you're very likely to get a reanimation trigger if it resolves. In a world with Ghostly Vacuum in most sideboards, I'm skeptical this will be a workable plan, but I've seen stranger things.

I'm curious to see if anyone can make this kind of archetype work. Likely, reanimator is too easy to hate out. I'd expect a deck like that, if functional, would only get a week or two of freedom before it's completely hated out.

Yuna is a cool card with a high ceiling, but I think the days of five-mana reanimation spells are well behind us. Yuna does benefit a good deal from Cavern of Souls being in the format, so maybe I'll be proven wrong.

The set looks incredibly well-designed from a flavor perspective so far. I'm excited to see how new players respond to Magic, as we're surely going to have an influx of new players with this highly anticipated crossover. I'll be looking over more previews next week, and much like you, I'm thrilled to see more reveals between now and then.