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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 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 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. The Masamune 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 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 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, SeeD Academy 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 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.

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.

Final Fantasy is one of my all-time favorite game series. Like most 90s gamer kids, I fell in love with FFVII. While I only played a few others after, I played the FF MMO, FFXI for years and picked it back up for a while during the pandemic. For a bit, I also dabbled in FFXIV, the popular MMO, but it left me wanting to play more FFXI. All that said, weirdly, this new MTG Final Fantasy set doesn't get me hyped for the set, but it gives me the itch to look back at some of my favorite old video games. It's no secret I'm not a massive fan of these crossovers, and this one is aimed at me. While it doesn't hook me in like I thought it would, there are a lot of cards worth looking at once I can separate myself from Final Fantasy's lure. First, I'll take a look at my nostalgic card from the set, Absolute Virtue. Absolute Virtue Absolute Virtue is tailor-made for Commander. Sadly, it doesn't appear to have any applications in competitive Constructed formats, however, there's a cool story behind the character in FFXI. This boss was released when I first started playing FFXI. It was the most challenging boss in this, and potentially any, game. Absolute Virtue could heal itself to full after countless hours of fighting, making it frustrating and nearly impossible. Eventually, it was taken down. In the current game, it is much easier, as the level cap has been raised and, much like in Magic, power creep has ramped up over the past 20 years. While the character and origin are cool in terms of FFXI, I plan to get a copy of this card just to look at and admire it, as it will have no practical use in Constructed environments. Vivi Ornitier Now, for the exact opposite. Weirdly, I don't know much about this character even though I've seen it a million times as the stereotypical image of a Black Mage in Final Fantasy. That said, the character is not what interests me here. Vivi Ornitier is on the shortlist for best card in the set and would be my pick currently. On its face, it looks like you'll cast it for three mana, have it trade down on mana against a Go for the Throat, and you'll get nothing out of the exchange. When you account for the times this doesn't happen against a deck like Izzet Prowess, you will win when you use it to untap. You can chain spells, grow Vivi larger and larger, get more mana to grow it even more, and then close the game on the spot. This card goes into that same category as Sheoldred, in that you need to kill it immediately or the game is likely over. This also costs a full mana less, making it a narrower window. Vivi gets the advantage of turning effects that pump it, such as Monstrous Rage, into Dark Ritual effects. Think about its potential applications in formats like Modern or Pioneer, where various Moxes and zero-mana spells are legal. You can play Vivi and immediately Mutagenic Growth it, which becomes a Black Lotus. Two Mutagenic Growths? Now we have six free mana. Between Mox Amber, Mox Opal, Mishra's Bauble, and everything else, Vivi is a cracked Magic card and likely the best card we'll see in the set. I don't think the hype is exaggerated on this one. If anything, it's underrated. I can't wait to play this card, and soon enough, we'll be counting the days we don't have to play with this card anymore because it's potentially that strong. Tifa Lockhart I know more about this character as a FFVII enjoyer, but let's look at the card's substance. While Tifa is certainly no Vivi, they both benefit from pumping their power, and Tifa can kill the opponent with a fetch land and any number of pump spells, such as Become Immense or Might of Old Krosa. It's almost as if she has infect since she'd slot into an infect deck but without the keyword. Tifa isn't groundbreaking or broken like Vivi, but there is a chance Tifa could see some play in a zoo-like deck that can use her to one-shot the opponent out of nowhere. At only two mana, Tifa has some potential, even if she does look tame for modern-day MTG standards. Tifa is playable, albeit deck-specific and not a card you'd want to build around, but it provides more redundancy as a two-mana threat that threatens to kill opponents who don't interact in her first attack. Starting Town Starting Town is a perfect example of gameplay tripping over the feet of flavor. Because it's a "starting town," it only comes in untapped during the early turns of the game, rather than as an early land of the game. This doesn't even make that much more sense to me, and it doesn't win me over as to why it needed to be designed this way. This flavor win is a gameplay fail because it makes little sense as to why this wouldn't be consistent with the original Kaladesh fast land cycle, like Blooming Marsh. Regardless, Starting Town is going to be a great land in Standard and Pioneer and will facilitate three-color decks in Standard for years to come. While many people may have never played with Mana Confluence or City of Brass, Starting Town tapping for colorless goes a long way. You can play four copies without having to be incredibly linear or aggressive. However, it will still work best in those strategies, as it mitigates both downsides of the card if you can end the game early. While Starting Town isn't one of the better lands we've seen in Standard, it's one of the most flexible, so I wouldn't be surprised to see if this ends up being one of the most played cards, if not the most played, in Standard. It will be played in many multicolor decks and two-color decks as an additional pain land if necessary. Starting Town is solid and definitely a future role player in Standard mana bases. Summon: Primal Odin Primal Odin is our first look at a Saga Creature, and while I didn't appreciate the flavor of Starting Town, Odin's flavor and design are on point. I like the idea of Saga Creatures, as they have interesting gameplay where you don't want to get them into combat in many cases before you can capitalize on all saga chapters. This makes for interesting in-game decision trees, which I appreciate. I must give credit where it's due, and Odin feels a lot like it does in the video games. Zantetsuken is known for one-shotting players in any version of Final Fantasy I've ever played and has required clever gameplay dodge. While you don't need clever gameplay to prevent being one-shot by Odin, on its face, it's at least a Noxious Gearhulk, a six-mana Nekrataal effect that can kill the opponent in one hit or draw extra cards if it's unable to connect. Odin isn't a staple, or even all that playable, but it has a minor amount of potential because of the whole package. I wouldn't be surprised to see a copy in various midrange mirrors if creatures are dominant, but I doubt we will because six-mana spells these days have to do a lot up front, and Odin does just enough to potentially see play in swingy, creature-heavy matchups. I love the flavor of Odin, but outside of Commander, I don't think we'll be seeing it in competitive Constructed formats. Ishgard, the Holy See Ishgard, the Holy See introduces a new card type, adventure lands. Much like a Bonecrusher Giant, we can play this as a land, or we can get maximum value by playing it as a spell and then playing it from the adventure zone as a land. In general, I hate lands that are free spells because they end up almost always being too powerful or warping deck building in various ways. For instance, Spikefield Hazard is one of my least favorite cards because it had the Goblin Chainwhirler effect where one-toughness creatures were kind of banned while it was Standard-legal because the card was in all red decks. It felt bad to rely on a one-toughness creature when the opponent didn't have to even make deck space to interact. These lands look too weak. Faith and Grief is a reasonable spell to get for free, but most of the time we won't want that effect, and we're certainly not building around it, so it's more of a way to add some value to our land. Unfortunately, this land comes in tapped all the time, which takes it out of the equation as a playable card. There may be some spots for it, but it won't be ubiquitous in all white decks because the cost is too punishing. One way they could have pushed this cycle was to have them come into play tapped from either the adventure zone or your hand, but not both. From the three lands of this cycle I've seen, I'm low on these adventure lands, and unless the spell portion is highly desirable on any others we see, I don't think they'll see much, if any, play. From what I've seen of this set, I'm enjoying the walk down memory lane. Ultimately, the set doesn't look overpowered, and it looks in line with most Standard sets, with the exception of a few outliers, which is normal. That makes me happy for a Universes Beyond set since I was worried they'd go out of their way to push cards like in Lord of the Rings. I'm excited to see the rest of the set. It has some interesting mechanics that will make gameplay interesting. Final Fantasy is the most hyped set we've ever seen in Magic, and I hope that brings a lot of new players to the game. Hopefully, those players are as intrigued by the game as we are and stick around for a while. I'll be back next time to look at more Final Fantasy previews, as there is a lot to go over in this set and a lot more to be revealed. See you then.

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