It’s finally here, folks! After months of anticipation, today’s Weekly MTG stream gave us our first glimpse into Magic: The Gathering’s take on Final Fantasy. There’s a ton to take in all at once, but one card in particular stands out above the rest. Many have pondered just how MTG would handle the iconic summons of Final Fantasy. Turns out the designers have come up with a very elegant solution indeed.
All the summons in the set will be represented by Saga Creatures, a brand-new card type for Magic. Given the high regard the summons are held in by fans, such an esteemed treatment seems appropriate. This continues the trend of Magic innovating in terms of card types in 2025, which started with The Aetherspark in Aetherdrift. Like that standout card, Saga Creatures have some major gameplay implications that could ripple across multiple formats.
Final Fantasy Summons To Appear As MTG Saga Creatures!
Saga Creatures are an incredibly elegant solution to the problem of representing the Final Fantasy summons in MTG. Summons are big, powerful creatures who are summoned by the party for a single big attack in battle. Combining the temporary nature of Sagas with the combative nature of creatures helps showcase this idea beautifully.
As Principal Designer Gavin Verhey revealed on the first look stream today, this idea was something that “Yoni and the Vision Design team came up with early” in the set’s development. Mechanics like Fading and Vanishing were also considered here, but Vehey notes “They didn’t quite feel right.” When the team hit on Saga Creatures, however, they knew they’d found a perfect solution.
Mechanically, Saga Creatures work as you’d expect. They gain lore counters on entry and after you draw, but they also happen to come with a body attached. This lets them attack and block, which is a big upside over Sagas past. On the other hand, being creatures makes them much more vulnerable to removal. There’s a new and interesting dynamic at play here.
In addition to the novelty of the type combination itself, Saga Creatures also represent other innovations in the Saga space. This is the first time we’ll be seeing Sagas with Borderless art, for example. It’s also the first time we’ll be seeing Sagas with flavor text. The example shown on the stream features a nice lore snippet, for example. Excitingly, Verhey notes that flavor might not be the only text we’ll see on these cards. Sounds like Saga Creatures with keywords and passive abilities may well be on the cards.
Summon: Shiva
Summon: Shiva is remarkable in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s a very iconic character. Shiva shows up in literally every Final Fantasy game that has summons, and many of the spin-offs too. She’s a great pick to give us our inaugural look at Saga Creatures, in other words.
Mechanically, the card isn’t super impressive, unfortunately. Five mana for a 4/5 that stuns a couple of creatures and draws you a card before dying definitely seems too slow for Standard. That said, I think there might be Commander potential here. The fact that the final ability cares about all opposing tapped creatures actually gives it a ton of value in multiplayer. If your opponents are all swinging in and have just a couple of creatures each, that’s a draw six right there.
Admittedly, tapping one creature in each of the first two chapters is considerably less good in Commander. The fact that your opponents have two turn cycles to remove your 4/5 and deny you your burst draw is relevant too. While the card creates some interesting decision-making on your opponents’ part, it doesn’t seem like a great inclusion outside of dedicated tap decks.
As our first look at a new type combination, Shiva certainly could’ve been more powerful. Thankfully, we should see some better Saga Creatures elsewhere in the set. On the stream, Zakeel Gordon, Executive Producer for the Final Fantasy set, noted that summons will appear “at all rarities.” This should mean splashy mythic rare summons, and also some nice complexity for Pauper.
Endless Possibilities
Any time a new card type combination comes out, we have to re-evaluate our collective Magic: The Gathering worldview. This was the case with The Aetherspark, and it will certainly be the case with these MTG Final Fantasy summons. The implications of Saga Creatures are numerous, particularly for the Commander format.
Mechanically, this is a whole new problem for players to reckon with. Saga Creatures are in an odd space where they’re better Sagas, but weaker creatures. They get to attack and block, which is more than old Sagas got to do. Unlike regular creatures, however, they only get to stick around until they reach their last chapter. They’re temporary threats, which is always an interesting design space to play in. Shiva, for example, can only get one attack in before she fades away. Unless you get creative with counter manipulation, of course.
The existence of Saga Creatures also recontextualizes the existing Saga support cards. Commanders like Tom Bombadil and Eivor, Wolf-Kissed, which put Sagas directly into play, acquire a whole new edge when you can put real bodies on the board with their effects. Sagas have been a bit of a novelty deck theme for a while now, but maybe Final Fantasy will push it over the edge and make it truly viable.
Alternatively, the Saga Creatures we see could all be as conservatively-designed as Shiva. Final Fantasy is a Standard-legal set, after all, without the same freedom that Lord of the Rings had. However it pans out, it’s great to see more mechanical innovation like this from Magic. 32 years in and it’s still finding new ways to make us care about cardboard.