The Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy crossover is still a few months away, but we’re getting crumbs of reveals until the official spoiler season kicks off on May 10. In addition to seeing a few character reveals on their birthdays, we also got to see the box toppers available for MTG Final Fantasy.
Similar to recent Aetherdrift and Lost Caverns of Ixalan box toppers, Japanese players will receive a Box Topper pack for Final Fantasy. Unlike the previous sets, Japanese players can only get two cards from this pack. For better or worse, one is much more desirable and rare than the other. The Force of Negation promo is so rare, in fact, that it could easily surpass $1000.
A Non-Serialized Limited Edition Card
According to the recent reveal, only 2000 copies of Force of Nagation will be available in Japanese Final Fantasy Box Topper packs. This is somewhat comparable to the recent one-off serialized cards that appeared in Aetherdrift and Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Only 500 copies of Mox Jasper and The Aetherspark exist in their rarest form, but Force of Negation has a few things going that those do not.
Force of Negation is a much more playable card than either The Aetherspark or Mox Jasper. This card sees play in absolutely every format it’s legal in. From Modern to Vintage, free counterspells are one of the best things you can do in Magic: The Gathering. The Aetherspark and Mox Jasper do exciting things, but neither card is even remotely viable in eternal formats like Legacy and Vintage.
Mox Jasper had a lot of hype at release, but the Dragon restriction on the free mana is difficult to utilize properly. As a result, the card’s cheaper copies have started plummeting on TCGplayer. You can now pick this up for just $20, a far cry from Force of Negation’s $53 entry fee. Despite this, the serialized variant of Mox Jasper has multiple asking prices for $2000-3000 on sites like eBay, suggesting that Force of Negation could easily surpass $1000.
Similarly, The Aetherspark also routinely sells for over $1500. These are a bit rarer than Force of Negation, but the demand for the new promo has a lot more potential than these Serialized cards.
The Universes Beyond Effect
Final Fantasy fans could also make this Force of Negation much more desirable. Featuring Edea from her iconic failed assassination scene, the appeal to Final Fantasy fans could be a really big deal.
Looking at Lord of the Rings reskins can act as a strong example. The first wave of collector booster boxes had a collection of premium Sol Rings available in both serialized and non-serialized quantities. Among them, the rarest Sol Ring was the Elven one. The non-serialized Elven Rings had 3000 copies worldwide, making them similar to this Force of Negation.
For reference, these Elven Rings have a market average of about $1000. While this Force of Negation promo is slightly rarer, Sol Ring is significantly more popular and iconic. Nonetheless, it seems very possible that this new Force of Negation promo could be worth at least $1000.
Notably, the Elven Sol Rings could be found worldwide, but that’s not true for this Force of Negation promo.
A Japanese Exclusive
This Force of Negation is already absurdly rare for MTG standards, but it’s going to be even more difficult to get for American players. This Force of Negation will only be available as a box topper in Japan alongside foil and nonfoil Arcane Denial cards. This could create additional demand from players across the world who want to collect this rare variant for themselves.
Japanese promotional cards have a history of being not only exclusive but also incredibly sought-after. From beautiful artwork to powerful reprints, players across the world often become jealous of the exclusive treatments that Japan receives. This is because Magic has to work a lot harder in Japan to see success. Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Duel Masters all see a massive increase in popularity in Japan.
Any rare Japanese card that is even remotely exclusive commonly has obscene asking prices for this reason. The recent promo Nissa, Resurgent Animist, for example, is sold out at Hareruya for $210 at the time of writing. This is an absurd premium for a $17 card.
Massive Japanese Premium?
There’s also no guarantee that this is the only Japanese exclusive treatment for the Final Fantasy MTG set. It could be the case that Japanese Collector Boosters are incredibly valuable compared to English ones. A similar phenomenon occurred during the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set. Some of the full-art Godzilla promos were Japanese exclusive, which put those boxes in extremely high demand. This isn’t an unreasonable speculation considering Final Fantasy’s deep Japanese ties.
There’s a strong chance that this Japanese exclusive Force of Negation will see an unreasonable amount of demand, but so much of the Final Fantasy MTG set has yet to be revealed. If you’re interested in everything that this set has to offer, be sure to tune in on May 10th, when everything finally kicks off.
