Now that preview season for Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy set is behind us, we can reflect on one of the more interesting waves of spoilers the game has seen. Since Final Fantasy is such a big series, a lot of online discussion was taken up with speculation of which characters and elements would make appearances. After just a few days we had number crunches up, and players desperately hoping their favorites would fit in a vacant slot. In the end, as you’d expect, MTG Final Fantasy had a huge number of omissions.
Despite the set’s name, these omissions may not be final. Some cards that look like parts of a cycle have players’ minds whirring, speculating about another Final Fantasy set down the line. Additionally, the set’s December release, leaked back in March, could fill in some notable gaps. Both of these potential avenues are largely mysteries for now, with little concrete information out in the wild. The fact that so many players are discussing them already, however, speaks to the hunger of the fanbase for this particular set.
The Many Omissions Of MTG Final Fantasy
Discussion on the omissions from MTG Final Fantasy has been going for a couple of weeks now, but it’s really come to a head since the full set reveal last Friday. Now that there are no more slots left, players are coming to terms with their wishlist not making the cut. In the major r/MagicTCG thread on disappointments from the set, the bulk of them were related to cards that didn’t appear in the set.
“FF7&14 getting the majority of the cards, despite having commander decks already, to the detriment of other games not getting their full cast of characters.”
Hououza, via r/MagicTCG
For many players, this was the root of the issue. There’s been plenty of talk of certain games in the series being overrepresented. Now that the full set is out, it’s clear that talk was accurate. Final Fantasy VII and XIV are the clear frontrunners here, with 42 and 44 cards in the set, respectively. Compare these figures to Final Fantasy II, which got a mere 10 cards, and the problem is clear. To make matters worse, VII and XIV also got dedicated Commander decks. They didn’t really need the slots in the main set too.
“Definitely feel like there are a couple of characters that feel like they should’ve had cards. It is wild that Warrior of Light from FF1 doesn’t have a card, while he’s on the art of the play booster box.”
DjGameK1ng, via r/MagicTCG
This skewed representation is an issue in a vacuum. A Final Fantasy set should aim to satisfy fans from all corners of the series, after all. A knock-on effect of it is that a lot of characters from less popular game simply didn’t get cards, or were reduced to cameos in artwork. The Warrior of Light, for example, an iconic character from Final Fantasy I, only appears on Slash of Light.
Having important characters appear in art but not get dedicated cards was one of Wizards’ solutions to accommodating the huge number of icons in the series. In practice, many aren’t thrilled with the results.
A Second Chance?
The overall balance in Final Fantasy is so off, in fact, that many players are convinced Wizards plans to correct it in the future. Since spoiler season ended a number of threads speculating about a potential ‘sequel set’ have sprung up.
“Some of the missing cards and choices of cards to include almost make it feel like a 2nd set is already planned. Like we got 3 Limit Break cards, Tifa, Cloud and Vincent. Seems like a very strange choice to create a mechanic like that and only include those 3 unless there are more planned down the line.”
Eques9090, via r/MagicTCG
A second Final Fantasy set would certainly help address some of the complaints about the set we covered above. With 300 new slots to work with, games like Final Fantasy II and XII could have their casts rounded out. There could even be additional Commander decks for some of the bigger entries, like IV and IX.
Though we’ve heard nothing official from Wizards regarding such a set, a number of players online are discussing the idea. In the thread mentioned above, Kononeko added “Said it yesterday and I’ll say it again, I 100% believe that there will be another full Final Fantasy set in the next 5 years.”
Other players have something a bit more short-term in mind. VeryTiredGirl93 started a thread on why Final Fantasy should’ve been a two-set block. Agitated_Smell2849 got a discussion going about a smaller, Aftermath-style set for Final Fantasy.
It’s easy to look at discussions like this as players grasping at the last strands of hope, desperate to see their favorite characters represented. There is a real chance, however, that something like this happens.
We already know that multiple Marvel sets are planned, so Universes Beyond can stretch in that way when needed. Final Fantasy is also a huge sales success already, making such a sequel even more likely. Wizards has said nothing on the matter so far, mind you, so this is all speculation for now.
An Unusual Opportunity
While the above is all hypothetical for now, we do have some concrete information to work with regarding future Final Fantasy products. Back in March, online product listings confirmed the existence of two special Final Fantasy releases. These are the Chocobo Bundle and the Scene Box, and they’re slated for a December 5th release.
Immediately, this conjures comparisons to the Lord of the Rings Holiday releases from 2023. These extended the set’s offerings with all-new Collector Boosters and Scene Boxes. The Scene Boxes contained pre-defined, mechanically-unique cards, all of which formed a larger scene when placed side by side. We’ve already seen the same concept used again for Spider-Man, so seeing it for Final Fantasy makes total sense.
While not quite as dramatic as a full sequel set, there is a good chance that both of these products will add some new designs to the game. This should help address some of the bigger MTG Final Fantasy omissions. As CaptainMarcia points out on Reddit, there’s solid evidence to suggest we’ll get a nice batch of new cards here:
“FIC’s collector numbers have a gap of 42 cards near the end – numbers 442-483. Given the listings for Final Fantasy holiday box sets, the best guess for this is scene boxes like the LoTR ones, which at six cards per scene suggests seven scenes. Precedent suggests such scenes would consist of all new cards, and seven of those scenes could cover up to seven games.”
CaptainMarcia, via r/MagicTCG
The 24 extra cards added in the Lord of the Rings Scene Boxes were included in the Commander set. It’s looking possible, then, that we’ll be getting 42 new Final Fantasy cards come December. Adding six cards to some of the underrepresented games from the main set would make a big difference, and go a long way towards restoring the overall balance, but it’s impossible to know for sure what any of this means. The MTG Final Fantasy story likely isn’t over yet, in other words.
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