It’s no secret that the Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set has no shortage of incredible cards. The franchise’s most iconic heroes, villains, and side characters have all been given their time in the spotlight. Beyond just getting cards, many of these have seriously exciting abilities for Commander and beyond.
Unfortunately, while the Final Fantasy set does have a lot to love, it’s not entirely perfect. Some games have arguably been given too much representation. Alongside this, the Through the Ages Bonus Sheet contains all manner of flavor fails and dubiously fitting art. Thankfully, while these are real issues, the mechanics of the set are mostly smooth sailing. Mostly…
Despite getting so much right, two Final Fantasy MTG cards don’t work so well with one another. This is a real shame, considering these two make up the set’s one and only Meld pair.
A Match Made in Heaven
During the debut for the Final Fantasy MTG set, Wizards of the Coast showed off Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie and Fang, Fearless l’Cie. As mentioned, these two cards make up the set’s one and only Meld pair, which is very unique in MTG. Thankfully, unlike The Brothers’ War’s Meld cards, both halves can be found at uncommon, rather than mythic.
This makes Melding together Vanille and Fang a real possibility in Limited. While it does cost a fair bit of mana, doing this nets you Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance. From here, Ragnarok easily has the potential to steamroll games, so it’s worth watching out for this in Limited. In constructed, sadly, this pair is going to struggle, like most Meld pairs do.
Strength aside, Wizards of the Coast really knocked the flavor out of the park here. This isn’t a surprise, given the rest of the Final Fantasy set, but it’s nonetheless incredible mechanical synergy. Due to this flavor, you might be interested in playing both Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie and Fang, Fearless l’Cie in Commander. Sadly, this isn’t as easy as you might think.
A Bad Rule
Currently, the color identity of a Meld card is determined only by its front face. So far, this rule has made perfect sense, as the existing Meld pairs have worked around this ruling. Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are both mono white, for example. Similarly, only Urza can be your Commander from the pair of Urza, Lord Protector and The Mightstone and Weakstone.
Sadly, both Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie and Fang, Fearless l’Cie are Legendary creatures, so either could be your Commander. It’s only possible to play both of these cards in a deck led by Vanille, however. In the eyes of MTG’s rules, Fang is a mono black card, so it’d be illegal to have Vanille in your deck.
While this rule might catch some MTG players out, thankfully, it’s not a major misstep. So long as you’re not at a tournament, it’s easy to Rule Zero away this mistake. Reddit users have already shown their willingness to do this, so this shouldn’t really be a problem. That being said, Wizards of the Coast shouldn’t have let it be one in the first place.
A Harmless Opportunity
Due to the issue that Vanille and Fang create, we’d suggest that Wizards change this ruling around Meld. Regardless of which half you have as your Commander, Meld cards should have the color identity of their front and back faces combined. This is already how it works for double-faced cards, so it makes sense for the same rules to apply here.
Beyond just making sense, changing this ruling wouldn’t affect anything, outside of Vanille and Fang. The current Meld Commander options of Gisela, Mishra, Titania, and Urza wouldn’t be affected by this proposed MTG rules change. This makes it harmless at worst, and a good opportunity at best. Now that Wizards is in charge of Commander, it’s even more of an option than usual.
While the mechanic does appear to be enjoyed by fans, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t often print Meld cards. Part of this reason is bound to be their difficulties in Limited, but we’d be surprised if this color confusion didn’t play a part too. Should this proposed rule change be implemented, one hurdle in their design would potentially be eliminated.
If this happens, we could get some really cool two-color Meld pairs with interesting abilities. These pairs could even have Partner, if Wizards really wanted to push the boat out mechanically. Sadly, as interesting as these ideas might be, I wouldn’t hold your breath for any changes.
A Long Wait
Sadly, the rules update for the Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set has already been released. This update certainly wasn’t devoid of interesting updates, however, it didn’t change anything about Meld. Due to this, we’re waiting until the release of Edge of Eternities, in August, for anything to be changed, at the very least.
While Wizards could theoretically make a change for this set’s release, admittedly, this seems unlikely. More realistically, we’re probably not going to see a change to the Meld rules until another Meld card comes along. If this is the case, we may be in for a very long wait, as Wizards doesn’t print these cards often.
Ultimately, as mentioned, I wouldn’t hold your breath for any future rule changes regarding Meld. Never say never, of course, but the time this change could be most valuable is passing us by. All that said, it’s a good thing that Rule Zero exists, to solve this problem even if Wizards won’t.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!