After a rather quiet weekend, the spoiler season for the Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set is back in full swing. Kicking things off with a bang once more, three brand new cards have been revealed, each more exciting than the last. While there’s a lot to love about these new spoilers on offer, they’re arguably more impressive from a flavor perspective.
Ice Flan
To kick things off, Ice Flan was recently spoiled by the good folks over at Good Games Morely. While the source of spoilers doesn’t often register on many players’ radars, this one may be the exception. If you’ve not heard of them before, Good Games Morely has quickly become beloved for their MTG-based sketches on TikTok.
While it’s claimed that Ice Flan is a multi-format all-star during the reveal sketch, Ice Flan actually seems just okay. For six mana, you’re getting an undersized body and a single stun counter, which won’t even permanently remove a threat. As much as Islandcycling is a nice mana fixing upside, it hardly justifies this card’s immense cost.
That being said, Dimir Reanimator has long been a popular archetype in Legacy and recently lost one of its heavy hitters. Sadly, while there are similarities between the two cards, Ice Flan is no Troll of Khazad-dûm. Flan’s Islandcycling costing two rather than one is a major downside in a format as efficient as Legacy.
For better or worse, this may mean that Dimir Reanimator, at least in its recent form, isn’t back on the menu. That doesn’t count Ice Flan out entirely, however, as it’ll surely see some play in Limited. Here, the Islandcycling should come in especially handy in case you’re being mana screwed.
Of course, Ice Flan will surely see some play in Commander, too, but that’s a given for everything. Not only are Stun Counters and Islandcycling useful in that format, but Ice Flan is a Final Fantasy card. If nothing else, expect to see this card popping up in Ooze-based decks sometime in the future.
You’re Not Alone
While the card itself does seem rather compelling, You’re Not Alone is definitely a flavor-first card. Showcasing an iconic emotional moment and song from Final Fantasy IX, many fans were quick to celebrate this card’s flavor. As much as this detail excited Final Fantasy fans, it doesn’t guarantee You’re Not Alone will see play.
Thankfully, the ability of this card isn’t to be scoffed at, and could even be Standard playable in the right deck. At its core, You’re Not Alone might just be a fairly basic pump spell, but it’s still rather strong. Getting +4/+4 for one mana is nothing to scoff at, after all. In the right deck, fulfilling the requirements for this extra buff shouldn’t be too hard either.
While it has fallen out of favor recently, Mono White Tokens decks have long been capable of flooding the board. More recently, these decks have taken a slower, slightly more controlling approach, however, You’re Not Alone is still a viable addition. Thanks to the abundance of tokens, this will basically always be a +4/+4 buff, which could come in clutch.
Admittedly, the whole point of Mono White Tokens is to go wide, rather than tall, so adding a pump spell is somewhat unusual. That being said, you could easily use You’re Not Alone to make excellent trades or go for an early win. Whether or not any decks will actually choose to adopt this card, however, remains to be seen.
If nothing else, You’re Not Alone will be worth keeping an eye on in Final Fantasy Limited. If you go wide or the game stalls, this could be one hell of a cheap combat trick. Looking ahead, it’ll also be worth keeping an eye on this if Boros Aggro or Convoke ever becomes a thing again.
Quina, Qu Gourmet
Last, and definitely not least, Quina, Qu Gourmet is the big ticket item that’ll have a lot of players talking. For starters, as we alluded to in this article’s title, Quina, Qu Gourmet has their very own creature type. This is an incredibly fitting reference to Final Fantasy IX, as no one really knew what Quina was there either. This was even addressed in a recent article, which spoiled both the Final Fantasy IX MTG cards.
“We made compromises for every main character’s creature type, but for Quina, we couldn’t find anything available in Magic’s creature type library that properly explained what Quina is. We also didn’t have a job creature type that was part Blue Mage, part Chef, all Quina. We eventually decided, in the spirit of collaboration and accuracy, we would just give them a “Qu” creature type and celebrate how wonderfully unique Quina is!”
Wizards of the Coast
Curiously, while Quina, Qu Gourmet does appear to be getting a one-off creature type, this isn’t unique in MTG. To date, there are nine eternal legal MTG cards that have unique types, not including Quina. This short list includes Skullcap Snail, Bronze Walrus, and Vexilus Praetor.
Outside of this curious detail, Quina, Qu Gourmet is actually a pretty strong MTG card. Offering additional token generation for just three mana, Quina is bound to see strong play in Commander. Quina can even use these tokens to buff itself, making it a surprisingly strong pick in Limited, too.
Ultimately, Quina, Qu Gourmet is just a wild MTG card. The fact that this is almost an uncommon Chatterfang, Squirrel General already makes it notable enough. The fact that Quina has its own creature type on top of that just makes things even better.