Wizards of the Coast has an impressive, but recent history of knocking it out of the park with Universes Beyond crossovers. A lot of care is taken to translate various IP themes directly to MTG gameplay. These create both new experiences for veteran players and successfully bring color to the world that fans are visiting.
That’s why this particular promo is rather shocking. Torgal, Clive Rosfield’s pet from Final Fantasy 16, has been reskinned reprint of Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful, and players have responded with massive disappointment in droves. The artwork for this card, in the words of many, seems exceptionally lazy.
Torgal, Clive’s Champion
Wizards of the Coast is offering Torgal as a promo for players attending MagicCon: Las Vegas. Themed around the upcoming Final Fantasy set, many of the MagicCon’s panels will feature every aspect of the collaboration. Even top-level competitive players will be able to use the set as part of Pro Tour: Final Fantasy.
As for the promo itself, Torgal, Clive’s Champion, will likely be rather rare since you can’t find it in boosters. There’s a chance it might appear within the Festival in a Box for MagicCon: Las Vegas, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Either way, this reprint of Yoshimaru will likely come with quite a high price tag, not least because it’s Final Fantasy related.
As far as reprints go, Yoshimaru, Ever-Faithful is a decent one. The card only has two printings so far – both of which are incredibly scarce. One is exclusively available in Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty Collector Boosters, while the other is a Secret Lair Bonus Card. For better or worse, this particular copy isn’t going to greatly enhance Yoshimaru’s availability.
You can find copies of Yoshimaru for about $6 at the cheapest, but $8-$9 is a more reasonable cost for most Yoshimaru variants. From that perspective, this reprint is pretty good.
The Secret Lair variant, featuring absolutely gorgeous artwork from Fiona Hsieh, goes for a massive premium. Expect to pay about $45 for a copy of this copy. While Torgal certainly has the potential to fetch a similar premium from a scarcity perspective, players seriously dislike the artwork.
Players Hate This
This particular Torgal promo feels like a callback to the portrait style seen for some reprints in Commander Masters. The lack of a background worked for those vibrant faces and artwork in Commander Masters, but many players really dislike how this particular card looks.
In the words of some, Torgal looks like he’s suffered a bad Photoshop job. It really does look like this pup was dropped on top of a blank image, or an existing background was entirely removed. In a rare example of unity from the MTG community, everyone seems to dislike the artwork on this card.
This is an application of the ‘direct from Final Fantasy’ Booster Fun variant. Aiming to take directly from concept artwork used for the Final Fantasy franchise, this is a cool variant for art enthusiasts. Unfortunately, this Torgal card has taken the mission a bit too literally and looks rather jarring.
Hopefully, Torgal, Clive’s Champion, isn’t an accurate representation of how all of the ‘direct from Final Fantasy’ variants will look. If the entire treatment looks like a bad Photoshop job, this could become one of the least popular Booster Fun treatments in MTG history.
That said, controversial artwork occasionally makes a card more sought-after. Doubly so for a rare card that’s part of a crossover with one of the biggest giants in the gaming industry. While Torgal’s art may have missed, this card will still have its fans. This is a particularly on-theme addition to Universes Beyond Spongebob decks, for example.
Until the spoiler season kickoff for Final Fantasy on May 10th, it will be impossible to know if Torgal is an average-looking card for the treatment or an ugly outlier.
For loyal Torgal fans, even though this reprint could have looked better, it still allows you to play the pup as a mascot for your Legends Matters Commander deck. If this is the only appearance Torgal has in the MTG Final Fantasy crossover, it’s better than no appearance at all.