In the not-so-distant past, Wizards of the Coast implemented Bonus Sheets as a way to both amp up the excitement for new sets, and reprint some much-needed cards into the MTG ecosystem. Final Fantasy’s MTG crossover has perhaps the most beautiful Bonus Sheet that Magic has ever seen. All kinds of incredible characters, artwork, and pricy reprints have appeared.
Rhystic Study and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer have already been revealed as chase cards on the new Final Fantasy Through the Ages Bonus Sheet, but the most recent batch of newcomers isn’t particularly disappointing, either. If you want to play some iconic Commanders with Final Fantasy twists, you’ve come to the right place.
Terra Branford
Urza, Lord High Artificer’s rebranding as Terra Brandford, the main character of Final Fantasy VI, is fitting. Urza doesn’t currently see much constructed play nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Once upon a time, Urza was the best thing you could do in Modern, and was partially to blame for the eventual temporary banning of Mox Opal.
Creating a massive Construct is important, but turning all of your artifacts into Mox Sapphires is what makes this card so powerful. Urza, Lord High Artificer remains one of the most feared Commanders to this day because he can naturally tap older artifacts to create one-sided deficits. Winter Orb and Static Orb, for example, are powerful stax pieces that tax players when untapped, but turn off when tapped. Despite Urza seeing much less play than it used to, and seeing a generous number of reprints, the card is still worth about $14.
The Emperor, Hell Tyrant
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Magic’s greatest villain, has reappeared as Final Fantasy II’s overarching antagonist. Best known for his infinite combo shenanigans across formats, Yawgmoth appears repeatedly as a bad guy in the lore and the game. For the time being, however, Yawgmoth seems to be truly bested, as he isn’t seeing much play anywhere.
Regardless of this, Yawgmoth remains a powerful draw option for Aristocrat Commander decks, which got a significant buff recently. He still occasionally appears in Modern, thanks to working well with any Chord of Calling strategies. Yawgmoth isn’t quite worth the price of his good counterpart, but with a $12 pricetag, this is still a pull you should be happy to find in a Final Fantasy Play Booster.
Orphan, Cocoon Fal’Cie
Muldrotha, the Gravetide has yet another new flashy variant for its Commander fans. Reskinned as the big bad in Final Fantasy XIII, Muldrotha has only ever seen Commander play for a really long time. Recurring cards from your graveyard every turn provides a lot of value in long games, but constructed rarely gives Muldrotha time to truly shine.
At the time of writing, Muldrotha’s cheapest market average is $7.50, making this a respectable card to find in your Final Fantasy pack. That said, premium versions of Muldrotha easily surpass $100. The card has appeared as both a full art card in Double Masters 2022 and as a Fracture Foil in MTG Foundations. This Muldrotha will likely end up somewhere in the middle, depending on how rare its foil versions are.
Balamb Garden
Command Beacon isn’t quite as synonymous with the Commander format as Command Tower or Sol Ring, but that doesn’t mean Command Beacon is a step behind them. This is the ultimate Commander utility land. Command Beacon, essentially, gives you a one-time pass to cast your Commander without paying the Command Tax. With land recursion effects, Commander Beacon can continually keep your Command Tax at bay.
Considering how ubiquitous Command Beacon can be in the format, it’s shocking that the card hasn’t been printed in more Commander precon decks. Despite having a Tarkir: Dragonstorm reprint, the card is still worth about $5, with many copies being worth far more.
Hugo Kupka
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder may not seem like an exciting reprint, but this is quite a popular Commander in Duel Commander. That two-player format only offers 20 life for players, making aggressive strategies much more viable. Bruse Tarl excels there thanks to its versatility, helping you stabilize or push your advantage by granting different keywords to your creatures, depending on the situation.
Sweetening the deal further, Bruse Tarl even has Partner, which allows for more options from the Command Zone. The card doesn’t see much play elsewhere, but this is an incredibly sweet artwork for anyone playing Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder as their Commander.
This is Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder’s second reprint – the first coming from Commander Masters, but only offering Bruse Tarl in Etched Foil. The card maintains about a $5 secondary market price.
The Rest
The remaining three Final Fantasy Through the Ages spoilers today are not as impressive as the other cards we’ve seen. That said, these cards will still have their fans, especially amongst the few who choose to arm the Legendary Creatures among them as Commanders.
The most interesting of these three new spoilers is Deadly Dispute, reskinned as Baron Rivalry, detailing a story moment from Final Fantasy IV. While Deadly Dispute saw tons of Pauper play recently, the card did just get relegated to the ban list. Despite this, the card still sees a healthy amount of Pioneer play in sacrifice strategies and occasionally pops up in Duel Commander and cEDH. Sadly, Deadly Dispute only has about a 50-cent market value, but some players who want to bling out their decks might be interested in this.
This isn’t the first time that Danitha Capashen, Paragon is making a Universes Beyond appearance. This card has previously been reskinned as Neave Blacktalon from the Warhammer universe. Danitha’s appearance as Squall might be enough to interest Final Fantasy VIII fans, but this card has never been a particularly popular or powerful piece of equipment support. Even the anime art exclusive found in Jumpstart Foundations only goes for $0.25. In comparison, Neave Blacktalon goes for $15, but that card will be much rarer than Squall Leonheart.
Fynn, the Fangbearer is a really strange reprint from an MTG perspective. For the few players who want to show off their bling playing this Legendary Creature in Commander, Fynn, rather bizarrely, has a serialized variant. This is due to the card appearing on the March of the Machine Bonus Sheet.
This means that the interested parties in this particular Fynn will likely only be Final Fantasy MTG fans. Commander players who want to bling out their Commander deck have a much more premium option to show off.
Unfortunately, Fynn really doesn’t see that much play, despite being a decent way to generate Poison Counters. The card has a secondary market value of about 20 cents.