Summary
Final Fantasy has easily been the most hyped setMagic: The Gatheringhas ever released. Bringing the iconic JRPG series to the equally iconic TCG has resulted in a set with record preorders, sold-out game stores, and plenty of valuable cards to pull.
While you won’t find any of these cards in Play boosters, cracking open a Collector booster or two could land you with some very valuable Final Fantasy cards. But which are worth their weight in Gil, and which can be cast into the bulk box?
The prices for this list come fromManapool, and may change over time. We are also excluding the golden Traveling Chocobo, as prices for these will vary wildly between individual copies.
10Noctis, Prince Of Lucis - $110
Full-Art Surge Foil
Final Fantasy 15 isn’t themost-represented game in set, but it did get one of the most interesting cards in its star, Noctis, Prince of Lucis. A white/blue/black Artifact recursion commander, Noctis has been busted open with all sorets of combos that circumvent his finality counters.
One of the best is by usingMox Diamondand refusing to discard a card to its on-cast trigger. Mox Diamond goes to the graveyard, but its cast still triggers cards like Aetherflux Reservoir to get you infinite life and quickly blast all of your opponents out of the game.
9Aerith Gainsborough - $115
Final Fantasy 7 was always going to dominate the most valuable cards of the set. It’s the most beloved game in the whole series, and its characters are the first ones almost everyone thinks of when they think of Final Fantasy.
Aerith’s card is a different take on the popular Ajani’s Pridemate-style effect of getting +1/+1 counters whenever you gain life. The addition of moving those counters to your other legendary creatures when she dies is a bonus that could work very well in all sorts of mono-white lifegain decks.
8Tifa Lockhart - $124
Like Noctis, we were trying to break Tifa the second she was revealed. She’s kind of like Bristly Bill in that she’s a low-cost, high-impact mono-green card with a powerful landfall trigger, except she can hit even harder.
With just one fetch land, she goes from a 1/2 to a 4/2. Throw in Azusa, Lost But Seeking and an Ancient Greenwarden, and three fetchlands played from your graveyard turn Tifa into a 256/2 trampler ready to wipe a player before they even have a chance to set up the board.
7Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant//Ifrit, Warden Of Inferno - $129
All of the most valuable cards from the base Final Fantasy set are these full-art surge-foil treatments, which are exclusively found in Collector boosters. Final Fantasy 16’s is one of the most visually striking, with the steel greys and reds pairing very nicely with the oil-slick shimmer of surge foiling.
The card is pretty great, too. Red decks often burn their hands down to nothing, so playing Clive is a guaranteed way to draw at least two and get two more mana to keep on casting spells. If you’ve already gone wide enough and have a devotion of at least six red, you’ll even be able to pay it to flip Clive into Ifrit and a 9/9 that makes you eight more mana over three turns.
6Gogo, Master Of Mimicry - $131
Gogo’s ability to copy abilities multiple times is wild. Even paying two mana into this and copying something once could be enough, but the opportunity for copying more than once is backbreaking.
Think things like copying Sphinx of the Second Sun’s trigger for multiple upkeeps. Or copying Agent of Treachery and stealing as many permanents as you can pay for. This is a combo piece we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of yet, and it could be up there with Urza and Orvar as one of thebest mono-blue commanders.
5Kefka, Court Mage//Kefka, Ruler Of Ruin - $159
The big bad of Final Fantasy 6, Kefka is one of the few antagonists who actually beat the heroes, at least for a time. As a commander, Kefka can be ruthless, forcing your opponents to discard cards and sacrifice their permanents (whap a Tergrid in here to be extra mean). The back face is even worse, comboing with Niv-Mizzet for an instant way to win or draw out your deck for Laboratory Maniac.
This is also one of my favourite alt-arts in the set. Kefka’s wide smile on the front face is scary as anything, contrasting nicvely with his brigyht, clowny colours. Kefka is one of the best baddies in Final Fantasy, and this card knows it.
4Lightning, Army Of One - $183
The massively underrated Final Fantasy XIII gets a few decent cards in this set, but the standout is easily Lightning, Army of One. She leads the way with first strike, setting up the other creatures you attack with to deal double damage that turn. Find a way to give her double-strike, and you’ll be doubling that damage twice.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the most valuable cards in Final Fantasy are also usuallyits best commanders, as plenty of people are going to want to build decks around their favourite characters. Flavourful and powerful in equal measure, Yuna is quickly cementing herself as a go-to enchantment commander.
Free enchantment recursion every turn is great, and it’ll be incredibly easy to avoid those finality counters from mucking up your plans. Alternatively, you could go stompy with enchantment creatures, enjoying the ward, lifelink, and trample Yuna gives them.
2Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER//Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel - $267
Kefka is a cool villain, but nobody is more iconic than Final Fantasy 7’s Sephiroth. The big emo with the bigger sword, Sephiroth’s front face is weirdly constrained for such a major character. He doesn’t do much more than draw you a card and do Blood Artist-y things. But then he transforms into One-Winged Angel, and his power becomes all too clear.
Retrigger Sephiroth’s transform ability over and over to build up those emblems, before building up a board and sacrificing them all in one big burst of damage. With art by Maji showcasing just how twisted and corrupt he becomes, it’s no wonder he’s one of the biggest chase cards in the set.
1Cloud, Midgar Mercenary - $399
But, of course, the top spot has to be Final Fantasy 7’s protagonist, Cloud Strife. The only character who could out-angst Sephiroth, Cloud is shown here with his iconic buster sword and glum expression, which is a similar face anybody who has to play against him will make.
Cloud searches for an Equipment when he enters, and then he doubles the triggers of himself and any Equipment attached to him. This is screaming for you to put as many of thje Sword of X and Ys on him, as well as other scary pieces. If he doesn’t become one of thebest Voltron commandersand justify his massive price, I’ll eat my black mage hat.
