Every Final Fantasy game is unique and disconnected from the rest, but tends to share similar themes, enemies, and allies. Among these recurring characters are Chocobos, large birds often used for travel. They are very popular in Final Fantasy, so there are plenty of Chocobo cards included inMagic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond crossover set with Final Fantasy.
Chocobos all have a landfall theme, gaining effects whenever a land enters the battlefield. Chocobos are plenty strong and can stampede over your opponents with ease. Grab some Gysahl Greens to start wrangling up the best Chocobo cards in Magic’s Final Fantasy set.
10Summon: Choco/Mog
With Moogle Assistance
One of the many summons in the set, Summon: Choco/Mog sees a Chocobo teaming up with a Moogle to give all your creatures a minor stat boost over the course of four turns. While not the best stat boost, it is very useful in decks that want to go wide.
The strength of Summon: Choco/Mog is that it only costs three mana. This lets you start bumping up your creatures to get in for extra damage. While not the greatest in a dedicated Chocobo deck, it is very useful in the White Weenie archetype that plays cheap one and two drop white creatures.
9Bartz And Boko
Final Fantasy V’s Protagonist
Bartz has to share a card with Boko, but the two friends are inseparable in Final Fantasy V, so at least they get to be together on a card. Bartz can very easily bond with Chocobos, making his affinity for birds make a ton of sense.
Thanks to Bartz and Boko’s affinity, it can be cast very easily in dedicated Chocobo decks. When it enters, it can cause your Birds to deal a ton of damage to a creature to get rid of any problem creature your opponent(s) may have.
8Sidequest: Raise A Chocobo // Black Chocobo
Much Easier Than In The Game
The only double-sided Chocobo card, Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo gives you two Chocobos for the price of one since it makes a Chocobo token and flips into another one. Since it only costs two mana, you may get it out early and easily meet the requirement to transform it.
The backside Black Chocobo is useful ramp and lets you take any land out of your library and put it on the battlefield. This canget out any utility landto really start pushing your advantage. In addition, the landfall trigger effects all Birds you control rather than just itself, like most Chocobos.
7Choco-Comet
The Angry Chocobo
While not a Chocobo creature card, Choco-Comet is still a great Chocobo card that creates the standard 2/2 Bird token many Chocobo support cards do. The X you pay won’t affect the token, but will deal that much damage to any target you want.
Choco-Comet is a great way to close the gaps in life totals (if not outright win the game)while leaving behind a token, something similar cards don’t do. While being a sorcery does weaken it a bit, it’s a big upgrade to other cards with similar effects, and especially strong in Final Fantasy Limited formats.
6Summon: Fat Chocobo
Wark And Kerplunk
Everyone’s favorite giant Chocobo, Summon: Fat Chocobo provides a Chocobo token before giving your creatures trample every turn. This pairs very well with Chocobos since they gain stats when a land enters, so if you canplay multiple lands per turn, then Summon: Fat Chocobo’s Kerplunk ability can make blocking your Chocobos pointless.
It is a bit of a higher cost, but green can very easily generate more mana than they have lands. As such, this cost is hardly a downside. Kerplunk provides trample to all your creatures, not just Chocobos, so your creatures with naturally high stats become bigger threats.
5Ambrosia Whiteheart
Chocobo Bounce
One of the few legendary Chocobos, Ambrosia Whiteheart is a simple but great creature. When it enters, you have the option to bounce any permanent. This is a great way to protect an important permanent from removal by bouncing it before it’s removed, or to reuse a powerful enter-the-battlefield trigger.
One of the best Standard decks involves bouncing a ton of your permanents, something that Ambrosia Whiteheart will likely find a home in. You can even bounce a land with Ambrosia Whiteheart to guarantee you’ll have a landfall trigger go off.
4Chocobo Racetrack
Gold Saucer Special
Chocobo Racetrack is the easiest way to constantly create Chocobos. Whenever a land enters, you get a Chocobo creature token. This effect isn’t once per turn, so if you can play multiple lands a turn, you can create multiple Chocobos.
The tokens it makes complement Chocobo Racetrack itself.Every land you playboosts the Chocobo tokens' stats and creates more Chocobos to attack with later. Artifacts are among the hardest permanents to remove (with some colors unable to remove them at all), so Chocobo Racetrack is likely to stick around once it hits the battlefield.
3Sazh’s Chocobo
Tiny Friend, Big Stats
The Chocobo that lives in Sazh’s hair, Sazh’s Chocobo is one of the best Chocobo cards. Unlike other Chocobo cards that get their stats boosted for just one turn, Sazh’s Chocobo gets permanent stat boosts with +1/+1 counters instead.
The benefit of getting +1/+1 counters is the plethora of support cards that provide extra counters when they are put on a creature. With how easy it is for landfall to trigger withhow many fetchlands exist, Sazh’s Chocobo can become mighty in just a few turns.
2Traveling Chocobo
Chocobo Double-Up
Traveling Chocobo is one of the best Chocobo (and general Bird) support cards out there. It doubles all your effects that trigger when a landor Bird enters the battlefield. This includes landfall abilities, something nearly every Chocobo card has.
Traveling Chocobo would be great just with the doubling effect, but it comes with the added bonus of being able to play lands and cast Bird spells from the top of your library. Since you can always see the top card of your library, Traveling Chocobo lets you plan your turns ahead with the knowledge of what you’re drawing if you can’t play it.
1Choco, Seeker Of Paradise
Best Chocobo Legend
If you are looking to build a Chocobo Commander deck, then Choco, Seeker of Paradise is the card you want leading the helm. It’s a great Chocobo (and generic Bird) support card, helping to get a card into your hand and a ton of lands on the battlefield. If you’re playing a graveyard-based deck, it even sets that up as well.
The lands that you see with Choco’s effect are all put on the battlefield. Each of these will trigger landfall effects individually, so if you hit three lands, that’s three landfall triggers. Choco provides you card selection, ramp, and graveyard setup, making for the best Chocobo card in Magic’s Final Fantasy set.
