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Magic: The Gathering is no stranger to gaming IPs with previous sets featuring Assassin’s Creed, Fallout and even Fortnite. Under the Universes Beyond label, we ‘ve seen many communities from other fandoms pick up the game for the first time discovering
This time around, we have Final Fantasy – arguably one of the biggest gaming franchises with a lot of history and games behind it. So there’s plenty of opportunity for Wizard’s to go big here and they did.
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Spanning all 16 mainline games from the Final Fantasy series, there was a lot of ground to cover here and whether you’re a casual or hardcore Final Fantasy enjoyer – there was something from the set. Personally, I wouldn’t call myself a diehard Final Fantasy fan as I’ve only really finished the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy (yes I know, Lightning for the win) and dabbled in some of the other games but learning about the cards and characters had me looking up the games to buy on the Steam store. Final Fantasy XIII has been the game I’ve really played from the series growing up and this alone is what drove me into hunting down any FFXIII cards to build decks with.
However, opening this set, I found myself learning and gaining interest about Final Fantasy. It even got me wondering, what is the world of Final Fantasy, really? I caught myself staring at a PuPu UFO card, thinking, “Where does this alien even fit in the universe? And which game is it from?… Why is there an alien?”. Some players might not know what a Chocobo is and that’s fine. Honestly, I don’t even know the full lore of the Magic universe myself, so in a way, we’re all discovering something new with these sets.
It’s no surprise that major IPs sell and they know this, and it was clearly evident when Lord of the Rings came out in 2024. Personally, as a casual player of Magic the Gathering – the Lord of the Rings set was the first time I’ve collectively spent 5 figures on cardboard in one go, am I proud of it? Maybe not but Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite franchises and I was going Helms Deep into it. So I shared the same sentiment when hardcore Final Fantasy fans went crazy with this set selling out stock before they even hit the shelves.
While some view the Universes Beyond sets as a departure from traditional Magic: The Gathering world, they also represent a prime opportunity to bring new players into the game. Sets like LOTR and Final Fantasy were a prime example of this. This is what Universes Beyond sets is all about and I’m all for it. It throws a curveball of interest within Magic The Gathering with some sets making sense while others got me curious – I’m looking at you Spiderman. Whether these players stay or go, this has opened far more interest into Magic The Gathering than it ever did before and Final Fantasy was a clear winner for the game this year.
Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering is available now from your local gaming shops. You can grab it from Amazon HERE.
