The collaboration between Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy was the most popular set ever released, with fans eager to collect cards featuring iconic characters like Cloud Strife and Estinien for their decks.
Crossovers can sometimes feel like a quick way to make money, and the delay with the Monster Hunter set didn’t help that impression. However, the Final Fantasy crossover was truly exceptional. The artwork was fantastic, and the developers did a great job of capturing the feel of the Final Fantasy games in both the characters and gameplay, all while making it work seamlessly within the card game itself.
Some of the cards in the Final Fantasy collaboration were considered too strong. Players quickly complained to Wizards of the Coast, asking them to remove at least one card from play due to its overwhelming power.
The Final Fantasy card set has become a favorite among Commander players because its unique and strong cards work really well with that game style, suggesting they’ll be popular for a long time.
So, which cards are the strongest in the Final Fantasy and Magic: The Gathering collaboration? There are many great options, but let’s look at the very best ones.
10. Jumbo Cactuar
Who Knew Drizzt Do’Urden’s Best Friend Was A Cactus?
| Name | Jumbo Cactuar |
|---|---|
| Type | Creature – Plant |
| Cost | 5 + 2 Green Mana |
| Effect | 10,000 Needles — Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +9999/+0 until end of turn. |
In many Final Fantasy games, 9999 is a special number – it’s the maximum amount of damage you can deal. If you’re trying to defeat incredibly tough bosses like Emerald and Ruby Weapon, you’ll need to reach this damage limit to have a chance of winning.
Jumbo Cactuar is a powerful enemy capable of dealing 9999 damage with each attack. Landing a direct hit or using the Trample ability almost always results in a victory. Interestingly, if Jumbo Cactuar is defeated while Drizzt Do’Urden is also in battle, Drizzt transforms into an incredibly strong creature with 9999 attack and defense.
Jumbo Cactuar ranks lower because it’s expensive to play, and opponents usually have time to prepare a response. By the time you’ve gathered enough resources to summon it, they’ve likely already developed their defenses and can counter it unless they’ve made significant misplays.
9. Absolute Virtue
Repeat The Pain That Final Fantasy 11 Players Felt
Image Via Square Enix
| Name | Absolute Virtue |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Avatar Warrior |
| Cost | 6 + 1 White + 1 Blue mana |
| Effect | This spell can’t be countered. Flying You have protection from each of your opponents. (You can’t be dealt damage, enchanted, or targeted by anything controlled by your opponents.) |
Absolute Virtue, a boss from Final Fantasy XI, is famous for being incredibly challenging – it took players years to finally figure out how to defeat it. Its difficulty was so well-known that the creators of the Magic: The Gathering card game acknowledged its power and incorporated it into their game.
Absolute Virtue is powerful, but expensive to play. Once it’s on the battlefield, it’s incredibly difficult to remove because opponents can’t easily counter it and it gains immunity. While it takes effort to get into play due to its high mana cost, Absolute Virtue can be a game-changing threat that’s hard for opponents to deal with.
8. Summon: Primal Odin
Zantetsuken Can Still End Fights
Image Via Square Enix
| Name | Summon: Primal Odin |
|---|---|
| Type | Enchantment Creature – Saga Knight |
| Cost | 6 + 2 Black Mana |
| Effect | (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.) I — Gungnir — Destroy target creature an opponent controls. II — Zantetsuken — This creature gains “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.” III — Hall of Sorrow — Draw two cards. Each player loses 2 life. |
The Magic: The Gathering card, Summon: Primal Odin, has a unique way to win – or rather, make your opponent lose. If the card gets its second Lore counter and then deals combat damage to an opponent, that opponent immediately loses the game.
As a huge fan, I always loved Odin in Final Fantasy! The reason he’s so devastatingly powerful in the game is because of his signature move, Zantetsuken. It’s this incredible attack that can instantly defeat almost any regular enemy you come across. It rarely works on the big bosses, but for all the standard monsters? One hit and they’re gone – it’s amazing!
The new Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering cards often use summons as Enchantments, so many cards help you play them, keep them in play, or bring them back from the discard pile. This allows for strategies where powerful summons like Odin can repeatedly threaten to instantly defeat your opponent, forcing them to spend resources to counter it.
7. Garnet, Princess Of Alexandria
The Princess Who Keeps Summons Around
| Name | Garnet, Princess Of Alexandria |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Human Noble Cleric |
| Cost | 1 White + 1 Green Mana |
| Effect | Lifelink Whenever Garnet attacks, you may remove a lore counter from each of any number of Sagas you control. Put a +1/+1 counter on Garnet for each lore counter removed this way. |
Okay, so as someone who’s been playing the Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering set, let me tell you, Garnet, the Princess of Alexandria, is a total powerhouse. She’s the best summoner, hands down. What makes her so good is she can just keep her Sagas going forever – she removes those Lore Counters, and gets stronger while doing it! Seriously, if your deck can’t deal with enchantments, you’re going to have a really tough time beating her. It’s almost impossible to stop her Saga engine once it gets going.
Yuna, Hope of Spira is a popular summoner choice, but she costs more to play and can only retrieve one used Enchantment card from the discard pile. Both she and Garnet are green and white cards, making them suitable for the same decks. However, the character from Final Fantasy 9 generally performs a bit better.
6. Kefka, Court Mage
Players Will Be Dancing Mad When The Clown Enters The Field
| Name | Kefka, Court Mage |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Human Wizard |
| Cost | 2 + 1 Blue + 1 Black + 1 Red mana |
| Effect | Whenever Kefka enters or attacks, each player discards a card. Then you draw a card for each card type among cards discarded this way. (8) Each opponent sacrifices a permanent of their choice. Transform Kefka. Activate only as a sorcery. |
In Magic: The Gathering, dealing with discard effects can be really tough, particularly against decks that don’t draw many cards, like blue ones. Kefka, Court Mage is excellent at limiting your opponent’s choices by making them discard cards both when he enters the battlefield and every time he attacks. As they discard, you get to draw cards of the same types, giving you a significant advantage.
Honestly, this discard ability is so strong it might make me think twice about actually transforming Kefka, Court Mage into Kefka, Ruler of Ruin. I mean, his final form flies and lets you draw cards based on how much damage you deal – which is awesome! It can lead to a crazy amount of card draw, and yeah, you might end up having to ditch a ton of cards at the end of your turn, but if you’re hunting for specific cards, that huge draw power is a lifesaver.
5. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER
Prepare The Latin Chanting For His Entrance
Image Via Wizards of the Coast
| Name | Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Human Avatar Soldier |
| Cost | 2 + 1 Black |
| Effect | Whenever Sephiroth enters or attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, draw a card. Whenever another creature dies, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. If this is the fourth time this ability has resolved this turn, transform Sephiroth. |
Honestly, it made total sense that they gave Sephiroth such a cool card in Magic: The Gathering. He’s, like, the most famous Final Fantasy villain, and maybe even the most recognizable bad guy in video game history. It was bound to happen!
In the Magic: The Gathering card game, Sephiroth is unique because it changes form. If four creatures die in a single turn, Sephiroth transforms into his iconic One-Winged Angel, causing your opponent to lose life and you to gain life whenever any creature dies. Combining this powerful card with spells that eliminate multiple creatures quickly can quickly lead to victory.
The biggest challenge with Sephiroth is defeating him in a single turn. Luckily, because he’s a black creature, he works well in decks that focus on removing threats – even your own creatures, if needed.
4. Lightning, Army Of One
The Commando Who Ends Battles Quickly
Image Via Square Enix
| Name | Lightning, Army Of One |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Human Soldier |
| Cost | 1 + 1 Red + 1 White mana |
| Effect | First strike, trample, lifelink Stagger — Whenever Lightning deals combat damage to a player, until your next turn, if a source would deal damage to that player or a permanent that player controls, it deals double that damage instead. |
Lightning, Army of One is a fantastic card for fast-paced, aggressive decks. It’s a powerful 3/2 creature with First Strike, Trample, and Lifelink – a great combination of abilities for its low mana cost.
Lightning, Army of One is incredibly effective because of her ability called Stagger. When she hits an enemy, all subsequent attacks that turn deal double damage. This allows Lightning, with the right preparation, to quickly overwhelm enemies and leave them struggling to defend themselves.
Okay, so Lightning is awesome, but honestly, she’s not my absolute favorite Final Fantasy heroine. There’s another one who does pretty much the same thing, but I just think she pulls it off a little better. And, like in the actual games, that other character is way more popular with most players, it seems.
3. Sin, Spira’s Punishment
Spira’s Scourge Just Can’t Stay Dead
Image Via Wizards of the Coast
| Name | Sin, Spira’s Punishment |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Leviathan Avatar |
| Cost | 4 + 1 Black + 1 Green + 1 Blue mana |
| Effect | Flying Whenever Sin enters or attacks, exile a permanent card from your graveyard at random, then create a tapped token that’s a copy of that card. If the exiled card is a land card, repeat this process. |
Sin, Spira’s Punishment is a truly frightening commander in Magic: The Gathering. While it costs a lot to play, once it’s in play, it can create major problems for your opponent.
When Sin comes into play or attacks, it creates a copy of a random card from your graveyard. If that card happens to be a land, Sin repeats this process, creating another copy. Making free creature copies is already a powerful ability, but Sin’s ability to generate multiple free lands is even more dangerous, giving your opponent a significant advantage in mana production.
Sin really shines when built around a specific strategy, particularly one that discards cards from opponents’ decks. Once it gets going, it can be very difficult to deal with.
2. Tifa Lockhart
The Planet Is Very Good At Empowering Its Protectors
Image Via Square Enix
| Name | Tifa Lockheart |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Human Monk |
| Cost | 1 + 1 Green |
| Effect | Trample Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, double Tifa Lockhart’s power until end of turn. |
Tifa Lockhart is a powerful character who can win games quickly. When built around a Landfall strategy, she can defeat opponents in just a few turns. Her incredibly high Power, combined with her Trample ability, makes her a formidable threat.
Tifa gets stronger whenever lands are played, no matter how they enter the battlefield. Whether they’re played normally, enter tapped, or require a sacrifice, she benefits as long as lands are on the field.
Give Tifa a good card that increases her power, and she can often win the game very quickly. Because she has the Trample ability, opponents can’t easily block her attacks. Without a way to eliminate her, Tifa will easily win using her signature move, Dolphin Kick.
1. Vivi Ornitier
The Black Mage That Destroyed An Entire Game
Image Via Square Enix
| Name | Vivi Ornitier |
|---|---|
| Type | Legendary Creature – Wizard |
| Cost | 1 + 1 Blue + 1 Red mana |
| Effect | Tap – Add X mana in any combination of Blue mana and/or Red mana where X is Vivi Ornitier’s power. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent. |
It almost feels unfair to rank Vivi so highly, since it’s now prohibited in many game formats because it’s just too strong. Players immediately recognized Vivi as the best card in the set, and that prediction quickly proved true.
Okay, so Vivi is seriously cool. It basically creates its own mana – the more powerful Vivi gets, the more mana it can make! It starts off pretty weak with zero Power, but here’s the awesome part: every time I cast a spell that isn’t a creature, Vivi gets stronger – a +1/+1 boost – and I even get to deal damage to my opponent at the same time. It’s a win-win!
Vivi is a powerful Commander who can quickly overwhelm opponents with his naturally high damage output. What truly makes him exceptional, however, is his ability to generate a large amount of mana each turn without any cost. This free resource advantage elevates him to one of the strongest Commanders in the game, and justifies his inclusion on the banlist.
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2025-12-06 23:43