Magic: The Gathering Team Reveals Which Final Fantasy Character They Regret Not Including

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Following a six-year development period, with two years dedicated to generating excitement, and numerous teases and unveilings throughout the months, the collaboration between Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy is now available on store shelves. In fact, before its official launch, this set became Magic: The Gathering’s highest-selling collection ever, and the subsequent weeks have only solidified its position as one of the most notable launches in MTG history.

This summer at the Game Fest event, TopMob had an exclusive conversation with Daniel Holt, one of the lead designers on the collaboration project. We discussed various aspects of the partnership, his emotions seeing players using the newly introduced cards, strategies for avoiding Final Fantasy spoilers, their approach to managing regrets within the team, and Daniel’s thoughts on whether power creep is a significant concern in the latest collection.

As a gamer myself, “After pouring over five years of work into this game set, it’s truly heartwarming to witness it in action – seeing players engage with these cards and bring the game to life.

Holt: It’s amazing! For such a long time, it was kept under wraps. Now, when I overhear conversations from neighbors, they casually mention “Sephiroth”. And I find myself questioning, “Did we already reveal that character? Ah, yes, it’s all out in the open now.

It’s amazing how accessible everything is now, and it’s thrilling to witness the enthusiasm fans are showing towards it. What has surprised us is the fact that every minor character or storyline element seems to be someone’s preferred choice. With each side-story character who isn’t a main party member, we find people exclaiming, “I can’t believe they added this! This is my favorite character.” It’s this level of excitement that we are genuinely excited to see.

It’s truly amazing to see how the team skillfully packed numerous characters and scenes into this game setup. Can you tell me about the main challenge when it came to summarizing more than three decades of content from 16 games into a single Magic: The Gathering expansion?

In our case, we acknowledged that we couldn’t cover everything in the project. To manage this, we adopted a system suggested by designers Dillon Deveney and Gavin Verhey, which they call a tier system. Tier 1 represents essential characters and moments from the game that are instantly recognizable. Since these elements covered Final Fantasy I through XVI, they were kept at the top level. However, for decks like Commander, where each deck contains a full game of a hundred cards, I had the opportunity to delve deeper into Tier 2 and even Tier 3 moments. This allowed me to include lesser-known characters and story elements that might only be encountered after investing significant time into the game.

How did you manage to portray some of Final Fantasy’s most memorable scenes while ensuring they didn’t give away any surprises?

As a dedicated gamer, I had to tread lightly with some card designs to keep the suspense alive for everyone, not just us die-hard Final Fantasy fans. For instance, the Sephiroth’s Intervention card is a thrilling moment if you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII, but for me, it’s a sneak peek into a familiar story twist. Similarly, Aerith’s ability has a ‘death trigger’, and we cleverly linked that to the narrative. One of my favorite cards from the Commander decks is Farewell in the Final Fantasy X deck – it shows Yuna and Tidus embracing, and for those who haven’t played the game, they have no idea what unfolds just seconds later. It’s a delightful twist that keeps us on our toes!

How did you finally choose the four games for your commander decks? I’m certain that there was much discussion and disagreement over this decision.

Absolutely! Initially, Final Fantasy VII was the first game we introduced into our collection, as far as I can recall. Currently, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the remake and rebirth, given its classic status. You’re familiar with Cloud and Sephiroth, right? After that, we considered Final Fantasy XIV. It boasts a massive player base and a vibrant community, which made it a logical choice for us. Interestingly enough, I hadn’t played XIV before working on this project. In the first month alone, I invested around 200 hours to ensure an accurate representation.

Concerning the other three choices, I have a particular fondness for Final Fantasy X and it turns out our lead product architect Zakeel [Gordon] shares this preference as well. Perhaps I advocated a bit too strongly for it to be included in the decks. Lastly, we have Final Fantasy VI, which is favored by our principle game designer Yoni Skolnik. He proposed focusing on the World of Ruin and emphasizing the second half of the game for the deck, an idea that really captured my interest. I must say, it was enchanting. Moreover, VI signifies the end of the pixel era, so we managed to incorporate one of the pixel games into the four. I believe this was a significant achievement.

After examining all the cards, we’ve noticed that some characters, such as Eiko from IX, aren’t represented by a card. How did you handle the situation where certain characters wouldn’t receive a card, understanding that this is simply the case?

In my opinion, you hit the mark just then. Additionally, I believe we would consider including Eiko in future sets if given the chance. During this one, she was part of the Sleep Magic, and we aimed to portray characters on cards with a similar approach.

In our collaboration for the Final Fantasy X deck, Gavin and I ensured a variety of characters were included. For instance, since Lulu and Wakka weren’t in his main set, I made sure to add them to the Commander deck, and reciprocally for certain characters where he had them. If he already had them, I felt less pressure to include them in my decks, but I recognized it was important if they were missing. I particularly love Matoya from Final Fantasy XIV; I would have definitely included her in the Commander deck if Gavin hadn’t already done so for the main set.

What’s the method behind creating Commander decks in conjunction with the regular set releases? How is that done?

Generally, it involves assessing potential character interactions and utilizing game mechanics. For instance, Job Select and Saga Creatures are both from the main set and the Final Fantasy X Commander deck is a “counters” deck, focusing on Yuna’s journey to collect summons before her battle against Sin. As such, Saga Creatures fit well in this deck because Tidus can remove counters, allowing them to remain longer. Essentially, it’s about identifying and maximizing the harmony between these characters.

As a passionate admirer, I delight in merging Job Select cards with Final Fantasy XIV because they’re not associated with creatures and instead function as non-creature spells, thereby activating all of my Scion members. Moreover, these cards serve a dual purpose by crafting heroes for me, thus offering a strategic defense against potential attacks. Therefore, it’s truly a harmonious blend between the two.

When it comes to choosing characters and themes, I collaborate closely with my creative team. Dillon Deveney served as our lead creative, and every morning I’d reach out to him with suggestions like, “I’d like to incorporate this reprint into the presentation. Does it fit with our current concept?” He would either agree or offer alternative ideas, such as, “Yes,” or, “No, but perhaps you could consider this instead.

Was there a card that was challenging to develop, find an appropriate concept for, or that seemed unbalanced at first and required a lot of effort to adjust?

It was challenging to design Y’shtola as the commander in our Final Fantasy XIV deck since initially, the plan was to have the game’s Warrior of Light as the commander. However, upon testing, we realized that with so many character options (approximately 20-something jobs) and players customizing their characters, using the player character as a face for the commander didn’t work well. Consequently, we opted to use Y’shtola, G’raha Tia, and other Scions instead of the Warrior of Light, as creating a single satisfying card for the player character proved difficult.

In this game, a multitude of cards generate hero tokens, which is why it feels like the Warrior of Light is always with me. This abundance of hero tokens is a testament to that presence. Since my character was a dancer in the virtual world, I went out of my way to obtain a dance-focused weapon for her. And let’s just say, I didn’t hold back when it came to customizing her appearance, especially her blue hair and Miqo’te race!

Oh, that’s great.

Absolutely. However, I found Y’shtola a bit challenging to create. When we arrived at her and the theme of the deck, I opted for non-creature cards since in Final Fantasy XIV, you cast spells, manage cooldowns, and so forth. I aimed to emulate this gameplay through the deck. I believe Transpose effectively represents Black Mage abilities. Having Rebound on that card was a nod to the meta strategy of, “That’s your cooldown. You need to wait until your next turn for it to be ready again.” I designed it this way because I too played a bit of the Black Mage character in the game.

Have some individuals expressed their belief that this collection exhibits a significant increase in power compared to previous ones? What are your thoughts on the matter?

I strongly believe that assertion doesn’t hold water, especially not in relation to Commander. You have a wealth of Magic’s past at your disposal here. Personally, I feel it boils down to staying true to the characters, employing their abilities as intended, and it aligns nicely with the broader Magic universe context.

Have the opinions you hold about the Final Fantasy game series evolved throughout this period? Are there specific games that were once less appealing or enjoyable to you, but later grew on you?

Over the past period, I’ve rekindled my affection for them. Recently, I stumbled upon an ancient photograph showing me in a Tidus costume at 17, one of my initial cosplay ventures. VII was among my earliest experiences, followed by later ones such as IV and II, which I delved into during my college years.

From childhood, we’ve been familiar with this series. We’ve spent countless hours playing them. Rediscovering them and the enthusiasm they spark is truly special. If XVI hadn’t come out during development, we wouldn’t have thought about including Dion, but when it did, I was like, “Wow, isn’t it amazing if we could get him on board?” It mattered a lot to me personally to make that happen, and luckily, Gavin agreed.

Has there been any enthusiasm about revisiting this series and exploring topics similar to Final Fantasy Tactics or Final Fantasy X-2 – titles not belonging to the primary 16-game series?

There are plenty of colleagues here who are fans of those games, and I happen to be one of them. I adore X-2, particularly its dressphere system. I’ve been meaning to play Tactics, but I admit I haven’t gotten around to it yet. As for the idea of revisiting Final Fantasy in Magic: The Gathering, that seems like something for the distant future at the moment.

This interview has been edited for both brevity and readability.

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2025-06-20 23:10