“Magic: The Gathering” just learned a new limit break.
Its collaboration with the beloved video game series “Final Fantasy” has busted records. Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks told investors it’s become the best-selling “Magic” set of all time — and that’s based on preorders alone. The product line officially debuts next week, but fans can get their hands on coveted Sephiroth, Vivi, and Cactuar cards at store events this weekend.
“I don’t know any metric by which it has not been a success,” said Charles Boebinger, a DC-based lawyer who’s such a big fan of both properties that he reviewed every “Final Fantasy” card during a nonstop 12-hour Twitch stream. “It is drawing in ‘Final Fantasy’ people — the ‘Magic’ people I know who do not play ‘Final Fantasy’ have at least been curious about ‘Final Fantasy’ lore.”
“The overwhelmingly positive reception has blown us away,” said senior game designer Daniel Holt. “I’ve seen just how much players appreciate the little details of the series.”
Those details include memes and deep cuts: “There’s also been appreciation for story moments portrayed on new cards like Suplex and Sidequest: Catch a Fish or reprints in the Commander decks like ‘Cloud in a dress’ on Clever Concealment and “the laughing scene from FF10” on Inspiring Call,” said Holt.
Wizards of the Coast worked closely with Square Enix, the makers of “Final Fantasy,” to ensure that the hundreds of new cards faithfully represented the series’ 16 mainline games.
“We would come up with what we wanted to name cards, what creature types would make the most sense to our players, and what quotes we wanted to use on the cards,” said Dillon Deveney, principal game designer. “Then, from their perspective, they would give us feedback on how they view the characters, how they saw the story, what their fans react positively to, and would point out any distinctions or differences between the English and Japanese localizations.”
“The team we were working with were huge ‘Magic’ fans!” said Gavin Verhey, principal designer & set design lead. “We went over to Japan and playtested at the Square Enix offices,” said Verhey, which he described as “a dream come true!”
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Exciting as the set might be, it doesn’t come cheap. Licensing fees already pushed its booster pack MSRP from the recently-elevated $5.49 to $6.99. Some of set’s most coveted cards are even preselling for hundreds of dollars.
“I personally chose to redirect a lot of other spending I would have done towards this set because the set is so meaningful to me,” said Boebinger. “I would like to get a complete set of this one [excluding the most expensive art treatments] and I’m willing to spend more for that goal.” The public seems to feel the same way, as high demand has ballooned prices across retailers.
But “Final Fantasy” is much more than a collectible — it’s also a game (or, in a meta twist, a game based on a game). Wizards gave me the chance to preview the digital “Magic: Arena” version of the set during a streaming event. I’m not even a huge franchise fan (I’ve played almost all of “7,” and all of “7: Remake,” “7: Rebirth,” and “16”) — but I was hooked on the draft format.
I had the most fun slamming Kuja, Genome Sorcerer and a horde of black mages, which could come out of nowhere to demolish an opposing life total. Another draft deck summoned flocks of chocobos to trample over enemy forces. I even managed to get a “towns” deck to work — but only if I lucked into hitting The Wandering Minstrel early. Otherwise, the set’s bias toward aggressive strategies punished my attempts at fancier combos.
All in all, I admire the mechanics of “Final Fantasy” — which also happens to match the overall “Magic” aesthetic better than previous crossovers like “Assassin’s Creed,” “Doctor Who,” or “Spongebob Squarepants.” It’s so thematically on-point I even shoehorned it into a draft cube I designed.
But while I’ve welcomed crossovers that share DNA with “Magic” — from foundational classics like “The Lord of the Rings” to roleplaying games like “Baldur’s Gate” and “Final Fantasy” — I fret that the latter’s success will continue to crowd out the settings wholly unique to “Magic” that I fell in love with. Knowing that it’ll soon dominate the tournament scene already makes me wistful for this year’s “Tarkir: Dragonstorm” and the simpler era it harkened back to.
Yet I can’t deny the charm of the new cards. I agree with something else Boebinger told me: “In the ‘Final Fantasy’ set, almost every card has something to make somebody smile.”
My worries can wait. I’ve got a chocobo to catch.
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