Today is Thursday, May 29th, fifteen days before the official release of the Final Fantasy set for Magic: The Gathering. We are compiling a list of the best cards from each game in the series! Following up from yesterday's article, which covered FFI, today we're covering Final Fantasy II's coolest cards.

To reiterate, we are judging this based on a few types of criteria:

• Honorable Mention - These usually will be a cycle or group of cards that are great but don't quite measure up to the "best" in the categories we have chosen to cover.
• Best As A Commander - This category covers, as advertised, the best commander to lead a deck in Commander, but may also look briefly at other Command Zone-driven formats.
• Best in the 99 - This section discusses my choice for the best card in a given 99 of a deck. It may be a ubiquitous card, but it might also just be a card with a fair amount of utility.
• Most Flavorful - The most fun to play card in a storytelling context will be deemed Most Flavorful. For example, we covered Town GreeterTown Greeter in our FFI list for its fun lore synergies with Towns, especially those with specific Final Fantasy town names.
• Best In Show - The very best of these cards in a balance of the above categories.

Oh, and, in case you're wondering for FFVI, FFVII, FFX, and FFXIV, the Commander precon cards, Through the Ages, and any promotional or Secret Lair cards won't be included for consideration here. Basically, if it doesn't have the MTGFIN set symbol, it's not eligible.

With that, let's begin!

Honorable Mention

So, Cid, Timeless ArtificerCid, Timeless Artificer is a tricky consideration here. For one, I frankly contemplated putting him in Best Of Show, and I almost did (and I almost swapped it with the real Best In Show as a result). He's just that good, from both mechanical and lore perspectives. However, because his card is spread across so many iterations among the other games in the Final Fantasy series, I couldn't justify it for any other superlative but Honorable Mention.

He could also count as Best as a Commander, but we have a more fitting choice for that one as well.

Best as a Commander

I chose Firion, Wild Rose WarriorFirion, Wild Rose Warrior for Best As A Commander over Cid or The Emperor of PalameciaThe Emperor of Palamecia. There was some competition this time, even taking Cid out of the equation. Why Firion, then? Well, Firion's ability is pretty novel, making temporary copies of Equipment and cheapening their equip costs. This also synergizes really well with For Mirrodin! and job select abilities, making a token. Unlike the Equipment, that token actually sticks around after the turn ends. It's most assured to be a Limited build-around bomb, but also a very strong commander in that format. Probably also Tiny Leaders, if that format was still supported. No shade!

Best in the 99

Swallowed by LeviathanSwallowed by Leviathan isn't the flashiest card, but it outclasses many other cards in the FFII subset of the set in its utility. It potentially fills your graveyard and then uses that to counter a spell. All of this for just . It also provides a bit of relevant card selection, as surveil 2 is a surprisingly relevant amount of digging compared to surveil/scry 1.

And, if your opponent is going to pay mana to offset the counter, you're making their turn that much more difficult to enact. They're surely paying a ton of mana in this process, if you've timed this counterspell correctly!

Most Flavorful

There's something oddly satisfying about cards that care about the metanarrative of Final Fantasy in a way. Cards like Battle MenuBattle Menu, Combat TutorialCombat Tutorial, and of course Random EncounterRandom Encounter, are all examples of the set noting Final Fantasy's existence as a video game series. All are witty, and all are welcome. As for Random Encounter specifically, I love the idea of bringing in a creature like HecteyesHecteyes, TonberryTonberry, or CactuarCactuar onto the battlefield, like it was an actual video game. I think the only thing I'd suggest about this card is that I'd've liked it to be at instant-speed. But the sorcery speed also makes sense for balancing purposes.

With that, we come to our FFII Best In Show. What card could it be? It's none other than...

Final Fantasy II Best In Show

...Commune with BeaversCommune with Beavers!

This card really encapsulates a lot of what it means to be Best In Show for this subset of cards. Flavorfully, it's a great dig spell that can get you a number of things that, frankly, make sense for a beaver to grant you. It can get you a creature (perhaps even a Giant BeaverGiant Beaver!), an artifact (like its dam), or a land (like the river it builds the dam upon). Plus, we can't deny that the "Guy speak beaver" memetic moment absolutely hits on all sevens.

Mechanically, you're doing all of the above for just . That's a strong amount of dig, even if it's a little less dig than something like Commune with NatureCommune with Nature or Ancient StirringsAncient Stirrings. To understate for a second, those other options are pretty good in the formats they're legal in. So it's a fair assessment to presume that Commune with Beavers will at least be a decent source of card selection in Limited. All of this comingling together is why Commune with Beavers is Best In Show for FFII!

Conclusion

Like FFI, Final Fantasy II had only a small handful of options in-class for this list. Technically, FFIII will have even fewer, but nevertheless, we'll have a list from that game for you tomorrow!

But for now, let's hear from you. Do you agree with this list? Are there some superlatives we should add to this? Did we miss an important point when selecting these over other options? Let me know in the comments!