The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal | Art by Pablo Mendoza

The Light of Our World

Hello friends, your friendly neighborhood Jesguy here, back this time to rank all five of Final Fantasy's Crystals!

I love me some cycles, especially ones that are powerful, and luckily, these crystals fit the bill! Each color gets a strong, four-mana, cost-reducing artifact with a six-mana activated ability.

These are some of the neatest cards in the set, and I'm going to rank them from least to most relevant in EDH. So let's not waste any time and get right into the rankings!

5. The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal

First up is the blue crystal, The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal!

Mill is a very popular archetype in EDH, and The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal fits perfectly there...And that's probably its only home. This is why it's ranked lowest.

Tacking on a "mill four" to every instance of milling can be pretty big game. It turns cards like Merfolk SecretkeeperMerfolk Secretkeeper and Fractured SanityFractured Sanity into nukes of a mill spell, and allows Altar of the BroodAltar of the Brood, Ruin CrabRuin Crab and Hedron CrabHedron Crab to be absolute menaces. My biggest knock against it is the fact that it's not worded like Court of CunningCourt of Cunning. If you could also mill yourself with the additional four cards, or with the activated ability, it have ranked higher.

Speaking of, I don't find its activated ability to be too great either. Unless you have an absolutely massive grip of cards, you'll usually be milling for seven or eight cards for six mana, which isn't a good rate. It's a great mana sink if you have nothing else to do, but the real draw here is that "mill that many cards plus four" ability. Decks like The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman, Captain N'ghathrodCaptain N'ghathrod, and The MindskinnerThe Mindskinner will want The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal the most, as it turbo charges their milling shenanigans quite a bit.

I like this Crystal a lot, but it's just a bit too niche for my tastes. It's definitely strong though!

4. The Fire CrystalThe Fire Crystal

Staple Ruby MedallionRuby Medallion to FervorFervor, and bam! You have The Fire CrystalThe Fire Crystal!

Giving all your creatures haste may not seem powerful at first glance, but plenty of commanders want this. FervorFervor sees play in nearly 34,000 decks, and while this costs one more mana, it really outshines its predecessor. Decks like Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss, Isshin, Two Heavens as OneIsshin, Two Heavens as One, and Etali, Primal StormEtali, Primal Storm would absolutely love this card, as it enables them to do "their thing" the turn they come down.

The activated ability is no slouch either.

Six mana to copy a creature you control is a lot, but as someone who plays a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerKiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck, I cannot express enough how amazing it is to copy your most powerful creature over and over again. Inferno TitanInferno Titan, Trumpeting CarnosaurTrumpeting Carnosaur, Red DragonRed Dragon, Wurmcoil EngineWurmcoil Engine, BalorBalor... If you can copy these creatures every turn, even at six mana, you're going to outpace your opponents and win the game.

3. The Earth CrystalThe Earth Crystal

Some of you may have expected The Earth CrystalThe Earth Crystal to be number one on the list, but here it sits at number three. While incredibly strong, The Earth CrystalThe Earth Crystal shares a similar problem with The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal; it's just a bit niche.

Yes, sure, it can go into any green deck and start putting counters on things, but to get the real synergies with this going, you need to be in a dedicated +1/+1 Counters deck. In these lists, you can utilize the counters to the extreme; you can play cards from the top of your deck with Falco Spara, PactweaverFalco Spara, Pactweaver, draw cards from The SwarmlordThe Swarmlord, make huge Hydras with Zaxara, the ExemplaryZaxara, the Exemplary, or dea damage with Shalai and HallarShalai and Hallar.

The real kicker here is the activated ability, which will end up putting four +1/+1 counters on two creatures you control. This can be huge for ending a game, since you can do it at instant speed post-blocks, or just for the synergies that I listed above. A similar card, Vorinclex, Monstrous RaiderVorinclex, Monstrous Raider, is in over 91,000 decks. While this is only half of his ability, this Crystal will put up similar numbers since effects like this are just that strong.

2. The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal

The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal is probably my favorite of the bunch. I'm a sucker for life gain, so a cheaper Boon ReflectionBoon Reflection of course piqued my interest.

This is right at home in life gain decks, where any amount of life you gain will be doubled. It's a wonderful effect to pad out your life total, especially combined with cards like Rhox FaithmenderRhox Faithmender and Beacon of ImmortalityBeacon of Immortality. Am I sounding a little too durdly and "2013" for you? Well let's get to the Crystal's other effect.

The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal's activated ability is absolutely absurd, and allows this to not only fit into any life gain deck, but any style of beatdown deck in general. Paying six mana to give all of your creatures what is essentially double lifelink and flying is a way to either end a game on the spot, or make it nigh impossible for your opponents to outrace you. While you will need to activate it every turn for this to work, once you have an established board state, that's not a big ask whatsoever. This is really giving me True ConvictionTrue Conviction vibes.

Its effectiveness in life gain decks (the fifth most popular theme on EDHREC), and its ability to completely end a game in something like a token or Soldiers deck, are why I ranked The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal so high.

1.The Darkness CrystalThe Darkness Crystal

A one-sided Leyline of the VoidLeyline of the Void with added upside, and an absurd activated ability? Yeah, there is no way that The Darkness CrystalThe Darkness Crystal isn't number one on the list.

If you've ever played against a Dauthi VoidwalkerDauthi Voidwalker, you know how powerful exiling your opponents' creatures can be. It absolutely demolishes certain archetypes, like Aristocrats and Sacrifice, and you even get a bonus two life and cost reduction for your black spells out of the deal too! What's not to love? On top of incidentally hosing certain strategies, you're also able to steal your opponents' exiled creatures and make them even bigger in the late game too. This Crystal has it all!

Six mana is a lot to nab a creature that the Crystal has exiled, but there are few times where doing so will be a bad thing. Your life total is padded whenever a creature dies, meaning you'll have more than enough time to activate your Crystal, even if you're being targeted by your opponents. On top of that, your removal spells and board wipes become exile spells, and you even get some counters for +1/+1 counter synergies! I cannot express how powerful The Darkness CrystalThe Darkness Crystal is. It's honestly absurd.

Ketramose, the New DawnKetramose, the New Dawn, Bilbo, Birthday CelebrantBilbo, Birthday Celebrant, Reyhan, Last of the AbzanReyhan, Last of the Abzan, and NihiloorNihiloor all love this card, whether its for the exiling, the life gain, the counters, or the theft. While I don't see this being the most expensive Crystal price-wise (that honor goes to The Earth CrystalThe Earth Crystal), I can certainly see this being one of the most widely adopted across multiple archetypes.

Crystal Chaos!

And there we have it! All of the Crystals from Final Fantasy ranked.

I love all of these artifacts, even if it seemed like I was ragging on a couple of them. They're all super strong in their respective archetypes, and will see wide adoption rates across the board. And while some may fit into more themes than others, they're going to be incredibly popular. This is the first time in a long while that WotC has balanced the cards in a cycle exceedingly well when compared to one another.

What about you, though? Do you like the Crystals? Was I off base on any of them? How would you have ranked them? Make sure to let me know down in the comments below!

You can reach me on Twitter and Bluesky (@thejesguy), where you can always hit me up for Magic- or Jeskai-related shenanigans 24/7. Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Please don’t hesitate to leave them below or get in touch!

Stay safe, wash your hands, and keep fighting the good fight. Stay safe in these wild times. I support you. No justice, no peace.