Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut | Art by Arif Wijaya

Final Fantasy has taken over Magic: The Gathering, and Summons are among the most flavorful and powerful cards introduced in the set. Seeing as Summons in the actual Final Fantasy franchise only stick around for a few turns, having them represented as Sagas in Magic makes perfect sense.

As a “Timmy” Magic player, many of these Summons feel as if they were printed explicitly for me. A giant 9/9 flyer that can destroy permanents and then nukes your opponents as it dies? Yes, please! A 7/7 Giant for with reach and trample that brings back all of your lands from the graveyard and then boosts another creature’s power and toughness equal to the number of lands you have? That works for me.

Final Fantasy is both a design and sales dynamo for Wizards of the Coast, and with cards like these amazing Summons, it’s no wonder that the set is already Magic’s best-selling release of all time. So today we're ranking the ten best Summon spells in the set.

Note: While I never delved too far into the Final Fantasy video games, I did play FF8 when it released (that opening cinematic blew my mind as a lad), and I nearly beat FFX, but was derailed by a crippling BlitzballBlitzball addiction – even without the Jecht shot!

10. Summon: IxionSummon: Ixion

A 3/3 with first strike for three mana used to be a helluva deal… but those days are long gone. Now, this 3/3 first striker for three provides you with a Fiend HunterFiend Hunter in its first chapter (exile another target creature while it’s on the battlefield). Already, that’s pretty sweet.

While it’s next two chapters – place a +1/+1 counter on two target creatures and gain two life – aren’t wildly powerful, they still provide you ample value for the low, low price of .

9. Summon: Magus SistersSummon: Magus Sisters

Sometimes the extreme power found across a wide variety of Magic’s most popular formats can get a bit tiresome. Sure, winning the game consistently by turn four is fun, but where’s the variety, the spice? This Summon grants something that many games of Magic sorely lack: randomness.

Coming down as a hasty 5/5 for means you can deal some damage right away, but it’s the random options that can truly swing a game: putting three +1/+1 counters on target creature, putting a shield counter on target creature and gaining three life, or fighting another target creature a foe controls. As the sisters say: “Sorry, but your quest will be over here!”

8. Summon: YojimboSummon: Yojimbo

A strong Summon as well as a great greeting for any of your friends named Jim, Yojimbo is a 5/5 with vigilance for – already a good rate – from the Final Fantasy Commander precons.

Its first chapter provides a situational Oblivion RingOblivion Ring, its next two chapters provide a temporary PropagandaPropaganda to help thwart “go-wide” strategies, and its final chapter lets you net some Treasure tokens so long as at least one of your opponents has a creature with power four or greater.

7. Summon: LeviathanSummon: Leviathan

As previously evinced, Summons seem perfectly positioned as go-to “Timmy/Tammy” cards. Any card that mentions the sea monster creature types of Magic – Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent – are always going to be attractive to players that love the biggest, baddest beaters around.

Summon: LeviathanSummon: Leviathan, in particular, is extremely potent in such builds as it delivers a Whelming WaveWhelming Wave for its first chapter and then draws you a card whenever one of those creatures attacks (a trigger for each one, that is). To add to the fun, this card also works well in Merfolk strategies and has built-in protection thanks to having ward . What’s not to like?

6. Summon: Good King Mog XIISummon: Good King Mog XII

One of the finest additions that Final Fantasy has made to the world of Magic is the inclusion of Moogles as a playable creature type. These adorable little marshmallows are featured throughout the set, though they don’t have quite the support that Chocobos/Birds received upon release.

This five-mana Saga Moogle (a fun phrase to say) creates two 1/2 Moogle tokens with lifelink in its first chapter, then can duplicate any non-Saga token you control in its next two chapters. Its final chapter gives a Moogle “lord” payoff by tacking on two +1/+1 counters to all Moogles you control before it exits the battlefield. A strong Moogle payoff, and an extremely cute creature “lord.”

5. Summon: BrynhildrSummon: Brynhildr

Of course, a Summon exists that looks like it will be a strong addition to the mono-red Aggro decks that have long been eminently attractive options in Standard. This 2/1 for provides an “impulse draw” that you can play for as long as the card has lore counters on it – so roughly three turns – for its first chapter. Early card advantage is eminently important for mono-red decks.

Then, for its final two chapters, the next creature spell you play gains haste – which can provide some stunning surprise attacks and delivers yet more ammo for mono-red strategies (or Jeskai Prowess strategies) to run roughshod over Standard for the foreseeable future.

4. Summon: Knights of RoundSummon: Knights of Round

One of the rarest Summons in Final Fantasy VII, this eight-mana 3/3 with indestructible sticks around for four turns, producing a 2/2 white Knight creature (though not a White KnightWhite Knight) for each of its first four chapters.

Then, for its fifth chapter, it gives all of your other creatures a +2/+2 boost as well as the real kicker, indestructible counters – which stick around, making your entire team pretty tough to defeat. While the price point of this splashy 3/3 Saga Knight is high (), the payoff is well worth it.

3. Summon: TitanSummon: Titan

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. In the Final Fantasy games, Titan is found across a number of entries in the franchise as a strong, high damage-dealing bruiser. In Magic, that same logic applies, as this green powerhouse already comes in at an incredibly good rate: for a 7/7 with both reach and trample – a strong creature in its own right.

But when you tack on milling synergies in its first chapter, returning all lands from your graveyard to the battlefield in the second chapter and another target creature getting +X/+X equal to the number of lands you control in the final chapter, you’ve got the makings of a top-flight game-finisher and yet another example of Summons being playgrounds for the Timmys/Tammys of the world (like me).

2. Summon: Primal OdinSummon: Primal Odin

Speaking of big, flashy Summons and cards that scream Timmy/Tammy, how does a creature with the text “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game” sound?

While is pretty steep for a 5/3 creature, when it enters, its first chapter destroys target creature a foe controls, its second chapter is the “your foe loses the game” one, which is obviously awesome, and the third chapter draws you two cards and forces all players to lose two life. Wouldn’t it be funny if your foe survived the second chapter and then fell to the third one?

1. Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut

You could see where this was going. So far, most Summons have been massively high-powered, splashy, and downright fun cards that make a huge impact on the game both as soon as they’re cast as well as during each of their powerhouse chapters. No Summon card from Final Fantasy defines this quite like the 9/9 flyer for , Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut.

A tremendously powerful card with four strong chapters, this card can easily win the game for you on its own, especially in Commander if you’re running a dedicated colorless build that’s full of high-mana colorless bombs like Ugin, the Spirit DragonUgin, the Spirit Dragon or Eldrazi Titans. Eminently flavorful and game-warping, Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut is the ideal of what a Summon card should be in Final Fantasy.

I Summon You Here to My Game

Final Fantasy might end up being not just the highest-selling Magic set of all time, but also the most popular. Combining the Final Fantasy franchise with the original trading card game was always going to make this release a mega-hit. The fact that many of the cards within, such as Summons, are so well designed only adds to the set’s appeal and overall success.

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