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Final Fantasy is finally here, and with it comes not only new mechanics, but entirely different ways to look at cards that we’ve played with since the beginning!

There are three very specific new mechanics coming from this new set that all triple down on the flavors in Final Fantasy on top of some very clever uses of returning mechanics that are very well suited to the Final Fantasy environment. We're taking a deep dive into all of these super neat cards so that we're ready to experience one of the greatest sets in the multiverse!

Job Select Equipment

One of the toughest things about Equipment cards is that once you cast them, you need to not only have additional mana on hand to equip it, but also another creature to equip to in the first place. This means that when you're analyzing any given Equipment, you have to keep on adding to the actual “cost” when deciding whether or not to slot it into your deck.

This issue with Equipment was solved with previous mechanics like Living Weapon and For Mirrodin! as Equipment with this ability come into play attached to a creature token, immediately granting all the buffs you’re paying the printed mana value for. Final Fantasy continues this tradition by introducing us to Magic’s rendition of job select.

Job select has your artifact enter the battlefield with a 1/1 colorless Hero creature token, which doesn’t have any kindred strategies on its own. Each job select card adds a specific type to the equipped creature as well as an ability that lines up with the corresponding class from the Final Fantasy series.

The Cleric classThe Cleric class is a support class in most if not all Final Fantasy games while still being able to deal some damage, so we get an Equipment that gives +1/+0 as well as untaps a fellow attacking creature.

Samurai’s KatanaSamurai’s Katana, unsurprisingly, adds the Samurai classSamurai class to your equipped creature and adds the speed and strength of a Samurai with its +2/+2 trample and haste.

The rare Summoner’s GrimoireSummoner’s Grimoire adds a much stronger ability than just some simple buffs. After turning your creature into a Shaman, you get to put a creature into play from your hand when the Shaman attacks. Doing that is already powerful enough, but since Summons in Final Fantasy are represented as enchantment creatures, when you put one into play, it enters tapped and attacking.

These cards are one of the best representations of the myriad of Final Fantasy mechanics being translated to our lovely card game and I’m really excited to see what we can do with these cards in both Commander and Constructed.

Tiered Spells

Another aspect that’s shared among each Final Fantasy game is how they show casting magic spells. It’s easy enough to just say that a mage casts a fireball, but to do that across 16 titles would get pretty old pretty fast. So instead, they have different tiers of Fire MagicFire Magic that deal increasing levels of damage that you earn throughout the game.

But since Final Fantasy lists Fire, Fira, and Firaga as technically all different spells, Wizards couldn’t just slap an X cost onto Fire and call it a day. So instead we now get tiered spells, which allow you to choose one of up to three additional costs to get the ability that you want from the spell.

Tiered spells in Magic give us a lot to consider when looking at these spells from either a 1v1 format, all the way up to the higher reaches of Commander, as some spells are worth waiting until you have tons of mana to reach the highest tier.

Ice MagicIce Magic is a great example here of what we want to see on a spell like this. For just and an added , you get Blizzard, which will let you return target creature to its owner’s hand. Note that this spell’s mana value is two as far as abilities that ask for that sort of thing are concerned (Y'shtola, Night's BlessedY'shtola, Night's Blessed). If instead you want to be able to force target creature’s owner to put said creature on either the bottom or top of library, you will have to pay with an additional , for a total of for Blizzara. Unlike some other modular spells, you do not get to still choose the Blizzard and bounce a creature to an opponent's hand while choosing Blizzara. Once you lock into a tier, you have to stick to just that tier. Note, the spell still has a mana value of two - sorry Y’shtola.

The last option is the famous Blizzaga, if you decide to pay an additional on top of the for a total of . While this spell still only has a mana value of two for those that care, you will get to shuffle a creature into its owner’s library (and hopefully not to the top). The reason for the mana value remaining two is because additional costs do not change the mana value of the card itself, even in the middle of casting.

While this does feel pretty similar to other abilities, like spree or escalate, the biggest difference is how those additional costs are paid and how many options can be chosen. Spree says to choose one or additional options at the cost of additional mana, while escalate has its additional cost set as tapping creatures. Tiered spells are only ever just one choice and you're locked into it no matter how much you would like all three tiers.

Tiered spells are incredibly flavorful, and after using them in the Arena streamer preview event, my eyes were truly open to how versatile spells like Fire MagicFire Magic are when it’s far more worthwhile to deal one damage or more to the board. While it's a shame that we only have a grand total of seven tiered magic spells, each of them is more or less three spells in one, and honestly seeing what a mythic rarity tiered spell looks like sounds scary!

Summons

The last new mechanic that we're seeing is more of a rendition of something you might have seen before if you’ve done some wacky things with Anikthea, Hand of ErebosAnikthea, Hand of Erebos and Sagas. Introducing the Summons, which are enchantment creatures, working in the exact same way as every other enchantment creature in Magic. The kind of enchantment they are, however, means that they will disappear in a couple of turns.

Sagas are enchantments that have an amount of chapters on them that have an ability attached to them which activate any time you reach that chapter. The way in which you reach chapters is by adding or subtracting lore counters to the Saga, which automatically happens upon entering the battlefield or after the draw step. There are a multitude of ways to force an addition or subtraction of these lore counters from our Sagas that we’ll go over later, but by and large, Sagas typically just last for as many turns as there are chapters and then remove themselves when they receive the last lore counter.

Summons are everything that Sagas are, but with legs (a power and toughness) and creature-centric abilities like flying, hexproof, lifelink, etc. This means that even though this might seem like a complicated “peanut butter in my chocolate,” we actually just follow the same rules that we always have for both card types. When the creature Summon enters the battlefield, put a lore counter on it and resolve chapter one, and then remember that you have summoning sickness and can't swing without haste. Next turn, add a lore counter and go to the next chapter and feel free to start swinging away in combat with your creature.

Eventually, you get to the final chapter and, unfortunately, you must sacrifice your Summon right after your draw step, well before you get to swing. That’s really all there is to it!

Summons have a lot of synergy within the set itself as it contains multiple creatures that let you manipulate your lore counters as well as pull enchantments from the graveyard. Creature reanimation works on these cards as well, because they are creatures as well as enchantments in every zone of the game, from from the hand, graveyard, or library, so be sure to double check the power level of every single creature or enchantment tutor you have.

Paradigm Shift

There are two more returning mechanics that are entirely necessary for the success of this set thanks to Final Fantasy's clear relationship and influence on the fantasy genre as a whole that I want to cover very quickly.

Transform

Transform is a word that we find on multiple cards in this set, and all of them are on incredibly fitting cards. In order to show off how a card like KefkaKefka reaches his final form and turns into bigger Kefkabigger Kefka we can pay and turn his card over. Once he turns over, Kefka, Court MageKefka, Court Mage now becomes Kefka, Ruler of Ruin and is 5/7 with flying and an incredibly strong ability. Treat Kefka, Ruler of Ruin as everything you see there, plus the converted mana cost of the original Kefka, Court Mage. This means he's still your commander, he still has any Auras, counters, or Equipment attached to him, and he still is an absolute villain here to ruin this game (for you).

There are two different sides to the transform mechanic coin, however, as we can see on most of the cards that turn into Summons say "exile and return transformed," and these cards break most of the rules I mentioned above. A card like Clive, Ifrit's DominantClive, Ifrit's Dominant exiles after paying a cost and then comes back transformed as Ifrit, Warden of InfernoIfrit, Warden of Inferno, and since he's left the battlefield, this means Ifrit will have summoning sickness. Luckily the first chapter of Ifrit has a flight trigger on him, but he can't tap or attack the turn that he comes in. Any counters, Auras, Equipment, etc., will fall off when Clive leaves and then returns, and this will be true for the other Dominants like Dion, Bahamut's DominantDion, Bahamut's Dominant and Jill, Shiva's DominantJill, Shiva's Dominant.

The Adventure Begins

The last mechanic is Adventure, which is starting to feel like an evergreen mechanic at this point, but I digress. Similar to the Omen mechanic from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, these cards are basically a two-for-one. Located only on Town land cards in this set, its worth knowing that collecting Towns is worth doing for future decks.

Adventure allows you to cast the spell that you see in the lower left portion of the card and then the whole cards goes into exile upon resolution ("on an adventure"). You can then later play the main card from exile when you have the mana for such an action. Not much more super cool stuff than that, but it still means you get two effects on one card, and these Towns are all lands so its a spell cast plus being able to play a land. Playing them as a land follows all of the regular rules for playing lands, however.

That's all we have for mechanics in Final Fantasy! It's about time we get to actually play with these cards and use all that we learned today against our foes. Be sure to watch out for all of the tricks with the transform mechanic and read up on the interactions between Gilgamesh, Master-at-ArmsGilgamesh, Master-at-Arms and the job select cards if you plan on building him as your commander!

All 16 main line Final Fantasy sets are represented here, some with more cards than others, but its very clear that there was a ton of care taken on behalf of Wizards of the Coast with this set to get as many people into this wonderful game as possible. So help the new players out, ok? They will turn into life long Magic fans alongside you!