The preview season for Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy has finally come to a close. One of the most hyped Magic sets ever - and certainly the best selling before it even releases - is now fully revealed. All the cards have been shown off and now it's time to wait and see what people do with them as the first events draw near.

With one of the longest preview seasons of all time finally winding down, let's take a look back at some of the more interesting cards shown throughout the past week!

The Cards Exciting People

When the original run of Final Fantasy XIV was shut down to prepare for the completely overhauled A Realm Reborn, Square-Enix took it down in the most epic way. They destroyed the world, ending a massive player battle with a cutscene depicting Bahamut emerging from Dalamud and raining calamity over the world. Louisoix and the group known as The Twelve fail to reseal Bahamut and Louisoix sacrifices himself to save others from Bahamut's wrath. This powerful moment is represented with an incredibly strong counterspell that has players itching to try it in a variety of formats.

The Masamune is a classic weapon that often represents some of the most powerful pieces of equipment available throughout the Final Fantasy series and beyond. The version in this set represents Sephiroth's Masamune, which he uses as an extension of his own power. The flavorful death trigger doubling ability has players everywhere excited over the possibilities of what can be done and has even more wanting to fittingly pair it with the main set's Sephiroth card.

Naoki Yoshida, perhaps better known as Yoshi-P to his fans, became the director of Final Fantasy XIV following its disastrous 1.0 debut. With tremendous effort, he was able to lead his team to correct course and turn the game into the juggernaut it is today. The Wandering Minstrel represents Yoshi-P in the game itself, and fans of the series were quick to burst with glee over seeing the character make an appearance in this set.

Huge Flavor Wins

Whoa! That's one heck of a sweet removal spell! Whenever you reach a certain damage threshold in Final Fantasy X, it displays the word "overkill" over the enemies. When you do so, it doubles your experience and item drops earned. This represents that huge damage output and ensures whatever creature you hit with this is very, seriously, extremely dead in the most over-the-top manner possible.

Take a look at this card. Now go look up a screenshot from any Final Fantasy game between I and IX. Odds are good, you'll be able to see exactly what's happening here. The card is meant to look exactly like a battle screen in the earlier Final Fantasy titles, with the art showing the battle screen and the text box acting as the menu that displays on the lower half of the screen. It's a huge slam dunk design and to make things even better it just so happens to be a card that looks extremely playable as well.

If you need to know that the team understood the assignment, look no further than this card. In the early portion of Final Fantasy VII, players are given the choice of taking a long flight of stairs or storming via an elevator to ascend a massive tower. This card perfectly captures the flavor of both sides of this, making for a fun and somewhat silly reference that even the most casual Final Fantasy VII fan will enjoy.

This little cactus doesn't seem like much in terms of appearances, but it's known to pack one hell of a wallop. One mana for a 3/3 is a big deal, even if it usually bounces itself to your hand after it attacks. Casting these quickly really brings the pain on your opponents, and is especially deadly if you can give it haste and/or cast it with flash. The bouncing is quite flavorful, as Cactuar are known to run away, but you can be sure to see these show up somewhere in the near future.

Reprints

Very few new reprints were revealed this week. No new reprints were shown off for the main set and all the Commander cards were already unveiled within the first week. As a result, the only new reprints were the handful of remaining Through the Ages cards left to show off. Cards like Stroke of Midnight as Memories of Nibelheim and Godo, Bandit Warlord as Gilgamesh, Weapon Collector aren't exactly the biggest hits around. However, last Saturday saw the reveal of Ranger-Captain of Eos as Knights of San d'Oria, which is a massive hit for the set. The card has reached upwards of $40-50 thanks to its increased prominence in Modern and an additional reprint is extremely welcome here.

Additional Resources

You can check out some additional official resources here:

• Official Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy Card Image Gallery
• Collecting Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy
• Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy Mechanics
• Where to Play Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy

That's a wrap on Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy. This incredibly hyped set looks like it's going to sweep the Magic world in a frenzy. Prereleases start next week with some creator Early Access events happening via MTG Arena and Magic Online earlier in the week. Be sure to check with your local game store and see what they're going to offer during this initial weekend. Can't find what you're looking for locally? Be sure to check out the CoolStuffInc page for Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy page for all your fantastical needs.

Paige Smith

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