Sneaky Workaround Lets You Play With Final Fantasy MTG Cards Early

Last updated on June 4, 2025

Astrologian's Planisphere – art by Josephine Chang

Everybody will be expecting you to slam a Buster Sword next week, when Final Fantasy x MTG launches. And savvy players who've read Andrew's Final Fantasy Limited Set Review will even see it coming in your FF prerelease event this weekend.

But how about playing Final Fantasy cards today? As in, right now? Even when this upcoming Magic set isn’t out yet?

Thanks to a quirky Alchemy interaction, MTG Arena players can already conjure Magic: The Gathering — FINAL FANTASY bombs!

Source: Reddit

So, want to join the early-access party? Let’s break down how this trick works, and why you won’t get Pinkerton'd for it!

How Do I Play with Final Fantasy Cards on MTG Arena Right Now?

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed – Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

The short version: On MTG Arena, a couple of Alchemy cards can conjure any card that exists in the MTGA client, ignoring set legality. Ornate Imitations and Fear of Change can dig through every creature already patched into the client, including those still under spoiler-season embargo.

In other words, you can build a deck that's Momir All Week!

Here’s the long-form how-to:

First, craft these two Alchemy cards:

• Ornate Imitations, an X-cost Simic sorcery from Alchemy: Aetherdrift that conjures X random creatures with mana from 1 to X, and dumps them straight onto the battlefield.
  
• Fear of Change, a 2-drop Simic creature from Alchemy: Duskmourn; on ETB you exile another of your creatures, then conjure a new one with mana value that creature’s MV + 2.

In case you never played with the conjure mechanic: This is a digital-only MTGA mechanic that basically spawns cards from thin air. Conjured cards are not token copies, but “real” (in the digital sense) cards. You can bounce them to hand, exile, send to the graveyard, or shuffle back into your deck and they won't disappear (as token copies do).

Ornate Imitations and Fear of Change can conjure any card that exists on Arena. You're not guaranteed a Final Fantasy card, but roll the dice enough times (above all at mana value 8 and 9) and you'll end up with a Summon: Knights of Round or a Summon: Bahamut.

And fun fact, by the way: Ornate Imitations is one Arena dev's favorite card!

Source: Comment on Reddit

Build a shell that ramps hard (for Ornate Imitations) or and/or loops ETBs (for Fear of Change):

• Green mana rocks, ramp cards, Overlord of the Hauntwoods, or treasure to push to X = 9 quickly. That's the magic number for Bahamut and Diamond Weapon.
• Bounce spells, sacrifice fodder, and grave recursion for a Fear of Change.
• Sprinkle tutors and cast-from-graveyard effects as desired,
• Jump into any queue up in any format that allows Alchemy cards: Historic, Alchemy, Timeless, Brawl all work (Standard obviously doesn’t.)

Although any mana value can work, nine mana really is the sweet spot for the best odds for a Final Fantasy pull. Arena only contains sixteen other 9-drops; adding two Final Fantasy monsters pushes your odds of hitting a headline card to roughly 9:1. Yeah, you’ll often whiff — but the ceiling (free Bahamut!) makes it meme-tier gold.

Should We Worry About the Pinkertons?

Not this time! Wizards has pretty much rubber-stamped the trick.

The latest Arena Announcements (June 2, 2025) spelled out that FINAL FANTASY cards would be visible and “interactable” in the client a full week early.

“Major set releases on MTG Arena,” the Arena Announcement says, “come in two parts, with a prepatch releasing a week before the full set release. What does this mean? You'll be able to view and interact with all the upcoming Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY cards in the MTG Arena client.”

In other words, WotC fully expects us to be able to play with Final Fantasy cards ahead of schedule – not “play-play” in the sense of “play them in Standard,” but in the sense of interacting with them early on.

Ornate Imitations and Fear of Change are therefore working pretty much as intended: Letting us play with anything on the client.

And this is actually a known feature. If this play-before-prerelease feels familiar, that’s because the exact same stunt happened during Tarkir: Dragonstorm, when Ornate Imitations began spewing neon-fresh dragonlords a week ahead of schedule:

Source: Reddit

And players had already noted that Fear of Change could do something similar back in October last year:

Source: Reddit

In fact, as soon as this week's Arena Announcement said that the FF cards were going to be patched a week before launch, players were already getting their Ornate decks ready.

“Oh, prepatch coming in one week early?” said u/hexanort on the announcement thread. “Time to play Ornate Imitations deck because the card can usually conjure the prepatched set.”

There *Is* a Bug, Though

There's a different issue going on, and in this case a real-deal bug: You can’t build decks with FF cards until launch day, as detailed in this week's MTGA patch notes.

Source: MTG Arena Patch Notes

That's different from Ornate giving us early access to Final Fantasy, though.

Wrap-Up

Vivi Ornitier – Illustration by Toni Infante

Arena’s conjure engine has turned into an unofficial early-access feature.

It’s janky, RNG-heavy, and absolutely hilarious when a bewildered opponent hovers your Bahamut for the fifth time. So fire up those ramp spells, let Ornate Imitations roll the dice, and enjoy your one-week head start!