MTG Arena Final Fantasy Reprints Riddled With Bugs

Last updated on July 18, 2025

Darksteel Plate | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

You might've missed it unless you were actively looking for it, but the MTG Arena team did everyone a favor and added a bunch of reprint art from Final Fantasy Commander to the digital client. The only new cards that made their way to MTGA were the precon commanders, but cards that already existed on the client now have their alternate Final Fantasy arts as an option.

Except, as with any update to Arena, there were some small quirks involved with the update.

Good News for Final Fantasy Fans

For the most part, this surprise update is a win for Final Fantasy fans who play on Arena. None of the art added was for cards that didn't already exist on the client, so this is a purely cosmetic addition to Arena that lets people play with FF-themed art if they choose to do so.

It can be a little tricky actually finding the art, though, since these alternate versions aren't specifically obtainable through any packs or events, and the default for each card won't be the Final Fantasy version. All you have to do is type in the card, click the expansion arrow under its name, and you'll see all available versions of that card, FF and all. Want that sweet Erikas Perl Torrential Gearhulk art in your Brawl deck? Well, you have to know that it exists, and you have to manually search for it.

Note that you'll still have to craft the card art you want to unlock. You're paying to unlock the “visualization”, so only one wildcard is needed, regardless of how many copies you already own. Using a wildcard to craft the alternate art version will permanently unlock that art for any copies you plan on using.

Notably, Darksteel Plate was already previously coded on the client, but was tied specifically to the Alchemy card Darksteel Hydra. It could only be conjured with the hydra's ability, and therefore wasn't craftable as an individual card.

Until now! The Russell Lu Final Fantasy version is now available for maindeck play wherever it's legal, featuring the non-spikey half of Cloud Strife's face. Enjoy, and try not to think about how Mithril Coat power crept this card into oblivion.

Apostrophe Catastrophe

Agatha's Soul Cauldron | Illustration by Jason A. Engle

While the FF additions are a pleasant surprise, it seems that there's been some sort of issue with a small subset of cards that should be eligible for Arena. As pointed out by Reddit user Delsea, the following Commander reprints were excluded from the update:

• An Offer You Can't Refuse
• Night's Whisper
• Stitcher's Supplier
• Hero's Heirloom
• Trailblazer's Boots
• Wayfarer's Bauble
• Bonders' Enclave
• Rogue's Passage

Notice anything in common with this ragtag group of cards? That's right, they all contain apostrophes in their card names, which apparently is enough to either prevent them from working on Arena correctly, or there's a bug in the system that's preventing them from showing up with their Final Fantasy art. It's quite the anomaly, though not exactly a real issue since you can still craft other versions of all of these cards.

No one's quite sure why apostrophes would cause an issue like this; after all, it's not like cards with apostrophes don't already exist on the client. Agatha's Soul Cauldron Stans would be a very sad group of people if that was enough to take a card out of commission. Whatever the underlying bug is, it's a bit of a non-issue unless you're dead-set on playing An Offer You Can't Refuse with art of Rikku and Tidus in a location that doesn't match the flavor text. If you are that person, just wait a bit and surely the bug will be fixed in due time.