Last updated on May 7, 2025
Coveted Jewel | Illustration by Jason A. Engle
Are you as hyped about Final Fantasy x MTG as Wizards of the Coast wants you to be? It's right around the corner, with a massive look at the set coming up on Saturday. But a small tidbit dropped on the Wizards Play Network site (WPN) concerning Final Fantasy pre-releases.
Lately WotC has been encouraging in-store play for pre-release events with some extra incentives for attendees. It's usually an assortment of pins and the like, but there's something coming up that has people scratching their heads: a “crystal counter d10 spindown,” according to the WPN pre-release guide.
A Dicey History
That's right, a 10-sided dice will be given to each player attending their first Final Fantasy pre-release using the Companion App. There are extra incentives beyond this for repeat pre-release goers, like a velvet dice bag for second-time pre-releasers, but the d10 is a huge question mark right now. Note that this is not part of the pre-release kit itself, which will include the standard-issue spindown d20. It's a separate item given to local games stores to hand out to customers/players.
This is not the first time WotC's switched up the formula on their dice, though. Players who attended Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation pre-releases “back in the day” were given blue and red d4s, respectively. These made sense from two angles: First, these were top-down Egyptian-inspired sets, and d4s look suspiciously like those pointy triangle things everyone associates with Egypt. Second, both sets featured “brick counter” cards like Sunset Pyramid and Edifice of Authority, which would build up to or tick down from three brick counters. The d4 was helpful there (despite booster packs also having inserts with punch-out brick counters anyway).
Go further back and the old guard amongst you might remember a d10 that was distributed at Mirrodin Besieged pre-releases. It featured a skull-and-bones symbol in place of the 10, and was given to players as a way to track poison counters. People fell in love and infect was praised and applauded for the rest of time.
Likewise, pre-release kits from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms included a randomized d20 instead of the usual spindown die, since the set included die-rolling mechanics. The Bundle for the same set also came with an enlarged randomized die.
There have been other gimmicks too, like how Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow featured glow-in-the-dark d20s, perfect for anyone who loves to play Magic in an unlit basement. This is all to say that Wizards messes around with their dice on occasion, but usually for a reason. Which rounds back to the question: Why is Final Fantasy getting a d10?
Speculation
Wall of Fortune | Illustration by Tom Babbey
The very first thing to note here is the deliberate item description: A crystal counter d10 spindown. Not a crystal spindown, but a spindown for crystal counters, presumably. This could just be semantics, but crystal counters would make perfect sense in a Final Fantasy setting.
For those not well-versed in the early days of Final Fantasy, nearly every game in the line-up features some sort of crystal motif. The heroes have to collect the four crystals of fire, ice, wind, or whatever, and defeat the big bad. That was the basic through-line with every installment for a while, and even many of the later games that leaned back on the series' crystalline origins.
But what exactly would a crystal counter be tracking? Perhaps it's a way to represent levelled-up magic, like the Thunder-Thundara-Thundaga progression that black mages use. Maybe it builds-up to a limit break-style ultimate ability on some creatures. Maybe there are no crystal counters at all and they just meant that the spindown itself is crystal. No one knows right now, but just pray to Yevon that this doesn't mean an incoming Prism Array reprint.
There are a couple other theories floating around though. The first is the unlikely scenario that these represent poison counters. Maybe there's a one-off poison card in Final Fantasy, but it would be very odd to have it return as any sort of major mechanic, especially with Phyrexia: All Will Be One still lurking in the rearview, toxically.
Image Source: Final Fantasy Wiki
The second theory is that there's a Doom mechanic in the set somewhere. Doom is an ability that appears in many Final Fantasy games. Characters inflicted with the Doom status will instantly die after a set period of time, usually 10 turns or a slow 10-second countdown. There's a connection, but would that really be enough to warrant giving out a whole die? They didn't even give out 10-gallon cowboy hats at the Thunder Junction events, are they really going to give out a supplementary die for an ability that probably only shows up once or twice? And how effective would a 10-turn Doom clock even be in an average MTG game?
And theory #3: The WPN website made a typo and this was supposed to be a d20, not a d10. That's the most deflating outcome possible, but a crystal d20 still sounds kind of cool. The post has been live for almost 48 hours and no corrections have been made, so d10 seems like it was correct.
Answers Incoming
Pair o' Dice Lost | Illustration by Bruce Brenneise
Wizards of the Coast will be at PAX East Saturday morning, with a 2-hour panel discussing Final Fantasy and officially kicking off spoiler season. It's going to be huge, and people will get all the answers they've been asking over the next few weeks. For now, the d10 has thrown a speculative curve-ball at people who are frothing at the mouth for more Final Fantasy news. They're just die-ing to know.
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment