The Ultimate Guide to Final Fantasy Draft

Last updated on August 29, 2025

Lightning, Army of One | Illustration by Shiyu

Greetings planeswalkers! Final Fantasy has been out for over a week, so let’s learn how to draft it. I’ll try to succinctly cover all the most important details for your success in this format. You can expect a review of how the mechanics have played out, which cards to look for in each archetype, overrated cards, underrated cards, and more. Let’s begin!

And if you haven’t, consider checking out our Sealed Guide first, which has all my Day 0 takes for this format. I’ll try to touch on specific things I got wrong as we go forward.

Set Pitch

Omega, Heartless Evolution | Illustration by Josu Solano

Final Fantasy is a high synergy set with well-balanced archetypes. It isn’t excessively dominated by bombs or 5c piles (though the set does support both), so you’re very much trying to draft a cohesive deck. Most successful decks play it pretty close to the chest, as the big 10 2-color pairs are all fairly well-supported.

Mechanics Revisited

Legendaries

Yep, Final Fantasy has a lot of legendaries alright! Most of the “legends matter” stuff is on a handful of underperforming rares though (i.e., Clive's Hideaway, Serah Farron), so don’t expect to build around legends specifically. The big exception to this rule is Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn, which is an excellent rate due to how easy it is to trigger.

Job Select

Job select has been a major overperformer thus far, and it’s one of the key mechanics of Final Fantasy Draft. Most job select cards play out like curve filler to start but have some subtle strengths in this set such as:

• Being an artifact for artifact matters cards (very relevant for WU and UB).
• Creating two game objects for sacrifice decks.
• Putting subtle pressure on your opponent’s blocks (i.e., you can threaten to trade up your Malboro into Balamb T-Rexaur thanks to Paladin's Arms).

Job select cards are generally pretty solid, though there are a couple of stinkers (i.e., Red Mage's Rapier and Sage's Nouliths). There are also two absolutely outstanding uncommons with the mechanic that are among the set’s best non-rares (Samurai's Katana and Dragoon's Lance).

Tiered

A big appeal to tiered spells is their ability to trigger 4+ payoffs. The big spell archetype has felt quite real, and many cards that looked like filler (i.e., Sahagin) have overperformed my expectations. There’s not too much else to say about tiered, as the mechanic only appears on a handful of uncommons and commons, notably Thunder Magic.

Saga Creatures

Summons are really interesting to play with in practice. Let’s start with Summon: G.F. Ifrit for an example:

• G.F. Ifrit is a 3/2 creature that’s good for two attacks or three windows to block. To make up for its temporary nature and unimpressive stats, Ifrit gives you a rummage, another rummage, , and then finally another on its way out.
• If you’re playing vs Ifrit, you have the choice to block/trade with it, let it through, etc.
• Ignoring Ifrit completely makes it effectively to deal 6, rummage twice, and add (in stages).
• Trading with Ifrit, on the other hand, honors it as though it were a non-temporary creature.

How you play with/against summons varies immensely on a per game basis. You can treat the four-stage summons like Ifrit and Summon: Fat Chocobo as creatures on your curve, while 3-stage summons are more akin to spells. Summon: Primal Garuda, for instance, is a clunky removal spell with tremendous upside.

Another important element to summons is how certain cards work with them. It’s not a huge theme, but Rydia, Summoner of Mist, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, and Yuna, Hope of Spira are all great payoffs for playing summons. Here’s how I’d rate each summon in the set.

Summons Rated

Mythics

• Summon: Bahamut: Nine mana is pretty severe, so you need to draft a rampy towns deck around it, but Final Fantasy can support this kind of thing if you work for it.
• Summon: Knights of Round: Same goes for Knights, which is just as busted as Bahamut but crucially 1 mana cheaper.

Rares

• Summon: Brynhildr: It’s fairly easy to get the card back from this in Limited, and even better if you can trade it off after. The haste mode also ranges from a decent bonus to actively gamebreaking (i.e., with Jecht, Reluctant Guardian). Brynhildr is hardly a bomb, but I’m never cutting it either.
• Summon: G.F. Cerberus: Clearly aimed at URx style decks, as big spells are even bigger when you copy them. Hill Giant stats and an almost blank chapter 1 aren’t especially impressive, but the risk seems worth it in the right deck. I’m not sure if this is better than UR’s excellent signpost uncommons though, as the floor is definitely lower than something like Shantotto, Tactician Magician.
• Summon: Leviathan: Leviathan is pretty bomby, especially if you make it semi-one sided with Sahagin or Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus. Regardless, you’re getting a 6/6 with a big tempo reset, plus one big swing that comes with a free card.
• Summon: Primal Odin: Six mana for a Nekrataal is a pretty great rate in Limited, even if this card is overcosted for Standard. Look to combine Chapter 2 with evasion-granting cards like Dragoon's Lance for cheese.
• Summon: Titan: You get a massive monster for one attack/two blocks, some free lands (72% to be 2+ lands), and another big attack on the way out. That’s an incredible deal for in Limited, so clearly this is a p1p1 level guy.

Uncommons

• Summon: Anima: Anima is definitely slow, but who can resist this kind of value? This clearly goes in a controlling deck, as you’ll want lots of blockers and removal to draw out the game and milk all those cards you draw.
• Summon: Esper Ramuh: This card… kind of sucks, to be honest. It’s playable in UR decks with a lot of spells, but even 10-11 noncreatures wasn’t enough to get this above 2-3 damage in practice. It also does very little else besides killing something, as the wizard bonus is pointless. It could help you stabilize versus aggro though, especially if you can trade off the body afterwards.
• Summon: Fenrir: Fenrir, on the other hand, is absolutely top class. It may be the best uncommon in the set in fact, as turn 3 Fenrir just puts you massively ahead of other players. Trading it off after ramping is an easy 2-for-1, but if you don’t you can still collect your 2-for-1 anyways with chapter III. Note that Fenrir counts itself for the Ecliptic Growl trigger, so your opponent needs to play a 4/x to stop it from drawing.
• Summon: Primal Garuda: It’s a solid removal spell on legs (wings?). You can push quite a bit of damage with chapter II/III, and the body also blocks rather well for its cost. You can actually play around this effect once you know your opponent has it, so consider doing so (i.e. not attacking) if you believe your deck has inevitability.
• Summon: Shiva: Shiva is a great wall of a creature that stabilizes quite well. Chapter III in particular makes attacking feed you cards, so sometimes Shiva plays out like “two turns of Moat.” You can also try to combine this with other stun effects to draw extra cards, though there aren’t many of those (mostly just Ice Flan and Omega, Heartless Evolution).

Commons

• Summon: Choco/Mog: This adorable card can actually bring quite a beating, especially with cards like Aerith Rescue Mission. I once told a friend to “just take 6” from this, figuring they’d rather keep their equipped Hero token than trade with a temporary creature. This was very poor advice, as 6 damage plus a boosted swarm of 1/1s on the way out was far more damage than that Hero was worth!
• Summon: Fat Chocobo: Fat Chocobo is silly but also one of the best commons in the set. There’s just a ton of beef to be had with this one, and it lasts long enough that you can practically treat it like a normal 5-drop. The main nightmare scenario would be something like Balamb T-Rexaur which can wall off the Chocobo until it goes away. Having a removal spell ready to follow this up in green mirrors can be quite brutal!
• Summon: G.F. Ifrit: G.F. Ifrit is our first example is a solid filler summon. I’m mostly happy to play this with Rydia or graveyard synergies (i.e., Esper Origins / Summon: Esper Maduin), though it’s acceptable filler anywhere.

Transforming DFCs

Not too much to say on these ones. They mostly show up on rares, and almost all the rares that flip into sagas are busted. There are a couple of more tame effects (i.e., Crystal Fragments) that are technically DFCs though.

Cycling

It wasn’t hard to see from the outset that the common cycling cycle is rather imbalanced. Malboro has definitely overperformed, and Balamb T-Rexaur has been pretty good too (maybe a tiny bit under expectations). Meanwhile, Ice Flan and Hill Gigas are mediocre but playable, and Cloudbound Moogle is probably playable but certainly not good. Still, there’s something to be said for cards that make your deck more consistent, so we’ve seen lots of players opt for 16 lands with 2 cyclers rather than 17 lands (like in Duskmourn).

Adventure Lands

I'm covering these because I mentioned them in the Sealed guide, mostly. Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis is the only good adventure town, though I’d be willing to play any of them except Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital over a basic. P1P1 Zanarkand is solid but not insane; you could probably argue for Chocobo Kick over it, for instance.

Towns

Travel the Overworld

Travel the Overworld is the truth, though there aren’t too many other payoffs (The Wandering Minstrel is decent, but five towns is a ton in practice). Still, common dual lands tend to be good in 5-color piles anyways, so it’s not hard to run some town synergies as a bonus. It’s also quite helpful that land tutors like Prishe's Wanderings and Reach the Horizon grab towns directly.

Archetypes + Tier List

I introduced these in the Sealed Guide, but now we can go over the commons and synergies that make each archetype work. I’ve found Final Fantasy to be one of the best balanced formats in years, so there isn’t an unplayable color pair. Here’s how I’d rate the 10 to start:

Tier 1 Archetypes (best decks)

• UR Big Spells
• BG Graveyard/Midrange

Tier 2 Archetypes (good)

• WB Sac/Midrange
• RW Aggro/Equipment
• WU Artifacts/Skies
• GUx Towns/Ramp

Tier 3 Archetypes (decent)

• UB Control/Good Stuff
• GW Go Wide/Midrange
• BR Wizards/Bleeder
• RG Landfall/Stompy

The main delineation between these archetypes is the level of synergy and support they have. UR just has so many good payoffs, while themes like wizards or go wide are murkier.

UR Big Spells

UR is a major overperformer. It has some of the strongest signpost uncommons, plus several cards like Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus and Prompto Argentum that function like signposts. In addition, most of the spells in this set that trigger them tend to be great, including winners like:

• Thunder Magic
• Ice Magic
• Dreams of Laguna (triggers with flashback)
• Retrieve the Esper
• Eject
• Sorceress's Schemes
• Choco-Comet

UR gets to play a ton of good interaction and card advantage, all of which can set up cascading advantages with its value creatures. Take all the “noncreature 4+ stuff” highly, and enjoy.

BG Graveyard/Midrange

BG is another fantastic archetype. It has the single best signpost uncommon in the set (Cloud of Darkness) and lots of other strong creatures and removal spells. BG decks vary in how much they lean into the graveyard theme, as cards like Cloud of Darkness need less support than The Final Days and Diamond Weapon. Getting those synergies to work relies heavily on three commons:

1. Town Greeter
2. Shinra Reinforcements
3. Resentful Revelation

This trio forms the backbone of a synergistic green deck. They’re also all generally decent, so you should take them highly regardless.

WB Sacrifice/Midrange

WB is a cool deck that has a clear sacrifice theme. This theme works on three levels:

1. Payoffs (i.e., Judge Magister Gabranth, Al Bhed Salvagers)
2. Sacrifice outlets (i.e., Phantom Train, Namazu Trader, Ahriman)
3. Fodder (Hecteyes, job select equipment, Rufus Shinra’s poor disposable dog)

A good WB deck has a healthy mix of all three, plus lots of strong removal spells like White Auracite and Sephiroth's Intervention. Vayne's Treachery also shines here. Note there’s a bit of overlap between BR and WB, so you may be able to splash Unexpected Request for treason and sac lines.

RW Aggro/Equipment

RW in Final Fantasy is a bit slower than your average RW archetype. It’s still clearly an aggressive deck, but it often builds incremental advantages in board presence via equipment (rather than trying to win as fast as possible). Sometimes you can even build a massive Voltron with something like Adelbert Steiner and get it to the point where it outsizes a Balamb T-Rexaur!

The best RW cards are clearly those that care about equipment. That means at higher rarities:

• Cloud, Midgar Mercenary
• Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms
• Firion, Wild Rose Warrior (free 1/1s with job select)
• Freya Crescent
• Giott, King of the Dwarves
• Adelbert Steiner

Zidane, Tantalus Thief is also an exceptional card, even without any direct synergy. Try to time Zidane right after your opponent plays their big 6-drop cycling creature, and you may win on the spot. Unlike other treasons, it’s actually possible to play Zidane as a kind of value card; it’s basically a 3/3 Lava Axe that gains 5 and makes a Treasure. That’s pretty crazy!

WU Artifacts/Skies

WU is a synergistic archetype that's all about artifacts and fliers. You’re looking to assemble a veritable fleet of cards like Gaelicat, Rook Turret, and Dragoon's Wyvern here, backed up by job select equipment and removal. Most WU decks have a distinctly “tempo” feel to them, rather than feeling purely aggressive or controlling. I also like countermagic in this archetype, as you can develop your fliers early then protect them or stop bombs later. Most of the cards WU wants to deploy are in the 2-4 mana range, so you’d be free to Syncopate that Ardyn or Balamb T-Rexaur later on.

One odd thing about WU is that its two signposts are among the weaker ones in the format. Cid, Timeless Artificer is really strong in multiples but mediocre on its own (note that Weapons Vendor is an artificer for it). Meanwhile, Tidus, Blitzball Star is unfortunately the worst multicolor uncommon in the set. It starts tiny, pairs poorly with fliers, and trades down with all sorts of fodder creatures. Feel free to cut it from your WU decks, and don’t treat Tidus as a signal that the archetype is open.

GUx Towns/Ramp

Travel the Overworld

GU is the designated 5-color good stuff color pair. You can technically build GU as two colors, but there are many incentives to play at least three as you draft the towns archetype. Towns get paid off in two major ways (Travel the Overworld and Omega, Heartless Evolution), both of which are very high picks here. I also quite like Ignis Scientia as a value/ramp creature with free graveyard hate.

Common-wise, favor removal spells, fatties, and good defensive creatures. That means Goobbue Gardener, Scorpion Sentinel, Town Greeter, and Qiqirn Merchant. Sometimes you may be able to tap into graveyard synergies if you get enough Town Greeters.

One interesting question with GU is how much countermagic you should play. There’s a bit of a conflict between tapping out for fatties and holding up mana after all. I expect to board Syncopate in and out a lot in this archetype, as its effectiveness should vary greatly by matchup. If you can’t match your opponents in the late game (i.e., Ardyn, the Usurper), countermagic could be a solution.

UB Control/Good Stuff

UB has some pretty light themes in this format. Locke Cole and Ultimecia, Time Sorceress clearly work with the graveyard, but you’re missing Town Greeter and a couple of payoffs like Diamond Weapon. UB also tends to have too many noncreature spells for The Final Days to be great.

I think the best reasons to be UB are strong uncommons and removal. Rather than building an overly synergistic deck, simply look for 2-for-1s and kill spells, and try to grind out the competition. This plan goes great with both of the signposts, as Locke Cole is a great value creature and Ultimecia can Time Walk if it becomes Ultimecia, Omnipotent.

An oddity in this color pair is Golbez, Crystal Collector, which strangely cares about artifacts. While its base stats and surveil bonus could be worse, Golbez is generally a trap, as most artifact incentives are white. A deck full of filler like Rook Turret and Sage's Nouliths to support Golbez seems like a draft gone wrong.

One other note: The big spells theme is rather well-supported, so don’t think you always have to be UR to take advantage of it. UB can play off the same strong commons and uncommons as UR does, and it has some great expensive spells to pair them with like Sephiroth's Intervention, Ice Magic, Dreams of Laguna (flashback), and Sidequest: Hunt the Mark.

GW Go Wide/Midrange

GW is another lightly supported archetype. Its signposts are split between a go-wide card (Rinoa Heartilly and a summons card (Garnet, Princess of Alexandria). Go wide in general has felt kind of like a bust in this set. Leaning on cards like Aerith Rescue Mission and Auron's Inspiration plays poorly versus job select tokens, Hecteyes, and toughness-oriented creatures like Goobbue Gardener and Scorpion Sentinel.

For me personally, I’d probably be in GW mostly on the back of good summons, rares, and Rinoa Heartilly. Rinoa is simply a splash level threat, and it doesn’t ask much of you to be great. But without those things, I’m more likely to end up BG or GU, which tend to play the big game better than GW.

BR Wizards/Bleeder

BR’s Wizards theme is interesting, but it’s isolated to a handful of cards. If you want to bleed your opponent out with Wizard tokens, you have:

• Cornered by Black Mages
• Black Mage's Rod
• Circle of Power
• Mysidian Elder
• Queen Brahne
• Kuja, Genome Sorcerer
• Lindblum, Industrial Regency

And not much else. I quite like the first three, but Mysidian Elder and Queen Brahne are pretty weak cards. As for BR’s signposts, Black Waltz No. 3 is threatening but burdened with terrible stats for its cost, as 4-mana Ahriman is definitely less than ideal. Meanwhile, Garland, Knight of Cornelia is much better, and a stronger reason to be this deck.

A good BR deck may feel like “mono-removal” in practice, especially since Cornered by Black Mages plays best with other cheap removal spells. Using Fire Magic to clear fodder for edicts is a solid line in this archetype. I also quite like Malboro here, as removal spells drag out games to the point when bigger creatures can take over the board. The incidental damage also stacks nicely with BR’s own ping theme.

RG Landfall/Stompy

The last archetype is a bit of a mixed bag. I quite like Gladiolus Amicitia, as it has huge stats, free value, and a powerful trample ability. On the other hand, Rydia, Summoner of Mist is only good with 5+ summons, as a 1/2 landfall rummager isn’t worth a card on its own. RG also has the problem of being slower than the fast decks and smaller than the big ones.

Landfall in this set mostly comes in the form of bird tokens. While extra landfall triggers can lead to powerful attacks, these tokens are capped at 2 toughness, so they trade off with most job select creatures. There are also few other landfall payoffs; a grand list of them includes:

• Sabotender (the only non-bird common with landfall)
• Chocobo Racetrack (slow bird token-maker that does nothing the turn you play it)
• Ride the Shoopuf (card is actually pretty good, no complaints)
• Tifa Lockhart (the one-shot dream is cool but very hard to pull off in Limited)

RG isn’t especially well supported in Final Fantasy. Red is also the worst color in the set; it has some very good cards at common/uncommon (Choco-Comet, Thunder Magic, Suplex, Call the Mountain Chocobo, Samurai's Katana), but more bad filler than any other color.

It’s not all doom and gloom for this archetype though, as it can still play quite well when your card quality is high enough. The best cards for RG are birds like Summon: Fat Chocobo, Sazh's Chocobo, and Call the Mountain Chocobo. I’ve also found RG can splash decently well, as landfall already creates an incentive to play a Prishe's Wanderings or two.

Synergy Clusters

Here I want to briefly touch on synergies that aren’t quite an archetype. These can be incorporated into your decks as a subtheme sometimes, or they can occasionally be a main theme in a very particular/lucky draft.

Naya Summons

Between Rydia, Summoner of Mist, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, and Yuna, Hope of Spira, there is a cool little Naya Summons theme in this set. Generally, playing these means you’re base RG or GW, as those colors have most of the summons. Rydia is even a discard outlet for Yuna, Hope of Spira, so someone gets to live the dream of discarding Bahamut for Yuna to reanimate! It also helps that many of the summons (like Fenrir and Fat Chocobo) are just excellent creatures, so you can take those first and table stuff like Rydia.

Lifegain

It’s not well-supported, but there are a couple of lifegain payoffs in the set like Aerith Gainsborough and Minwu, White Mage. White Mage's Staff is the card to trigger those, but unfortunately you shouldn’t get passed too many of those as it’s one of the better commons. I think it’s a trap to go deep on Minwu in 99% of drafts, but the one time it works will be pretty cool.

Birds

While birds are officially RG adjacent, it’s worth noting that white has just as many birds as green does. Both colors have one common (Summon: Choco/Mog and Call the Mountain Chocobo) and one uncommon (Ambrosia Whiteheart and Choco-Comet) that make or are birds. As for payoffs, there aren’t too many but the few that exist could go off if you get the nut bird deck. Those include:

• Bartz and Boko
• Choco, Seeker of Paradise
• Traveling Chocobo
• Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo

Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo is the most realistic incentive available, as the others are too rare. It might be a good excuse to play an otherwise underwhelming card like Chocobo Racetrack.

Gameplay Specifics Revisited

Pace

Final Fantasy is not an especially fast set. This doesn’t mean you can expect endless durdle fests though, as there are plenty of ways to pressure your opponents over time. This can come in the form of incidental damage (Sabotender), threat of activation (i.e., an aggro deck that can use Paladin's Arms to trade up its creatures over time), or snowballing incremental advantages from archetype payoffs. The latter is especially important to success in Final Fantasy, and is why cards like Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus and Sidequest: Hunt the Mark are so powerful.

Common Removal Spells

I don’t need to re-review all of them, but here’s how my predictions have panned out:

• Fate of the Sun-Cryst is clunky and usually worse than Slash of Light, as almost every white archetype plays in such a way to make Slash of Light real. To expand, WU/WB/WR all really like job selects, and GW is a go wide deck. You can easily get for 3+ damage in most white builds, which is quite efficient (do try to avoid trading early though, as it can hurt you later).
• Ice Magic is generally better than Stuck in Summoner's Sanctum due to its flexibility and that it triggers 4+ payoffs. Stuck hasn’t been bad by any means, and it can answer a lot of strong rares that depend on attacking (i.e., Lightning, Army of One).
• Cornered by Black Mages has been a major overperformer, as the extra cardboard makes it rather brutal when it works. You can mitigate its effectiveness by not trading off Hero tokens versus black decks or relying on something like Hecteyes. Consider sideboarding in fodder creatures if your opponent has multiples.
• Black’s other removal spells are as good as advertised, so expect to take Sephiroth's Intervention highly.
• Blazing Bomb is another overperformer, as UR’s 4+ theme has just really clicked in practice.
• Light of Judgment, on the other hand, has just been kind of clunky. I’m not ashamed to play one, but even a slower format like this still rewards efficiency.
• Chocobo Kick has been even better than expected, and it fights closely with Summon: Fat Chocobo and Town Greeter for the title of best green common.
• Despite its flexibility, Airship Crash has struggled to find great targets against most decks. It’s fine to kill something like Gaelicat with it, but I haven’t felt especially bad about not starting one.

Splashing/Number of Colors

Final Fantasy is indeed a mostly 2-color format. Gx archetypes tend to splash more than others, particularly GU Towns (which is incentivized to take random dual lands anyways). Splashing in non-green decks is possible, but the colorless fixers (World Map, Blitzball) are decidedly mediocre. I like that World Map pumps cards like Cloud of Darkness though.

List of Stuff Worth Splashing

Commons

The main commons you’d splash are unconditional removal spells like Sephiroth's Intervention and Fate of the Sun-Cryst. This is especially common in GUx towns, as their in-color options are a bit worse. None of the common creatures (even the best ones like Summon: Fat Chocobo) are likely worth stretching your mana for.

Uncommons

There’s a bit more latitude with splashing uncommons, but you still don’t want to get too carried away. The best ones are once again going to be removal spells like Overkill, Cloud of Darkness, and Lightning Bolt.

Splashing value creatures like Delivery Moogle and Shantotto, Tactician Magician may be viable in particular decks. For instance, picture a UB control deck with a ton of copies of Dreams of Laguna and Sephiroth's Intervention. If you pick up a couple of UR/UB duals and a World Map, you could use those to splash the powerful Shantotto, Tactician Magician, which plays incredibly well with those spells!

Not all splashes are created equal though. While The Emperor of Palamecia is a great card, it’s more timing sensitive than something like Shantotto and would make a poor splash. The same goes for other powerful 2-drop uncommons like Dragoon's Lance, Il Mheg Pixie, Torgal, A Fine Hound, etc.

Rares

This is where you can start splashing some real bombs. While splashing removal spells can definitely be correct (either because it’s convenient or sorely needed), splashing game-winning cards tends to be right more often. The key though is to assess which cards cross this threshold, as merely good rares aren’t worth twisting your mana base for. Here are some of the most broken single-pip rares in Final Fantasy that you should consider splashing:

• Dion, Bahamut's Dominant
  • 5/5 flier for , don’t worry about having reliable access to as Bahamut: Warden of Light is purely a bonus.
• Sazh Katzroy
• Esper Origins
  • This is worth the splash only if you can reliably discard it (i.e. Summon: G.F. Ifrit, Laughing Mad)
• Kuja, Genome Sorcerer
• Jenova, Ancient Calamity
  • Jenova is absolutely busted but does have a bit of play to it. You’re mostly looking to pair it with sacrifice outlets like Ahriman. You may also be able to go off with summons, as making one into a mutant and then untapping with it draws you a bunch of cards! You can also make Jenova itself into a game-winning threat by equipping/buffing it, where it just does an Innkeeper's Talent impression rather than sac and draw sequences.
• Seifer Almasy
• The Lunar Whale
• Machinist's Arsenal
  • This only applies if you have a decent number of artifacts, which implies you were probably already white anyways. Golbez, Crystal Collector is one of the few non-white artifact angles, so maybe UB splashes this after you open it?
• Sin, Spira's Punishment
• Squall, SeeD Mercenary

These Through the Ages cards are also worth splashing:

• Winota, Joiner of Forces
• Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
• Kenrith, the Returned King
• Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
• Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Mythics

As with rares, the mythics you’ll want to splash are basically just bombs. The set is surprisingly light on broken mythics, or at least splashable ones. Cards like Nibelheim Aflame and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER would make the list of busted mythics, but they don’t play well on the splash.

• Yuna, Hope of Spira
  • Yuna obviously wants some summons to be good, but it does incredible work even with just common ones like Ifrit and Fat Chocobo. Yuna’s own stat line is also surprisingly solid, as a 3/5 trampling lifelinker can tussle decently. If you splash Yuna, there’s a very high chance you’ll be either RGw or GUw. Note that you can also use discard/surveil effects to set up reanimator lines with this!
• Kefka, Court Mage
  • Kefka is a value machine, even before it flips into its absurdly over-the-top flier mode, Kefka, Ruler of Ruin.
• Absolute Virtue
  • Kill it or you lose!

These bonus sheet cards are also worthwhile:

• Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• Akroma's Will

FCA Review

I wanted to cover every card in the Final Fantasy: Through the Ages bonus sheet. Note that a bonus sheet card only appears in one in every three packs, and uncommons appear far more than mythics. A rare FCA card is rarer than a normal set mythic, so losing to mythic ones will be like a “1 in a 100” draft experience!

Uncommons

These are the most important ones to know as you’ll actually see them in a fair number of drafts.

Squall Leonhart

Danitha Capashen, Paragon plays great with the set’s equipment theme. You’re getting a handy discount and a strong creature to put pants on.

Memories of Nibelheim

The 1/1 drawback is quite annoying, so Stroke of Midnight compares unfavorably to most common removal. I do appreciate how broad it is, but hopefully you can just play Sephiroth's Intervention or Fate of the Sun-Cryst instead. And definitely do not pair this with Cornered by Black Mages!

The Imperial City of Archades

Wall of Omens is an amazing defensive creature that should have been reprinted for Standard. For the low cost of nothing (at least in terms of card economy), you get a creature that blocks almost all early-game creatures. It’s a generally strong card that pairs well with fliers and/or sac effects.

Endwalker

There are some shuffle effects in Final Fantasy, but they’re mostly just landcyclers, which makes Brainstorm feel kind of pointless. It’s never going to be atrocious (as it’s just a cantrip), but don’t expect Legacy-level plays or anything.

Wild Rose Rebellion

Counterspell is unfortunately common enough that you should consider playing around it, at least when you see up. It’s a very good card for you to play, though you’ll want 9+ Islands of course.

Vana’diel Adventurers

Laboratory Maniac at uncommon means you can actually get multiples sometimes, so there could be self-mill decks that try to win with this, Town Greeter, and Fight On!. Most of the self-mill cards are pretty good though, so you likely won’t get enough of them.

Baron Rivalry

Deadly Dispute is among the best Village Rites variants ever printed, and it’s a joy to play with cards like Hecteyes and Black Mage's Rod. It’s a bit deck-specific though, so I wouldn’t take it super highly.

Battle at the Big Bridge

Fatal Push, on the other hand, goes in any deck with Swamps. You can make revolt active with Treasure tokens or sac effects like Ahriman, though you’ll be happy to kill your opponent’s 2-drop with it.

Golbez, Clad in Darkness

Syr Konrad, the Grim was cracked in Throne of Eldraine, and it’s still fairly powerful even by 2025 standards. It’s a bit slow to get going, but you can get a ton of damage with this if it sticks around (and the stat line is also decent for a 5).

Vaan, Aspiring Sky Pirate

Captain Lannery Storm is better than it looks, as haste makes it fairly easy to get two attacks with this. Simply trading it off with another early game creature and getting two Treasures is well above average.

Thrum of the Vestige

Getting blown out by a single is going to feel rough, so watch out with your Blitzball Shots. Lightning Bolt is obviously just premium removal that everyone will want.

A Promise Fulfilled

Light Up the Stage is filthy for 1 mana and rather unimpressive at 3. I really like it with Wizard tokens, so definitely take this one highly if you’re playing Cornered by Black Mages.

Newfound Adventure

Farseek is a great ramp spell that big green decks will want. You won’t get shock lands or anything, but Rampant Growth is still pretty good in the right deck. I’d only avoid this if I had a fairly low curve and just wanted to attack with cheap creatures, as it’s ultimately just another mana source if the game goes long enough.

Vayne Carudas Solidor

You couldn’t tell this from the art, but Vayne is the shady guy behind the chair, not the kid in the middle. Anyways, Fynn, the Fangbearer is a solid defensive creature that will probably never kill anyone in Limited. The threat of it doing so does make your opponent more likely to trade with it though.

Search for the Frozen Esper

I could see getting blown out by Nature's Claim on White Auracite, but feeding your opponent 4 life is a decently big drawback. I’d prefer to play Airship Crash.

Shadowbringers

Most of the best threats in this format are big creatures, so Dovin's Veto doesn’t seem especially good. You can sideboard this one for particular spells, but I wouldn’t want to start it.

Luka Stadium

Adding only colorless makes Strixhaven Stadium worse than Blitzball, which is not a great place to be. The win the game gimmick is cute, but it’s very hard to pull off.

Rares

Hero of Light

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is a great aggressive creature. So long as you are base W and proactive, this is an excellent rate.

Noctis Lucis Caelum

You don’t need to be rainbow for Kenrith, the Returned King to be good, as even just being WU makes this a great mana sink. Consider playing 5-color mana sources like Blitzball and Capital City alongside this for more options though.

Garnet Til Alexandros 17th

Not bomby per say, but there are enough targets that I’d love to start Loran of the Third Path in this format. White Auracite or even job select equipment are common sights that you can blow up with this.

Minwu, Rebellion Strategist

Mangara, the Diplomat is a solid defensive creature that does a good job at slowing games down. It seems like a good inclusion in WU Fliers or any kind of controlling white deck, but it definitely falls short of true bomb status.

Firion, Swordmaster

Sram, Senior Edificer is an incredible card in Final Fantasy, and much better here than it was in Aether Revolt or March of the Machine. Job select is of course the reason why, so take this highly and look to pair it with Dragoon's Lance and White Mage's Staff.

To the Crystal Tower

Cryptic Command is still wildly powerful, though you’ll need a ton of U (10+ Islands) to consistently play it on turn 3. I’d be happy to p1p1 and build around it though, as it’s a truly messed up card.

Edea Kramer

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is a sweet card that can safely eat 3/3s, since it turns off your opponent’s removal/combat trick window. Your opponents countermagic will also be completely dead if you manage to stick it, which is a nice bonus.

Master Xande

Venser, Shaper Savant is a solid utility/value creature that your opponent won’t see coming. I’d happily play it in any blue deck, especially given the surprise factor.

Kefka’s Tower

Bolas's Citadel has a tough mana cost and doesn’t do much the turn you play it, but it can offer runaway card advantage. It also works as a win condition later on, and it could be an interesting top end card for a WB sac deck.

Darkness of Eternity

Dark Ritual could do some pretty obscene things, but it’ll also feel pointless if you flood out or the game goes long. You generally shouldn’t bother, though it’s going to be tempting.

Shantotto’s Coercion

Diabolic Intent is probably playable with a bunch of Hecteyes, job select stuff, and exciting cards to tutor. That doesn’t describe most decks though.

Emet-Selch, Ascian

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth requires a ton of black cards to do much, and it’s a card that’s much more aimed at something like Commander than Limited.

Ardyn Izunia

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is a solid creature with deathtouch, decent stats, and a repeatable tutor. It scales really well with how good your deck is, but I’d always be happy to play it.

Gilgamesh, Weapon Collector

The Godo, Bandit Warlord version of Gilgamesh is much worse than the main set one, and it’s not worth playing.

Dawn, Warriors’ Legacy

Mizzix's Mastery is a cool build-around that can go nuts in the right deck. You’re certainly hoping to cast this for 8, which unleashes a ton of removal/card draw with the right setup. I’d expect it to be solid in UR spells decks.

Princess Sarah

Azusa, Lost but Seeking is a useless card in Limited. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can do landfall shenanigans with this; put it down, and slowly step away from the cardboard.

Fal’Cie Paradise

You can’t main deck this, but wow would getting hosed by this feel absolutely miserable. One up the Cryptic Command guy with your Carpet of Flowers….

Astral Titan

Prime time is thankfully not nearly as busted in Limited, but it’s still pretty great. Landfall is the dream here, but the base stats and card advantage are good enough to play in any green deck. Note that there’s very little of value to tutor up with Primeval Titan (just Adventurer's Inn, Eden, Seat of the Sanctum, and The Gold Saucer).

Benedikta Harman

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker starts tiny, but it can be quite a threat if left unanswered. I don’t really like the gamble here though, as it reminds me of Clinquant Skymage (which was generally mediocre).

Yuffie Kisaragi

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is an exciting card to pair with Dragoon's Wyvern, though it’ll struggle to connect much afterwards. I’d still play it with fliers and such, but I doubt it’s going to be consistently great.

Cecil Harvey

Tymna the Weaver is clearly more aimed at EDH than Limited. It’s kind of like a very bad Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, and not the kind of card you should take highly.

Barnabas Tharmr

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus is a big hasty dragon lookalike that punishes double spelling. I was sold on the 4/4 flying and haste, so definitely take this one highly.

Bartz Klauser

Final Fantasy is a great set for Winota, Joiner of Forces, as you have a ton of humans/non-humans to mix with this. Some of the humans even happen to be fairly exciting to cheat out (i.e., Gladiolus Amicitia).

Hugo Kupka

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder is a giant beating in Limited. It’s impossible to race and puts out a ton of pressure. Definitely pick/splash this one.

Kuja, Mage Manufacturer

Mostly just a 4/5 for tough colors, though I suppose if you have the nut wizard deck, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist could kill pretty fast. It’s not powerful in isolation, but it could be good in a very particular deck.

Lightning, Lone Commando

There aren’t many attack triggers to work with in the set, and Mardu is an awkward color trio as well. I’d be surprised if Isshin, Two Heavens as One ends up good or worth splashing in many decks.

Orphan, Cocoon fal’Cie

Muldrotha, the Gravetide is still a huge beating in Limited. It’s especially good with self-mill and Raise Dead effects to rebuy it like Fight On!, giving you insane long-term card advantage.

Warrior of Light

Jodah, the Unifier is a neat build-around that’s in good company given all the set’s legends. WUBRG is difficult though, and many of the legends are archetype specific rather than generically good cards. While the pieces for this to be powerful are there, it’ll probably fail most of the time in practice.

Crystal of Altar Cave

Chromatic Lantern is largely just a Blitzball, though it’s nice to have utter security for your mana base.

The Strahl

Screw this card. I’ve always hated Smuggler's Copter, as it’s just so blatantly overpowered for 2 mana. A turn-2 Smuggler’s Copter has to be among the worst possible beats in the format. Hopefully Sabin is around to Suplex it….

Giant of Babil

Traxos, Scourge of Kroog is pretty cool and large, and extremely easy to untap in this set between all the sagas, artifacts, and legends. It’s kind of vanilla, but it hits so hard that you should be thrilled to play it.

Balamb Garden

Command Beacon is just Wastes with extra steps.

Mythics

Blessing of the Oracle

Global flying and double strike for is abhorrently broken, so this is an unfortunate case of getting hosted by a Commander card. You won’t play versus Akroma's Will much, but it has to be among the most unpleasant ways to die in Final Fantasy. The second mode can also be a massive blowout on defense if you're behind. Between this, Restoration Magic and Moogles' Valor, white has several ways to really punish you for attacking into open mana. Note that you essentially can’t play around this in isolation, as it’s far too rare to put them on… unless they have one? No, they couldn’t….

Knights of San d’Oria

Compared to Akroma’s Will, Ranger-Captain of Eos is rather tame. It’s still an awesome value creature though, so try to play a couple good ones for it to tutor. Zack Fair is an absolute delight to grab with this.

Stay with Me

Rhystic Study is very bad in Limited! Don’t play it. I also really dislike this iconic moment being used to represent Rhystic Study, as you’d think Yuna was crying because she had to pay the .

Terra Branford

Boy, this card is messed up. Final Fantasy has rather decent artifact support, which means you’re effectively getting a 1/4, a 3+/3+, a mana engine, and a mana sink all for one card. Urza, Lord High Artificer is among the best cards you could open p1p1 in this set, and I truly hope not to play vs one at this Pro Tour!

The Shadow Lord

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor was a pretty strong mythic in The Brothers’ War, and it should play out fairly similar here. It plays best with cheap creatures and fliers, but it’s just a generally high power level card.

The Emperor, Hell Tyrant

Once again, FCA is delivering some obscene mythics. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician has to be among the most broken cards in the set for the WB sac archetype, and it’s also has a fairly high floor in general. Protection from humans is also very relevant, as there are a ton of humans in this set.

Dragon of Mount Gulg

This is a proper bomb/flier, as one hit from it gives you an obscene number of Treasures. It’s also a 6/6 flier at base, which is a very threatening card in Limited. Thankfully Ancient Copper Dragon dies to most removal and takes a long time to deploy.

Cloud Strife

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is pretty mid to be honest. You aren’t WUBRG’ing with it, and a 3/2 that makes a 1/1 on attack isn’t a great rate. Warrior's Sword is cute with it I suppose, but this is one mythic that you shouldn’t fool yourself into picking highly.

Kefka Palazzo

Purphoros, God of the Forge is usually not a very good Limited card. It’s tough to turn on, and it’s also highly synergy dependent if you’re using it as an Impact Tremors. Aerith Rescue Mission to deal 6 is very cute, but suboptimal draws with Purphoros will feel miserable. It’s also obscenely rare so you likely won’t get it in time to build around it.

Zidane Tribal

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer can be extremely groan inducing on turn 1, but surprisingly tame in Limited otherwise. This is because Limited is full of creatures, and the removal that exists tends to be clunky (even good ones like Sephiroth's Intervention cost 4 mana). It’s hard to play Ragavan then just kill everything your opponent plays. It’s still a good card though, and it plays well with evasion-granting equipment like Dragoon's Lance.

The Cloudsea Djinn

EDH players, eat up I guess. You don’t really need triple mana in Limited, though I suppose someone is going to Choco-Comet for X = 21 with Nyxbloom Ancient….

Clive Rosfield

Vial Smasher the Fierce is really damn good, as you’re getting a ton of damage for free each turn. You won’t play against it much, but a turn-3 Vial Smasher is terrifying. Just imagine getting 4 to the face with your Sephiroth's Intervention!

Seymour Guado

Doubling up your Gardeners isn’t terrible, but Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy doesn’t usually do much else. You could also cheat fatties out with it late game, so I suppose I’d probably play this in a UGx Towns/Ramp deck (though it’s not that great).

Tidus, Zanarkand Fayth

Thrasios, Triton Hero is a solid mana sink, but the basic stat line here is pretty lackluster. I’d be down to play it in a rampy GU deck, particularly if I had a lot of other defensive cards and removal so I had time to durdle.

Sephiroth, the Savior

Four colors and 7 mana, but basically “you win the game.” Ideally you’ll get Atraxa, Grand Unifier earlier so you can build around it, as it’s among the best payoffs for UGx Towns.

Wrap Up

Thunder Magic | Illustration by Josephine Chang

And we’re done! Good luck drafting Final Fantasy, and I hope you find this guide plenty helpful.

Which archetypes have you enjoyed drafting? Which ones have you dreaded to see across the table? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

May you open many Akroma's Wills… just don’t cast them vs me please!