The Ultimate Guide to Final Fantasy Sealed

Last updated on June 8, 2025

Absolute Virtue | Illustration by Toni Infante

Greetings planeswalkers! Final Fantasy is the first Standard legal Universes Beyond set, and it also happens to be the best selling set of all time. But how does it actually play in Limited?

Here is my Day 0 guide to the Final Fantasy Sealed format, and I’ll touch on all sorts of important things like mechanics, archetypes, bombs, and more. There should be more than enough information here for you to feel confident at the Final Fantasy Prerelease and first few drafts.

Saddle up on your Chocobo and let’s get moving, for Final Fantasy adventures await!

Mechanics

Cid, Timeless Artificer | Illustration by Jason Kiantoro

Final Fantasy features several new mechanics, plus a couple of returning old ones.

Legendaries

Final Fantasy has an absurd number of legendaries in it! There are actually 99 legendary creatures in the set, which gives it a unique texture for Limited. Expect to occasionally decline on cards you’d otherwise have taken or played to avoid stacking the same legendary. This also means that legendary-matters cards like Clive's Hideaway and Serah Farron are much more practical than they would be in a “normal” Limited set.

Job Select

When an equipment with “job select” enters, you create a 1/1 colorless Hero creature token, then attach that equipment to it. This mechanic is highly reminiscent of for Mirrodin!, which had the token + auto-equip functionality (those tokens were 2/2 red Rebels though).

Job select is a clever way for WotC to fit more equipment into the set. When evaluating cards with this mechanic, treat them like creatures of that cost. White Mage's Staff, for instance, is effectively a 2/2 creature with upside (as you can always move the equipment around later). Extra equipment is also a nice way to power up some artifact payoffs.

Job select appears in every color, though it’s best represented in white and red (which have two commons with the mechanic). Most job select cards range from filler to pretty good, with no major stinkers or absurd bombs (Machinist's Arsenal is the closest to the latter).

Tiered

Tiered is a new “kicker” style mechanic that represents spell levels from the Final Fantasy games. You can cast cards like Fire Magic as one of three different modes, and these cards scale in power with how much mana you spend. Tiered cards have remarkable flexibility, which is a quality that tends to shine in Limited.

There aren’t very many tiered cards in the set though; red has two total, and every other color has just one. You’ll mostly feel the impact of tiered from Thunder Magic, which looks to be one of the set’s best commons.

Saga Creatures (Summons)

Saga creatures are my favorite mechanic from this set, and they’re definitely a challenge to evaluate. While we’ve seen sagas plenty of times now, making them into temporary creatures completely changes how they play. Let’s start with a simple one, Summon: Fenrir.

Turn 1: Summon: Fenrir enters as a 3/2 for , then immediately Rampant Growths you. You’re free to block with it if you’d like next turn, as it should trade with most of the set’s 2- or 3-drop creatures.

Turn 2: Chapter II gives you a small bonus on the next creature spell you play this turn. Fenrir is now free to attack for 3 damage or block for another turn.

Turn 3: Chapter III draws you a card if you can tie with the strongest creature on board (including Fenrir). Afterwards, you sacrifice Fenrir.

If you’re trying to curve out aggressively with summons, prepare to be underwhelmed. Three-chapter summons like this are only good for one attack or two block steps, so most of their value is tied into their abilities. To go back to Fenrir for a second, let’s evaluate the card in terms of card economy:

• Fenrir replaces itself on ETB with a land, putting you at card parity.
• You can get to +1 either by trading off Fenrir or successfully tying in power with Chapter III.
• Your opponent may not want to trade with Fenrir, as it’s going away anyways.
• If that ends up being the case, congratulations; the game has now slowed down for two turns.

Most summons in Final Fantasy have three chapters like Fenrir, so always remember the “2 blocks 1 attack” rule. There are exceptions though, like the three common summons (Summon: Fat Chocobo, Summon: G.F. Ifrit, and Summon: Choco/Mog), which have an extra chapter. Those are safer to treat as actual creatures on your mana curve, whereas cards like Summon: Primal Garuda and Summon: Esper Ramuh are closer to sorceries than creatures.

Summons appear in all colors, but mostly in Naya colors () (which have the only common summons). There are also several rare creatures that can transform into sagas.

One last note: Final Fantasy also includes a couple of legendary creatures that work well with Summons like Rydia, Summoner of Mist and Yuna, Hope of Spira. It’s definitely a subtheme at best, but it’s pretty powerful when you can assemble it.

Transforming Double-Face Cards (TDFCs)

Final Fantasy features 27 different transforming double-faced cards. These will transform after you fulfill some kind of condition on the card, usually either an activated ability (i.e., paying to exile Terra, Magical Adept) or triggered ability (i.e., having six permanents in the yard for Exdeath, Void Warlock at end of turn).

TDFCs appear in all colors, though predominantly in black or multiple colors. There are no common TDFCs, so expect to mostly see them in the form of rares or mythics.

Cycling

Cycling is also back on a handful of commons and uncommons. This hopefully smooths out the Limited environment, and it has two forms:

• Basic landcycling on a cycle of common creatures, one for each color (Cloudbound Moogle, Ice Flan, Malboro, Hill Gigas, Balamb T-Rexaur), and they each grab their corresponding basic.
• General cycling, which appears on Airship Crash, Capital City, and Cid, Timeless Artificer.

Cycling has some synergies in this set with cards that care about the graveyard like Evil Reawakened and Exdeath, Void Warlock, but for the most part it’s rather self-contained.

Adventure Lands

Final Fantasy includes a cycle of rare adventure lands (one for each color). As with previous adventures, you can choose to play these lands for their spell mode to put them into exile, where you can play them for value. While they enter tapped, these are largely pretty solid in Limited, as most mana bases can easily support a couple of taplands. Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis is definitely the best one for Limited, and the runner up is either Midgar, City of Mako or Lindblum, Industrial Regency.

Though value is always tempting, don’t be afraid to play these as simple taplands when your hand needs it

Towns

Final Fantasy also introduces a new land subtype called “town.” There’s nothing intrinsically special about towns, though there are several cards that care about them specifically (which is actually UG’s focus in Draft).

As for towns themselves, Final Fantasy includes 23 in total:

• 10 dual land towns, which work as entry-level Limited fixing. These appear in the land slot of your pack 55% of the time, so you can expect your prerelease pool to have roughly 3.3 dual lands on average.
• Two common towns, which are Radiant Fountain and Uncharted Haven equivalents.
• Three uncommon towns (Capital City, The Gold Saucer, and Eden, Seat of the Sanctum).
• Three rare towns (Starting Town, Clive's Hideaway, and Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy).
• Five adventure lands, which are also towns.

Most decks won’t find themselves concerned with town synergies, though I’d play some dual lands and Capital City in just about any deck.

Archetypes

Source: WotC Final Fantasy Prerelease Guide

Final Fantasy features the standard 10 archetypes we’ve come to know and love, with one for each color pair. Each archetype has a pair of signpost uncommons to encourage players to play/draft them, although a couple of them feel somewhat out of place. These aren’t the strictest archetypes I’ve seen, so think of them more as guidelines than any sort of hard rule.

WU Artifacts

Signpost Uncommons: Cid, Timeless Artificer and Tidus, Blitzball Star

WU clearly cares about artifacts in this set. Playing artifacts pumps up Tidus, Blitzball Star, makes Gaelicat into a formidable threat, or even draws you a ton of cards later with Edgar, King of Figaro. Job select cards are especially valuable in WU because you can fill out your mana curve with equipment artifacts.

In terms of pace, WU looks decidedly midrange. It’s not a passive archetype like UG Towns or a hyper aggressive one, so stick to a solid “good stuff” plan with an eye towards artifact synergies. Fliers like Rook Turret and Gaelicat should prove useful if the format trends towards board stalls.

UB Control

Signpost Uncommons: Locke Cole and Ultimecia, Time Sorceress

UB has one of the softer themes in the set, and it’s a typical control strategy. It gets some value out of its graveyard though, which both Locke Cole and Ultimecia, Time Sorceress do well. You’ll want to focus on bombs, efficient removal spells, and 2-for-1s like Retrieve the Esper and Combat Tutorial, while also maintaining a decent mana curve.

BR Black Mage Aggro

Signpost Uncommons: Black Waltz No. 3 and Garland, Knight of Cornelia

“Black Mage Aggro” is WotC’s title for this one, but I’d classify this as more of a “bleeder” archetype if anything. You aren’t going to come roaring out of the gates, but rather you’re looking to play a ton of removal and win with incremental damage. Cards like Circle of Power and Cornered by Black Mages are the crux of this strategy because you can stack up Wizard tokens and eventually burn your opponent out.

RG Landfall Aggro

Signpost Uncommons: Gladiolus Amicitia and Rydia, Summoner of Mist

Landfall is a classic RG mechanic that’s somewhat well represented in this set. It comes mostly in the form of Chocobos, which are generally 2/2 Bird creature tokens with “Landfall: This creature gets +1/+0.” There are also some great support cards for landfall like Chocobo Kick, Prishe's Wanderings, and Zell Dincht, which can return lands for extra landfall triggers. RG is on the bigger side of aggro, but it definitely punches hard.

GW Go Wide

Signpost Uncommons: Garnet, Princess of Alexandria and Rinoa Heartilly

Going wide is a classic strategy for this color pair, so it’s no surprise to see a repeat performance in Final Fantasy. Go wide is a simple A + B strategy, where you curve out and pair cards like Aerith Rescue Mission and Rinoa Heartilly with Auron's Inspiration for big damage. There aren’t a ton of token generators or Overrun effects though, so I’d expect my GW decks to feel pretty midrangey in most cases. You can also try to incorporate Summon synergies with Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, Summon: Choco/Mog, and Summon: Fat Chocobo, all of which would work fine in a GW go-wide shell.

WB Artifact & Creature Sacrifice

Signpost Uncommons: Judge Magister Gabranth and Rufus Shinra

Sacrifice is another classic mechanic for this color pair. Your goal here is to pair fodder cards like Hecteyes, Undercity Dire Rat, and Instant Ramen (yes that’s a real card) with sacrifice outlets like Vayne's Treachery or Ahriman. Doing so can further pay you off with cards like Judge Magister Gabranth or Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, which care about stuff dying. Note that job select equipment cards are great here, as both the equipment and 1/1 Hero tokens can work as sacrifice fodder.

BW tends to be on the slower side of archetypes, and it generally wants to play a longer game with lots of card advantage and removal spells.

UR Big Noncreatures

Signpost Uncommons: Shantotto, Tactician Magician and The Emperor of Palamecia / The Lord Master of Hell

UR charts “familiar but different” territory in Final Fantasy, with a focus on casting big spells. Many UR cards want you to cast spells that cost 4 or more mana, and 4 is the sweet spot. Note that “mana spent to cast” and “mana value” are different things; Thunder Magic and Dreams of Laguna, for instance, can fulfill UR’s condition despite having respective mana values of 1 and 2.

UR will likely play out like a “tempo” strategy of sorts, neither fully aggro nor fully control. This may vary from build to build, though you’ll need some help from blue to answer large creatures like Balamb T-Rexaur.

BG Graveyard Value

Signpost Uncommons: Cloud of Darkness and Exdeath, Void Warlock

BG is a straightforward midrange strategy that gets extra value from filling up its graveyard. Doing so powers up cards like Cloud of Darkness, Gran Pulse Ochu, and Diamond Weapon. To aid you in this endeavor, Final Fantasy includes some decent self-mill creatures like Town Greeter and Shinra Reinforcements, which are both good in this archetype.

Another cool thing about BG in Final Fantasy is that it actually has an uncommon meld pair, which no other color combination has. If you’re lucky enough to open both Vanille, Cheerful l'Cie and Fang, Fearless l'Cie and get them into play, you may be able to meld them into Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance! They’re also both pretty solid cards in general, so don’t be afraid to play them alone.

RW Equipment Aggro

Signpost Uncommons: Giott, King of the Dwarves and Zidane, Tantalus Thief

RW is a classic aggressive archetype that wants to attack early and often, as in most formats. It has a particular focus on equipment, which once again makes job select cards great here. Stacking up equipment can power up various cards like Adelbert Steiner, Giott, King of the Dwarves, and Slash of Light. All the different equipment in this set gives RW a bit of flood insurance, as you’ll at least have something to do late game.

GU Town Ramp

Signpost Uncommons: Ignis Scientia and Omega, Heartless Evolution

GU wants to take you on an all expenses paid trip to Durdle Town. If things go according to plan, you’ll draw cards, play some lands, draw some more cards, and play some more lands. If you play some extra colors and cool, splashy cards alongside those lands, that’s even better. You may want to win the game eventually, though there’s never any rush in Durdle Town.

As you might have surmised, this is all a colorful way of saying that GU is a very passive archetype. Cards like Qiqirn Merchant and Travel the Overworld excel in a more defensive strategy, so try to strike a balance of bomb rares, removal, blockers, card draw, and towns.

Set Architecture

Themes and Archetype Overlap

Final Fantasy’s archetypes are hardly monolithic, and they overlap in a number of ways. These are the kinds of small things to look for in drafting and deckbuilding to maximize your cards:

• WU, WB, and RW all have their own reasons to want job select equipment cards, so something like Dragoon's Lance is pretty desirable in all three.
• UB and BG both play well with graveyards, and GU is also value oriented. You could try to use Town Greeter and dual lands to play all three colors, reaping the best cards and synergies from each.
• The Wizard tokens that I associated with BR can make great sacrifice fodder, especially with Vayne's Treachery.
• Cards like Dreams of Laguna can work with multiple archetypes at once; it’s value + graveyard synergy for UB, has a 4-cost flashback for UR, and value for GU.

Final Fantasy: Through the Ages (Bonus Sheet)

Source: Collecting Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy also includes a bonus sheet called Final Fantasy: Through the Ages, which functions as a collection of desirable reprints with classic Final Fantasy arts. Unlike past sets like Wilds of Eldraine, these reprints don’t share any particular theme or card type, and they seem to have been selected largely for their appeal in EDH. Only one in three packs has a bonus sheet card, so don’t expect to see rare/mythic ones very often. I’ll include a full review for each card in my Final Fantasy Draft guide, but for now know that they probably won’t come up much at your prerelease.

Gameplay Specifics

It’s hard to give a perfect picture of how the set will play day 0, but I can at least try to make some predictions.

Format Pace

I’d be surprised if Final Fantasy was an especially fast set. Job select creatures will often trade with other job select cards, and Summons may also gum up the board. The common creatures in this set are largely toughness-slanted (i.e., Shinra Reinforcements, Qiqirn Merchant, and Scorpion Sentinel) too. None of the common 2-drops attack especially well into these, though decks like RW might be able to punch a hole with pump spells like You're Not Alone and Haste Magic.

Final Fantasy has a ton of expensive cards in it, like Iron Giant, The Crystal's Chosen, Coliseum Behemoth, and Ardyn, the Usurper. This is in addition to expensive activated abilities on Qiqirn Merchant, Crystal Fragments, Gran Pulse Ochu, Ride the Shoopuf, and several rares. There are also extra mana sources in commons like White Auracite, Namazu Trader, and Goobbue Gardener, suggesting that WotC really wants you to cast some clunkers.

Common Removal Spells

White

Slash of Light (mediocre)

White’s first common removal spell is rather conditional, though job select equipment works nicely with it. I’d expect Slash of Light to be good only in specific decks, as there’s a real risk that this won’t kill what you need it to. It seems best in RW, which has lots of equipment and wants efficient ways to remove blockers.

White Auracite (great)

White Auracite is an unusual Stormplain Detainment variant, as it’s more expensive but also acts as a mana rock. It’s also an artifact, rather than an enchantment. Timing this one is tricky, as there’s definitely some tension with when you should play it (earlier is better for the mana rock aspect, but it could lead to you answering irrelevant threats).

If White Auracite sticks around, it’s effectively a 2-for-1 since it works as both a land and removal spell! That makes it a rather powerful common, and it also increases the utility of artifact removal like Suplex and Airship Crash.

Fate of the Sun-Cryst (decent)

Fate of the Sun-Cryst is white’s final removal spell, and it’s reminiscent of a card like Seized from Slumber. Sun-Cryst is pricier but more flexible, as this destroys nonland permanents rather than creatures. The tap mode discount makes this reasonably efficient when under pressure, so I’d expect this to be fairly solid removal for more controlling decks.

Blue

Ice Magic (decent)

Ice Magic is basically Unsummon, Griptide, and a weird 8-mana removal spell all at once. You’ll usually play this for 2 or 4 mana, both of which are pretty solid modes. Blizzaga mostly just offers a way to trigger Tellah, Great Sage or Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus.

Stuck in Summoner’s Sanctum (decent)

Stuck in Summoner's Sanctum is a fairly-costed answer to big vanilla creatures and some artifacts, though it doesn’t remove abilities like Tamiyo's Compleation did. It still reliably answers many rares in Final Fantasy, while it misses particular blind spots like Traveling Chocobo, Kuja, Genome Sorcerer, and Tellah, Great Sage.

Syncopate(decent)

I’m never sure whether to list counterspells as “removal” or not, but either way, Syncopate is the only common counterspell in this set. You can certainly play around it if you’re aware of it, though that won’t always be realistic to do with expensive cards. Try to pair it with other instants like Dreams of Laguna to keep your opponent guessing.

It’s also neat that you can trigger UR’s 4+ theme with this, which wouldn’t be the case with your average Quench variant.

Black

Cornered by Black Mages (mediocre)

This is a tricky card to evaluate that will likely have some variance to it. When Cornered by Black Mages works, you get to kill your opponent’s 3- or 4-drop and net something extra. When it doesn’t, this trades with an irrelevant Hero token while it makes a 0/1 body. The key is to have tons of other removal to pair with this, especially cheap removal like Fire Magic and Thunder Magic. You’ll also want to be heavily black for this, as missing an edict window on curve can be a disaster.

Sephiroth’s Intervention (great)

Four mana is a fair price to kill just about anything, and the 2 life is a welcome bonus. Sephiroth's Intervention and Fate of the Sun-Cryst are the most likely common removal spells that players will splash.

Vayne’s Treachery (great)

Vayne's Treachery is also strong, though you’ll need some help from your deck to kill large creatures with it. Fodder creatures, Treasure tokens, and Food tokens are easy pairings for this, though you can also just use a chump blocker in a pinch. Either way, it’s useful early on and it scales, so it should be excellent just like Final Flourish was.

Red

Blazing Bomb (mediocre)

Blazing Bomb is an unusual removal spell that’s tied to a 1-drop creature at sorcery speed. UR is the main deck that wants it, as you could realistically grow this a couple of times and then trade it for something better. It’s a poor topdeck though, so I don’t expect to be thrilled by it.

Light of Judgment (mediocre)

Even in a slower set like Final Fantasy, you can only play so many cards like Light of Judgment. Five mana to answer one creature just isn’t very efficient, and the equipment destruction upside is tied to this evaluation as well. The first copy is still probably better than this effect usually is, but don’t prioritize it.

Suplex (great)

Three damage for 2 mana is a strong rate, and Suplex also exiles and acts as a Shatter if needed. These upsides are more than enough to justify the sorcery speed, so expect to take this early and often.

Thunder Magic (best)

Thunder Magic is my pick for the best common removal spell. It efficiently kills any small creature, and you can also scale it to deal 4 damage for just 4 mana. Going by common creatures, this is enough to remove everything except for Balamb T-Rexaur, Iron Giant, and a Gigantoad with 7+ lands out.

But wait… there’s more! It can even answer those for 7 mana, which makes this supremely efficient and flexible. Thundara is also perfect to trigger UR’s 4+ theme, and this is another spell you can hold up while you threaten to flashback Dreams of Laguna.

Green

Airship Crash (decent)

Broken Wings has cycling now apparently, so I’m definitely on board (pun intended) with the first copy of Airship Crash. I also wouldn’t hate to play a second, and I’ll certainly look to board more if I have them. They’ll generally be strongest vs. white and blue decks thanks to fliers and White Auracite.

Chocobo Kick (great)

Chocobo Kick has a nice Rabid Bite baseline with powerful upside for landfall decks. RG will want many copies, though it’s pretty good in just about any green deck (assuming you have some bite-worthy creatures).

Splashing in Final Fantasy

Splashing looks fairly easy to do in Final Fantasy, so I’d expect to see decks that are two colors + a splash somewhat frequently. This is still mostly a 2-color set though, so don’t expect to draft many “5-color piles” like in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Most of the fixing in this set is tied to green or lands, so any rainbow builds should be base-green.

Common Nonlands

Namazu Trader

Namazu Trader is primarily a filler creature for sacrifice decks, but it can also work to splash powerful expensive rares.

Undercity Dire Rat

Undercity Dire Rat also works in sacrifice decks and helps you to splash, but it’s less reliable because the Treasure token is tied to this rat’s death.

Commune with Beavers

Commune with Beavers is soft fixing at best, but it still helps to increase the consistency of your 3-color base green decks.

Prishe’s Wanderings

Prishe's Wanderings can fetch the common town dual lands, which potentially enables some very greedy splashes. It’s also a mediocre combat trick in a pinch, though 3 mana makes Wanderings rather clunky.

Town Greeter

Town Greeter is excellent with graveyard synergies, but it also happens to be another way for base green decks to get greedier.

Blitzball

This is your standard issue “Manalith with upside” that we see in so many sets these days. The upside is very flavorful, but not especially good, so you’ll mostly play Blitzball if you need a Manalith.

Magic Pot

It’s an insult to other Final Fantasy cards to call Magic Pot “fixing,” though I suppose it technically counts.

World Map

World Map, on the other hand, is totally reasonable. You’ll mostly grab basics with this, though tutoring Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis for value is definitely on my to-do list for this format.

Common Lands

10 Town Dual Lands

Yep, these are dual lands alright.

Crossroads Village

Uncharted Haven cards aren’t technically a dual land, but they generally play like one. Crossroads Village is decent fixing that can go in any deck.

Adventurer’s Inn

Adventurer's Inn is what we call anti-fixing. You’re risking getting color screwed for the town subtype and that sweet, sweet 2 life. It’s correct to play it sometimes (usually with town synergies), but losses to this kind of thing are just the worst feeling in Magic.

Top Commons

I also always like to try and guess the top three commons for each color. I was planning to do four for each color, but three is fine for now. You can compare this directly to Draftsim's best commons/uncommons list for Final Fantasy and see how the Limited specialists' thoughts line up.

White

1. White Auracite

I could be wrong about this one, but the 2-for-1 potential and decent rate here have me mighty tempted. So long as your opponent doesn’t remove White Auracite, you’re getting a great deal, and even that will happen on a 1-for-1 basis. The main question is what to do with the extra mana.

2. White Mage’s Staff

White Mage's Staff looks great to me, as it’s a bear baseline with multiple upsides, plus synergy with three archetypes. It even turns on a handful of lifegain payoffs like Minwu, White Mage and Aerith Gainsborough.

3. Weapons Vendor

Weapons Vendor has admittedly poor stats for its cost, but it replaces itself and saves a ton of mana long term. Strong job select cards like Dragoon's Lance and Samurai's Katana have steep equip costs, which you can offset with this.

Blue

1. Dragoon’s Wyvern

There are only four commons that can effectively block this (Bard's Bow, Gaelicat, Rook Turret, and Cloudbound Moogle). Dragoon's Wyvern also comes with a free 1/1, so this should be very good even if it falls a little short of Preening Champion (which was one of the best commons in years).

2. Dreams of Laguna

Dreams of Laguna seems like an awesome smoothing/value spell for any blue deck, and it’s even a 4+ trigger for UR. Think Twice was great in Foundations, and Final Fantasy looks like it could be even slower than Foundations.

3. Rook Turret

Rook Turret is even harder to block effectively than Dragoon's Wyvern, and offers valuable card selection in addition to a Phantom Monster rate. You do need artifacts for that, but either way the stat line looks good for this format.

Black

1. Sephiroth’s Intervention

Whether Sephiroth's Intervention or Vayne's Treachery is better will depend on if I’m right about the format’s speed. Both should be good either way, but it’s a close struggle like Stab vs. Bake into a Pie was.

2. Vayne’s Treachery

Vayne's Treachery will be good, no matter what. You can take out most creatures in the set if you kick it, and there’s plenty of sacrifice fodder to do so.

3. Ahriman

Ahriman dies to lots of things, but it’s pretty rewarding if it sticks. It pecks decently well, lets you draw cards off chump blockers and Treasures, and even trades with Balamb T-Rexaur.

Red

1. Thunder Magic

Yeah, Thunder Magic is dope.

2. Suplex

Did you see the art on Suplex? He’s literally suplexing a train!

3. Sabotender

Moving Spitfire Lagac’s trigger to a 2-drop is interesting, and it could make for a pretty solid common. Sabotender attacks a little early, then it stacks up incremental damage as the game goes on. You’ll also have the option to trade it for fliers like Dragoon's Wyvern and Ahriman.

Green

1. Balamb T-Rexaur

You may have noticed how many times I’ve mentioned Balamb T-Rexaur. That was my attempt to instill in your subconscious how utterly ridiculous this common is. The last thing Ravenous Lindwurm needed was trample + cycling, so this dinosaur absolutely mogs all the other (comparatively) tiny common cyclers. We may have another Aetherdrift on our hands….

2. Chocobo Kick

Rabid Bites with upside like Chocobo Kick are great. Just beware of instants!

3. Goobbue Gardener

There should be enough to do with your mana for Goobbue Gardener to be pretty useful. It also blocks just about all common 2-drops, including several of the job select ones that I otherwise like.

Best Uncommons

Rather than going by color, here I’ll just give a list of 10 mono-colored uncommons that seem clearly strong (ordering is by power level, but even the 10th is still great).

1. Choco-Comet

“Fried chicken” is an easy pick for the mythic uncommon of Final Fantasy. Choco-Comet is good at just about every point in the game, though thankfully your opponent can’t splash it easily.

2. Travel the Overworld

Yes, you read “draw 4 cards” right. It’s not hard to make Travel the Overworld into Tidings, and the potential for it to be better than that is frankly ridiculous.

3. Samurai’s Katana

Brazen Scourge base rate with an easier cost and substantial upside makes Samurai's Katana one of the best uncommons in the set.

4. Overkill

The flavor here is dope, though in practice Overkill is mostly just an easier to cast Murder in Limited. That’s still good though, and it can also occasionally answer something like Summon: Knights of Round.

5. Summon: Anima

Summon: Anima is slow and painful, but it also represents a potential 4-for-1 over the course of a long game. This is the kind of card worth building a control deck around in Limited.

6. Diamond Weapon

Diamond Weapon is utterly massive, impossible to kill in combat, and easy to discount with simple cards like Town Greeter. Casting The Abyss for is definitely a worthwhile endeavor in Limited.

7. Fire Magic

Fire Magic is an unusually good instant sweeper effect at uncommon. It’s realistic to get to Firaga in Limited, though you’ll often find yourself using Fira as well. Try to build your deck with x/3s and x/4s to make this potentially one-sided.

8. Rydia’s Return

Rydia's Return has an Overrun rate (albeit with no trample), and it even acts as a double Nature's Spiral when that isn’t good enough. It won’t usually catch you up when you’re behind, but it looks strong at parity and deadly when you’re ahead.

9. Il Mheg Pixie

Il Mheg Pixie is a great way to get off to a head start, with legitimate beats plus card selection starting on the second turn.

10. Crystal Fragments / Summon: Alexander

Short Sword with tremendous late game upside is an interesting design. Crystal Fragments is a cheap aggressive card that can transform into a genuine win condition if the game goes long enough.

Good Rares

Bomb rares are a Sealed staple, and Final Fantasy certainly has its fair share of those. I’m not sure if there will be any Jeskai Revelation rares in this set, but there’s only one way to find out….

Mythics

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary isn’t technically a bomb, but all the common equipment makes it very easy for this to be an efficient 2-for-1. The main gripe is the cost, so you’ll want 9+ Plains ideally.

Summon: Knights of Round

Summon: Knights of Round, on the other hand, is an utterly ridiculous bomb. This is fairly close to “: You win the game,” and it’s definitely worth building around if you open it.

Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant / Ifrit, Warden of Inferno

Clive, Ifrit's Dominant is super messed up in Limited. Even with minimal devotion to red, you should be near empty-handed by the time you play this, netting an easy +3-4 cards with your 5/5. As if that weren’t enough, Clive can then flip into Ifrit, Warden of Inferno and become a 9/9 creature that instantly fights something. Eventually, it flips back into Clive again and you draw more cards and… wait am I still typing this?

Nibelheim Aflame

Nibelheim Aflame is a cheaper Chandra's Ignition with incredible late game upside. It’s almost like a ticking time bomb of sorts in a long game, as you’ll slowly progress towards four cards and another board clear after the first one. Nibelheim Aflame is vulnerable to bounce and instant speed removal, but definitely worth the risk.

Ancient Adamantoise

If you can get to 8 mana and play Ancient Adamantoise, you will be incredibly well-protected. White and black decks can at least remove this, while RG decks are almost comically out of luck (deathtoucher + Chocobo Kick maybe?). It also should be able to win you the game by crunching in for 8 over and over.

Traveling Chocobo

Traveling Chocobo is fragile, but it offers strong card advantage that scales with the number of birds in your deck. You’ll also get double landfall triggers on everything.

Absolute Virtue

For whatever reason, Final Fantasy includes three 8-drop mythics that are all pretty nasty in Limited. Absolute Virtue is pretty simple to play against; either you answer it (and the game continues), or you lose the game. This and Ancient Adamantoise are definitely build-arounds, as the average deck may struggle to get to 8 mana consistently.

Emet-Selch, Unsundered / Hades, Sorcerer of Eld

Emet-Selch, Unsundered has solid base stats and an incredibly powerful backside for long games. Shinra Reinforcements, removal spells, and repeated attacks can eventually get you there, but this is mostly good because of how reliable it is.

Lightning, Army of One

Lightning, Army of One dies to a lot of things, but when it doesn’t, your opponent is in serious trouble. It also has an incredible base rate thanks to its 3 power and three relevant keywords.

Kefka, Court Mage / Kefka, Ruler of Ruin

You’ll need to splash for this one, but Kefka, Court Mage is really good. You’ll usually be at least +1 from the trigger, and it even happens on attack as well. Kefka can also flip into an obscenely powerful flier that draws a million cards, so all in all this is a clear bomb.

Buster Sword

This is a busted rare that goes in just about any deck. If your opponent can’t answer your Buster Sword (or every relevant creature you play), you’ll eventually connect and start a vicious snowball.

Summon: Bahamut

We already had three 8-mana mythics, which Summon: Bahamut seems to have taken as a challenge. Nine is even more ridiculously expensive than 8, but this is another “you win the game” effect if you can afford it. It’s also possible to reanimate this with Evil Reawakened or Yuna, Hope of Spira.

Rares

Dion, Bahamut’s Dominant / Bahamut, Warden of Light

Dion, Bahamut's Dominant is effectively a 5/5 flier for with upside. Do I even need to say anything else? Pick it, play it, splash it, just don’t pass it.

Machinist’s Arsenal

Machinist's Arsenal requires a bit of building around, but it takes just one or two other artifacts for it to be good. The initial Hero token will often be a 5/5, and any future threats could be even larger.

Moogles’ Valor

Woo boy this card is a blowout. You do have to run into it, but suffice to say that “five open white mana” is going to be terrifying in this format. Moogles' Valor is best on defense in a blowout scenario, but it’s still a powerful go-wide card even if your opponent knows about it.

Ultima

Ultima is an incredible reset button that can trump most of Final Fantasy’s busted rares. It even clears all equipment/artifacts in addition to creatures. The “end the turn” line also stops “dies” triggers.

Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn / Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal

There are 99 legends in this set, so Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn is in very good company. The raw card advantage here would already be bomb status, but you could get an amazing backside later plus an Unmake.

Astrologian’s Planisphere

Deeproot Champion base rate with a free equipment to move around makes Astrologian's Planisphere a strong rare. You’ll want to have a good spell count for this, but that’s not a huge ask in UR or UB.

Edgar, King of Figaro

Drawing 2-3 cards is perfectly realistic with Edgar, King of Figaro, so it’s an amazing rare for Limited. The coin flip mode was almost flavor text, but The Gold Saucer means you’ll occasionally get some cheeky upside.

Jill, Shiva’s Dominant / Shiva, Warden of Ice

Exclusion Mage baseline + a powerful flip mode make Jill, Shiva's Dominant a great card for any deck. It’s not an uber bomb like some of the others, but it’s still a clear P1P1 level card.

Memories Returning

This is a draw spell that gives you the 1st, 3rd, and 5th best cards from the top five cards of your deck. That’s about as good as a Concentrate, so Memories Returning is a nice value spell. The flashback mode is comically expensive though, so I wouldn’t count on it much.

Summon: Leviathan

Summon: Leviathan is a strong tempo play that should be good for one attack, which will draw you a card to replace it. You can try to make this somewhat one-sided with Sahagin or Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus, but it looks solid in any deck.

The Lunar Whale

The Lunar Whale has excellent stats and a cheap crew cost, and it works as a Future Sight if you attack with it. It’s also incredibly splashable too, and it’s easily blue’s best rare.

Ardyn, the Usurper

This is the fifth 8+ MV creature I’ve covered so far, which is pretty absurd. Ardyn, the Usurper is definitely powerful though, and it can easily run away with the game if it sticks. You obviously can’t play all 8s or anything, but beware of dragging out games if you don’t have them.

Cecil, Dark Knight / Cecil, Redeemed Paladin

Cecil, Dark Knight is an incredibly efficient creature for just 1 mana, and it flips into an even more efficient lifelinker after you’ve taken enough damage. It seems like a skill-testing card to play with, as attacking, blocking, and simply not attacking can all be correct lines. Either way, the rate is just so good that you should be happy to play it.

Jecht, Reluctant Guardian / Braska’s Final Aeon

Jecht, Reluctant Guardian’s transformed state is dangerous, as Braska's Final Aeon represents a potential 6-for-1 that’s also good for a 7 damage swing. While your opponent may remove this, the upside is just so high (even if the base stats are mediocre). Jecht also pairs well with cards that can jump over blockers like Dragoon's Lance and Summon: Primal Garuda.

Ninja’s Blades

The ninja that this makes will have some trouble connecting on its own, so try to pair this with fliers if you can. Either way, Ninja's Blades is a solid deal with a large payout when it connects, so it should be a good rare in Limited.

Summon: Primal Odin

Six mana is a totally fair rate to pay for a big Nekrataal in Limited, and Summon: Primal Odin also has two other interesting chapters. You can combo Chapter II with flying granters for an instant win, or just ride it out to Chapter III to collect your 3-for-1. It’s all upside with Primal Odin, and 6 mana even feels “cheap” compared to some of these other cards.

The Darkness Crystal

Most of the Crystals seem a little underwhelming for Limited play, but The Darkness Crystal might be an exception. Passively gaining life from trades and removal could buy you time to use The Crystal’s powerful exile mode, giving you powerful inevitability.

Vincent Valentine / Galian Beast

Though it starts tiny, Vincent Valentine can be devastating when you combine it with removal spells like Sephiroth's Intervention. Two notes with this one: First, it keeps the counters when it flips because it’s never exiled. Second, this card is pretty bad with Vayne's Treachery, as -X/-X effects reduce the number of counters it gains.

Zenos yae Galvus / Shinryu, Transcendent Rival

Mass -2/-2 is a powerful effect in Limited, as we saw from The Big Score’s Harvester of Misery in OTJ Limited. Zenos yae Galvus’s dragon flip mode is also fairly easy to pull off, as you’ll just need a Sephiroth's Intervention for its so-called “friend.”

Seifer Almasy

Rafiq-style double strike is a great start, but Seifer Almasy has plenty more to offer. If it connects with your opponent, you can play up to two free spells from your graveyard, and it even has solid base stats to boot. This is easily red’s best rare.

Zell Dincht

Even without landfall synergies, the extra land playing velocity should make Zell Dincht a 3/3 at minimum. Those aren’t too hard to come by either, so expect Zell to excel in your GR decks and be fine otherwise.

Bartz and Boko

Birdtongue… Kavu? Does that make any sense? Either way, if you can field some extra Chocobos for Bartz and Boko, the rate here is pretty impressive. Just be sure to leave it at home if you’re lacking feathery friends.

Esper Origins / Summon: Esper Maduin

Esper Origins is really good to discard or mill, and it can make an awesome value play with cards like Town Greeter and Laughing Mad. It’s also solid just to cast it and then flash it back, though I’d definitely try to include ways to 2-for-1 with it.

Sazh Katzroy

Sazh Katzroy is a guaranteed 2-for-1 that attacks as a 5/5 the turn after you play it. It’s easily one of the best non-mythics in the set, provided you can play 2-3 birds for it to tutor.

Summon: Titan

Summon: Titan is a huge body that ramps you a bunch, crunches in for 7, and then boosts another creature for a potentially game-winning swing on the way out. That’s a great deal for , and a card well worth P1P1’ing.

The Earth Crystal

Easily the best of the Crystal cycle. While you’ll need some time to develop The Earth Crystal, the ability to Strength of the Pack two creatures over and over makes board stalls unlosable. It also gets even better with Sazh's Chocobo and other +1/+1 counter cards.

Kuja, Genome Sorcerer / Trance Kuja, Fate Defied

Kuja, Genome Sorcerer is another clear bomb rare, especially if you have other Wizard generators. It’s a decently statted value creature that turns into an 8/6 win condition once it flips into Trance Kuja, Fate Defied. Definitely play/splash this one if you can.

Squall, SeeD Mercenary

Squall, SeeD Mercenary is very similar to Seifer (his rival from Final Fantasy VIII), and this card is just as bomby. It plays well with WB’s larger sacrifice theme, but it hardly needs any support to be great.

Tellah, Great Sage

This fragile old man is a really powerful spells payoff, and it’s definitely a kill-on-sight level rare. You’ll mostly just hope to chain 4s with Tellah, Great Sage, but the character’s iconic Meteor moment may also come up.

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant / Phoenix, Warden of Fire

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant’s base stats are quite generous for a creature with free rummaging, and it also has a powerful flipside if it sticks around. Joshua’s card isn’t quite as broken as his brother Clive’s card, but it’s definitely one of the set’s best rares.

Choco, Seeker of Paradise

Even with zero other birds, Choco, Seeker of Paradise is still effectively a 4/5 that draws a card when it attacks. While it’s in awkward colors (Chocobos are mostly RG but this is Bant ()), I’d still be happy to splash this if my mana could support it.

Sin, Spira’s Punishment

Sin, Spira's Punishment is a very powerful late game card that can randomly get back a permanent when it enters/attacks. You’ll need to be controlling to play this, but that overlaps well with all three of the 2-color decks it encompasses.

The Regalia

The Regalia is quite efficient for its cost as an easy-to-crew haste beater that nets you a free land each time it attacks. It’s also colorless, so it’ll be great in just about any deck.

Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis

All the adventure lands are decent, but Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis is the only one I’d be excited to play. It’s a tapped Forest when you’re light on lands, and a 7/7 or bigger creature (plus a land) when you’re flooded.

Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy / Balamb Garden, Airborne

Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy is a strange but powerful creature land that flips into an excellent vehicle. It’s a good payoff for the Towns subtheme as you can deploy this much earlier in the right deck. Even with minimal towns, I’d always play this in the right colors since it’s a Guadosalam, Farplane Gateway baseline.

Bad Rares

Aettir and Priwen

I don’t care how many times I’ve called this format slow, it’s probably not “pay 6 and then pay 5 for an uncertain boost” levels of slow!

From Father to Son

“Son, I want you to have this useless bulk rare. It used to rot in my trade binder when I was your age, so take good care of it.”

The Water Crystal

The Water Crystal wouldn’t be my first choice for a win condition, but hey, if the format is actually slow enough you could maybe attempt it. There’s no other mill support though (just Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital and Hope Estheim), and it’s absurdly slow to activate. You’ll need an average of about three to four activations to kill with this, so be warned.

Zodiark, Umbral God

Zodiark, Umbral God is only bad because it costs , so by all means slam this if you can somehow draft mono-black. For 99% of decks though, Zodiark is 100% unplayable.

The Fire Crystal

The Fire Crystal has some powerful abilities, but it’s hard to take turn 4 off for such an unreliable effect. The repeated Heat Shimmer mode is also very expensive, and it’s only good with specific creatures with enters abilities or huge threats.

Triple Triad

Triple Triad is a super durdly card with a high failure rate and a tough mana cost. It could theoretically win a long game, but it’ll never do so consistently and it does nothing the turn you play it.

A Realm Reborn

If you can somehow field a ton of Foods and Treasures, maybe A Realm Reborn could do something. It’s weird to spend 6 mana for more mana in Limited, and unlikely to be any good.

Hope Estheim

WU Bishop's Soldier isn’t a terrible rate, but I wouldn’t expect to mill anyone out with Hope Estheim. It’s colorful filler that will occasionally hurt you vs. graveyard decks.

Golbez, Crystal Collector

Golbez, Crystal Collector is probably the best rare on this list, but it functions more like a glorified Contraband Kingpin than anything bomby. I’ll be curious if four or more artifacts feel practical, as UB has some ways to pull it off (mostly Treasure and blue artifacts).

Excalibur II

You’ll need a ton of lifegain support for Excalibur II to be good, as it does absolutely nothing without it (unlike Minwu, White Mage or Aerith Gainsborough). It could be strong in the right deck, but I’d want like 4+ White Mage's Staffs + several other enablers.

Genji Glove

No stats is a tough sell on a 5/3 equipment like this, so everything about Genji Glove screams “win more” and “Commander card” to me.

The Masamune

The Masamune is great with Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER and deathtouch creatures (especially Gran Pulse Ochu), but otherwise it seems like a tough sell.

Building Your Pool

The only thing left to do now is to build your pool. Here’s a summary of how to do that with our “Seven Steps for Sealed Success,” which is a good blueprint for how the process can play out.

Seven Steps for Sealed Success

1. Open your boosters and sort your cards by rarity and color. Note any bombs or exceptional cards.
2. Set unplayable cards aside (mostly trash rares, Stolen Uniform, Elixir), then assess which of your colors are deepest. I’m mostly looking for the best commons/uncommons here, with particular importance given to efficient removal, Balamb T-Rexaur, or anything else that’s clearly above average.
3. Start to lay out builds, and try to include your best cards. Final Fantasy is mostly a 2-color set, so you’ll usually be either two colors or two colors with a splash.
4. Consider colorless costs and whether splashing makes sense for your Limited pool. The best cards to splash are single pip removal and busted rares. Some cards you might want to splash are Sephiroth's Intervention, Kefka, Court Mage, Machinist's Arsenal, and Seifer Almasy.
5. Keep working on your deck, and aim for a good balance of bombs, removal, card advantage, and mana curve. If you’re worried about build time (which is usually about 50 minutes), you can mitigate time anxieties by having a baseline done early (i.e., “I know I’m playing UB because I have Edgar, Sephiroth, Odin, and Ultimecia, Time Sorceress, but should I splash red for anything?”).
6. Settle on a final product, then battle it out! Feel free to change your deck between rounds to fix errors and/or try new things. Prereleases are a great place to learn a new set in a relaxed environment, so don’t feel like you need to do everything perfectly immediately.
7. And lastly, don’t forget that you can use Draftsim's Sealed pool generator to practice the set before attending your prerelease!

Wrap Up

Nibelheim Aflame | Illustration by Arou

Whew! And with that, we have reached the end of our first installment of Final Fantasy Limited. While this guide won’t have 15 sequels like the franchise does, you can expect another Draft guide in two weeks.

Which archetype are you hoping to build from your Sealed pool? Which cards do you think will perform well in this format? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until then, good luck, and have fun at the prerelease this weekend!