Rabanastre, Royal City | Illustration by Shahab Alizadeh
The Final Fantasy set has unleashed a slew of powerful, interesting commanders that have received plenty of attention, but those are far from the only cards introduced in the set. It has tons of interesting lands with powerful abilities.
Lands are the lifeblood of Magic, and they often see play long after the spells from a given set become obsolete. How has Final Fantasy contributed to your mana base, and which are the best cards to pick out? Let’s find out!
Final Fantasy Basic Lands
Treno, Dark City | Illustration by Jonas De Ro
Let’s start by considering the full slate of full-art basic lands, including a Wastes, which I didn’t expect but makes perfect sense so that even the Eldrazi players can trick their deck out with FIN flavor. It also makes an even 16 basics total, one for each numbered game in the franchise.
The art on all of these is stunning. I’m a little confused about the goliath crystals in one of the Plains, but I assume it’s a game reference that went over my head. A historical flaw of Wizards’ full-art basics is a lack of differentiation between the colors, but these thankfully avoided that.
I especially like the Swamp with the dragon carcass, and the Wastes. The dragon carcess in the Swamp adds so much flavor and texture to what would have otherwise been a dark rock, and it oozes atmosphere. I don’t care about the Final Fantasy property myself, but I might need to pick up some of these…. As for the Wastes, this is notable as one of the few non-Eldrazi flavored versions of the card, outside of some Secret Lair products. It perfectly captures the eerie sense of desolation and loneliness without relying on the scars left behind by Kozilek and Ulamog.
2-Color Town Cycle
- Baron, Airship Kingdom
- Gohn, Town of Ruin
- Gongaga, Reactor Town
- Guadosalam, Farplane Gateway
- Insomnia, Crown City
- Rabanastre, Royal City
- Sharlayan, Nation of Scholars
- Treno, Dark City
- Vector, Imperial Capital
- Windurst, Federation Center
Final Fantasy includes a cycle of tapped dual lands with the town subtype. These are totally fine if you care about towns; without that synergy, they’re probably worse than a tapped dual with subtypes, like the ones from Dominaria United, or duals like the gain lands that do something. They also have plenty of flavor should you want to slip them into your Commander deck.
Adventure Lands
- Ishgard, the Holy See
- Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital
- Lindblum, Industrial Regency
- Midgar, City of Mako
- Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis
The adventure lands are far more exciting than the towns. These are an intriguing riff on the modal double-faced cards we’ve come to know and love from Zendikar Rising and Modern Horizons 3, like Agadeem's Awakening. These are probably stronger; with an MDFC, you need to choose between getting the land or the spell, but you get both when send your land on an adventure. You lose out on the spell if you use these to make an early land drop, but that just puts them on par with MDFCs.
These will definitely see plenty of play in Commander since the format’s slow enough to allow the time to capitalize on them, and I imagine Midgar, City of Mako and Lindblum, Industrial Regency become Cube frequent fliers. When it comes to older formats, I’m not sure where they belong. Standard feels pretty fast right now, and the older your format gets, the worse tapped lands are because they slow you down.
Ishgard, the Holy See
Faith & Grief provides a strong burst of card advantage later in the game, either to recoup after a board wipe or make use of a bunch of self-mill. It’s definitely one of the less impressive adventure lands, but Ishgard, the Holy See still belongs in many decks.
Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital
Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital is the worst of the adventure lands, simply because Overture is the narrowest adventure spell. You don’t want to casually mill your opponents, especially not for 6 mana. I suppose Bruvac the Grandiloquent received an upgrade here?
Lindblum, Industrial Regency
Lindblum, Industrial Regency brings a powerful adventure with it, the mighty Mage Siege. Spellslinger decks around the world want a land that not only triggers your cards but also adds a synergy piece.
I wouldn’t play it without ample fodder to trigger the Wizard token, though. With this particular adventure land, remember that playing lands on an adventure triggers exile-based payoffs like Prosper, Tome-Bound.
Midgar, City of Mako
Midgar, City of Mako is one of the stronger adventure lands, largely because Reactor Raid has such an efficient draw effect. That’s a little more than you’d pay normally when you look at Deadly Dispute and Fanatical Offering, but this basically draws three cards since you get the land, and it gets all your death triggers rolling.
Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis
We can generally expect the Hero token created by Lasting Fayth to be a 7/7, though mana dorks might mess with that math. Still, that’s a perfectly reasonable threat considering the utility of having it stapled to Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis. I love a land that does something when I draw it on turn 7.
Notable Commander Precon Lands
While none of the Final Fantasy Commander precons introduced any new, exciting lands, they had some pricey reprints—specifically Sunken Ruins in the Scions & Spellcraft precon, and Fire-Lit Thicket in the Limit Break precon.
While those are the most notable lands, all the lands reprinted in the precons have new flavor and art to match the set, so you can trick out your mana base with FIC-flavored lands if you want!
One-Off Utility Lands
The Gold Saucer
The Gold Saucer has a fabulously flavorful design that beautifully captures the idea of a city whose economy centers on gambling. But I don’t like gambling with my mana; paying 3 mana to maybe make a Treasure is terrible.
Sacrificing artifacts to draw cards isn’t bad, but depending on what kind of artifacts you sacrifice, you’re probably better off with something like Sai, Master Thopterist or even Fountainport to cash in that Treasure.
Adventurer’s Inn
Look, it’s Radiant Fountain with a subtype! And Adventurer's Inn is just as unimpressive. Being a town or gaining 2 life once provides such a minuscule advantage compared to the potential downside of getting color screwed that you probably shouldn’t play this.
Crossroads Village
We’ve seen Crossroads Village before, and it only distinguishes itself from Uncharted Haven with the town subtype. This is fine; it’s a land that helps budget mana bases and makes multicolor decks better in Pauper Cube.
Eden, Seat of the Sanctum
Having a land that does something later in the game is a useful tool to mitigate flood, so I doubt Eden, Seat of the Sanctum is utterly unplayable. But costing an effective 6 mana to return a permanent to your hand rather than the battlefield is… a lot. That’s a lot of mana.
Clive’s Hideaway
I’m always down for more hideaway lands that work in Commander, but Clive's Hideaway might not be it. Controlling four legendary creatures is a big ask, and colorless lands have opportunity costs. Getting a free spell at some point is pretty sweet, but this feels more like a legends-matter support piece than a generally playable card.
Capital City
Cycling makes Capital City a good deal better than similar cards like Painted Bluffs, which is already reasonably playable. Altogether, this is a reasonable budget land, and it’s worth adding to a Cube that cares about cycling.
Sidequest: Catch a Fish / Cooking Campsite
Sidequest: Catch a Fish has a fantastic design, first and foremost. It’s brilliant to use transforming Magic cards to tell a story. But it’s also a great card. Presuming you have an appropriately high artifact/creature count, this often becomes a Rampant Growth that draws a card and creates a Food.
While that would be fine on its own, Cooking Campsite even has an additional ability! It’s nothing game-breaking, of course, but this card would have been plenty strong if it transformed into a regular ole Plains, so this makes it even better.
Starting Town
Starting Town is a clever riff on Mana Confluence and City of Brass. It’s definitely worse than either, even with the ability to tap without damaging you, but that just gives budget EDH decks a new tool to improve their mana bases.
Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy / Balamb Garden, Airborne
Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy puts an interesting spin on creature lands, as it only requires a mana investment once before it becomes Balamb Garden, Airborne at the cost of losing the land.
It’s an okay trade. The vehicle is quite imposing; it turns your least significant creature into a very scary card, though it costs a whopping 8 mana to do so and it can’t even attack the turn you flip it. It feels much like Sea Gate Restoration in the sense that you play it because it’s a land that might do something if you run out of gas late in the game, but you don’t really plan to cast it if everything’s going well.
Balamb Garden (Command Beacon)
Command Beacon is a fairly niche land that can be useful with big, expensive commanders to cheat the command tax, or to set up strong combos with commanders like Titania, Protector of Argoth. I’m rather surprised this wasn’t a Command Tower reprint, but it looks great.
What Are Town Lands?
Town lands are lands with the town subtype, introduced in Final Fantasy. Rather like the gate subtype, having the town subtype doesn’t affect the land itself. The main reason to run towns are town payoffs, or cards that care about towns like Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy or The Wandering Minstrel.
Where to Get Final Fantasy Lands
Thankfully, these lands are all part of the main set, and you can open them in every booster pack you get your hands on, including Play boosters and Collector boosters. That makes it easy to collect them at prerelease or just when drafting and cracking packs.
- THE ENTIRE FINAL FANTASY SAGA IS HERE—Step into the unforgettable stories of all 16 FINAL FANTASY core games brought to your tabletop with the strategic gameplay of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game
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- COLLECT RARE CARDS—Each Play Booster contains 1–4 cards of rarity Rare or higher, including the possibility of special cards featuring beautiful borderless alternate art
- SHINING FOIL CARD IN EVERY PACK—Every Play Booster also includes at least 1 card with a shiny Traditional Foil treatment; in 20% of packs you’ll also get a Traditional Foil Land card
Wrap Up
Lindblum, Industrial Regency | Illustration by Piotr Dura
I can’t wait to get these adventure lands into my EDH decks, but those are just the tip of the iceberg for what Final Fantasy has introduced to Magic’s mana bases. The adventure lands are the standouts, but we also got some gorgeous basics and plenty of flavorful duals to accent your decks.
Which FIN lands are you most excited to play? How big of an impact do you think the adventure lands will have beyond EDH? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!
Stay safe, and thanks for reading!
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