Final Fantasy SHATTERS Record For Most Legendary Creatures in a Set

Last updated on May 30, 2025

Dovin's Veto | Illustration by Akihiko Yoshida

Final Fantasy, the upcoming Magic set that’s already been named the best-selling Magic: The Gathering set of all time, will be breaking another record upon its release. The Universes Beyond crossover set is now home to the most legendary creatures ever printed in a non-reprint set. Between the main set, the Commander precons, and the Through the Ages bonus sheet, Final Fantasy is giving Commander players more contenders for their command zone than they’ve ever had from a single Standard set release.

Let’s Talk Numbers

Rise of the Dark Realms | Illustration by Alexander Mokhov

So, how many new commanders are there in Final Fantasy? With a quick caveat that the full set is being revealed on Friday, likely with a few legends that haven’t been revealed yet, here’s an estimate of how many commanders there are across the different Final Fantasy products:

• Final Fantasy main set (FIN): 96 commanders (as of Thursday night, includes Starter Kit legends)
• Final Fantasy Commander (FIC): 65 commanders
• Through the Ages (FCA): 36 commanders (all reprints)

Assuming Friday’s full gallery reveal includes a few extra stragglers in the main set or the bonus sheet, we’re looking at 197 total commanders, with the potential to hit 200 after the full gallery reveal. Notably there are no reprint commanders in the main set or the Commander decks, while the bonus sheet is entirely reprints, which brings the new commander total to roughly 161. And only about half of those are some form of Sephiroth!

For the uninitiated, that’s an obscene number of legends, new and old, and firmly puts Final Fantasy at the top of the commander quantity charts. This somehow even beats out EDH-specific reprint sets like Commander Masters and Commander Legends, which had 138 and 114 legends, respectively.

The closest direct comparison is Lord of the Rings from 2023. The main LTR set had 85 legendary creatures, and the Commander tie-in added 43 more to that, for a total of 128 commanders. And only about half of those were some form of Gandalf!

Everyone knew Final Fantasy was going to be full of familiar faces, but it’s truly a legendary set, and a Commander brewer’s paradise. And for anyone crying that Magic is printing too many legendary creatures… well, let the tears keep flowing.

The New Norm

A Realm Reborn | Illustration by Anna Podedworna

The absurd legend count for Final Fantasy isn’t totally unexpected. In fact, it’s been confirmed by Head Designer Mark Rosewater that there’s an attempt to minimize the number of legends in Magic-multiverse sets, since it’s pretty obvious Universes Beyond tie-ins will have a high volume of legendary cards already.

Source

The question was asked on Rosewater’s personal Tumblr a few months back, to which he succinctly answered: “Yes.” Not many lines to read between there, but it’s now almost June of 2025, and two in-universe Magic sets have already released this year, so we actually have some data to work with and see if this claim holds up.

Aetherdrift was pretty light on commanders, featuring 29 in the main set and another 9 in the two Commander decks, for a total of 38 commanders in the full set.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm only had 16 main-set legends, but 45 across its five Commander precons, for a total of 61 commanders.

Duskmourn: House of Horror from late 2024 was also light on legends, with 19 in the main set and 32 in the Commander decks, for a total of 51.

So sure, by comparison the in-Universe sets are on the lower side, bolstering most of their numbers with reprint commanders from precons. And it’s obvious that the full Universes Beyond sets are clearing that bar pretty handily, almost tripling the number of commanders from the average set without reprints.

Good, Bad, or Neutral?

Cid, Timeless Artificer | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

There are two schools of thought when it comes to oversaturation of new legendary creatures in Magic. The first is that too many viable commanders dilutes the card pool; the whole “if everything’s special, nothing’s special” side of the debate. The other side wagers that more commanders can’t be a bad thing: It’s just more options to choose from, after all.

Fall in with whatever line of reasoning you wish, but there are some niche implications that are less debatable, though also less important. The legendary supertype is a limitation, so it could affect gameplay in Constructed or Limited. The more copies of a legend you have, the more likely it is that you’ll run up against a situation where you can’t actually play your cards because of the legend rule. That doesn’t happen all too often, but with so many cards receiving legendary status in these sets, the chances are more likely. Unless your name is Cid, Timeless Artificer (cycling heals all wounds in MTG).

So, it’s really whatever you make of it. If you already prescribed to the line of reasoning that more legends was net negative for the game, sets like Final Fantasy are only going to exacerbate that. But if you’re a Moxfield master and you just like brewing around all the new toys, the Universes Beyond sets from 2025 should keep you busy for quite some time. Spider-Man is next up in September, and with some luck, only about half the cards in that set will be some form of Spider-Man!