Last updated on May 30, 2025
Tom Bombadil – art by Dmitry Burmak
Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast released their official FINAL FANTASY™ Release Notes, and it comes with an important rules change for sagas in general, and in particular Final Fantasy‘s new saga creatures.
Starting with Final Fantasy, sagas will not need to be sacrificed if they lose all abilities.
Until today, if a saga lost all abilities, it loses all its chapters, since chapters are triggered abilities. Which means that its final chapter number is 0. And since you have to sacrifice a saga whenever the number of lore counters is greater than, or equal to, its last chapter, and that chapter is now 0, the old rules considered that the saga was over.
Before Final Fantasy, a saga losing all abilities was a rare interaction only found in MTG formats that play Urza's Saga and Blood Moon. But with Final Fantasy introducing sagas that are also creatures, interactions with cards like Tishana's Tidebinder. Fresh Start, or Unable to Scream (all of which can affect creatures) will become a lot more common.
This Will Change When Final Fantasy Releases
Cloud, Planet's Champion – art by Magali Villeneuve
“Starting with the release of Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, we're updating the rules,” says WotC's article “If a Saga has no chapter abilities, it won't be subject to the state-based action that would cause it to be sacrificed due to how many lore counters it has. Similarly, it won't be subject to the turn-based action that adds a lore counter to each Saga you control at the beginning of your first main phase each turn.”
In the example given in the article, suppose your Summon: Bahamut, with one lore counter on it loses all abilities because someone attaches Observed Stasis to it. It still keeps the counter on it, but:
- Now it doesn't gain any more lore counters before your first main phase,
- And, perhaps more importantly, you don't have to sacrifice it.
If somebody removes the Observed Stasis, then Summon: Bahamut will resume working as intended.
The Bottom Line
Rules Lawyer – art by Sean Murray
Sagas without chapters no longer die. They simply pause their story until the text comes back. They are still creatures, though, even if vanilla: you can still attack and block with them.
A sad day for Tishana's Tidebinder, who no longer gets to be the fun police. But a great day for the upcoming Final Fantasy summons. And for players in general: one less obscure rule interaction to have a headache with!
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment