First Final Fantasy x MTG Spoilers Showcase Exciting New Commanders

Last updated on February 18, 2025

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER | Illustration by Justyna Dura

IGN revealed yesterday the commanders that will lead the Final Fantasy EDH precons: Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, Terra, Herald of Hope, Tidus, Yuna's Guardian, and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed.

Set to launch on June 13, the Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering crossover will have both a fully draftable Standard-legal main set and four Commander preconstructed decks – each based on a single mainline Final Fantasy game. 

The Commanders: Terra, Cloud, Tidus, and Y’shtola

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

In an extensive interview yesterday on IGN, Wizards of the Coast’s Senior Game Designer Daniel Holt (Commander Lead for this Magic set) and Principal Narrative Game Designer Dillon Deveney (Narrative Lead) talked about why they chose these four Final Fantasy commanders, how they managed to squeeze the entirety of each game’s story into a single 100-card deck, and how they’re honoring fan-favorite characters every step of the way.

For starters, the richness of Final Fantasy’s lore made it easy to build entire decks around one game each, rather than smushing multiple titles into a single product. “Final Fantasy games are so rich with flavor, beloved characters, and unique settings that choosing a single game as the theme provided more than enough material,” Holt said. “Approaching each deck as a single game also provided the opportunity to dive deep into the lore of each, capturing even more beloved moments that we may not have been able to achieve otherwise.”

Some of the picks for face Commanders were fairly obvious. Cloud was a no-brainer for Final Fantasy VII. Terra took the lead for the Final Fantasy VI deck (although Celes was a strong contender), and Tidus will command the Final Fantasy X deck.

But Final Fantasy XIV posed a different challenge. “We did explore card designs around the Warrior of Light with some pretty in-depth executions,” Holt says, “before ultimately landing on Y’shtola as the commander.” Even so, he teases that “Warrior of Light” moments still appear in the deck.

Each deck is three colors – and all four include white in their color identity, a deliberate choice to capture each game’s heroes.

The four revealed commanders all show the Final Fantasy game they are referenced from (printed right beside their collector number). WotC has not said yet if that will be true for other Final Fantasy cards.

Terra, Herald of Hope – Revival Trance (Final Fantasy VI)

Source: IGN

Terra, Herald of Hope is the Mardu commander leading Revival Trance, a reanimator deck.

As a commander, Terra clearly joins Alesha, Who Smiles at Death‘s in the “All the Mardu Weenies You Can Reanimate” buffet, with Redditors fiercely debating which one is best. “Mardu wants to relentlessly keep attacking with weenies,” notes u/Spekter1754, “and death won’t get in the way.”

On the other hand, and in spite of Terra's fine mechanics, some players are not entirely thrilled about the choice of color identity.

According to Holt, Revival Trance tries to evoke the storyline of rebuilding the party in the World of Ruin – that's indeed one of Final Fantasy VI‘s core plot points,  but a Mardu color identity may have better fit Celes rather than Terra.

“[Terra] feels like a card that was built primarily around Celes,” notes u/whitetempest521, “and then late in design they decided that it needed to be Terra as the face of the game, and added the trance thing to fix it.”

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER – Limit Break (Final Fantasy VII)

Source: IGN

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER handles the Limit Break precon, centered on equipment (and, safe bet, swords!). White-red is a very common color pair for weapon wielders, and according to Holt they added green and made Cloud a Naya commander to tap into “power matters” cards.

Although arguably the most iconic of all FF characters, Cloud's reception has been so far tepid and he's been quickly labelled as “just another Voltron Commander.”

“Even as a voltron commander he's underwhelming since he only cheats one equip cost with the ETB,” wrote u/g1ng3rk1d5. “The treasure generation should help somewhat, but when your other options can cheat multiple equip costs, it's hard not to go with those options instead.”

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian – Counter Blitz (Final Fantasy X)

Source: IGN

Counter Blitz focuses on counters, and you may think it was inspired by Blitzball given the name… but according to Holt, the deck is more of a reference to FFX's Sphere Grid experience system. “It’s visually portrayed as a board where you add colored markers to gain abilities,” Holt explains.

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian is its Bant commander, ready to proliferate and move counters left and right.

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed – Scions & Spellcraft (Final Fantasy XIV)

Source: IGN

Given that Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO, this is where the Magic team had more latitude to choose the face commander.

They went for a deck built around noncreature spells to emulate spellcasting and ability usage – a staple for FFXIV players – and chose Y'shtola, Night's Blessed as its Esper commander to reflect Y'shtola Shadowbringers arc as a powerful mage.

And, yes! WotC again went with a cat for a built-in Curiosity-like effect. Also notice that Y'shtola, Night's Blessed deals damage (rather than being a life loss effect), meaning that it also triggers the real Curiosity.

Finally a home for all those 3-mana counterspells!

That's NOT All, Folks!

Final Fantasy x MTG Promo Art | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

If you’re worried about only seeing these heroes once, then don’t be. Certain characters will appear multiple times in the overall set, whether in the main set or in the Commander precons, just like we got several Gandalfs, Aragorns, and Frodos in Lord of the Rings.

And according to Holt, all 16 of the Final Fantasy games will have their moments to shine, so if your personal favorite didn’t make the Commander cut, don't count yourself out of luck!

The Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering crossover launches June 13, with the four Commander decks priced at an MSRP of $69.99 each for the regular version, and a premium Collector’s Edition of each deck at an MSRP of $149.99.