Magic x Final Fantasy: What are the Odds of a New Set in 2027

A recent article on the Magic: The Gathering website featuring an interview with Tetsuya Nomura, creative director for the Final Fantasy franchise, has reignited speculation about a new partnership between Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix, supposedly scheduled for 2027. Most people missed one detail: the interview was conducted in May 2025, close to the set's release. It was only published now.

On the business side, it has legs. The collaboration was the best-selling set in Magic's history, generated US$200 million in revenue in a single day, and forced the company to quadruple production to meet demand. Magic Arena also broke concurrent player records on Steam during Final Fantasy's release week.

Hasbro has an unhealthy but predictable pattern with Magic: it repeats what works until it stops working. Anime-style illustrations still exist today because they worked in the first Strixhaven. Four Universes Beyond sets are scheduled for 2026 because The Lord of the Rings became the best-selling release in history back in 2023, and the company is already trying to replicate the partnership formula using the same IP with The Hobbit, scheduled for August.

When the most profitable product in your 30-year-old game's history is a collaboration with a specific franchise, you don't abandon that relationship after the first success. As far as Hasbro is concerned, the question isn't "if," it's "when." The "when" depends on Square Enix, and the signs from their side might also be positive: the company's merchandising sales doubled in 2025 compared to the previous year, driven by the Magic collaboration.

The expansion also served as free advertising for the Final Fantasy card game produced by Square Enix itself, whose community is noticeably smaller. There are gains on both sides. Magic and Final Fantasy move legions of passionate fans, but at the end of the day, Hasbro and Square Enix are companies. Like any company, their goal is profit.

If the collaboration was the most profitable product in Magic's history and doubled merchandising revenue for Final Fantasy, there are reasons for a second partnership. It remains to be defined when and how this might happen.

Most fans point to 2027 as the perfect window for a new collaboration.

Final Fantasy turns 40 in December 2027. It's also the year Final Fantasy VII turns 30 — speculation about the third Remake episode's release revolves around this date, and there are signs it might be correct. There will hardly be a better window this decade.

Magic doesn't usually release expansions in December, but it makes a point of making the last set of the year memorable. Avatar: The Last Airbender was the third best-selling set in history, even without Commander decks. Star Trek will be the final release of 2026, the show's 60th anniversary year. Final Fantasy 2, celebrating the franchise's 40th anniversary, would fit that pattern.

But 2027 isn't guaranteed. The Lord of the Rings, a "tentpole set" — the year's main release with a full product line — took three years to get a second expansion. Applying the same logic, 2028 would still be acceptable to celebrate the 40th anniversary and would open space for another tentpole release with a full line between booster sets and Commander decks.

As a longtime Final Fantasy fan, I have a few doubts about whether there will be enough content to justify a second set of this magnitude. Final Fantasy has several universes and iconic characters, but not all games provide enough material to replicate the same commercial success. There are three possible paths for a new set, but none of them alone can sustain a main set alongside four Commander decks with the same potential as its predecessor.

The Spin-Off Path

The first and most discussed option involves spin-offs and sequels: Final Fantasy Tactics, Type-0, Stranger of Paradise, Crystal Chronicles, the FFVII compilation with Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Ever Crisis, the Lightning Saga in FFXIII, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.

The list is extensive and could sustain a release of the same size. Most spin-offs, however, have mixed reception among franchise fans and even worse reception outside it. Not all are recognizable or have the same enthusiastic support from the player base. Games like The After Years and Dirge of Cerberus are seen as failures and don't excite players the way Final Fantasy Tactics — with a legion of fans for 30 years — would.

Spin-offs work better as a dedicated Commander deck collection. Ramza and Delita could lead pre-constructed decks or share an Esper deck. The Class Zero has 14 playable characters that could form a five-color deck with flexible commander mechanics, similar to Turtle Power from TMNT. Jack Garland would fit into Grixis colors, connecting Stranger of Paradise to the mechanics of Garland, Knight of Cornelia and Garland, Royal Kidnapper, and Crystal Chronicles has enough lore to establish its own deck, possibly in Bant .

The Final Fantasy VII Route

The second choice is to ride the enthusiasm of the Final Fantasy VII Remake and create a dedicated set, including the entire Compilation: Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Ever Crisis.

The FFVII universe has enough to sustain its own set, but it was already the most explored game in the first release, with 132 different cards. Creating a new expansion from scratch without reusing designs or mechanics would be challenging. It's manageable — the complete compilation has as much material as Spider-Man, TMNT, perhaps even more than The Lord of the Rings — but it requires care to avoid the same pitfalls as some of Magic's recent partnerships.

This path wouldn't fit into a set with Commander decks. There was already a precon for FFVII in 2025, and the differences between mechanics and factions among characters might not justify a four-deck line. At most, they could sustain two decks.

The Secret Lair Route

There's the safest path for Wizards, but a bad one for the average consumer.

Magic has already done collaborations in the Secret Lair series with renowned artists illustrating cards. It was surprising there wasn't an Artist Series dedicated to Final Fantasy. Yoshitaka Amano's work is world-renowned, and there was already a previous relationship with the illustration of Liliana, Dreadhorde General in 2019, but they never released a product with direct partnership.

Just look at the illustrations done by these artists for the main set to know that all of them have potential for a Secret Lair drop. It would be interesting to see how Amano, Nomura, or Roberto Ferrari would represent iconic Magic cards and how they would connect them to the Final Fantasy universe if given ample freedom.

Secret Lair is also a safe way to celebrate both Final Fantasy's 40th and FFVII's 30th anniversary in 2027. Just separate them assertively — easy when FFVII's anniversary is in January and the franchise's in December — and prepare product lines for both.

However, this is the worst choice for the consumer. Secret Lairs are known for long queues, scalper speculation, limited print runs, and abusive marketplace prices. It would easily serve those seeking exclusivity but is hardly accessible to the general public. Consequently, it's incapable of replicating the success that turned Final Fantasy into the best-seller it has become.

There are reasons to believe Magic and Final Fantasy will partner again. Speculation around a 2027 set has temporal and historical support, but that doesn't mean it will happen. There are many variables beyond sales that can motivate or discourage a contract at the negotiating table, even when there's no doubt about the 2025 expansion's success.

We'll have to wait. As a Final Fantasy fan since 1999 and a Magic player for eighteen years, the possibility fascinates me but also brings concerns. Universes Beyond should be a special product, but Hasbro threw that logic out the window when they placed four collaborations among the seven releases of 2026. It would be a shame to see the excessive amount of partnerships turn Final Fantasy 2 into just "another set".