Pioneer Set Review: Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is coming as the set from the Universes Beyond series to be legal on Standard and Pioneer, solidifying the crossover space in Magic: The Gathering and making it a core part of the game's competitive scene.

With the end of the official previews — which lasted longer than the other set in the last two years —, it is time to analyze the potential of the most anticipated set of 2025 for the competitive formats, and in this article we present our review of Final Fantasy for Pioneer.

Adelbert Steiner depends a lot on how viable an Equipment-based deck will be in the Metagame. Since support already exists, it is possible that a creature that grows with cheap equipment and still has Lifelink could be good in some matchups.

Aerith Gainsborough is a strange card to evaluate in Pioneer. She's supposed to be a deck with a lot of life gain effects to function like Ajani's Pridemate, but her true value is in being sacrificed (did I mention someone on the design team has a weird sense of humor?) to put the counters she gains on legendary creatures. The problem is that there aren't any life gain decks in Pioneer today that have many legendary creatures.

Unless your list has interactions with legendary cards, Ambrosia Whiteheart is probably worse than Sunpearl Kirin in the bounce category. Landfall doesn't make up for the lack of evasion.

Probably the most flexible card in the set, Battle Menu feels like a Red Mage: it offers a bit of everything and does nothing with excellence. It may deserve slots in the Sideboard for offering life gain and efficient removal in the same card.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is a mid-Stoneforge Mystic and a promising tool for potential Hammer Time decks, which received support in Final Fantasy. In addition to the obvious target, Cloud's interaction with the swords of Phyrexia can be used in the right list, but the best target for his ability today seems to be Lost Jitte — cheap, efficient, and offers up to two “extra” mana per turn if we can connect with Cloud in each combat.

Dion, Bahamut’s Dominant is one of my favorite characters for being the first explicitly LGBT+ character in a mainline Final Fantasy game, and it’s kind of cute that his card comes with a 2/2 Knight that, in theory, is Terance. But, for four mana and an activated ability that requires paying six and still tapping it at sorcery speed, I don’t see him being a staple in competitive Magic.

Greasefang, Okiba Boss reanimates Vehicles for a lower cost and From Father to Son also doesn’t deserve slots to tutor them, since we would still need a discard outlet. We have better options.

Despite the high cost, I’m partially optimistic about Machinist’s Arsenal’s potential in artifact-oriented archetypes that might also include Simulacrum Synthesizer and a wide range of cards that could make this equipment a quick game-closing tool, especially if equipped to a creature with Flying, such as Memory Guardian or the new Valkyrie Aerial Unit.

There may be some decks that take advantage of Phoenix Down’s recursion to put key creatures on the battlefield. I believe Can’t Stay Away or Overlord of the Balemurk are still the best options in Greasefang lists, but there may be potential for this card in decks that care about its type or have plenty of cheap creatures.

Restoration Magic offers flexibility between life gain, protection, or even a way to save your creatures from sweepers. The cost may be high for the latter mode, but having a way to protect a creature from Burn while holding off the clock of Aggro decks will probably earn it some slots in the Sideboards.

Demonic Pact jokes aside, you can use Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant's ability in response to your opponent's removal. It doesn't seem relevant, but it's the main use I can imagine for the card in Constructed formats today.

If, for some reason, you get that much mana or reanimate Summon: Knights of Round, the amount of pressure it puts on the board each turn needs to be respected, and Indestructible makes sure it's difficult to deal with during the turns it's on the board.

I don't know if a deck like Mono White Control would try to use it with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, but this Saga, besides Summon: Bahamut, is the card category that tends to build lists around in the first few weeks, probably with Yuna, Hope of Spira.

If it destroyed all enchantments as well, Ultima would be the sweeper that Standard and Pioneer need right now and the nightmare of any casual Commander player — unfortunately, destroying only creatures and artifacts may not offer much to Pioneer for , at least in the current Metagame.

There are almost a hundred legends in Final Fantasy, and Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn is probably the best support for legends in the set. Her Flip side has a very high mana value, but it is likely that an archetype using her would not have much trouble accessing that amount of mana if it has Relic of Legends.

Potential staple for Boros/Orzhov Legends decks, or any white variants that emerge in the coming weeks.

Zack Fair is worse than Dauntless Bodyguard and Selfless Savior in a vacuum if your list doesn't care about Legends, but the ability to transfer equipment makes it a decent support for future Hammer Time decks, though it will likely compete for slots with Skrelv, Defector Mite.

After Cori-Steel Cutter, we've learned not to underestimate any equipment that interacts with noncreature spells. With Treasure Cruise in the format, it's also not that hard to trigger Astrologian's Planisphere, so this card has potential in Pioneer.

I can imagine situations where I cast Ether after a Temporary Lockdown last turn, and then play Part the Waterveil or another extra turn copying it to play two turns then, and start snowballing value against the opponent by chaining these things together.

It sounds fun, but not very competitive.

I have no idea what crazy things we can do with Gogo, Master of Mimicry in Pioneer. Having to untap with it can be a challenge, but copying any ETB trigger or activated ability multiple times in a turn can be pretty absurd alongside cards like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Beza, the Bounding Spring, and others.

Gogo is my personal bet for a card that will be broken in some format, in some unexpected way.

A three-mana Stifle that doubles as Mana Leak for noncreature spells seems like enough to warrant slots in some sideboards, especially in a Sunspine Lynx Metagame.

Between Consider, Opt, and Surveil Lands, there are enough ways to extract a lot of card advantage from Matoya, Archon Elder from the moment she comes into play.

It seems like a good value tool for longer games if your list wants those cards, and might warrant a slot in the Izzet Phoenix's sideboard.

Stolen Uniform functions like a blue Magnetic Theft and allows you to bypass the equip cost of cards like Colossus Hammer. It looks like a great enabler for Hammer Time lists, and also a way to steal your opponent's Cori-Steel Cutter for a turn.

Quistis Trepe isn't a Snapcaster Mage, but the ability to play a card from any graveyard can provide some testing, although three mana is a very high cost for a 2/2 in Pioneer.

Mill has yet to emerge as a viable strategy in Pioneer, and it may never do so while one of the best decks in the format benefits from putting cards in its own graveyard. The Water Crystal is a good first step, but we still need more consistent cards that justify paying four mana for nothing.

Another creature with Affinity shows up in Pioneer, and another support for Simulacrum Synthesizer. Valkyrie Aerial Unit has a decent body for its cost, evasion, and helps filter the top: it seems like a good combination to try to create our own version of the archetype in the format.

Cecil, Dark Knight would be better positioned in a Metagame that didn't have Mono Red and Rakdos Prowess as two of the best decks. Its body is decent, and it's not difficult to transform it into most lists, but the risks of losing life and still taking an immeasurable amount of damage make it pretty underwhelming in this red-focused Metagame.

It may deserve slots in Orzhov Humans variants, or in Legends lists, but it doesn't seem like a role player in the current Metagame.

Like Cecil, Dark Confidant is not well positioned in a scenario where the best decks are Aggro. Additionally, it competes with Unholy Annex in the card advantage category, and the current Midrange shells favor Annex much more than Confidant.

On the other hand, this historic reprint can be used in black decklists with low mana values. For example, archetypes with Witch’s Oven and Cauldron Familiar would have no trouble extracting card advantage from it, while having another body to interact with the board or with Deadly Dispute and others is something the archetype naturally wants — but Bob still needs to prove that he deserves slots in current versions with Ygra, Eater of All.

Graveyard hate, life gain, and recursion tool. The Darkness Crystal does a bit of everything while having no immediate value. It may deserve some testing in Mono Black Midrange, but it is probably too slow or irrelevant in the current shell.

Ninja’s Blades looks like a good card. Its cost is relatively high, but it doesn’t require much to equip, its typing interacts with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, and Dimir Tempo lists currently use plenty of cheap creatures with flying, making it a way to turn any of them into an efficient clock and hand filtering, not to mention potential instant-wins with Dig Through Time and the like.

Both have inherent advantages and I can imagine scenarios where Sephiroth is a better option than Mayhem Devil, but it will be difficult to dethrone a historical staple of Pioneer's Sacrifice variants.

Five points of devotion to black on an indestructible creature that offers a mini-wipe when it enters deserves enough attention. Zodiark, Umbral God can also be a tool in black midranges for attrition games, where it becomes a hard-to-kill threat and a respectable clock on the board, in addition to also interacting with Witch's Oven and Cauldron Familiar.

Mono Red Devotion has not seen competitive play since the beginning of 2020 and has gained new tools each year, but without much success in showing results. Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant is excellent for this strategy if we can hold the board and hold off the opponent’s early beatdown — replenishing your hand the moment it comes into play justifies dedicating a list to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and efficient red cards.

Clive is also a great win condition if transformed, so we may want to consider some tests with it in the future.

Fire Magic can be a Sideboard staple in several formats due to the flexibility of being an Electrickery or Fuel the Flames in a single card, allowing flexibility in dealing with small creatures at different stages of the game.

In Pioneer, it ends up being another nail in the coffin of Go-Wide decks like Boros Convoke and Humans, which are already struggling to establish themselves in the current Metagame.

Firion, Wild Rose Warrior doesn't feel as impactful as other equipment supports Final Fantasy has brought, but the idea of ​​having it in play and casting any Sword and being able to copy and equip it to a creature makes it an effective enabler for lists that might not be geared towards Colossus Hammer.

Opera Love Song is close enough to Questing Druid for lists that typically splash on Prowess: it provides long-term card advantage with an additional function that directly interacts with the deck's game plan — in this case, it triggers both Prowess and Valiant for the creatures that red Aggro currently run.

Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo is the best support for Colossus Hammer that came out in the set. He, on his own, bypasses the equip costs of any card and on any creature when he attacks, in addition to protecting himself.

A potential staple if we can find the right equipment version for him.

Seifer Almasy seems like a good curve-topper if your creature has some kind of evasion, like a Heartfire Hero or Emberheart Challenger combined with Monstrous Rage, allowing for more aggressive attacks each turn and functioning as extra copies of Manifold Mouse.

Its recursion ability can be lethal if we are already doing dealing damage with Double Strike, since we can cast a Lightning Strike before the damage, triggering Prowess and the like, and then cast that same Lightning Strike a second time for free.

While others think of Heartfire Hero and Screaming Nemesis, I can only imagine a game where I can attack with Jumbo Cactuar and, before blocking, use Self-Destruct to deal 9999 damage to the opponent. It's not a question of if it will happen, but of when it will happen.

Summon: Brynhildr is an improved Abbot of Keral Keep, which doesn't seem like enough by the standards of today's red Pioneer decks. Since it has two card types and is more oriented towards less explosive lists, it might be worth testing in Delirium lists and similar ones that appeared in Standard and could, perhaps, be migrated to Pioneer.

It doesn't seem competitive enough in Pioneer as a sorcery, but any opportunity to mention Suplex the Train is welcome.

The mode for adding or removing Saga counters makes Clash of the Eikons worthy of an honorable mention because we don't know what kind of interactions it can offer in the medium or long term.

Step 3: Cast Self-Destruct to deal 9999 damage to the opponent.

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Summon: Titan can be an alternative for Aftermath Analyst decks that run Streets of New Capenna lands as Fetch Lands with ETB triggers. Its advantage compared to the other options is in the third chapter, which works as a wincondition since it offers Trample to the creature, in addition to the power increase equal to the number of lands — in exchange, it requires a turn to do what Lumra, Bellow of the Woods does when it comes into play.

Summoner’s Grimoire is probably the most creative variant of Elvish Piper that has ever come out. Since it’s an equipment, you only need to have one creature in your hand and one creature on the board to attach Grimoire and attack, bypassing the mana costs of the card in your hand.

It doesn’t seem viable in the competitive scene, but it’s another way to put giant creatures straight into play in Pioneer.

Without Fetch Lands, it seems like Tifa Lockhart would need a lot of effort to work in Pioneer, but there are some “combo-kill” lines that we can enable with her, cheap three-power pumps like Wild Ride and Monstrous Rage, and a fetch like Fabled Passage. In this case, we use the pumps first to increase Tifa's power to 7, play Passage to double her power to 14, and then pop Passage to double it again, totaling 28 damage with Trample.

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Traveling Chocobo doubles all Landfall triggers, which includes cards like Lotus Cobra and Omnath, Locus of Creation in Pioneer, as well as a dozen other cards. With a “Fetch”, Lotus Cobra now generates four mana, or each of Omnath's triggers does something extra, so it makes it much easier to extract value from this huge mana, and perhaps deserves a place in Aftermath Analyst lists.

Multicolor

Absolute Virtue can be an interesting target for Indomitable Creativity against archetypes that have difficulty dealing with it. Whether in non-interactive games, or even in Red Aggro, which can, for example, block the ability to gain life from Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Valgavoth, Terror Eater, but require great effort to get Virtue off the board, especially if its controller untaps with it and has counterspells against specific cards.

Gruul Vehicles disappeared from the Pioneer Metagame because Prowess decks became a more efficient Aggro, while Rakdos and Mono Black work better in the Midrange category. Balthier and Fran probably won't bring it back, but their interaction with Smuggler's Copter, Esika's Chariot, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship or any other card with an attack trigger is worth noting, as the extra combat both provides more damage and an extra trigger.

In a world of Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time, I have no expectations that Emet-Selch, Unsundered will have room to transform, but I honestly hope I'm wrong and that the greatest villain of all time finds a place in competitive Magic.

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Like Clash of the Eikons, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria has unprecedented interactions with Sagas, and perhaps some archetype using it alongside History of Benalia and other relevant Sagas can emerge in the first few weeks of Final Fantasy.

Golbez, Crystal Collector has good recursion and reach in long games, but I have a hard time imagining a Pioneer deck that has enough artifacts to trigger its abilities.

Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant provides another discard effect for Monument to Endurance and Greasefang, Okiba Boss lists, along with long-term recursion. While it competes with other cards, its potential alongside Marauding Mako and Fear of Missing Out should be considered.

Kefka, Court Mage is too close to Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, which doesn't have much competitive impact outside a few players trying to make Grixis Control work. Its transformation ability feels a bit too conditional for Pioneer.

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Lightning, Army of One is the ideal tool for go wide aggressive archetypes like Boros Convoke and Humans if we have enough support in the list to increase its power and make it harder for its damage to break through. Despite being slow, we can also use it in Boros Prowess and Boros Burn lists to double the damage of cards like Boros Charm.

I don't know how much value there is in building a Wizards list that isn't Aggro, but we have enough tools to get some value from Kuja, Genome Sorcerer if he transforms at the end of the turn. Doubling the damage of any Wizard can be lethal, especially with Slickshot Show-Off.

Serah Farron is the other legendary support Final Fantasy offers. She's easy to turn into a dedicated archetype, since we can follow lines between Skrelv, Defector Mite and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. The massive pump, cost reduction, and the fact that she dodges removal after transforming could all give you reasons to explore Legend decks.

Like Seifer Almasy, there are decks that can take advantage of the Double Strike that Squall, SeeD Mercenary offers. Although the colors are more associated with Midrange, attacking with, for example, an Unholy Annex token for 12 is reason enough for Squall to be worth some testing.

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Terra, Magical Adept is difficult to interpret. Her abilities require a specific archetype to work, and it doesn't exist in Pioneer today, and added to the need for six mana to transform and the fact that she dies to Burst Lightning, I'm not very optimistic about her potential.

Vivi Ornitier is potentially broken. Free mana is always controversial, and I don't think the best Black Mage in the series will be an exception to that rule — the question is how to use it.

In formats like Modern, it's easy to imagine some lines with Expressive Iteration for card advantage and cards like Mutagenic Growth to make explosive mana bursts, but Pioneer doesn't have those tools and Vivi isn't intuitive to build a list around.

Maybe Rona, Herald of Invasion and Retraction Helix are his best friends for a combo that justifies the splash of in existing lists, or maybe he needs Stormchaser's Talent and a list with Prowess to work, or he can just become win more in any list that wants him today.

The Wandering Minstrel is a Spelunking that trades the land drop and extra draw for the possibility of being found by Archdruid’s Charm and the like. Its Town-based ability is irrelevant to Pioneer.

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Yuna, Hope of Spira provides an enabler to reanimate Summon: Knight of the Round or Summon: Bahamut. She can also return other high mana value enchantments like Overwhelming Splendor, Fall of the Thran or Omniscience, or with the Overlords cycle.

We can explore decks around her, not unlike we do with Greasefang, Okiba Boss, but being a creature makes her more vulnerable than Starfield of Nyx while costing as much mana.

Colorless

The lack of evasion makes me very skeptical about Buster Sword in Pioneer. Plus, if none of the swords of Mirrodin saw much play in Pioneer or Standard, I can't think of any reason why this equipment would have a place in the Metagame — as many argued when the card was revealed, this type of design is dated for Magic in 2025.

Excalibur II's low casting cost and inherent interaction with life gain effects could earn it a slot in some decks that interact with their themes, since it transforms any creature into an immediate threat in a few turns.

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Summon: Bahamut will technically win the game if it stays on the board for many turns — the problem is that it stays alive. Nine mana is a very high mana value and the only way to get around its mana cost without ruining its stats and body is with Yuna, Hope of Spira or Starfield of Nyx, or focusing on something like Zombify, where I think Atraxa, Grand Unifier will just be better.

It may be worth testing it like Yuna's Parhelion II, but it seems, initially, that Summon: Knights of Round is a better card in this category since it protects itself on its own.

With a mana base with several lands that generate colorless mana, Ultima, Origin of Oblivion guarantees explosive turns if we untap with it. Doubling the mana of all lands allows you to cast even an Eldrazi titan like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or Emrakul, the Promised End the turn after it comes into play.

There is potential, but we need to explore the possibilities since an Eldrazi deck does not exist in Pioneer at this time, and Ultima only cares about lands that generates colorless.

Lands

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The Adventure Lands are perhaps the most innovative design in Final Fantasy for Magic, and a way to fix the game's mana system dilemmas. As expected, the design team was quite conservative with their effects, which limits the playability of most of them.

The most likely to find a home in Pioneer are Lindblum, Industrial Regency in Indomitable Creativity decks and Midgar, City of Mako as an extra Deadly Dispute effect for both Sacrifice lists and perhaps as a flex slot in Mono Black Midrange.

Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital combos with Fraying Sanity, but Traumatize already exists in the format and this interaction has never been viable in the metagame, while Ishgard, the Holy See and Zanarkand, Ancient Metropolis have very high costs for their effects.

If your list doesn’t have many mana requirements and is a go wide strategy, Clive’s Hideaway is another payoff for legend decks, allowing you to bypass mana costs of more powerful spells, especially if we managed to bounce it to its owner's hand over and over with something like Zell Dincht.

Starting Town seems like a potential post-rotation Standard staple, but outside aggressive multicolored lists, I don’t see it reaching the same status in Pioneer since the format already has a wide variety of untapped duals.

Even in lists with three or more colors, it’s common to find Mana Confluence or Fabled Passage because they interact better than Fast Lands in these archetypes, and Starting Town is too much of a middle ground between Pain Land and Fast Land to take the place of these cards.

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Wrapping Up

That’s all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!