The upcoming Final Fantasy Magic set has been in the works for many years, so it makes sense that its final design looks a lot different to its first. According to a recent article posted by Wizards of the Coast, there were loads of interesting mechanics planned for Final Fantasy that were dropped along the way - including a card type that Magic fans have been waiting to see return for ages.
That card type is, of course, battles. Introduced in March of the Machine in 2023 as the first brand new card type in years, battles have yet to show up in the game since, despite plenty of spots where they would've made sense. Fans have predicted battles re-emergence in loads of different MTG sets, from Lord of the Rings to Tarkir Dragonstorm.
That latter set in particular featured Sieges, and it seemed pretty odd - at least to me - that those cards were represented by regular enchantments rather than the underutilized battles.
Given that the battles we saw in March have a subtype - Sieges - I've long been wondering what other types of designs Wizards will create. The most obvious idea is battles that must be defended by their controllers, like MTG planeswalkers, and it seems like that's exactly what the Final Fantasy set once featured.
According to the Vision Design article published June 5, MTG Final Fantasy originally featured battles as the set's villain mechanic. These would represent dungeons that the heroes (your opponent and their creatures) would have to defeat. The example Rosewater gives in the article is Plate Pillar. It works as a classic three-mana discard spell, which can then be sacrificed for a ton of mana to drain your opponent for loads of life.
It's not quite clear why Battles were dropped - but from what Mark Rosewater's written in his article, it sounds like it has something to do with not being new-player friendly or accessible. Another axed mechanic was dropped as putting "all the burden of dealing with your evilness on the opponent wasn't as inviting as we wanted our set to be," an apparently these battle cards were turned down for a similar reason.
Another fun idea for the villain mechanic was one that was supposed to represent a villain monologuing - gloating to the hero about their inevitable victory. This was basically a form of suspend that always triggered on the very next turn. You'd have a chance to see what your opponent was going to do and respond to it.
In the end, Final Fantasy's villain mechanic was very different. As well as transforming cards representing various boss fights, they got the black wizard tokens.
What do you think of Final Fantasy - not as an homage to a game series - but as a mechanical MTG release? Share your thoughts over at our Discord. And don't miss out on anything - use our MTG release schedule to stay up-to-date.