Magic’s Final Fantasy commander decks are already mostly sold out

Magic: The Gathering’s push to make its licensed Universes Beyond sets a bigger part of the game has been controversial, but the success of these collaborations means they’re assuredly here to stay. Case in point: pre-orders of the four Final Fantasy commander decks revealed yesterday are already sold out at Amazon and other leading Magic retailers.

Sold individually or as a set of four, each of the decks represents a different game from the RPG series’ long history. Limit Break, starring Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud and Tifa as potential commanders, is the only deck still available on Amazon for $69.99. The $399.99 full collection is sold out on Star City Games, but you can shell out $1,249 for an all-foil collector’s edition version. The decks are fully sold out on Card Kingdom.

Each deck is loaded with brand new legendary creatures, enchantments and artifacts as well as reprints of pricey classic cards like Sunken Ruins and Bane of Progress. They also show off the set’s new mechanics, many of which are reminiscent of concepts used in sets from the regular Magic line. Cloud’s Limit Break is built a bit like Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s spree, in that players can choose how much mana to spend based on how many tapped creatures they want the spell to kill. The summons used in all the decks, but most prominent in the Final Fantasy 10-based Counter Blitz, are reminiscent of the Sagas of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, except that they start as enchantment creatures and are sacrificed after three turns. It’s a clever way to represent the effect’s limited duration. Job select equipment generates its own hero token to wear it, making it effectively a living weapon from Mirrodin Besieged with different flavor.

While having each deck correspond to a single game is thematically tight, it doesn’t make the best use of each Commander’s strengths. For instance, the Final Fantasy 14-based Scions & Spellcraft deck is mostly concerned with casting non-creature spells, but packs in too many creatures representing the game’s characters. The equipment-heavy Limit Break deck would probably love some of Scions & Spellcraft’s job select artifacts. 

As is always the case, much of the fun of these decks is going to come from making modifications. The set releases June 13 — but given how fast the pre-orders have filled up, it might be a while until you can get your hands on these cards.