Sets [FIN] [UB] Final Fantasy

[LadyMapi]

I've got to be honest, most of these cards are not exciting enough to justify a three-week spoiler season.

Yeah, I agree.

A bit off-topic, but something I noticed while looking at mtg.wiki is that UB might end up being almost half of the Standard-legal sets by 2027. My logic:

• Of the six sets being released this year, half of them are UB (the June, September, and November sets).
• WotC announced only three of the sets for next year - assuming they're keeping up the same six-new-sets-a-year pace, the other three slots might end up being UB sets, just like this year.
• In 2027, every set released before Foundations rotates. That means that we'll end up with Foundations, the six non-UB sets from 2025/2026, the six UB sets from 2025/2026, and whatever sets they release in 2027 (which, if the totally-real-pattern-that-I-just-made-up-because-it's-1am holds will probably end up being half UB as well).

I'm probably wrong about something here, because "half of our sets moving forward will be UB" sounds very unsustainable, especially given how long the design cycle is. My suspicion is that the three UB sets that are coming out this year won't be as profitable as WotC is hoping and that we'll get some quiet behind-the-scenes course correction, but we'll see - I suspect that the Avatar set is going to be the real test, because the break-out success for that franchise was literally twenty years ago and nothing they've done since has been nearly as culturally impactful.

 

[The_Steve_Man]

UB might end up being almost half of the Standard-legal sets by 2027.

Considering that WOTC plans their sets 3 years ahead, it probably means that half of Standard legal sets up until the end of 2027 are already locked in as UB. If they will do any course correcting, it probably won't be until 2028.

I suspect that the Avatar set is going to be the real test, because the break-out success for that franchise was literally twenty years ago and nothing they've done since has been nearly as culturally impactful.

ATLA had a HUGE resurgence during the pandemic when it became the most streamed animated TV show on Netflix in 2020. Not to mention that it has a new series in the pipeline (Seven Havens), 3 movies coming out starting next year, and the live action Netflix series has been renewed for seasons 2 and 3. If ATLA ends up being a disappointment, it'll probably because the cards themselves sucked. I don't think it'll put up Final Fantasy numbers (which already has broken all records just by pre-orders alone), but I personally wouldn't bet against the success of ATLA (unless it's directed by M. Night Shyamalan)

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

2027 Standard format aka Fortnite

 

[Mondschwein]

I despise UB with a passion but goddammit this set is a blast to play for draft

 

[wahoopride]

Given that Fearless Fledgling and Glyph Elemental exist, I don't think that Sazh's Chocobo is really that pushed in 2025.

Of all of the cards I've seen so far, the only one that makes me go "huh, that's an interesting design" is Summon: Shiva. I hope we get a few with reasonable costs.

(Granted, Shiva is just Time of Ice that costs more in exchange for also being an Earth Elemental. I hope the others are a bit more novel.)

Kind of a random aside but from a thematic perspective, do people think its weird that cards like Fearless Fledgling and steppe lynx exist in white as opposed to green? I find it annoying for a few reasons...

First off why is landfall so heavily supported in white? I thought lands were a green thing. And certainly that is what I am going for in my cube. I want a "lands matter" theme to be anchored in green but feels like wotc offers so much better support for it in white. Why is that?

Also, IF you are going to support lands in white, is it not more thematic to have it create weenies like emeria angel rather than pumping up creatures? Just from my view and the identity I would like the colors to have in my cube I would prefer the "make creatures big and scary" identity to be greens, not whites.

That is the one reason I like sazh's chocobo

 

[Seeker]

Kind of a random aside but from a thematic perspective, do people think its weird that cards like Fearless Fledgling and steppe lynx exist in white as opposed to green? I find it annoying for a few reasons...

Steppe Lynx is a cycle with Windrider Eel, Hagra Crocodile, Plated Geopede, and Territorial Baloth! It's "the white one" because it's a one drop. (Presumably, Baloth is so bad so that Grazing Gladehart could be insanely good instead? I know WotC misread the speed of Zendikar limited really badly, so honestly it was probably just a swing and a miss by them.)

Geopede probably has fewer GP-level-event trophies than the Lynx, but not by much. Sure, time passed it by faster, but they both really didn't do much outside Standard. If "being heavily supported" just means "has one drop"... well, that's just a thing white - and also red, so no surprise about Akoum Hellhound existing - does. So I guess green comes in third, and not second?

As for Fearless Fledgling... White Two Drop That Benefits From Set Theme seems fairly typical of an uncommon, they couldn't put Canyon Jerboa at two, I guess it could have been green looking at Sazh's Chocobo though obviously without flying? I got nothing, really. Just creature power level being higher in 2025.

 

[ravnic]

Yeah, they made the decision to have landfall in all colors, in Zendikar sets, in 2009 (?). And honestly, landfall is such a clean mechanic full of potential, I am glad they did not only put it on some elves and baloths.

That being said, I still find it weird to have Magecraft abilities in all five colors lol.

 

[MilesOfficial]

New basic lands!!!



The art on these are all-timer quality...but disappointingly, they're not going to be. It doesn't seem like there's a non-foil version, especially considering how busy and awful it looks with the Chocobo stamp and the tacky footprints.

New scene cards!



I love the art here, it's 90% of the reason I'm talking about it. I like this as a black mage token that's also a 3/2 for 2B. I doubt you'd ever really use the deathtouch ability, so it's annoyingly filler text. Getting a "full party" is hard to do in a draft environment built around it. Nalia de'Arnise is much better than folks give her credit for, but it's still not really all that feasible to get the full team together. I like this card, but it's just got way too much irrelevant text and is just a bit too weak for any Cube project I'm working on.



Love this card. I recently took out Luminous Broodmoth and have been missing it, and this gets a lot of the way there for one less mana, even if I don't really like flying counters as a mechanic. I'll be trying Riona out for sure.



Incredibly funny Magic card. If your playgroups are halfway cool, they'll be begging you to swap out a sword of x and y for this. I know I will.




I was supremely tempted by a recent variation of this effect. I think this will do it for me, it's priced pretty well on both sides. I also prefer it as a sorcery over a creature.



A more compelling version of Hurska Sweet-Tooth. It's still not good enough, and you're going to lose a lot of dudes in response to them getting indestructible, but I think it's a fun card and I'm gonna maybe test it out.

The FFIX one still hasn't been spoiled, so there are six more cards coming.

 

[Seeker]

I like the Wrath variant:

 

[KeithCubes]

This looks fun. Plays in the same sort of vein as Wedding Announcement, but as an interesting payoff in lower powered synergy cubes with a +1/+1 counter theme.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Honestly, yeah. I'm playing Chivalric Alliance and it might be a nice alternative that cuts down on a unique token, but generally it does the same thing (with upside!).

 

[Brad]

Where are you guys even finding these? What the fuck is WotC doing?

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

they announced 12,000 new cards this weekend try to keep up man

 

[Seeker]

Where are you guys even finding these? What the fuck is WotC doing?

They're doing the Lord of the Rings thing again, where they're selling new product 3+ months after the set came out with new cards in it.

They announced the "Chocobo Bundle" and "Scene Boxes", coming December 5th, and just... silently added them to the normal FF product page without making an actual announcement on their official website. So if you want to know what's in it you have to like, go to Polygon or whatever.

I do wonder if "fancy new art vivi" will lower the price of Vivi, but on the other hand he's already "only" $30