Vivi Ornitier is, without question, the most powerful card from the Final Fantasy set. This miniature mage ended up getting banned from the Standard format because its power simply couldn't be contained.

Vivi gains a +1/+1 counter and deals one damage to each opponent whenever its controller casts a noncreature spell, and it can generate red and blue mana equal to its power during each of your turns.

It's incredibly easy to buff Vivi's stats into the stratosphere, and then generate enough mana to keep yourself going for the rest of the game. The card becomes even more broken when combined with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, which spreads Vivi's effect across the rest of your board, pumping out even more mana.

For a card that isn't even green, Vivi's ability to ramp is unmatched. While you can no longer use the little wizard in Standard, you can still clean up shop with them in Pioneer, Modern, and Commander.

Sagas have been a part of Magic: the Gathering since the set Dominaria was released in 2018. These storytelling enchantments gain lore counters every turn, gradually unlocking a series of powerful abilities.

Final Fantasy took Sagas and used them to show off the suite of huge monsters that Yuna, Rydia, and other summoners call upon throughout the series.

Commonn and uncommon Saga creatures like Shiva, Ifrit, and Ramuh can dictate the pace of limited matches, while Rare and Mythic summons like Bahamut and Knights of Round are game ending threats.

It's possible to build Commander decks focussed on calling up these might magical beasts. You can stick within the worlds of Final Fantasy using a commander like Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, who can adjust the number of lore counters on your Sagas, allowing them to remain in play longer and reuse their abilities. Or you can travel over to Middle-Earth and build a five color Saga deck with Tom Bombadil who starts up a new saga the moment an old one wraps up.

Crystals are as central to the identity of the Final Fantasy series as over the top anime hairstyles, and final boss battles that last hours and shift through a convoluted selection of increasingly powerful forms.

Most Final Fantasy games have a crystal representing each of the major elements, and sure enough, this is true of their representation in Magic: the Gathering, which slots a powerful elemental Crystal into each of the game's five colours.

The Wind Crystal makes white spells 1 mana cheaper, doubles the effectiveness of its controller's life gain effects, and grants all of their creatures flying and lifelink at the cost of six mana.

The Water Crystal makes blue spells 1 mana cheaper. It also causes the opponent to mill an additional four cards whenever they put cards directly from their deck into their graveyard, and has an activated ability that forces them to mill cards equal to the number of cards in your hand.

The Darkness Crystal provides a 1 mana discount on black spells. It also locks down graveyard strategies by exiling their creatures when they die. For a small cost, you can later return a creature exiled with the Darkness Crystal to play, sliding two +1/+1 counters on to it and turning it against its original master.

The Fire Crystal burns away 1 mana from the cost of any red spells. It grants all of its controller's creatures haste and allows them to spend six mana to create a temporary clone.

Finally, The Earth Crystal completes the cycle by making green spells one mana cheaper. It also doubles the number of +1/+1 counters that get placed on your creatures whenever you would generate any, and possesses an activated ability that synergises with this effect by pumping out some +1/+1 counters of its own.

Each of the crystals has seen degrees of success in decks based around the archetypes that they enable. You don't need to be a warrior of light to wield their power, you just need to be a cunning tactician.

Across the years, avid RPG players have ventured into all sorts of towns during their Final Fantasy playthroughs. From the bleak Imperial capital of Vector from Final Fantasy VI, to the idylic paradise of Windurst in Final Fantasy XI.

If you can get enough towns in play, then you can cast Travel the Overworld at a deeply discounted rate, drawing four cards for an incredibly low cost.

Ultimately, the most impactful town from the set wasn't Midgar, or Zanarkand, it was the humble Starting Town. This five colour fixing land has seen play in a variety of formats thanks to its ability to tap for mana of any colour, or even just colourless mana, while also being able to enter the battlefield untapped when played in the early game. It just goes to show that no matter how far you adventure, you should never forget your home.

Every story needs a protagonist, and the Final Fantasy set gave us plenty to choose from, drawn from across all sixteen games in the series.

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed, the commander of the Scions and Spellcraft Commander deck, emerged as the most popular commander from the crossover. This is because of her incredible versatility. She deals two damage to each opponent and restores two life to her controller whenever they cast a noncreature spell with mana value three or greater. She also draws a card when any opponent has taken four or more damage in a turn. These two abilities synergise beautifully, making it very easy to blast out damage while catapulting new cards into your hand. Y'shtola is both a highly powerful card and a very broad one, making her an easy legend to build around.

Hope Estheim brought together the previously unrelated themes of mill and lifegain. Each opponent mills cards at the end of every turn where Hope's controller has gained life. This makes Hope the ideal commander for players looking to turtle up and gradually grind their opponents' decks down. By combining Hope with cards that can rapidly generate life, such as Sanguine Sacrament and Sphinx's Revelation, it's possible to bring games to an end surpisingly swiftly.

Finally, Noctis, Prince of Lucis, blends together graveyard and artifact based strategies while leaving a lot of room open for creative deck building. By paying three life, you can play any mana value three or lower artifact from your graveyard. You can use this to load Noctis up with equipment from Sword of the Animist to Swiftfoot Boots, or to recur sacrificial artifacts like Wayfarer's Bauble and Burnished Hart.

But maybe you don't want to save the world, maybe you want to watch it all burn. Well, Final Fantasy has a broad selection of villains to brew around.

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER lives up to the fearsome reputation of Final Fantasy's most formidable villain. He's an absolutely brutal monoblack commander that punishes your opponents for each and every creature that dies. Every opponent loses one life, and you gain a life whenever any creature gets destroyed, sacrificed, or otherwise sent from the battlefield to the graveyard. If this effect resolves four times in a turn, Sephiroth flips over into Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel, granting you an emblem with his ability, ensuring that it will stick around even if he dies, and allowing you to sacrifice any number of creatures to draw cards whenever he attacks. Load your deck up with removal effects that can hit multiple targets like Hex, Soul Shatter, and The Meathook Massacre, then watch as the other players around the table gradually have their life sapped away.

Kefka, Court Mage captures the gleeful murderousness of Final Fantasy VI's Harlequin inspired antagonist perfectly. The front side of this killer clown forces everyone to discard cards whenever it enters play or attacks, but lets you draw for every card type that just hit the graveyard. Then Kefka's reverse side ramps up the card advantage even further, allowing you to draw a card for every single point of damage dealt to opponents during your turn. You'll never lack for resources when you have Kefka in your Command Zone.

Despite simply being an uncommon, The Emperor of Palamecia can provide a surprising amount of power. Acting as a mana dork that gets gradually stronger on its front side, and then flipping into The Lord Master of Hell on its reverse side. The Emperor's true form deals X damage to each opponent whenever it attacks, where X is the number of nonland, noncreature cards in your graveyard. By using self mill effects, it's incredibly easy to fill your graveyard quickly and deal out huge amounts of burn damage using this hellish ruler.

Even now, a year down the line, the impact of Final Fantasy can still be felt across multiple MTG formats. From Commander tables where moogles, chocobos, and RPG heroes clash, to the manabases of nonrotating formats where copies of Starting Town help players quickly assemble all five colours. It seems likely that, however many years, pass, these cards are here to stay.

Whether you're more of a Final Fantasy fan or an MTG player, remember to subscribe to the Magic Madhouse newsletter down at the bottom of this page. Then you gain some more exp by following us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.