This past weekend Wizards of the Coast really lifted the lid on its upcoming Final Fantasy crossover set for Magic: The Gathering, but the oodles of cards revealed there were apparently not enough. Today the Magic team revealed even more cards to players, and they’re filled with incredible nods to Final Fantasy history… including an absolute gem from Final Fantasy X.
Today Wizards revealed the full card lists for each of the four Final Fantasy preconstructed Commander Decks that will launch alongside the expansion next month. The four decks are built around four iconic entries from the mainline Final Fantasy series: Revival Trance, based on Final Fantasy VI; Limit Break, based on Final Fantasy VII; Counter Blitz, based around Final Fantasy X; and Scions and Spellcraft, based around Final Fantasy XIV. Each deck of 100 cards is completely themed for the Final Fantasy set, from wholly new cards to re-flavored takes on already-existent Magic cards with new thematically appropriate art.
One such re-flavor in the Counter Blitz deck is Inspiring Call, a green mana instant that has been around in various Magic sets since it first appeared in 2015’s Dragons of Tarkir. It’s a simple enough card, granting any creatures you control that you’ve given +1/+1 counters to temporary protection while also drawing a few cards. But in Counter Blitz, it becomes, well, more of an inspiring laugh:
Yes, right down to the flavor text, we’re getting Yuna and Tidus’ infamous laugh scene from Final Fantasy X in card form. An early moment in the game, the scene sees Yuna try to cheer Tidus up as the duo and the rest of the party prepare to carry on their pilgrimage to defeat the monstrous entity known as Sin, who Tidus has just learned (spoilers for a 24-year-old PS2 game) is actually seemingly a transformed corruption of his long-missing father, Jecht. Yuna, knowing her quest will eventually claim her life, tries to get Tidus to learn how to hide his emotions and put on a happy face, first literally and then through comically forced laughter. The rest is Final Fantasy meme history:
Although the purpose of the scene is that Tidus and Yuna’s laughter is meant to be forced and awkward sounding (as you can see above, they break out into genuine laughter immediately after), the clip of their barked laughs has spent the past two and a half decades taking on a life of its own as a viral meme, from goofy music edits to dunks on cringy video game voice acting (X was the first Final Fantasy to feature extensive voice acting). And now, its legacy is reclaimed in Magic.
It’s just one of many great little nods and references throughout what we’ve seen of the Final Fantasy set so far. The Commander Decks have revealed a ton of new cards in a similar vein that have great mechanical nods to their respective games—some of my favorites include Zack Fair in FFVII‘s, which lets you essentially replicate Cloud swiping Zack’s identity after his death, or Champions from Beyond in FFXIV‘s, a very nifty nod to the MMORPG’s party finder mechanic (and one of the coolest moments in its expansion Shadowbringers). Most of the nods are reverentially serious, befitting the passion that’s on display for this meeting of fantastical titans. But it’s nice that in cards like Inspiring Call’s remixing, the Final Fantasy set knows when to have a bit of forced laughter at itself too.
Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy hits shelves next month on June 13. Head on over to Wizards’ card image gallery for the set to see even more cards from the crossover!
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