How Magic: The Gathering Perfectly Adapts Final Fantasy’s Spells
Magic: The Gathering takes the spell name system from Final Fantasy and turns it into a new mechanic that fits perfectly with the existing colour identities of the card game.
You may not know about my obsession with spell names in games, because so far, I have done all my writing on the topic in German. I enjoy it when spells trigger different effects that take form in their changing names. It sounds more complicated than I mean it to be: You know the concept from Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei: “Fire” does a little fire damage, “Fira” a little more; “Agi” hits one enemy, “Maragi” hits several. The structure of these words (and words in general) is called morphology, and the bits attached to the front and back are called prefixes and suffixes, respectively.
Naturally, I perk up when my favourite topic suddenly appears in another medium. Even more so when that medium is my latest obsession: in April 2024, a friend took me to a local Magic: The Gathering (MTG) event for the cowboy-themed Outlaws of Thunder Junction set, and I’ve been a big fan of Magic ever since, watching Tolarian Community College and reading EDHREC religiously. Now, in June 2025, the trading card game is releasing a major Final Fantasy crossover set that introduces Final Fantasy icons such as Chocobos and Moogles, as well as protagonists such as Cloud and Cloud…of Darkness, as playable cards. And part of that is a new keyword called Tiered, which transforms the Final Fantasy spell system into a game mechanic.
Tiered: Like a Final Fantasy Skilltree
New Magic sets usually bring new mechanics with them. These are often small variations or interpretations of existing game types. One recurring variation is the so-called modal system. Here, a card offers several effects, of which sometimes only one may be selected, and sometimes several may be cast at additional cost. The aforementioned Thunder Junction set, for example, introduced the Spree mechanic, which allows players to use all the effects of a card if they pay multiple separate mana costs.
Tiered now is the latest variation of this modality. And it is based on the naming of the Final Fantasy spells. Take a look at the “Ice Magic” card as an example.
Ice Magic. Source: Wizards of the Coast.
The basic version, Blizzard, can be used at no additional cost, i.e. only for the basic mana cost in the upper right corner, one blue mana and one mana of any colour. For two additional mana, players can use Blizzara, or for six additional mana – five of any colour and one blue dot – Blizzaga. However, the effects are mutually exclusive, as indicated by the line ‘Choose one additional cost’. Wording is essential in Magic: for spacing reasons, instructions are often brief and concise, so it is important to read the sentence semantics correctly. This makes the card game a good opportunity to learn English or brush up on language skills, for example. You practice clarity and understanding.
Adding to the appeal of this new mechanic is the fact that the cards are thematically related to the Final Fantasy spell, and the increasing effects make sense in relation to each other – this strengthens the connection of the cards to the video game series. Sometimes, this happens through a prior association with Magic’s card colour conventions. Let’s take “Ice Magic” as an example again.
Colours and Expectations: The Semantics of MTG
“Ice Magic” is a blue card and does not belong to the other four colours of the game, white, red, black and green. This seems logical instantly, even if you are not familiar with the characteristics of the individual Magic colours: ice = blue.
Blue interruption spells (known as instants, which can also be played during your opponent’s turn) are notorious for bouncing creatures, i.e. returning them from the field to their opponent’s hand or deck. This effect is rarely seen in other colours. The escalation of this effect can be clearly seen in the Tiered list: Level 1: Back to the hand, Level 2: Predictably to the top or bottom of the deck, or Level 3: Randomly to the deck are escalation levels from each other.
Unsustantiate, a typical ‘bounce’ effect card. Source: Wizards of the Coast.
What Magic publishers Wizards of the Coast are doing here is semantically linking the types of magic in both franchises:
Blue, as the basic colour that suits both the card game and the video games, is the vehicle for connoting the blue ‘standard’ effect of bouncing with the blue ‘standard’ spell of ice. To strengthen the connection and introduce the Tiered mechanic at the same time, Wizards is simultaneously combining two forms of escalation that are logical for each franchise: the escalating spell names from Final Fantasy with the increasingly powerful effects from Magic: The Gathering. The fact that such effects in the card game have to cost more as they become stronger for the sake of fairness also helps, because in Final Fantasy, a stronger spell form also costs more magic points than a weaker one. In technical terms, one could say that Wizards of the Coast combines the two cognitive frames of our understanding of magic in Final Fantasy and ‘magic’ (meaning sorcery and instant spells, for the meticulous MTG nerds among you) in Magic. This connection is reinforced by several links – colour, escalating effects and cost. This doesn’t just work with the example of ice magic. The red spell “Fire Magic”, for example, does the same thing, combining the effect of ‘causing damage’, which is associated with fire magic in fantasy games, with the typical red concept from MTG of distributing a smaller number of damage points (known as pinging).
Fire Magic. Source: Wizards of the Coast.
The fact that this works so well here is definitely commendable. Because sometimes, these links in the so-called Universes Beyond sets, expansions in cooperation with other brands can go completely wrong. For example, the fact that Assassin’s Creed cards receive bonuses when a Commander (a type of deck leader card that significantly determines the structure of their respective decks in a specific four-player multiplayer format) attacks an opponent is probably mainly related to the card game needing a working mechanic, not the game franchise universe.
One of the Assassin’s Creed cards with the Freerunning effect. Source: Wizards of the Coast.
