Image credit: Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix
Welcome to the third day of our countdown to the Final Fantasy set release! Each day, I'm selecting up to three cards from each game in the series (in ascending order) that I feel are the best within a certain set of criteria. Those criteria, to go over that again, are:
- Honorable Mention - These usually will be a cycle or group of cards that are great but don't quite measure up to the "best" in the categories we have chosen to cover.
- Best As A Commander - This category covers, as advertised, the best commander to lead a deck in Commander, but may also look briefly at other Command Zone-driven formats.
- Best in the 99 - This section discusses my choice for the best card in a given 99 of a deck. It may be a ubiquitous card, but it might also just be a card with a fair amount of utility.
- Most Flavorful - The most fun to play card in a storytelling context will be deemed Most Flavorful. For example, we covered in our FFI list for its fun lore synergies with Towns, especially those with specific Final Fantasy town names.
- Best In Show - The very best of these cards in a balance of the above categories.
Furthermore, cards from the Commander precons, Through the Ages, and promotional/Secret Lair cards are inelgiible for consideration. We want to keep this strictly from the main set. Yesterday, we looked at cards from FFII. So with that, hold onto your hats, because it's time to look at Final Fantasy III!
Honorable Mentions
The five Crystals from Final Fantasy III. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast and Square Enix
The Crystal cycle from FFIII is a major plot device for the game. This idea of crystals arbiting balance across the world is also a recurring theme across the series as a whole. While it started in FFII, III really drove that point hard as well.
This cycle is largely a flavor choice, but I'd say they'd also be fantastic in a 99 of decks that like to do any number of things. To reiterate, the Crystal cycle consists of:
Because this set was a cycle of cards, I couldn't justify putting them anywhere else but Honorable Mentions, however, so that's where they go!
Best as a Commander
Xande, Dark MageXande, Dark Mage is a pretty interesting commander option. He's in colors that work well for filling your graveyard. And, these colors are great for noncreature spell strategies. Paired together and with some evasion in menace added to the mix, Xande becomes a threat fairly quickly.
Furthermore, as black is one of the better colors for recursion, that mana value of 4 plus any commander tax means very little when you can ReanimateReanimate him. A truly formidable creature, indeed!
Best in the 99
Once again, we have yet another card that works well with Equipment strategies. Item ShopkeepItem Shopkeep is an inexpensive creature that grants menace to an equipped creature. You don't even have to attack with the Shopkeep to achieve this, making the card fairly useful as support for a Voltron strategy and as a blocker when things get tough.
Most Flavorful
Adventurer's InnAdventurer's Inn, a common Town in the set, is my choice for Most Flavorful for Final Fantasy III. While this card could feature in any of the game subsets, its ubiquity shines here especially well. This land provides a traveler with a brief respite in the form of two points of lifegain. It's a cute card, even if it does rather little in Magic. However, the flavor of visiting an Inn and resting to regain life is a pretty fun idea.
With that, we come to the Best In Show for FFIII. What card could that possibly be, out of three other possibilities (at the time of writing)?
Final Fantasy III Best In Show
...It's Cloud of DarknessCloud of Darkness!
This creature is the final boss of FFIII. While the stats of 3/3 don't quite match the magnanimity of this boss, that's just an unfortunate side-effect of game balancing for Magic. Nevertheless, the flavor certainly does a lot to bring out the best in this creature. Cloud of Darkness can easily vaporize a creature when it enters, and as a commander (especially in Pauper Commander), it will be frustrating to attempt to remove.
There isn't much more to FFIII in the Magic set, but Cloud of Darkness felt the most apt to award Best In Show!
Conclusion
These past three count-up articles covered some sparsely populated cards within the Final Fantasy set, but FFIV and others will most assuredly have more representation. Stay tuned for more of these articles! And, if you agree or disagree with these choices, let us know in the comments below!
Meanwhile, if you wish to catch up on the count-up so far, you can read them below:
Your opinions are welcome. We love hearing what you think about Magic! We ask that you are always respectful when commenting. Please keep in mind how your comments could be interpreted by others. Personal attacks on our writers or other commenters will not be tolerated. Your comments may be removed if your language could be interpreted as aggressive or disrespectful. You may also be banned from writing further comments.