Skip to main content

Final Fantasy MTG

So you doubted the selling power of Final Fantasy, huh? 

Hate to break it to you chum, but this series absolutely commands the market, thanks not only to its nostalgic legacy as a technologically groundbreaking series of video games, but also its legion of memorable heroes and villains struggling for supremacy of the fate of their distinctive worlds. 

Ready to see Cloud and Tifa strike back once more at the evil Sephiroth? They're all here, as well as countless other characters and set pieces exactly from your favorite Roman Numerically numbered adventures, exactly as you remember them.

Just as importantly, these cards aren't just pretty, they're potent. We're talking game-changing, upending multiple formats level potency.  


Take the card Tifa Lockheart, a fairly innocent looking 2 mana drop based on the beloved supporting character from Final Fantasy VII. She's a 1 power/ 2 toughness trample green creature that has the landfall ability "whenever a land enters this turn, double Tifa's power until end of turn. It's not hard for green to play three lands on a turn, so you could easily have eight trample coming in on turn 3. Then, if you have an effect adding counters, you could easily make Tifa enormous in exponential fashion! 

For those of you who don't play Magic, the bottom line is: take a fan favorite, make it a BEATER card, rinse and repeat.

Naturally, The level of success the Final Fantasy set achieved came in large part to some absolutely exquisite execution with regards to these very characters on the part of the Wizards of the Coast team. It is in those actions that I believe game, comic and movie developers alike can learn some serious lessons on how to successfully present and launch a fan beloved property. 

In brief, here are three that stand out:

First, proper fan service means bringing back the characters as they were. Getting the look perfect is crucial, not to mention capturing an essence of the character's personality. Characters like Cloud, Sephiroth, Tidus, Yuma, Zidane, and so many more capture the heart of what makes these avatars of adventure so special to fans. 

Second, the battle mechanics needed to be fresh, exciting and over the top. Summon Sagas wove flavor and combat seamlessly, adding to the tapestry of the ever-expanding MTG chessboard. How does this apply to story characters? Have them do things they've never tried before...duh! Surprise us!


Third, collectors love novelty. How about reprinting some of Magic's best cards with fresh scenes from your favorite games? Rhystic Study reprinted as "Stay with Me" became an instant classic, and a card that I absolutely need to get my hands on (in no small part due to how awesome rhystic study is). 

So there's my five-second starter on how to fix the creative world. Not ambitious at all, I know, but I feel the core philosophy could giude to a brighter future in entertainment. Simply said, if we take the things that we love and make them grow organically, learning off the experiences of the past while conquering brand new challenges in the present, fans are going to pour their love back into it. 

Til next week, keep your eyes to the skies.

Paul Andrea

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think Outside the Box

Roll your eyes to the sky for me if you know this expression - "Think outside the box." Of course you've heard this one. Anybody who's worked on a tricky job or found themselves stuck in a rut on a school project knows it by heart. It's just a quick, easy, maybe even trite way to say "Use your imagination and find a way this hasn't been done before."  No problem, right? It's just a stupid box, and I can imagine myself jumping out of it pretty easily. Sounds simple, Hell, it even rings TRUE. The human imagination is so vast we can't even define its boundaries. Of COURSE the solution lies in my imagination.  So why, after applying this conventional wisdom, would we still run into roadblocks?  The trouble with the expression, dear reader, is one of scope. The Box, which simply stated refers to "the way things have been done before," covers an incredible amount of experience. Over 5000 years of recorded history. So many human beings, al...
Post a Comment
Read more

PAUL GPT

Are you letting AI do your writing for you? Before we get started, I'd like you to take a moment and consider three questions: 1.)     Have I ever used an AI application to write something, and if so, why did I choose to use it? 2.)     How did I feel about the finished product, and did I feel like it was my work or somebody else's? 3.)     What's something I have a really strong opinion on, and could I type out that argument along with three facts to back it up? OK, let's hit this rabbit hole. My name is Paul Andrea. If you are reading this, you are the resistance. It's not because SkyNet or our world leaders are coming to lay waste to the world, that stuff is for movies meant to scare us. They are coming to scare us. Scared people are entertained people, and entertained people are distracted people. The apocalypse is not coming. The administration buildings will still stand. The roads will still carry traffic. Life will ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cheat Codes for Everyday Problems

Mea culpa: forgetting people's names is a serious weakness of mine, and when I mess up it leaves me feeling embarrassed. People who know me well might be shocked to see me admit this. I have crafted my mind into an extensive database for facts, figures and trivia on a plethora of subjects. I'm usually daisy-chaining tasks one after the other to accomplish what I need to each day. Therein lies the rub. My mind gets so preoccupied with other matters that I often miss out on what's in front of me, foremost of which being remembering someone's name. Given this problem is shared by many, we are often tempted to pass off screwing up someone's name as trivial. However, such mix ups leave people's feelings more affected than you may suspect. A person's name, in their own mind, is their identity, and their very sense of who they are and their place in this world ties directly to that name. By forgetting a person's name, you (subconsciously, and without any ill wi...
Post a Comment
Read more