The highly anticipated Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy collaboration has been a lovely thing to witness. It’s brought some fantastic energy into both these franchises and absolutely oozes passion for the worlds within them. With that context, I was stoked to get the opportunity to speak with Dillon Deveney, the Final Fantasy Narrative Lead of the project, during Summer Game Fest 2025. The team’s vision for this crossover and love for FF was enthusiastic and evident throughout our conversation. They truly went the extra mile with this collaboration, and I’m so glad they did! In honor of the set launching today, we are excited to share details around this chat! Be sure to also check out Hilary’s Final Fantasy x Magic Visual Overview feature!
Our discussion touched on many different topics, including the selection process for entry representation, incorporating community elements into the crossover, the impact of the numerous localizations and versions of each series entry, and more.
We dove into how the team tackled the arduous task of deciding how much representation each of the sixteen mainline entries would get. Deveney explained that the team considered many factors like the popularity of an entry, iconic aspects of the series that would be most recognizable for fans and newcomers of Final Fantasy, and gameplay considerations for how certain cards would fit into the established rules of Magic: The Gathering.
For example, he shared the decision process around mascot cards for enemies common to multiple games: creatures like tonberries, cactuars, moogles, and the like. In the case of coeurls, he discussed how the team was originally going to go with the design from Final Fantasy X, but they realized that they needed more white cards to go with the set. Thus, they went with the coeurl design from Final Fantasy XV, which has more realistic-looking coeurls enemies in its deserts that would better fit a white card.
He also shared a funny story about the Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward moogle card in particular. Apparently, the team accidentally submitted the moogle artwork with the iconic orange-colored pom, only to receive word back from Square Enix that the moogles in The Churning Mists area of Heavensward actually had purple-colored poms. That’s how lore-accurate the team committed to being with this collaboration!
Another interesting development story: Deveney shared how, originally, the “Sabin Suplexing the Phantom Train” card was going to be named Meteor Strike to reflect the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster’s name for the skill. However, due to this scene’s infamy and meme status within the fandom, the team really pushed for the card to be called Suplex instead. Fortunately, they got it! This reflects how the designers wanted tidbits and pieces of the Final Fantasy community to make it into the crossover. This last story also touched upon a particular challenge that the team faced: deciding what versions or localizations to include in the set when so many exist in the series.
We also discussed design decisions behind the Job Select cards. Deveney described how the team chose to include the six original Final Fantasy I classes, keeping them relatively simple mechanically to align with the series’ beginnings. On the other hand, they expanded these Job Select cards by throwing Final Fantasy XIV classes with more complicated mechanics into the mix, as they felt that this game represented a modern rendition of the Final Fantasy class system.
Finally, he indicated how, though it was impossible to include everything they wanted to from a series as vast as Final Fantasy, the designers incorporated as much as possible into the collection. From including characters in the background of certain cards to referencing them in related flavor texts, they squeezed in a staggering amount!
Deveney concluded our conversation by expressing how much of a pleasure it’s been for the team to see fans so excited about the Final Fantasy crossover, celebrating the references big and small that the designers have packed into these cards. Just by checking out the collection, it was already clear to me that the designers knew their stuff; however, after this session, I’ve come to better appreciate these fandoms and the cool things that they can create.
To learn more about the Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy crossover and getting these cards for yourself, check out the official website and Hilary’s recent preview. Thank you to Dillon Deveney and Wizards of the Coast for taking the time to share their creative process with me!
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