The Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy era is coming to a close, but prices are still up and down for the current Universes Beyond offering.
Edge of Eternities kicks off next week (in prerelease), and while it’s going to add a whole host of cards to the standard rotation, it’s also going to make some big tweaks to Commander rules by allowing Legendary Vehicles to be your Commander.
So, for one last time for Final Fantasy, let's check out the movers and shakers, courtesy of data from the lovely folks at TCGPlayer.
Climbers: Count ‘em
Ever since Final Fantasy’s Universes Beyond set launched, there’s been a spike in pricing for any cards that involve the use of counters, thanks to the focus of the FFX deck helmed by Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian.
This week, one of the beneficiaries is Filigree Vector, from the March of the Machine set. It’s a four-cost White Artifact Creature that essentially arrives with +1/+1 counters and can proliferate, making it an ideal fit for the Blitzball star’s deck.
It’s gone from being a couple of dollars not long ago to climbing to around $15.
Next up, Magistrate’s Scepter is a 3-cost artifact that can be powered up with charge counters then used to take an entire extra turn. Given how quickly Tidus can get those counters, this Core Set 2019 card is now up to $5 from just a few cents a few weeks ago.
Away from counters, I’m pleased to see Stoneforge Mystic climbing. This two-cost card (of which I have a lovely full-art version) is an ideal inclusion in the Limit Break deck with its equipment focus, and lets you find your equipment more quickly.
It’s gone from being less than $20 to up to around $50 in recent listings, often more. And, on a similar note, Codsworth, Handy Helper from the Universes Beyond: Fallout set is still maintaining a price of around $20.
TCGPlayer has also pointed out that one Edge of Eternities card is likely to be very popular for anyone playing a Slivers deck.
Thrumming Hivepool costs less the more of the Sliver type you have, gives them double strike and haste, and creates more Sliver tokens at your upkeep phase. Put it all together, and you’re generating a veritable army within a couple of turns in the mid to late game.
Crashers: No Harmonic Done
Last week, we pointed out that Vivi Ornitier had begun dropping again, and then its value climbed a bit, but the same can’t be said of Harmonic Prodigy which remains great to pair with him.
It’s down to around $10, and could be ideal for any Wizard-based spellcaster decks you’re puting together.
As we close out the Final Fantasy era, we’re seeing other drops, too. One to keep an eye on for your White decks is Summon: Knights of Round. This fan-favorite spiked in June but has levelled out at around $30 and could drop further.
Another Summon, Bahamut, is also on the way down having now hit around $26. It’s still dropping, too, and given it can be an ideal ‘big finish’ to a game (and has 9/9 for its stats), it’s worth a look.
Finally, Tifa Lockhart has also seen a drop. She’s down to around $5, having been double that just a few weeks ago.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.