My First Big MTG Unboxing Since 2003 and It Couldn’t Be Any More Perfect Because of the Final Fantasy Collab

Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering has probably just released its biggest collaboration. They collaborated with Square Enix’s massive Final Fantasy IP, bringing in 20+ major titles (Final Fantasy 1-16, including sequels and expansions) of content into the MTG universe.

That was a big enough hook to reel me back in from the days of playing MTG’s Onslaught, Legion, and Scourge sets. I loved both MTG and Final Fantasy growing up, and it was the perfect time to get into the hobby again, so I took a shot at its Collector’s Booster Box.

The First Big Challenge – Securing an MTG Collector’s Box

As a casual TCG fan in the Philippines, I have always struggled to secure pre-order copies of both Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon bundles. We don’t have enough stock of the new sets, so they are always sold out just hours into the local pre-order announcements. Pre-order slots were simply too hard to obtain.

While doing a piece for the new MTG Foundations set bringing old players back, I recently made a habit of checking hobby stores when I go outside, and with the MTG x FF announcement, I always made sure to ask if they have any for pre-orders available, even if it wasn’t available yet.

I was lucky enough to ask and secure a pre-order slot months before it came out at a reasonable price. I waited patiently for the release and even saw the pre-order bundles increase in price by more than 70% after their hour-long Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Debut Showcase.

I know I am not reselling this, no matter what, and I was only thinking about what chase cards I wanted.

MTG X Final Fantasy Arrived Earlier than Expected – No Choice but to Unbox it

While the global release is set at June 13, 2025, local hobby shops started rolling out the bundles out of nowhere. I was excited and ripped open the MTG Collector’s Box Bundle immediately.

Each pack should contain multiple rares, mythic rares, borderless, and extended arts, which is why these collector bundles initially went for $400.

Opening these packs was a lot more exciting because you always see rare cards right at the start, hoping for the right ones to appear. While I only got two out of my five main chase cards, I felt like a kid again, opening my first Magic: The Gathering Legion packs and getting some awesome Slivers to round up a decent deck to use against my brothers.

I pulled two of my biggest chase cards: a Borderless Tifa, Martial Artist, and a Borderless Surge Foil Cloud, Midgar Mercenary. I also wanted to get any Lightning, Vivi, and Sephiroth cards, but you can’t get them all right?

I was happy to get some awesome cards, like Yuffie, Aerith, Zidane, Gareth, Squall, and Yuna. I also noticed I pulled several cards from FF 1-6, which I am almost clueless about. Final Fantasy 7, 9, 14, and 15 were quite common in my pulls.

The most shocking thing about opening this MTG Collector’s Box was how even the common and uncommon cards excited me. The Final Fantasy set also features cool common and uncommon borderless cards like Zidane, Tantalus Thief, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria, summons like Shiva or Titan, and Crystal Fragments.

Even Vanille, an uncommon card, has a cool concept where if you are able to start a main phase with Vanille and Fang, you’ll summon the Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance, which combines both Vanille and Fang’s cards back into one big card, perfectly fitting Final Fantasy XIII’s theme.

While the set was expensive and I’ll probably never go for it again because of the price, I definitely don’t regret buying and opening this Collector’s Box, as it brought back my nostalgia of playing Final Fantasy titles back on the PlayStation 1 and building creature-based decks like Goblins, Elves, Zombies, and Slivers back in the early 2000s.