After the news that Transformers will be coming this November as a 15-card Universes Beyond set in the upcoming The Brothers’ War expansion set, Wizards of the Coast added more hype with the addition of video game franchises. What does the future have in store for MTG’s Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed collaborations? Check out the details below. The news was announced as part of the Hasbro Investor Day on October 4, 2022.
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) October 5, 2022 Along with announcing the promotion of Chris Cocks to CEO, the crossover with the Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed IPs were earmarked as an important initiative to unlock brand value, as well as driving innovation and growth for the company: Wizards of the Coast President Cynthia Williams presented the crossover content during Hasbro’s Investor Day. She pointed out how Magic: The Gathering is celebrating 30 years in 2022, while Final Fantasy has its 35th anniversary and Assassin’s Creed is on its 15th year. Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed are not the first video game collaborations that Wizards of the Coast has done. Two popular video game franchises, Street Fighter and Fortnite, have had previous Secret Lair Drops. In addition, other Universes Beyond crossover cards and products for Magic: The Gathering saw crossovers with Dungeons & Dragons, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, and Godzilla. Plus, just recently MTG released an entire set of Commander decks that see cards depicting characters and armies from Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40000. Although no exact details have been revealed for the Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed crossover with Magic: The Gathering, it is likely they will follow previous Universes Beyond collaborations. This would mean the cards will not be legal for most Standard tournament formats, but will be generally playable in Eternal formats, which would include Legacy, Vintage, and Commander formats. Unfortunately, this also means these cards will not appear in the highly popular Magic: The Gathering Arena mobile game. It is also very likely that the artwork for these sets will have some connection with the video games. Coincidentally, legendary Final Fantasy concept artist and painter Yoshitaka Amano did create a piece for Magic: The Gathering in the past. Amano painted an alternate version of Liliana, Dreadhorde General for the War of the Spark set in 2019. Could Amano be contributing new pieces for the Final Fantasy crossover with MTG? Perhaps the Assassin’s Creed cards will have new pieces from Raphael Lacoste? It is currently unclear whether the Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed sets will be Secret Lair Drops, separate Commander Decks like Warhammer 40K, or as subsets of cards within an actual expansion set like the Transformers. The only confirmation made is that both the Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed crossovers will be targeted for a 2024 release.
