Magic: The Gathering has printed thousands of unique cards in the decades since it arrived on the CCG scene in the early 90s. Magic: The Gathering expanded greatly over the years, introducing dozens upon dozens of expansions, eventually including the Secret Lair and Universes Beyond projects that brought other popular IPs into MTG's world. Throughout, Wizards of the Coast has consistently added new mechanics and abilities in each subsequent set, some of which have had a bigger impact on evolving deck-building strategies and the overall meta.
MTG's most recent major expansion, Edge of Eternities, was preceded by the extremely popular and successful Final Fantasy crossover. Both brought some fun and flavorful (and in certain cases, borderline overpowered) cards into the mix. And within these, there are two cards, one from each set, that both stand out for having a strange and similar ability.
Magic: The Gathering's next crossover collaborations are the Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender sets, scheduled to drop on September 26 and November 21, respectively.
Two Cards From Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy and Edge of Eternities Sets Are Absurdly Excessive in the Same Way
Magic: The Gathering Has an Established History of Cards With Sometimes Ludicrous Effects
Even going back to some of its earliest expansions, Magic: The Gathering has featured cards that stood out for being particularly powerful. Historically, a number of these were often impressively large and beefy creatures or ones with abilities that were able to dish out more massive damage compared to most others. Additions like the Elder Dragons or Eldrazi race were eyebrow-raising at the time.
Another example is Progenitus from the Conflux set, a 10/10 creature costing ten total mana of two from each color, and which has "protection from everything." Though it can be debatable whether these may add to or detract from the normal flow of a duel, such designs are usually rarer and can still inject a lot of flavor and style . This design precedent has been carried through into the present in the latest two collections, with two cards that are in the running for dealing the most amount of sheer damage.
These Two Cards From Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy and Edge of Eternities Sets Can Deal Preposterous Levels of Damage
Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy crossover has been making waves since its release. Not only was it the single most successful set so far, pulling in over $200 million in one day, but Vivi Ornitier's card has become borderline game-breaking in the current climate.
Following that was the Edge of Eternities set, which is science fiction-centric and introduces a variety of related new mechanics. The cards in question are Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought from Edge of Eternities and Final Fantasy's Jumbo Cactuar. Both possess the ability to unleash abnormally devastating levels of damage far exceeding what would usually be necessary.
Dawnsire is a spacecraft similar to the vehicle types previously introduced. When its first Station level of 10 is reached, Dawnsire deals 100 damage to a target creature or planeswalker whenever its controller attacks. At Station level 20, it becomes a 20/20 flying artifact creature. These effects, along with the art, bring to mind something like the Star Destroyers in Star Wars, fitting the nature and theme of the expansion.
On the Final Fantasy side of things is Green's Jumbo Cactuar, a 1/7 Plant which gets +9999 power when it attacks, recreating the infamous ten-thousand needles move employed by the creatures in FF games. This is also a ridiculous boost, as it will surely be enough to kill any defending creatures many times over, barring some equally impenetrable defense.
While these may not be pound-for-pound the most efficient Magic: The Gathering cards, the fact that they can potentially deal so much raw damage makes them notable and adds an interesting wrinkle to matches where they might be at least situationally useful. Beyond that, though, they capture the essence of their respective set designs well and in a creatively appropriate manner.
- Franchise
- Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
- 1993
- Publisher
- Wizards of the Coast
- Age Recommendation
- 13+
Magic the Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield and released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Players take on the role of a Planeswalker and use various cards to battle other players by casting spells, summoning creatures, or utilizing artifacts. It features two main rule categories, constructed or limited, and can be played by two or more players at a time.
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