Spoilers for the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set are finally here in number, thanks to the preview panel at Pax East on May 10. Hidden among a whirl of names and faces (this is a very legendary creature-heavy set) are some of Final Fantasy’s most iconic creatures: the chocobos.
MTG Final Fantasy was always going to have to have at least a few of the giant yellow birds, but we didn’t necessarily expect them to be this powerful.
Described as the set’s ‘premier chocobo’, Travelling Chocobo is a mythic rare creature with two great abilities. Firstly, it lets you cast birds or lands off the top of your library. But even better than that, it also doubles triggers from your birds or your lands. As we’ve seen from Sazh’s Chocobo – The chocobo cards are, as a group, going to have a distinct lands focus, and this certainly helps them out.
Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling the ‘land side’ of this card is going to be a lot more relevant than the ‘bird side’ 99% of the time. Doubling the effects of a Scute Swarm or Omnath feels a lot mightier than buffing even the best birds. Although that said, I’m thinking this might be pretty fantastic in a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician cEDH deck.
But Travelling Chocobo isn’t just a mighty card for a bunch of MTG formats, Wizards of the Coast are also trying to set it up as this Magic: The Gathering set’s main collectible.
In that spirit, we have rainbow chocobos: a Travelling Chocobo of every flavor. They all do the same thing, and are functionally the same card, but that hardly matters – Final Fantasy and Magic mega fans are going to want to have them all to display in a pretty binder. Just think how expensive the Lord of the Rings Nazgul cards were in 2023. True, you could play all nine in the same deck, but players were desperate to have one of every art. And those were uncommons!
These cards are located in collector boosters worldwide and resurrect the ‘neon ink’ treatment seen in Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, which should make the colors really pop!
As if that wasn’t enough, Wizards of the Coast is also releasing a serialized Golden Chocobo card. Found only in English collector boosters, there will be just 77 of these in total, so grab your harpoons and get ready to go chasing for that white whale.
While these cards might not reach the heights or the price tag of the $2 million One Ring, FF devotees have a level of dedication that easily rivals Magic’s own fanatics – Square Enix was able to sell limited edition statues for $11,000, after all. At any rate, we guarantee it will be one of the most expensive MTG cards of the year.
What’s your favorite Final Fantasy card shown off so far? Come, fight each other in our Discord server for our amusement. And don’t miss our great guides to the best MTG cards of all time and the best MTG Arena decks you can play.
