I know all the hype and attention is on the Spider-Man set, especially as it premiers on Arena this week as Through the Omenpaths, but we can’t lose sight of the other things Wizards has put out from Final Fantasy. A little while ago I talked about the best FCA buys, and this week I want to focus on some of the Commander cards, the FIC set.

So let’s get into the cards, where you can get the different shiny versions, and what’s worth buying. 

There’s actually two different shiny versions of these cards that you can get, and it’s important to know both the difference in price and where the cards come from. 

Surge foils come from the Commander decks themselves. These have the regular frame, but the Surge treatment so they are awesomely shiny. However, there are also Extended-Art versions. Collector Boosters can give you one nonfoil EA from the set of 93 cards, but the foils can only be found in the sample packs. 

Additionally, the legendary creatures from those 93 cards can also be pulled in FEA from inserts in the bundles and gift bundles. Let’s not go thinking there’s a lot of them, though. There are 69 very nice legends in the FIC set in extended art, and the inserts contain two of those in foil. So to get one of these legendary creatures in FEA, you’ll need to open roughly 35 bundles or gift bundles.

The Collector Booster Sample Packs aren’t sold as their own product, so Wizards doesn’t have to release the drop rates. We do know that they *only* contain EA cards and also the eight borderless commanders of the four decks. The foil rate for those seems to be pretty low, though, which we can infer from the quantities available on card sites and the relative prices.

With no direct data, we can look at the prices of the different cards. For the eight cards I’m focusing on today, the legends are all more expensive in FEA than in Surge, and vice versa for the regular cards. I suspect that collectors are at work, wanting the FEA versions of legends from our favorite games, but I can’t confirm that at all. 

It also needs to be said that I’m pretty high on the FIC cards long-term, both because they are good and on-theme and because the Final Fantasy cards attract completionist gamers. These won’t see reprints for a long time, if ever. Plus the special versions can only be gotten from expensive Collector Commander decks or these special 2-card packs. We’re at max supply here. 

Aerith, Last Ancient – Surge is $9, FEA is $13 – If you’ve never had the displeasure of playing against a Meren deck, let me assure you, a commander with ‘return a creature from yard to hand’ per turn is pretty damn good. Meren’s ability is better than Aerith’s, but Aerith’s got so much good stuff to build around (ahem, lifelink, etb) that even if she weren’t a top-tier character, she’d have a long-term future. 

Cid, Freeflier Pilot – Surge is $6, FEA is $11 – Really, Cid should be higher on all EDHREC lists, considering that he allows you to replay the equipment and vehicles that get destroyed. And we all know FF7 Cid is the best Cid anyway.

O’aka, Traveling Merchant – Surge is $2, FEA is $5 – Tom Bombadil is currently the default commander if you want to build five-color Sagas, and that deck wants all the ways to remove counters at instant speed. That’s because the way the triggers are worded, you can put the last chapter ability on the stack, and then remove a counter to keep the Saga but get the last effect on the card. It’s a lot of value, and as a bonus, you’ll get to draw a card for getting that value! You’ll demonstrate this once, and then the table will always blast poor old O’aka.

Gogo, Mysterious Mime – Surge is $13, FEA is $20 – I am a big big fan of ways to get extra copies of my commander onto the field, and Gogo is one of the best, since it gains haste as well. So if your Commander has to attack for a sweet effect, but there’s no good attacks, send in the Mime! This is one of the priciest legends on this list, and because of this ability, one of the most fun to break. 

Protection Magic – Surge is $3, FEA is $2 – Now we’re getting into cards where the Collector deck version in Surge foil is the pricier card, and to start, we have a card with both Yuna and Tidus, something fans of FFX love. It also helps that this is a very cheap way to both save your creatures and start the ball rolling with proliferate and counters-moving tomfoolery, so get your copies cheap while you can. 

Summoning Materia – Surge is $2, FEA is $1.50 – While there’s not a lot of call for pure value engines like this, I can’t deny that it’s one of the best. It is certainly a card that demands an answer, given the stream of cards that could be produced off of the top of the library. Normally people just kill the creature and move on, but since you can re-equip, there’s value here. As a comparison point, the FEA version of The Reality Chip is over $12.

Espers to Magicite – Surge is $3, FEA is $1.50 – This is a card I want to put in a lot more decks, because it’s such a unique and incredible effect. Commander players put in a boatload of creatures with activated abilities and static abilities or even just good ETBs, and this allows you to nuke everyone *else’s* graveyard while getting some amount of value for yourself. It’s pretty easy to imagine you getting your four mana back with the token you create.

Yuna’s Decision – Surge is $4, FEA is $2 – I played through FFX as an impressionable younger person, and let me tell you, Yuna and Tidus have a great story to tell. I can’t even *look* at their Farewell without getting misty-eyed. Yuna’s Decision is all about the art and the collectors, though. Cards showing the relationship between the characters, and especially this tender moment in Lake Macalania, sell better than the actual power of the card. This is a pretty weak card, as a Magic game piece. The art, and who/what it shows, makes it worth having in a premium version. 

Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the co-host of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at an event and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.