All 5 Sidequests in Magic Ranked

Sidequest: Play Blitzball | Illustration by Ittoku

Sidequests are often very time-consuming and boring to do in video games, but some games take sidequesting to another level, which ends up being exciting, with good rewards, world exploration, character development, or even interesting dialogue.

Final Fantasy games have many memorable ones, and some of these have become real sidequest cards in MTG. Each of these cards is inspired by a real in-game moment or quest from the Final Fantasy game series, and they fit different styles of decks, but they can reward you in a powerful way. Let’s see what sidequests Final Fantasy (FIN) introduces and what goodies we can get for completing (transforming) them.

What Are Sidequests in MTG

Sidequest: Catch a Fish | Illustration by Gal Or

Sidequests in MTG are special double-faced cards (DFCs) from the Final Fantasy (FIN) set. These are five uncommon cards, one for each color, that are an enchantment on the front side, and transform into a different permanent type once a condition is met.

For example, Sidequest: Play Blitzball buffs a creature each turn and asks you to deal 6 or more damage to a player. If you can manage it, the card then transforms into World Champion, Celestial Weapon, a powerful equipment.

Flavorfully, sidequest cards represent stuff you usually do in RPGs that aren’t part of the main quest or mission, but you'll get powerful rewards for completing them.

#5. Sidequest: Card Collection / Magicked Card

Sidequest: Card Collection gives you some card advantage and selection, drawing three and discarding two. It’s a good card to bounce/flicker, and you’ll want threshold, something that’s even in Standard right now, with the Bloomburrow rats and Kiora, the Rising Tide.

Your payoff is Magicked Card, a 4/4 flying vehicle with crew 1, but for that, you need to have at least eight cards in your graveyard, or six before casting this since you’re discarding two. This card can be a competent card selection tool and win condition for more controlling blue Limited decks, especially UB. You’re not getting crazy about a 4/4 flier in Standard, but it’s okay as a payoff for drawing some cards. Uncommon Cubes should appreciate the card as well.

Game Reference

Many RPGs, such as The Witcher 3, Final Fantasy VIII, and in this case Final Fantasy XIV, have their own collectible cards. It’s a game within a game! This sidequest shows that in a very competent and thematic way. After all, you’re trading cards in a way – even if it’s in your own deck. Bonus points for the card design, because your reward in the game, Magicked Card, is really a flying mount that can be crewed by your 1/1 protagonist. 

#4. Sidequest: Catch a Fish / Cooking Campsite

Sidequest: Catch a Fish is an interesting payoff for decks filled with creatures or artifacts. White decks are usually built this way. You have a good chance to draw an extra card and make a Food token. After that, you transform the card into a land – white ramp.

Cooking Campsite allows you to do something with your food, like strengthen your party. This card works very well with Treasure tokens, too. Smothering Tithe should appreciate the company. It should slot well in decks like Mardu () treasure or Abzan () food.

Game Reference

Many video games these days have the “fishing minigame”. While they’re usually a little niche addition, Final Fantasy XV incentivizes you to explore the whole world, even it it’s for the fishing sidequest. In this game, you actually get better and more skillful at fishing, your character develops better fishing techniques, and the rewards are plentiful.

#3. Sidequest: Play Blitzball / World Champion, Celestial Weapon

Sidequest: Play Blitzball sends you on a journey to hit your opponents with enough damage, offering a similar buff as cards like Battle-Rattle Shaman. This fits go-wide decks very much, considering that you want many creatures to get past your opponents’ defenses, and with this bonus, even a mere 1/1 can become a threat. Your blitzball players, if you will.

Grind this game enough, and you’ll get the powerful reward in World Champion, Celestial Weapon, an equipment that grants +2/+0 and double strike. Voltron decks also benefit from both the +2 damage and the equipment that comes later.

Game Reference

Blitzball, Spira’s most popular sport, is huge in FFX, and it’s deeply connected to the game’s lore and to the character Wakka. You can think of it as an underwater soccer game that’s turn-based to mimic JRPG turn-based combat, and the character’s in-game stats affect how they play. Once you grind through enough leagues with your blitzball team, you’ll unlock the very powerful Celestial Weapon for Wakka, alongside Wakka’s best abilities.

#2. Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo / Black Chocobo

Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo gives you a 2/2 bird that can be a 3/2 with a landfall trigger. Once you get to four birds, this becomes kind of a “bird lord” in Black Chocobo. The card ties very well with the RG landfall theme in Limited for this set, or the bird-matters theme in green, so consider this card for bird typal EDH decks or as a build-around Draft card. Also, the new Bant () bird commander Choco, Seeker of Paradise would like this card alongside its bird army.

Game Reference

Chocobos in Final Fantasy are usually your main method of transportation through the land or to access restricted regions, not counting airships. Chocobo breeding is an important part of Final Fantasy VII. It’s a sidequest that gives the game a little Pokémon vibe, where you’re capturing chocobos and breeding them to get access to the most powerful ones. It’d be more thematic if Black Chocobo had something like landwalk, but apparently WotC wanted to avoid that.

#1. Sidequest: Hunt the Mark / Yiazmat, Ultimate Mark

Sidequest: Hunt the Mark is a 5-mana sorcery removal spell and a Treasure token, which isn’t the best, but you’ll play it in Limited.

If you control three or more treasure (that’s the bounty you get from being a good hunter), you’ll turn it into Yiazmat, Ultimate Mark, a powerful 5/6 with upside. I mean, a 5/6 body attached to a kill spell is well worth 5 mana – think pumped up Ravenous Chupacabra. The main requirement here is to control two+ treasure. You can also easily blink it when it’s in creature form, bringing the enchantment side back to kill another target and give you more Treasure.

Game Reference

A classic trope in JRPGs, or RPGs in general, is when townsfolk ask you to hunt and kill a certain monster, either because they’re causing trouble or because they need a specific body part or material. Getting to kill creatures and amassing treasure as a reward is awesome. Final Fantasy XII fully integrates this into the game, expanding on the world’s lore, offering you new gameplay possibilities, and more. The hunts are strong late-game bosses, and Yiazmat is the toughest of all – no wonder it can get indestructible.

Best Sidequest Payoffs

Each sidequest card is different, so you’ll have to slot them where they best fit. Overall, the green, white, and blue sidequests can fit into various Bant enchantress decks.

Sidequest: Play Blitzball benefits going wide and tokens, while the blue and black sidequests probably fit in a midrange–control shell. At the same time, white-blue in this set cares about artifacts, so both white and blue sidequests are lightly connected to the theme.

Sidequest: Catch a Fish can find a place in decks filled with creatures and artifacts, especially those with food themes (Samwise Gamgee, Rosie Cotton of South Lane).

Wrap Up

Cooking Campsite | Illustration by Gal Or

Final Fantasy’s MTG set is doing a lot of cool and flavorful things with enchantments, what with sidequests, summon sagas, and more. Although cards like quests and even sagas that tell a story exist, WotC nailed these designs, representing common JRPG and gaming tropes on MTG cards. They give us players something meaningful to do and good rewards if we achieve them, effectively connecting to the rich FF lore while also staying true to MTG. These designs are Universes Beyond at their best, and frankly, much better than many top-down designs from recent Standard sets.

What were your favorite references? Any other possibilities they could have explored? Let me know in the comments section below or at our Draftsim Twitter/X.

Thanks for reading, and game on, folks.