Final Fantasy (FIN) Limited Overview — Red

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

FINAL FANTASY (FIN) will hold its prerelease events on June 6, 2025. Want to know more about individual card ratings and recommendations for Limited? Then check out this FIN Limited overview series!

• For the mechanics, see this article: FINAL FANTASY Mechanics Explained

Rating Scale

5.0: Unconditional must-pick, brings a near-winning advantage
4.5: Unconditional must-pick if you’re in the right colors, brings a huge advantage
4.0: First-pick value, extremely good synergy with the color pair theme, can be the deciding card for splashing / switching colors or moving into a color pair
3.5: Top uncommons, commons, and other sufficiently strong singles in the set, with good synergy with the color pair theme, can be a key card for moving into a color pair
3.0: Important single of the color pair theme, and other above-average singles, you’d want it in your final deck
2.5: Average level, usually a decent curve filler
2.0～1.0: Below average, generally lean toward not playing it, can be used as filler if necessary, but not too many
0.5～0.0: Unplayable, basically don’t play it, playing it will only help you lose

Rating Details

Score: 3.0
Comment: A 4/4 body is very popular in this set, and the ability easily pairs with the various Equipment from Job select. Its damage will be considerable in Red-White Equipment decks.

Score: 2.5
Comment: You can’t expect its body to grow into a threat. The ability adding two or three points of damage is about it. An ordinary filler.

Score: 3.0
Comment: It provides Red-Green landfall decks with both pressure and a continuous source of lands, a pretty good card. For Red-Blue and Red-Black decks it can also provide two spell triggers, though of course the synergy is far from as good as in Red-Green landfall.

Score: 3.5
Comment: At worst it makes a Chocobo for two mana, in the midgame it can clear the board while providing a creature to stand on the battlefield, and even more, in the late game it can directly burn out the opponent’s life (that’s right, it deals X damage to any target). A rare good card for Red-Green landfall aggro decks.

Score: 4.5
Comment: A powerful enters ability has a good chance of earning you a big wave of cards in the mid to late game, and the transform cost isn’t hard to pay. The first chapter after transforming is a powerful board-clearing effect. Even better, unlike most Saga creatures that sacrifice themselves after the final chapter’s ability resolves, Ifrit flips back to the front face and keeps earning you cards.

Score: 2.5
Comment: In a set with lots of Equipment, it synergizes better than an ordinary instant-speed combat trick, but in raw power it still falls short of a proper combat trick. Just include it if your deck emphasizes Equipment.

Score: 4.0
Comment: The copy effect each turn is enough to gain a huge advantage in long games, and the cost reduction and haste can also speed up the game’s tempo and force the opponent to adopt a more defensive game plan.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A flexible and handy small sweeper that can make up for damage after combat at instant speed, and used well it can deal a huge blow to the opponent’s board.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Another single that provides powerful aggressive ability, but it can only fully show its power in Equipment decks. The ability to copy Equipment pairs very well with Job select. Although the Equipment gets sacrificed, the Hero token stays to expand the board.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Not only can it help accelerate casting high-cost Equipment, it’s also a very good target to equip, and with its built-in flying and trample plus Equipment it can deal a lot of damage in the early to mid game.

Score: 3.5
Comment: In Red-White decks, if the deck has enough Equipment, it can reliably flip into play, and if you flip the dedicated Equipment Samurai’s Katana you can trigger the ability again that same turn. Note that the Equipment you flip doesn’t have to be equipped. If you want to spread risk, you can leave the Job select Equipment on the Hero token.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A play that has a chance of not losing card advantage, and on turns when you have enough mana it can even let a freshly entered creature start attacking right away. At worst it can target an opponent’s creature to draw a card hopefully you won’t have to use this

Score: 3.0
Comment: It can serve as a way to fix colors early, and is also quite threatening on offense in the mid to late game.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A pretty good filler creature for specific themes, but outside the Equipment theme it’s just a Grizzly Bears.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It doesn’t seem to have particular synergy, and you need to cast it with Flashback for it to be real card advantage. For Red-Black decks it can trigger the Wizard token’s effect twice, but consider it only if you don’t have enough sorceries and instants.

Score: 2.5
Comment: The cost is too high, and the Equipment it can destroy is also restricted, but after all it’s a removal spell…

Score: 2.5
Comment: Generally a creature that brings another body with it isn’t too bad, but the Wizard token has no ability to trade at all, so it’s not that ideal. It’s still passable in Red-Black decks.

Score: 4.5
Comment: A sweeper that can be used twice can bring an extremely high card advantage, but note that the weaknesses are not small, so pay attention to the opponent’s actions in the first few turns. In this set sweeping four mana value is the sweet spot, so when picking cards also keep an eye on the average power of the creatures.

Score: 3.0
Comment: It can both replenish resources and add damage, and it’s satisfying whether used as a combat trick or to draw cards. Two mana providing an extra four damage has a chance to catch the opponent off guard.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A decent curve creature, and the ability that sends out Treasure gives Red-Blue decks more flexibility.
Every time I see the card art I find it very funny

Score: 3.0
Comment: If you can end the game quickly with trample Equipment or protection spells escorting it, and noncreature spells pump itself while triggering the Wizard token, the damage is very high.

Score: 1.0
Comment: The consistency is really too poor, and the creature you flip also can’t stay on the battlefield.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The attack-triggered ability can save quite a lot of equip costs, and if it also wears Equipment to raise its power, it will make the opponent suffer even more when removing it. After the opponent pays the ward cost, if you respond by casting a protection spell… oh~ the pain~

Score: 2.0
Comment: Frequently triggering the power boost isn’t easy in Limited, and even triggering it once every turn is merely a 3/1 creature, not to mention that there’s no penalty.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A decent curve creature. If cast on time on turn two it can steadily deal damage to the opponent’s life total, and Reach lets it hold off some of the aerial offense in the late game too (many common and uncommon fliers in this set have toughness 2 or less, so 2 power is enough).

Score: 3.5
Comment: A 3/3 haste trample body is already up to standard, and the Equipment can also provide trample in the late game. The high equip cost is the biggest drawback.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A 5/4 body with haste has a big advantage on offense. It has a chance to blow up the opponent’s multicolor lands or Towns to cut the opponent off from colors, and you can also blow up your own land to fix other colors.

Score:
Comment: The best point is that it can give double strike without even attacking itself, so it can pressure the opponent on the turn it enters. The triggered ability on hitting the opponent can also help you earn resources, and the four-toughness body makes it less likely to be traded away in attack or defense.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It can basically be seen as Fling, and paired with creatures whose toughness is higher than power it has a chance to survive. Aggro-leaning decks can main-deck it to give the opponent an unexpected blow, but you still need to be careful not to be responded to and get two-for-one’d.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It’s entirely a win-more card and does nothing when you’re behind. But I must admit that when ahead it can speed up the game by a lot, avoiding being dragged into the opponent’s strong period.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It can even pick up cards from exile, so with just two copies you can pick up each other while repeatedly picking up another sorcery or instant. But it looks like a fancy play with little practical value.

Score: 3.5
Comment: The exiled card can be used for two turns, which greatly increases the chance of casting it. Just slam creatures on curve: haste attack on turn three, haste attack on turn four, and the opponent can’t hold up at all.

Score: 2.0
Comment: The graveyard isn’t easy to fill with enough spells for the ETB to remove the creature you want to remove, and two is probably about it. Wizard creatures, apart from tokens, are mostly high-rarity legendary creatures, and turning a 0/1 into a 1/1 isn’t enough to affect the game.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Entering on that turn costs you stats, and the first chapter only giving surveil 1 is too unimpactful. If you can get the copies of chapters two and three both done it’s of course very powerful, but the fear is being removed before chapter two, or having no sorceries or instants in hand to cast at all.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Being able to swap two cards is great, and having four chapters means living one extra turn. If cast on time at three mana, you can cast a six-mana card on turn five, which counts as an occasional special effect.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Red’s burn in this set is somewhat weak, so even sorcery speed can’t be picky about; use it and cherish it. In a set with lots of Equipment, being able to destroy Equipment expands the range of removal, and although it’s only a common, it ranks very high in priority.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Its flexibility is far higher than the previous burn spell. First is the reassurance of instant speed, and second is the much greater range in the mid to late game. Just being able to hit for four is enough to confirm this is red’s best burn spell. The best common. Taking several copies is no problem, since there aren’t many other choices anyway.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In a properly built deck it’s absolutely a super bomb. With luck it brings you huge card advantage every turn, just pray you don’t flip lands.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Although this set doesn’t have many sacrifice outlets, a card like Act of Treason still has a good chance of tearing up the opponent’s lines on the turn it’s cast! Especially since red in this set doesn’t have the capital to drag the game to the late game and must end the game as soon as possible, which is where Act of Treason’s benefits show.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Although the numbers of Scouts, Pirates, and Rogues in this set aren’t large, it’s fine as long as it can add to itself. Paired with removal to clear the way, it can steal the opponent’s cards to use while growing every turn.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A 4-mana 4/3 vanilla creature, with a frighteningly high equip cost. You’d only want to put it in your deck if you’re really short on Equipment.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In Red-Green landfall decks, being able to trigger the landfall effect one extra time each turn is very powerful. Beyond that, it also guarantees you have a land to play every turn, and with luck it can pair with Town lands!

Conclusion

It feels like the keyword haste appears especially frequently, but overall the Limited environment still looks like a slower set.
Going against the grain and playing aggro might let you end the game early before the slow decks regain their footing?
Each color pair in this set has very distinct characteristics, and I can’t wait to play through every color pair!