When Magic Met Final Fantasy, It Triggered Our First Ever Independent Trip

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

We Met Because of Magic

Our fate of becoming friends through fighting took shape in the small Windy City. At first Requiem_Black was just a little sister working at a board game shop, and my husband was a taciturn customer whose default face looked fierce. Fate strangely made us husband and wife. Yet there has never been a game where his wife wasn’t beaten black and blue. I think what’s needed is not a restraining order, but swapping every card in my husband’s deck for lands and then asking him whether he wants to concede.

Hello everyone, this is Requiem_Black. Thanks to cephille for the invitation to write, and thanks to everyone I’ve met in the Magic world!

Too Timid for an Independent Trip

It’s not that we had never been abroad. We have set foot in Japan and the US, but joining a tour group has always been our safe card as a couple. With a solution everywhere and everything relying on the tour guide, it’s a comfortable choice for travel. We, too timid to go independent, kept staring at the officially released “Magic Spotlight: Final Fantasy”.

“Is there any possibility…?”

I Love My Fellow Magic Planeswalkers

Is there any possibility that when a certain plane calls out to us strongly, we will finally answer that passionate invitation?

Yes. We got up and looked for planeswalkers heading to the same plane to form a group. Three planeswalkers from the Hsinchu area joined, and we opened a LINE group to dig through posts, book hotels, and look for flights together. Requiem_Black fed all her dreams to AI and generated the boldest campaign itinerary ever. When Magic met Final Fantasy, it triggered the first independent trip of our lives! (Report from the convention: using AI to plan an itinerary is a very efficient, time-saving method, strongly recommended by Requiem_Black)

Thanks to Hsinchu-area planeswalkers Jawa, manamagic, and 阿奇. Without you, our courage would never have grown, and this trip would never have departed.

Flying and Dashing

The two of us did our homework carefully: a checklist for going abroad and preview practice for the tournament. We watched the professional tournament from the week before our flight together, agonized over the deck until we were nearly bald from scratching our heads, and in the end still went to 新世紀 to borrow Prowess cards from fellow players (heartfelt thanks to 老宋, my Prowess Superman). Requiem_Black played Izzet and my husband played mono-red. The tournament announcement said the decklist had to be uploaded by 6/27, and we finished uploading on 6/25, ready to welcome the day of the flight.

Requiem_Black’s Spotlight decklist link

The Magic Spotlight: Final Fantasy event ran for three days, 6/27-29 (Fri-Sun). We flew on 6/26 (Thu). On the day we took off, a young typhoon, Sepat, was also heading toward Japan, which worried us greatly, but luckily it didn’t affect the flight schedule.

We arrived at Narita Airport at noon. Holding the itinerary guide we had planned in advance and printed out, we became agile the moment we entered the battlefield, quickly transferring to a bus and rushing to the lobby of the APA Hotel Tokyo Bay Makuhari to leave our luggage. Relieved of the burden of luggage, we dashed 900 meters to the JR, switching from line to line, and here we had to praise how amazingly useful Suica is, practically Japan’s EasyCard! With one card in hand, there are no ticket-buying worries! You only need to make sure you’re on the right line and in the right direction, and you’ll eventually arrive where you want to go.

SQUARE ENIX ARTNIA

About an hour and a half by rail took us from Kaihin-Makuhari to Shinjuku, where we arrived at ARTNIA, the cafe directly operated by SQUARE ENIX. The shop is divided into three zones: a “sales area” full of official genuine merchandise, an “exhibition area” with a Final Fantasy crystal theme, and a “seating area” for dining.

I especially loved the Luxury Area in the exhibition area. An elegant curtain of water gently rings the crystal, forming a barrier-like space of surging Lifestream, with Final Fantasy’s classic Materia spread beneath the crystal. The quiet, soothing sound of water flows, and you are in a rainy season full of energy. At this moment, you have the crystal’s unconditional embrace.

The shop is very photogenic, and the themed food and drinks change often. Limited-time events are a matter of luck, and this time there was no matching event, but the permanent exhibits and dishes alone were enough to make a fan’s pilgrimage shine brilliantly. Fans of Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy absolutely must not miss it.

The Chocobo latte art is so cute I couldn’t bear to drink it!

Access information:
Address: 〒160-0022 東京都新宿區新宿 6-27-30 新宿 EASTSIDE SQUARE 1F
Phone: 03-6457-6714
Hours: 11:00～22:00（FOOD L.O 21:00、DRINK L.O 21:30）
Reservations: Not accepted (but for specific events such as game releases, advance reservations may be required)
Closed: Irregular (check the official site in advance for closure announcements)

Hareruya Takadanobaba Store

As an MTG player, how could we not visit Hareruya?

Transferring and transferring, we arrived near Takadanobaba Station, looking for the famous Hareruya3-Takadanobaba, the largest Magic specialty store in all of Japan!

On a first visit, if you use Google Maps you’ll find that there are two Hareruya on the same street in Takadanobaba. One is Hareruya3, which has no Magic; the other is the Tournament Center, with a sign clearly marked with the Magic logo, which is the Magic specialty store, so don’t go to the wrong one!

As soon as you enter, the staff’s energetic greeting meets you, glass display cases full of cards beckon to you, and the variety of booster packs, merchandise, sleeves, deck boxes, and playmats is dazzling. Continue inward and even the vending machines sell booster packs, which was very novel for us from Taiwan!

The store has a very large player space, which according to the official site holds up to 300 seats, and card inventory can be purchased from the Hareruya online store at any time! Truly worthy of being a Magic holy land!

We played the FFVII REBIRTH release commemorative Ichiban Kuji, really hoping to draw the B Prize, the Midgar sightseeing guide! Although we only drew small prizes, that didn’t dampen our spirits, and since the overall atmosphere in the store was so lively, you get infected and become very happy too!

Access information:
Address: 〒169-0075 東京都新宿区高田馬場 3-12-2 OC ビル 2F
Hours: Daily 9:00～23:00
Mail-order dedicated line hours: Daily 9:00～17:30

SQUARE ENIX GARDEN

By now the weather had started to drizzle, and from Hareruya Takadanobaba we directly called an Uber… not food delivery, a taxi.

In Japan, you can use your Taiwan Uber account directly to call a car. Link a payment credit card in advance, confirm the pickup address [高田馬場 OC ビル] and the drop-off address [SQUARE ENIX GARDEN], and even with terrible Japanese it’s no problem at all. We reached the destination easily in thirty minutes, and along the way got to shelter from the rain and take a nap to recharge.

SQUARE ENIX GARDEN is on the third floor of the bustling Shibuya Sakura Stage and had its grand opening on December 19, 2024. Like Artnia it is officially operated, but Garden is a pure merchandise store selling a very wide variety of goods. A giant Chocobo and Slime sit guard at the entrance, so a group photo is a must, right?

6/27 - Magic Spotlight Special Exhibit Area

After flying into Japan the day before and running around Shinjuku and Shibuya, we broke our single-day record with over twenty thousand steps and my feet were about to fall off. I couldn’t help admiring how good Japanese people are at walking; Requiem_Black might be better suited to rolling. After a good night’s rest, we welcomed the first day of the event, the side events. Queueing to enter was very orderly, and at the entrance there were large standees of Cloud and Sephiroth, super cool! Inside the entry-only, exit-only gate was an amazing, spacious magical venue!

At the first stop at the entrance, we were immediately drawn to the special exhibit area. Combining two powerful IPs, Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy, the vast audiences they have accumulated over more than thirty years were all eagerly anticipating such a grand event. The most eye-catching thing in the exhibit area is without a doubt the HARDY DAYTONA that Cloud drives when escaping the Shinra Building. As a cool vehicle familiar to players, it is displayed life-size right before you. The guys must all want to buy the car on the spot, right? It had quite the feel of the closing-the-deal scene at a big auto show.

Another highlight of the exhibit area is the Final Fantasy VI Masterline Terra 1/6 Scale Statue, produced by Prime 1 Studio Masterline under official license and supervised by the master Yoshitaka Amano, a statue limited to 600 pieces worldwide. At 78 cm tall it is impressive in person, and the sculpting and painting are fully realized in fine detail, beautifully depicting Terra piloting a Magitek armor that fuses magic and machine technology in FFVI. Next to her is Terra’s favorite Moogle, the memorable mascot of the game, adding to the statue the lighthearted, joyful moments of the game and making the whole piece richer, more varied, and full of fun.

Each exhibit came with Magic cards, demonstrating the close relationship between the two IPs working together. We felt like we were at an FF exhibition, yet were constantly reminded by the cards displayed alongside, “Hey! Magic is in this world too!” Every moment was exciting.

6/27 - Magic Spotlight Side Event: Challenge Standard

The main event was on the second day, so today was more like a warm-up. Players streamed into the venue, and vendors had set up early, waiting for customers to look for rare and unusual items.

We signed up for Challenge Standard, with an entry fee of 2500 JPY per person:
1- Queue
2- Join the event using Companion (staff walk around holding a sign for queued players to scan the event QR code or manually enter the event number)
3- Pay (cash only)
4- Staff verify the player’s app name to confirm they have joined the event
Once these are done you can leave the queue, wait for pairings and a seat, and then you can start fighting.

My husband, the strong one, nicely took three wins, and his mono-red Mice blitz did well in the warm-up.
Requiem_Black, with Izzet Prowess, got one win, slowly getting a feel in the event, and, not understanding Japanese, calling a JUDGE first got more and more natural (?)!

In Challenge Standard events, players with three wins get an FFXIV twin-panel promo, the left panel a Magic card and the right panel a card from the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game published by SQUARE ENIX.

6/28 - Magic Spotlight Main Event Day 1

Format: Standard
Participation prize: Promo《ミッドガルの傭兵、クラウド》(NON - FOIL)

My husband has previously attended Grand Prix Taipei, Grand Prix Hong Kong, and so on, waku waku.
Requiem_Black, attending a big tournament for the first time, was scared.

08:00 Doors open
08:30 Players’ meeting
09:00 Round starts

We quickly settled breakfast at LAWSON, and prepared the deck box, dice, life-tracking paper, pen, and water bottle (staying hydrated is really important). Be sure to use the restroom before the match! Speaking of restrooms! Requiem_Black must loudly praise that the most memorable point of this tournament was the restrooms! At a venue with 2000+ people, the women’s restroom had no line at all! Finally a day has come when the long lines are at the men’s room! Worth taking a photo to commemorate. (My husband adds: this is a complete non-issue. The cause of the jam is that everyone thought the line was for the urinals, when in fact the waiting line was for the stalls, and you could just walk right into the urinals.)

For tournament pairings and table numbers, in the past they were posted on paper on the screens, and many players crowded forward to see their seats. Now players only need to log into MELEE on their phone to see their seat number. As time moves on, the convenience technology brings becomes more and more obvious. After the first round’s pairings were announced and players got up and moved in large numbers to take their seats, the head judge gave the opening speech. The matches began when the judge announced the start after the speech ended.

Below is a visual report of rookie Requiem_Black’s first time in a big tournament with Izzet Prowess:
Round 1 Won 2-1, opponent Izzet Cauldron (Izzet Cauldron)
Round 2 Won 2-0, opponent Golgari Overlord (Golgari Beanstalk)
Round 3 Drew 1-1, opponent Izzet Prowess (Izzet Prowess) [mirror match]
Round 4 Lost 0-2, opponent Four-Color Zur Domain (W-U-B-G Aggro)
Round 5 Lost 1-2, opponent Izzet Cauldron (Izzet Cauldron)
　　　　[Played against SamuelChang of Taipei, a strong player who finished 45th in this event, report 11-3-1]
Round 6 Won 2-0, opponent Izzet Prowess (Izzet Prowess) [mirror match]
Round 7 Lost 0-2, opponent Azorius Omniscience (Azorius Omniscience)

Except for Round 5, where I faced a Taiwanese player, all the others were Japanese players, and most were very sportsmanlike. There was even a player diagonally across who, after seeing me lose, tried very hard in English, really very hard, because it took me three hearings to understand he was saying to me “Don’t give up!”
“頑張って!” I shook hands with that Japanese player, and we cheered each other on.

After seven straight rounds, 3 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw, I had no chance of making Day 2, and decided to drop. But our Hsinchu-area planeswalkers manamagic and Jawa were still fighting, so we as a couple stayed at the venue waiting for our teammates’ good news.

Perhaps because we got rained on the day before, we both gradually showed cold symptoms, and bought cold medicine from a Japanese pharmacy, hoping it would give temporary relief. But after a marathon from arriving at eight in the morning to around six-thirty in the evening, with no food, no rest, and barely any water, and with the last round getting ground out by Omniscience, I was broken. With my mood wrecked and also KO’d by the cold, I was rescued by my husband, who had dropped out of Day 1 at 2-4-0: “Come on, let’s go, I’ll take you to play the side event next door, the ‘Friendly Match’, BO1, results don’t matter, super friendly, you can draw a prize after you finish. You’re lucky, so this is perfect for you!”

I recalled the words on a playmat from a certain Taiwanese store, “Win at cards by pure luck, easy and carefree,” which should be a portrait of my day. I went one win and two losses in three BO1 games, and the so-called prize draw was a scratch card, revealing the result right away: [プロモあたり! You won Promo!]

It was also a consolation that my whole day of mediocrity finally yielded something. Oh yeah, I got the twins too! I didn’t lose to my husband!
(Backstory: my husband only got his by taking three wins in the Standard side event, while I won mine on the first draw, truly just lucky.)

6/29 - Magic Spotlight Main Event Day 2: Side Event Team Sealed

The main event’s second day kicked off with great fanfare, and our travel companion from the Hsinchu-area planeswalkers, manamagic, advanced to the fierce Day 2.

Jawa dominated Day 1 with Omniscience. We as a couple were both excited and worried. Excited that our teammate’s outstanding performance could take him straight to Day 2, and worried that the pre-registered three-person team Limited open was the couple + Jawa, so if Jawa advanced to Day 2 the team would be one person short, and we might have to stand at the door holding a sign to recruit a teammate, hahahaha!

Requiem_Black, my husband, and Jawa played the pre-registered Team Limited Open as scheduled. Team Limited Open is made up of three players registered in advance, with no on-site registration. The three players are numbered A, B, and C and use Companion for match pairings. At check-in, the organizer guides each team to take red, green, and blue wristbands, instructing players to wear them on their wrists following the rule A-red, B-green, C-blue, for easy identification.

Format: Sealed
Participation prize: Promo Swords to Plowshares《剣を鍬に》(FOIL), Promo Alphinaud
(FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game/Japanese/Foil)

On site, the organizer provides 12 opened and checked booster packs of cards, with an orange registration sheet already completed by the organizer listing all the cards of this pool. There are also 3 blank white registration sheets for the team to fill out after building decks. The cards from these 12 boosters need to form 3 decks for players A, B, and C to play. Since we are weak in Japanese, the organizer very thoughtfully asked each table in advance and offered a choice of English boosters. Since the event’s official announcement only said that Japanese boosters would be used, this extra service made us feel very touched.

Each table has two teams with 6 players in total. Each player plays against the player with the same wristband color (no swapping), best of three, and as soon as one team at the table has 2 winners, it is the winning team for that round. Players who finish their match may give tactical guidance and advice to their teammates, which a judge confirmed is allowed to help teammates. Since we had encountered an opposing B who kept coaching teammate C in the middle of a game, my B (Requiem_Black) and my husband A saw this and also swapped seats, letting my husband A support teammate C, Jawa. At this point, the opposing B saw this and directly stopped a passing judge, asking in Japanese:
“Excuse me, can players change seats?”
This meant that my husband A and Requiem_Black B swapped seats after finishing their matches. From the wristband colors you could indeed quickly tell that we weren’t sitting in the player seats assigned by the organizer, but we hadn’t left the table. The opposing B tried to get third-party support to pressure the supporter, my husband A, to return to his original seat, to interrupt our support. And the opposing B could then use their home advantage to keep feeding output to their teammate C next door.

The judge answered: “After finishing the match, it’s allowed (to swap seats), and players can give their teammates advice.”
And after replying in Japanese, they explained to us again in English translation.

Seeing that all players have considerable determination to win, no matter the country. Requiem_Black’s feeling about this incident is that if the conditions are equal, I’m happy to follow and obey the competitive rules, but this case was relatively unequal, and it felt clearly not very comfortable. It also let me see different sides of players at competitive-level events.

We were there to take part. Although we didn’t place in Team Limited Open, the whole process was truly great fun, and during the games you could even get stuck on lands together with your opponent until it was silly, and then laugh together at the end. Even if our languages were different, we met each other through participating in the event, and treasuring this process of player exchange, this kind of joy is precious.

Quickly, the three-day event was about to end. During these days, Tokyo left me with a great many stories and feelings, giving me special memories of Magic to savor. Next time, I want to successfully beat up the Japanese players with Prowess, hahahaha! Sadly my Cori-Steel Cutter and Monstrous Rage both said bye bye after the 6/30 banned and restricted announcement, so the legend of Izzet Prowess should stop at this page, right?

Conclusion

Thanks to cephille, who, knowing I talk a lot, still had the courage to invite me to write!
Thanks to my husband, who doesn’t mind his wife’s poor card skills and keeps giving me chances to spar and practice!
Thanks to planeswalkers Jawa, manamagic, and 阿奇 for marching on Tokyo with the two of us!
Thanks to the Taiwanese judge 吳佳霖 working at the venue, who could actually recognize me in a sea of people!
Thanks to the owner of 新竹新世紀, for providing a good store and environment, and for taking good care of Magic players!
Thanks to the players of 新竹新世紀, who practiced with us before our expedition and gave us many tactical suggestions!
Thanks to Magic: The Gathering, from which in more than ten years of playing I have met so many excellent players and friends!

Our journey will continue. See you in the next plane, where we’ll meet again and make even better sparks.