We've got a new preview card From Father to Son from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Magic: The Gathering–Final Fantasy!
For the first time ever, a Universes Beyond set Magic: The Gathering–Final Fantasy will enter the Standard format in Magic: The Gathering, heralding the biggest change in Wizards of the Coast’s policy regarding Universes Beyond products.
Slated for tabletop release on 13 June, Magic: The Gathering–Final Fantasy will introduce the whole franchise of beloved JRPG Final Fantasy to the world of Magic: The Gathering. Over here at GosuGamers, we're excited to introduce you to a preview card from the upcoming set: From Father to Son (courtesy of Wizards of the Coast).
Note: this can be confusing for new players, but From Father to Son is in the main set (i.e. not part of the Commander preconstructed decks), and is thus Standard legal, since cards in the Commander pre-constructed decks are not legal in the Standard format.
Poignant artwork
Before we go on to discuss the card From Father to Son and what it does in Magic: The Gathering, let us just take a moment to appreciate the artwork for the card!
For anyone who has not played Final Fantasy XV, the artwork depicts the main protagonist Noctis receiving the vehicle Regalia from his father King Regis of the kingdom Lucis, before Noctis’ journey to Altissia to marry Lunafreya.
However, we never saw Noctis actually receive the car from his father in-game. The story in Final Fantasy XV begins with Noctis and his entourage pushing a broken-down Regalia down a road on the way to Altissia, after King Regis bid an extremely cryptic farewell to Noctis.
This artwork is a flashback (heh) to a core memory of Noctis that has never been featured anywhere else, and an especially poignant one since the eventual death of King Regis spearheaded Noctis’ journey to become a destined hero, while the car Regalia became a metaphor of the relationship between Noctis and Regis throughout the game.
How does the card fare?
All right, now back to the card! For one generic mana and one white mana, From Father to Son is a sorcery which allows players to search their library for a Vehicle card before putting it into their hand.
For a whopping four generic mana and three white mana, players can also cast From Father to Son from the graveyard for its Flashback cost, but instead of putting a Vehicle into their hand, they can cheat out any Vehicle of their choice from their library to the battlefield with seven mana.
From Father to Son is essentially a tutor for Vehicles, a specific subtype of artifacts in Magic: The Gathering, and considering that the card can potentially be cast twice in a game and cheat out a potentially game-winning piece, it seems like (at first glance) there is quite a bit of value in From Father to Son.
The only unfortunate thing is the lack of powerful Vehicles in the Standard format right now. Considering that the release of Aetherdrift was just three months ago, and Aetherdrift (as a racing themed set) introduced a lot more Vehicles into the Standard format, none of the top meta decks in the Standard format currently plays any Vehicle.
However, if you happen to play a Commander deck themed around Vehicles, and your Commander has the colour identity white, this card might be playable. You can potentially search for Vehicles like Boommobile and Weatherlight Compleated, and yes, I am aware that these two cards are currently Standard legal.
However, these two cards can combo off with cards outside of the Standard format, with Boommobile possibly the least tricky to pull off since it can go off in many different ways.
However, considering that From Father to Son can only search for Vehicles, the card is a little limiting. There just aren't that many Vehicles in the game, since the subtype Vehicle was introduced in Kaladesh in 2016.
It would make more sense to have more tutors for artifacts in decks instead, since a tutor for artifacts can search for both Vehicles as well as other types of artifacts (hint: Boommobile can combo off with two other artifacts Cogwork Assembler and Panharmonicon).
However, most tutors for artifacts are in blue, so if you do not like to play blue, From Father to Son will have to do. Perhaps the more pertinent question is this: is there going to be a Regalia in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering–Final Fantasy set?
We have yet to see any previews of Regalia, but if there is indeed one, it might just be a decent enough Vehicle that From Father to Son will see some play in Standard (or you just like some Final Fantasy flavour in your games)!
