Hundreds of Magic players celebrated the launch of Final Fantasy‘s crossover set with Magic – already the game’s best selling set of all time – in a two-day, learn-to-play event held at Singapore’s Suntec City mall. Wizards of the Coast spared no expense, picking out a prime location in the aisle just next to burger joint Shake Shack, where hundreds of shoppers would pass through the main doors that led to Suntec’s convention area.
Local premium store Hideout hosted the two-day event that combined constructed play and fun side activities. For the hardened Magic player, Sealed-format games using the newest Final Fantasy booster packs were sold out for both day, while any onlookers interested to learn about Magic were given introduction decks and taught by volunteers.
To pull in the crowds, multiple cosplayers, featuring Final Fantasy characters Cloud, Tifa and Aerith (Saturday), followed by Luna, Noctis, and Lightning (Sunday), posed for photos with curious shoppers. It drew crowds in but a times also created a slight bottleneck along the walkway. The cosplayers even got into the action, learning to play Magic using the brand new Final Fantasy cards.
A third of the event space was reserved for complete beginners who were holding Magic cards for the first time, understanding basic game rules from volunteers, judges and Wizards staff. Saturday was the busier of the two days, but both saw a very healthy crowd. To add in to the fun, a side table of mini games were also available, such as a speed test for sleeving cards and a memory game on Magic artwork.
One of the biggest draws for the event was the sale of Final Fantasy Collector Booster boxes onsite. Powered by low supply and oversaturated demand, these boxes were priced in the open market anywhere between S$900-S$1000, over two times the price of similar packs from previous sets. The allure of neon-foiled Chocobos and Surge Foil Final Fantasy icons were too hard to pass up, and by lunchtime on Saturday, all boxes were already sold out.
To ease the crunch and allow more people to get their hands on these packs, Hideout restricted one pack per transaction. The standard Play Booster packs were going for S$10 each and many new players opted to pick those up. For them, Hideout’s beginner package that included a Starter Kit, 2 deck boxes, 2 sets of sleeves and 2 Foundation set packs for S$60 was hard to turn down. They also ran a S$138 Commander Lucky Bag, which included (randomly): a Commander precon deck, 1 deck box, 1 set of sleeves, 4+ non-Collector booster packs, 1 Collector booster pack. Both packages gave fans some pack-opening thrills – everyone was talking about the cards.
For those who couldn’t get enough of Magic, on-demand Draft-format pods were also available in the afternoons. Drafts use only 3 booster packs, but do require more familiarity with the game as you have to pick cards and build a deck on your own. Outside of games, players were trading old stories and sharing binders, hoping to grab a quick sale.
Overall, the weekend event couldn’t have gone much better. It gave Magic (and Final Fantasy) a huge boost in awareness for their respective franchises. With some luck, a good number of people who tried Magic for the first time will stick around and continue to learn more about the game, becoming mature players. The crazy high price tags for Final Fantasy boosters is not healthy, but players can be assured that this set is quite an outlier. Magic can still be a rather expensive game, but there are definitely affordable ways to play. The future of Magic is bright!
