Absolute Virtue – Final Fantasy
Date Reviewed: July 4, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.33
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 4.43
Multiplayer: 3.88
Commander [EDH]: 3.88
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Eight mana is traditionally thought of as being beyond the endgame in Magic terms, especially in colors that traditionally haven’t gotten as much mana ramping as green. The payoff, of course, is a line of game text that once would have been reserved for an Un-set, and one which can provoke the “How the heck do I beat that?!” reaction in many players. Not everyone will define a given deck’s strategy the same way, but everyone agrees that most decks will need to either damage or target their opponent at some point during the match. Additionally, Absolute Virtue changes the game in that prison effects like this sometimes appear on comparatively fragile creatures, the usual 2/2 for 1W type of deal; they never appear on 8/8 fliers. It can still be killed by spells that target or otherwise affect creatures, but if they don’t have one, it’s not only a disruptive barrier but a game-ending threat.
And the craziest part is, this is still not as dominating as Absolute Virtue originally was in Final Fantasy XI!
Constructed: 3 (I think it’s worth a try in reanimator decks, maybe a sideboard card)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5 (multiplayer formats are often sweeper-heavy, but it’ll stop anyone who’s not prepared for it)
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (it can be recast here, but it’s quite expensive)
Absolute Virtue is a notorious superboss from Final Fantasy XI, a force so terrifying that it made real world news for players failing to defeat it after 24 hours of trying and so obtuse that the developers patched out every means to defeat it that they didn’t deem “legitimate”. It would later make an appearance in Final Fantasy XIV (with another obtuse way to defeat it, involving multiple parties in different places), but its infamous XI appearance is what has endured to this day (alongside fellow superboss Pandemonium Warden, but that’s separate).
Absolute Virtue here is pretty straightforward here: a big, dumb, evasive creature that needs to die before you (usually( can be touched. Protection from your opponents is a hilarious bit of text, meaning that you can’t be targeted by such spells or dealt damage in most cases. You’re not wholly invincible…you can still lose life through untargeted effects (like Kokusho, the Evening Star’s death trigger), and there are ways to mitigate damage prevention (like Skullcrack and Questing Beast). That said, it’s still quite hard and inconvenient to navigate, and they first have to get through an 8/8 flying creature to be able to play normally.
All that said, note what Absolute Virtue doesn’t protect: itself. It’s still susceptible to targeted spells and board wipes, which brings that shield crashing down quickly. That said, they need to stop it, since an 8/8 with evasion is quite good at ending games. I’d say this is more flashy than it is terrifying…it’s not harmless, to be sure, but I think this looks better on paper than it is in practice.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 4.75 (if you don’t have removal, you’re not winning through this)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (while it can be a roadblock, most well-built decks should be able to play around or through this)
Thijs
Apparently, when it comes to the video games, Absolute Virtue is ranked in the top when it comes to unbeatable bosses. They probably designed the card with that in mind. Absolute Virtue is not just any creature. In general, it’s an 8/8 flyer, which means immediate action is required. Then comes the fact it cannot be countered and the fact that it gives you protection from your opponents.
So yeah, quite a threat. I read about someone casting Perennation on it. Yes, it requires you to play with four colors, but boy, it wins you games!
One thing this card also does: it makes you the target. Once cast, everyone will scramble their damage and removal spells towards this beast, just like the team of FF players who worked day and night to defeat him in FFXI. Be warned.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4 (a bit expensive, but a threat nonetheless)
Multiplayer: 4,5
Commander [EDH]: 4,5
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