Balthier and Fran – Final Fantasy
Date Reviewed: June 6, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.63
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.87
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Whatever you do, do it in style. Balthier and Fran do everything with style, but whether that’s a lot or a little depends on the context. Their own draft environment doesn’t have a huge emphasis on vehicles; the broader Magic landscape of this year does. And they provide a reason to go into red and green for a vehicle deck, which is not something we’re used to saying and more than enough to make them contenders in casual environments and maybe even in Standard. In other environments, you’d mostly be playing them as a three-mana 4/3 and/or a theme deck with the entire cast of Final Fantasy XII – that’s not nothing, but it feels like it’s not really taking advantage of their full potential.
Final Fantasy XII is, unfortunately, one of the entries that I’m less familiar with, but now I’m thinking I should get the PS4 Zodiac Age remaster. The gateway effect for sets like this potentially goes in both directions, and it’s pretty cool to see. I think we’d all benefit from getting out of the Magic environment and mindset now and then – this applies to any fandom or property, of course, but unfortunately Magic becomes a mire particularly easily.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
The leading man and his constant companion and copilot, Balthier and Fran depicts Final Fantasy XII‘s dashing sky pirates. Fittingly, they’re most at home commanding airship (or any other vehicle, really), and while the type looks interesting, Fran is a viera, which is a race of mostly female bunny women who works well as a rabbit. XII was sadly light in representation, but at least these two got their due.
Speaking of their due, the two are an interesting “vehicles matter” sort of creature, granting them passive buffs even when they don’t crew one. But if they do, they can enable multiple rounds of combat in a turn…while it doesn’t untap creatures, remember that the vehicles won’t tap themselves to begin the onslaught, so you can keep the pain train rolling turn after turn. 4 power is quite good for paying crew costs (most vehicles come in well below that), and if you have ways to get multiple vehicles rolling, this will hurt.
That said, Balthier and Fran is not a card that’s for every deck. A 4/3 with reach is serviceable, but it’s not phenomenal, and you really want to make use of their particular talents to make the most of their presence/ Definitely a fun card to build around, but I would be surprised if they demolished several formats.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75 (might be a good reason to focus on vehicles, but not a creature good enough to build around)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
While Final Fantasy Tactics went unrepresented in this set, Balthier was a character you could play as in the PSP remake of the game, so along with Cloud (who’s been in every release of that game), I suppose you could say the original Ivalice game got a nod?
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