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How many jobs do you know of where you can play video games for a living? There are a few, but not as many as we would like... but imagine a job where you had to do a crash course in a Final Fantasy game but do the opposite of a speedrun, and soak up every little detail? Meet Daniel Holt - who, yes, had that job.

Daniel Holt is a senior game designer at Wizards of the Coast best known for his work on Magic: The Gathering's Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set. Overall with MTG, he is responsible for the card frames, set symbols, and merchandise designs, and he's the lead game designer for the upcoming Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Commander decks. The upcoming set covers all 16 of the major Final Fantasy games, but for the four Commander decks he is overseeing, they are each focused specifically on one FF game, and one of them is Final Fantasy XIV, the one FF game he had never played. 

"Unlike a lot of you, when I was first assigned to this project, I had never actually played Final Fantasy XIV," Holt said during a panel preview of the MTG x FF set at PAX East 2025.

"So over the next month, I put in over 200 hours with my best friend from work," Holt says to cheers from the audience.

200 hours over one month equates to over 25% of an entire month - and that includes time for sleeping, eating, commuting, sitting at your work desk, and everything else in your life.

"I got all the way to Shadowbringers," Holt says, referring to the third expansion pack for the game, "and I played Dancer and Black Mage for those curious."

Holt says it's with that kind of dedication and attention to detail that led him and the Wizards of the Coast team to make sure to include cult-favorite characters such as Final Fantasy XIV's Hildebrand Mandervile.

"It is so important to be genuine for the fans, because you can play the entire campaign of Final Fantasy XIV and not even see this loveable character."

Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy for MTG Arena will be available for Arena pre-order on May 10, with the physical cards (and decks) having a global in-store pre-release on June 6. The general global release of MTG - Final Fantasy will follow on June 10. 

Here's how to play all the Final Fantasy games in order.