In 2025, a major collaboration between Final Fantasy franchise and popular card game Magic: The Gathering, with characters, moments, locations and items from each game receiving cards. One of the connections Magic: The Gathering set was “Camp Comrades”, a box set focused entirely on the surroundings Final Fantasy 15. While the cards in the box initially received some attention for their eye-catching art, in early 2026 one previously overlooked card suddenly and seemingly at random jumped up in price.
“Flash photography” went from being ignored to being fashionable
“Camp Comrades” Magic: The Gathering The scene includes six exclusive cards, six art-only cards, three 14-card Play Booster packs containing more Final Fantasy cards and stand. The scene shown on the six cards shows the game's four protagonists resting in a camp: Noctis poses with his car, Regalia, Ignis cooks food, Gladiolus shows off his sword, and Prompto takes a selfie with a chocob. It was the last of the four, a blue sorcery card called “Flash Photography”, that suddenly became extremely valuable.
- Flash photos: Blue Witchcraft
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Costs 2 blue mana, 2 colorless mana
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You can cast this spell as if it had Flash (you can cast anytime, you can cast instant) if it targets a permanent you control.
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Create a token that is a copy of the target permanent.
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Spend 2 blue mana, 4 colorless mana to Flashback – Recast this spell from your graveyard.
After the release of “Camp Comrades”, “Flash Photography” generally sold for between $7 and $9. This is fairly standard for a card of its rarity – it can only be found in “Camp Comrades” and rarely in Final Fantasy Chocobo Bundle Box. However, at the beginning of March, this unpretentious blue Magic: The Gathering the card has experienced an unexpected price increase. Now, Magic retailers like Scryfall and TCGPlayer list the card between $30 and $40, with at least one listing for over $100.
Expensive challenge: Why is “flash photography” suddenly so expensive?
What has caused this sudden increase in price for a fairly common item Magic: The Gathering card, months after it was issued? Rarity certainly contributes to some extent – but it's not the only thing. The “Camp Comrades” set itself is quite expensive, generally selling for $70-$90 online, in line with others Final Fantasy scenic boxes. However, at the time of writing, there is no other exclusive card Final Fantasy 15-the themed box is almost as valuable. The lowest, “Warrior's Resolve,” retails for just $2, while the most expensive, “Camp Cuisine,” can be had for $15. The rarity of “Flash Photography” cannot be the only explanation for the price increase.
Is magic in its “copy time”?
In general, the ability to copy cards takes a little time Magic: The Gathering. Two recent releases, Lorwyn Eclipsed and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover (featuring the “TubuLair” Secret Lair drop) both featured cards that focused on copying as a mechanic. It's likely that players started building copy-focused decks, looked for cards that had good synergy with what they were building, and found “Flash Photography”. Here are just a few examples of recent cards that have contributed to the current “copy meta”:
- Slash, the Evil Turtle from Dimension X (TubuLair) — It can enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, allowing you to draw a card when it or a creature it copies deals damage.
- Mirrormind Crown (Lorwyn Eclipsed) – It equips a creature and then allows you to turn tokens into copies of that creature.
- Mirror shape (Lorwyn Eclipsed) – All non-terrestrial permanents under your control become copies of target non-aura permanents.
- A new hero is coming! (TMNT) — Spend mana to draw cards, then copy a creature with a mana value equal to or less than the number of cards you drew.
There's also some potentially fun synergy between “Flash Photography” and “Donatello, the Brains,” one of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-thematic cards. Donatello allows you to create another Mutagen token each time you create a token. If you had the mana, you could continue to sacrifice “Flash Photography”, discard it from your graveyard, create copies of tokens and accumulate these mutagens, which you can then sacrifice to boost your existing creatures.
The word is spreading
After the initial price jump Magic players started talking about “Flash Photography”, increasing its popularity (and price) even more. Last week, “Flash Photography” was #3 on MTGStocks' “Weekly Winners” list, with the article noting a fun combo with the already popular “Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer” that provides haste to your existing tokens while generating more each turn. He also points out that many other clone cards limit you to cloning creatures, while “Flash Photography” allows you to copy pretty much anything.
Threads discussing the card in the Reddit community dedicated to discussing EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander), Magic: The Gathering's The “Commander” format also noted that the card appeared in the winning decks of at least one recent EDH tournament, perhaps increasing its visibility even more. Notably, however, the first thread discussing “flash photography” in any of them Magic Formed shortly after the card was revealed last year, Reddit communities speculated that it would be a mid-tier card and a smaller version of the existing “Clever Impersonator” clone card. The change in fortunes of this card was indeed rapid.
Has this card's potential been simply overlooked until now?
As a Magic player, I can say one thing — “Flash Photography” is a really, really good card and always has been. Final Fantasy 15 is my favorite game in the series and right after the set was released last year I decided to create a deck centered around it. He uses Noctis Lucis Caelum, a modified version of Kenrith, The Restored King, as a five-color commander, allowing me to insert Final Fantasy 15 Magic I might be able to get a card. I've known for months how good this sneaky little card can be.
Who is that character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Start
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)
“Flash Photography” is the card that will most likely earn a groan or scream of despair from my opponent when it comes out. (And when I use “Ardyn Izunia's Boast” to search my deck, I always look for “Flash Photography”.) Personally, I like to copy a bulky creature during my opponent's turn for some extra quick defense, forcing them to tap more and leaving them exposed to my attack. Copying “Campsite Cuisine” is also quite fun – I can generate a lot of food tokens and then sacrifice them for powerful attacks. I'm glad that “Flash Photography” is finally getting the love it deserves, even if it has come with a price jump that probably won't go down anytime soon.
- Original release date
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August 5, 1993
- Designer
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Richard Garfield
- Number of players
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2+
- Age recommendation
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13+
