🔗 Share this article

A core part of the appeal within the *Final Fantasy* crossover collection for *Magic: The Gathering* comes from the fashion countless cards tell familiar stories. Consider the Tidus, Blitzball Star card, which provides a glimpse of the hero at the beginning of *Final Fantasy 10*: a wildly famous sports star whose signature move is a unique shot that knocks a defender out of the way. The card's mechanics reflect this in nuanced ways. These kinds of narrative is found throughout the complete Final Fantasy set, and they aren't all fun and games. Several act as poignant echoes of tragedies fans continue to reflect on decades later.

"Emotional tales are a vital element of the Final Fantasy franchise," wrote a principal designer for the project. "We built some broad guidelines, but finally, it was largely on a card-by-card level."

While the Zack Fair is not a top-tier card, it stands as one of the set's most clever pieces of storytelling by way of rules. It artfully echoes one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most important story moments brilliantly, all while capitalizing on some of the expansion's core gameplay elements. And although it avoids revealing anything, those familiar with the story will immediately grasp the significance behind it.

The Mechanics: Flavor in Rules

For one mana of white (the hue of good) in this collection, Zack Fair has a base power and toughness of 0/1 but arrives with a +1/+1 counter. By spending one colorless mana, you can remove from play the card to grant another ally you control indestructible and transfer all of Zack’s markers, along with an artifact weapon, onto that other creature.

This design portrays a moment FF fans are very familiar with, a moment that has been revisited multiple times — in the classic *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even alternate-timeline versions in *FF7 Remake*. But somehow it hits powerfully here, communicated solely through gameplay mechanics. Zack makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Cloud, who then picks up the Buster Sword as his own.

The Story Behind the Card

A bit of context, and consider this your *FF7* spoiler alert: Years before the main events of the game, Zack and Cloud are severely injured after a confrontation with Sephiroth. After extended experimentation, the duo get away. The entire time, Cloud is delirious, but Zack ensures to take care of his comrade. They finally reach the plains outside Midgar before Zack is gunned down by forces. Presumed dead, Cloud then takes up Zack’s Buster Sword and takes on the role of a elite SOLDIER, which leads right into the start of *FF7*.

Reenacting the Legacy on the Battlefield

On the tabletop, the rules essentially let you relive this iconic event. The Buster Sword appears as a powerful piece of armament in the collection that costs three mana and gives the wielding creature +3/+2. Thus, with an investment of six mana, you can make Zack into a solid 4/6 while the Buster Sword wielded.

The Cloud Strife card also has intentional combo potential with the Buster Sword, enabling you to look through your library for an weapon card. Together, these pieces play out as follows: You play Zack, and he gets the +1/+1 counter. Then you cast Cloud to pull the Buster Sword out of your deck. Then you cast and attach it to Zack.

Owing to the way Zack’s sacrifice ability is structured, you can potentially use it during combat, meaning you can “intercept” an assault and activate it to negate the attack altogether. So you can do this at any time, passing the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He is transformed into a strong 6/4 that, whenever he deals combat damage a player, lets you pull extra cards and play two spells for free. This is exactly the kind of interaction meant when talking about “narrative impact” — not spoiling the scene, but letting the gameplay evoke the memory.

More Than the Main Combo

And the flavor here is deeply satisfying, and it goes past just these cards. The Jenova, Ancient Calamity is part of the set as a creature that, at the start of combat, puts a number of +1/+1 counters on a chosen creature, which then becomes a Mutant. This sort of hints that Zack’s starting +1/+1 token is, in a way, the SOLDIER conditioning he underwent, which included experimentation with Jenova cells. This is a small nod, but one that cleverly links the entire SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter mechanic in the set.

Zack’s card avoids showing his end, or Cloud’s breakdown, or the stormy cliff where it concludes. It does not need to. *Magic* enables you to recreate the legacy yourself. You choose the ultimate play. You transfer the legacy on. And for a short instant, while playing a strategy game, you remember why *Final Fantasy 7* is still the most impactful game in the saga for many fans.