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A core element of the allure of the *Final Fantasy* crossover release for *Magic: The Gathering* lies in the fashion so many cards depict well-known tales. Consider the Tidus, Blitzball Star card, which gives a snapshot of the hero at the beginning of *Final Fantasy 10*: a celebrated professional athlete whose signature move is a fancy shot that pushes a defender aside. The card's mechanics reflect this perfectly. Such flavor is found throughout the whole Final Fantasy set, and they aren't all joyful stories. Some serve as somber echoes of emotional events fans continue to reflect on to this day.

"Moving stories are a key component of the Final Fantasy series," noted a senior designer on the collaboration. "The team established some broad guidelines, but in the end, it was largely on a case-by-case level."

Though the Zack Fair isn't a tournament staple, it represents one of the set's most elegant instances of storytelling via mechanics. It masterfully captures one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most crucial story moments with great effect, all while leveraging some of the expansion's central mechanics. And although it avoids revealing anything, those acquainted with the tale will instantly understand the significance within it.

The Card's Design: A Narrative in Play

For one mana of white (the alignment of good) in this collection, Zack Fair has a starting power and toughness of 0/1 but arrives with a +1/+1 token. By spending one generic mana, you can sacrifice the card to give another creature you control protection from destruction and put all of Zack’s bonuses, along with an artifact weapon, onto that target creature.

This design paints a sequence FF fans are all too know well, a moment that has been revisited throughout the years — in the classic *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even new retellings in *FF7 Remake*. And yet it lands just as hard here, conveyed entirely through gameplay mechanics. Zack makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Cloud, who then takes up the Buster Sword as his own.

The Context of the Card

Some necessary backstory, and take this as your *FF7* warning: Years before the main events of the game, Zack and Cloud are gravely wounded after a confrontation with Sephiroth. After years of imprisonment, the friends break free. The entire time, Cloud is comatose, but Zack ensures to protect his companion. They eventually arrive at the outskirts outside Midgar before Zack is killed by troops. Left behind, Cloud then takes up Zack’s Buster Sword and adopts the role of a elite SOLDIER, leading directly into the start of *FF7*.

Playing Out the Legacy on the Battlefield

In a game, the rules in essence let you relive this iconic sequence. The Buster Sword is a a strong piece of armament in the set that requires three mana and provides the wielding creature +3/+2. So, for a total of six mana, you can turn Zack into a formidable 4/6 with the Buster Sword equipped.

The Cloud, Midgar Mercenary also has intentional combo potential with the Buster Sword, enabling you to search your deck for an weapon card. In combination, these pieces unfold as follows: You cast Zack, and he gains the +1/+1 counter. Then you cast Cloud to retrieve the Buster Sword out of your deck. Then you cast and attach it to Zack.

Due to the design Zack’s sacrifice ability is structured, you can potentially use it during combat, meaning you can “intercept” an attack and trigger it to negate the attack completely. So you can do this at any time, transferring the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He then becomes a formidable 6/4 that, each time he does damage a player, lets you pull extra cards and play two cards at no cost. This is just the kind of moment referred to when discussing “emotional resonance” — not spoiling the scene, but letting the card design make you remember.

Extending Past the Main Combo

However, the narrative here is incredibly rich, and it goes further than just this combo. The Jenova, Ancient Calamity is part of the collection as a creature that, at the start of combat, places a number of +1/+1 counters on a chosen creature, which additionally gains the type of a Mutant. This sort of hints that Zack’s starting +1/+1 token is, figuratively, the SOLDIER conditioning he received, which included genetic manipulation with Jenova cells. It's a tiny reference, but one that subtly connects the entire SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter theme in the set.

The card does not depict his end, or Cloud’s trauma, or the rain-soaked location where it all ends. It doesn't have to. *Magic* allows you to reenact the passing personally. You perform the ultimate play. You pass the legacy on. And for a brief second, while enjoying a strategy game, you are reminded of why *Final Fantasy 7* continues to be the most influential game in the saga ever made.