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A significant part of the appeal of the *Final Fantasy* crossover set for *Magic: The Gathering* lies in the fashion so many cards depict familiar stories. Consider Tidus, Blitzball Star, which gives a glimpse of the protagonist at the very start of *Final Fantasy 10*: a wildly famous sports star whose secret weapon is a fancy shot that knocks a defender aside. The abilities represent this in nuanced ways. These kinds of storytelling is found in the whole Final Fantasy offering, and not all fun and games. A number serve as heartbreaking callbacks of sad moments fans continue to reflect on to this day.

"Emotional narratives are a key part of the Final Fantasy series," noted a lead designer on the set. "The team established some overarching principles, but ultimately, it was mostly on a individual basis."

While the Zack Fair may not be a competitive powerhouse, it stands as one of the release's most elegant instances of flavor by way of gameplay. It artfully echoes one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most important cinematic moments with great effect, all while utilizing some of the expansion's core systems. And even if it steers clear of spoiling anything, those who know the story will instantly understand the emotional weight behind it.

How It Works: A Narrative in Play

At a cost of 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 marker. By spending one colorless mana, you can destroy the card to bestow another ally you control protection from destruction and put all of Zack’s counters, as well as an artifact weapon, onto that chosen creature.

This design paints a scene FF fans are extremely familiar with, a moment that has been retold throughout the years — in the original *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even alternate-timeline iterations in *FF7 Remake*. And yet it hits with equal force here, expressed entirely through gameplay mechanics. Zack gives his life to save Cloud, who then picks up the Buster Sword as his own.

A Spoiler for the Card

A bit of backstory, and take this as your *FF7* spoiler alert: Before the main events of the game, Zack and Cloud are left for dead after a clash with Sephiroth. Following extended testing, the duo manage to escape. The entire time, Cloud is comatose, but Zack vows to take care of his friend. They eventually make it the plains outside Midgar before Zack is gunned down by forces. Abandoned, Cloud then takes up Zack’s Buster Sword and adopts the role of a elite SOLDIER, which leads right into the start of *FF7*.

Playing Out the Passing of the Torch on the Game Board

On the tabletop, the card mechanics effectively let you reenact this iconic sequence. The Buster Sword is featured as a top-tier piece of equipment in the set that costs three mana and gives the equipped creature +3/+2. Thus, with an investment of six mana, you can turn Zack into a solid 4/6 with the Buster Sword attached.

The Cloud Strife card also has clear interaction with the Buster Sword, letting you to look through your library for an artifact card. Together, these three cards play out as follows: You cast Zack, and he gets the +1/+1 counter. Then you cast Cloud to retrieve the Buster Sword from 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 “block” an attack and trigger it to cancel out the attack completely. So you can perform this action at any time, transferring the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He then becomes a formidable 6/4 that, whenever he does damage a player, lets you draw two cards and play two spells for free. This is exactly the kind of interaction meant when talking about “narrative impact” — not revealing the scene, but letting the mechanics make you remember.

Beyond the Obvious Combo

And the flavor here is oh-so-delicious, and it goes past just Zack and Cloud. 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 target creature, which also becomes a Mutant. This in a way implies that Zack’s initial +1/+1 token is, figuratively, the SOLDIER enhancement he received, which included genetic manipulation with Jenova cells. This is a small connection, but one that cleverly connects the entire SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter theme in the expansion.

Zack’s card does not depict his death, or Cloud’s trauma, or the stormy cliff where it concludes. It does not need to. *Magic* allows you to recreate the legacy yourself. You choose the ultimate play. You hand over the sword on. And for a brief second, while engaged in a trading card game, you remember why *Final Fantasy 7* remains the most influential game in the franchise ever made.