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A significant aspect of the allure of the Final Fantasy crossover release for *Magic: The Gathering* lies in the fashion so many cards tell well-known narratives. Cards like the Tidus, Blitzball Star card, which offers a glimpse of the character at the beginning of *Final Fantasy 10*: a wildly famous professional athlete whose secret weapon is a specialized shot that knocks a defender out of the way. The gameplay rules represent this perfectly. This type of storytelling is found across the complete Final Fantasy offering, and they aren't all fun and games. Several serve as somber echoes of emotional events fans still mull over decades later.

"Emotional stories are a key element of the Final Fantasy franchise," explained a principal game designer on the project. "We built some general rules, but in the end, it was largely on a individual level."

Though the Zack Fair isn't a competitive powerhouse, it represents one of the collection's most elegant pieces of narrative design by way of mechanics. It masterfully captures one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most crucial story moments in spectacular fashion, all while leveraging some of the expansion's core mechanics. And while it avoids revealing anything, those who know the tale will instantly understand the meaning embedded in it.

The Mechanics: Flavor in Rules

For one mana of white (the hue of protagonists) in this collection, Zack Fair has a starting power and toughness of 0/1 but enters with a +1/+1 marker. For the cost of one colorless mana, you can sacrifice the card to give another creature you control protection from destruction and transfer all of Zack’s markers, as well as an gear, onto that target creature.

These mechanics paints a moment FF fans are very know well, a moment that has been revisited multiple times — in the first *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even new retellings in *FF7 Remake*. Yet it lands with equal force here, communicated solely through rules text. Zack makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Cloud, who then takes up the Buster Sword as his own.

A Spoiler for the Card

For context, and consider this your *FF7* warning: Before the primary events of the game, Zack and Cloud are left for dead after a battle with Sephiroth. Following years of experimentation, the duo manage to escape. During their ordeal, Cloud is delirious, but Zack vows to look after his companion. They eventually make it the edge outside Midgar before Zack is gunned down by forces. Abandoned, Cloud in that moment claims Zack’s Buster Sword and adopts the role of a elite SOLDIER, setting the stage for the start of *FF7*.

Reenacting the Moment on the Tabletop

Through gameplay, the abilities in essence let you reenact this iconic scene. The Buster Sword appears as a powerful piece of armament in the set that requires three mana and provides the wielding creature +3/+2. Thus, with an investment of six mana, you can make Zack into a formidable 4/6 with the Buster Sword attached.

The Cloud Strife card also has deliberate synergy with the Buster Sword, letting you to look through your library for an artifact card. In combination, these three cards function like this: You summon Zack, and he gets the +1/+1 counter. Then you play Cloud to retrieve the Buster Sword from your deck. Then you cast and attach it to Zack.

Due to the manner Zack’s key mechanic is structured, you can potentially use it during combat, meaning you can “block” an assault and activate it to prevent the damage altogether. So you can perform this action at any time, transferring the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He subsequently becomes a powerful 6/4 that, every time he does damage a player, lets you pull extra cards and play two spells for free. This is precisely the kind of moment referred to when discussing “emotional resonance” — not spoiling the scene, but letting the card design trigger the recollection.

Extending Past the Obvious Interaction

And the narrative here is deeply satisfying, and it extends past just Zack and Cloud. The Jenova card appears in the collection as a creature that, at the start of combat, puts a number of +1/+1 counters on a target creature, which additionally gains the type of a Mutant. This kind of implies that Zack’s initial +1/+1 token is, figuratively, the SOLDIER treatment he received, which included genetic manipulation with Jenova cells. It's a subtle reference, but one that subtly connects the whole SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter theme in the set.

This design doesn't show his death, or Cloud’s breakdown, or the rain-soaked location where it happens. It does not need to. *Magic* lets you recreate the legacy yourself. You choose the ultimate play. You pass the sword on. And for a short instant, while playing a strategy game, you are reminded of why *Final Fantasy 7* is still the most influential game in the series ever made.