🔗 Share this article

A core part of the appeal within the *Final Fantasy* crossover release for *Magic: The Gathering* lies in the manner so many cards depict familiar narratives. Cards like the Tidus, Blitzball Star card, which offers a portrait of the hero at the beginning of *Final Fantasy 10*: a celebrated Blitzball pro whose signature move is a fancy shot that pushes a defender aside. The card's mechanics reflect this with subtlety. This type of flavor is found across the whole Final Fantasy offering, and they aren't all lighthearted tales. A number are heartbreaking reminders of sad moments fans still mull over to this day.

"Moving tales are a key element of the Final Fantasy series," explained a senior game designer on the collaboration. "They created some broad guidelines, but in the end, it was largely on a individual basis."

Even though the Zack Fair card isn't a competitive powerhouse, it represents one of the release's most elegant pieces of flavor via mechanics. It artfully reflects one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most important cinematic moments brilliantly, all while utilizing some of the product's core gameplay elements. And while it doesn't spoil anything, those who know the story will immediately grasp the significance within it.

The Card's Design: A Narrative in Play

At a cost of one mana of white (the alignment of protagonists) in this collection, Zack Fair is a starting power and toughness of 0/1 but comes into play with a +1/+1 marker. For the cost of one generic mana, you can sacrifice the card to give another unit you control indestructible and put all of Zack’s bonuses, plus an Equipment, onto that other creature.

This card portrays a sequence FF fans are very know well, a moment that has been retold multiple times — in the original *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even new versions in *FF7 Remake*. And yet it resonates powerfully here, conveyed completely through card abilities. 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 context, and here is your *FF7* spoiler alert: Prior to the primary events of the game, Zack and Cloud are left for dead after a confrontation with Sephiroth. After years of imprisonment, the pair get away. During their ordeal, Cloud is delirious, but Zack makes sure to take care of his friend. They eventually reach the edge outside Midgar before Zack is killed by forces. Presumed dead, Cloud then takes up Zack’s Buster Sword and takes on the identity of a first-class SOLDIER, which leads right into the start of *FF7*.

Playing Out the Moment on the Tabletop

On the tabletop, the card mechanics essentially let you recreate this whole scene. The Buster Sword is featured as a powerful piece of gear in the collection that requires three mana and provides the equipped creature +3/+2. So, for a total of six mana, you can make Zack into a respectable 4/6 with the Buster Sword wielded.

The Cloud Strife card also has clear interaction with the Buster Sword, letting you to look through your library for an artifact card. In combination, these three cards play out in this way: You cast Zack, and he receives the +1/+1 counter. Then you play Cloud to pull the Buster Sword out of your deck. Then you cast and attach it to Zack.

Due to the manner Zack’s sacrifice ability is structured, you can technically use it in the middle of battle, meaning you can “intercept” an attack and activate it to negate the damage entirely. So you can do this at any time, moving the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He subsequently becomes a formidable 6/4 that, each time he deals combat damage a player, lets you pull extra cards and cast two cards without paying their mana cost. This is exactly the kind of interaction alluded to when discussing “emotional resonance” — not spoiling the scene, but letting the mechanics trigger the recollection.

Extending Past the Obvious Interaction

However, the narrative here is oh-so-delicious, and it goes past just these cards. The Jenova card appears in the set 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 sort of implies that Zack’s starting +1/+1 token is, symbolically, the SOLDIER treatment he underwent, which included experimentation with Jenova cells. This is a tiny nod, but one that implicitly connects the whole SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter mechanic in the set.

Zack’s card does not depict his death, or Cloud’s breakdown, or the rain-soaked bluff where it all ends. It does not need to. *Magic* enables you to recreate the moment for yourself. You perform the ultimate play. You pass the sword on. And for a brief second, while enjoying a trading card game, you remember why *Final Fantasy 7* continues to be the most influential game in the series for many fans.