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A significant element of the charm of the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond collection for *Magic: The Gathering* is the fashion countless cards narrate well-known narratives. Cards like Tidus, Blitzball Star, which provides a portrait of the protagonist at the beginning of *Final Fantasy 10*: a wildly famous professional athlete whose secret weapon is a fancy shot that takes a defender out of the way. The gameplay rules mirror this perfectly. This type of narrative is widespread across the complete Final Fantasy offering, and not all lighthearted tales. Several act as heartbreaking echoes of emotional events fans still mull over decades later.

"Powerful narratives are a central element of the Final Fantasy legacy," wrote a principal designer for the collaboration. "The team established some general rules, but ultimately, it was largely on a case-by-case level."

Even though the Zack Fair card may not be a top-tier card, it represents one of the release's most refined instances of flavor through gameplay. It skillfully captures one of *Final Fantasy 7*'s most crucial cinematic moments in spectacular fashion, all while capitalizing on some of the expansion's central mechanics. And even if it steers clear of spoiling anything, those who know the story will instantly understand the meaning within it.

The Card's Design: A Narrative in Play

At a cost of one mana of white (the color of good) in this collection, Zack Fair enters with a starting stat line of 0/1 but enters with a +1/+1 marker. By spending one generic mana, you can remove from play the card to give another unit you control protection from destruction and transfer all of Zack’s counters, as well as an artifact weapon, onto that other creature.

This design depicts a moment FF fans are very know well, a moment that has been retold multiple times — in the original *FF7*, *Crisis Core*, and even alternate-timeline iterations in *FF7 Remake*. And yet it resonates with equal force here, expressed completely through gameplay mechanics. Zack sacrifices himself to save Cloud, who then takes up the Buster Sword as his own.

The Story Behind the Moment

Some necessary backstory, and consider this your *FF7* spoiler alert: Before the main events of the game, Zack and Cloud are gravely wounded after a battle with Sephiroth. After extended imprisonment, the pair get away. The entire time, Cloud is comatose, but Zack makes sure to look after his friend. They eventually make it the plains outside Midgar before Zack is fatally wounded by troops. Left behind, Cloud subsequently grabs Zack’s Buster Sword and takes on the identity of a first-class SOLDIER, leading directly into the start of *FF7*.

Playing Out the Legacy on the Game Board

On the tabletop, the abilities effectively let you reenact this iconic sequence. The Buster Sword is a a top-tier piece of equipment in the set that costs three mana and grants the wielding creature +3/+2. Thus, with an investment of six mana, you can make Zack into a respectable 4/6 with the Buster Sword attached.

The Cloud Strife card also has intentional synergy with the Buster Sword, enabling you to find for an weapon card. In combination, these three cards unfold as follows: You cast Zack, and he gains the +1/+1 counter. Then you play Cloud to fetch the Buster Sword from your deck. Then you play and equip it to Zack.

Owing to the design Zack’s key mechanic is worded, you can technically use it during combat, meaning you can “intercept” an attack and trigger it to cancel out the attack altogether. So you can do this at a key moment, transferring the +1/+1 counter *and* the Buster Sword to Cloud. He then becomes a formidable 6/4 that, whenever he strikes a player, lets you draw two cards and play two spells without paying their mana cost. This is exactly the kind of experience alluded to when discussing “flavorful design” — not spoiling the scene, but letting the mechanics make you remember.

More Than the Main Combo

And the narrative here is deeply satisfying, and it reaches further than just Zack and Cloud. 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 chosen creature, which additionally gains the type of a Mutant. This sort of implies that Zack’s initial +1/+1 token is, symbolically, the SOLDIER conditioning he received, which included modification with Jenova cells. This is a small connection, but one that implicitly links the entire SOLDIER program to the +1/+1 counter theme in the expansion.

Zack’s card does not depict his end, or Cloud’s trauma, or the rain-soaked bluff where it all ends. It doesn't have to. *Magic* enables you to recreate the legacy for yourself. You make the ultimate play. You transfer the sword on. And for a short instant, while playing a strategy game, you are reminded of why *Final Fantasy 7* continues to be the most influential game in the franchise to date.