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Long one of the most mysterious characters in Final Fantasy 7, Zack Fair achieved all of Cloud Strife’s goals before passing on the legendary Buster Sword. In hisMagic: The Gatheringdebut, he’s intended to do exactly that: die, so that another may succeed.
Zack Fair’s ability to pass on counters and Equipment at the drop of a hat makes for a playstyle that will leave your opponents guessing, and force them to play to counter your deck instead of progressing their own strategy. You don’t have to play fair just because it’s his name.
Sword of the Animist
Sword of Truth and Justice
War Room
The Commander
At a glance, Zack Fair seems like a decent support card, but a terrible commander: he’s a simple0/1 Human Soldier that costs one white mana and comes into play with a +1/+1 counter, and later you cansacrifice him to give his +1/+1 counter and one Equipment to another creature.
That’s about it: Zack Fair doesn’t have any built-in way to accumulate more counters, any more synergy with Equipment, or evasion to make it worthwhile to attack with him. Just like in FFVII,his only real purpose is to die and pass his legacy on to another character.
What makes Zack Fair a really worthwhile commander is his white color identity. While white isn’t the best color for counters (that’s green), or for reanimation (that’s black), or even for Equipment without red,it takes firm second place for all three, allowing you to build to make Zack a star.
An important piece of Zack’s second ability is that itdoesn’t require him to tap, so you can attack or block with him and then pass on his counters and Equipment when an opponent tries to destroy or block him. Pair that ability with an Equipment that adds counters over time, and you’ve got a formula for success.
The other thing to notice is thatZack’s ability isn’t limited to the +1/+1 counter he came into play with, or even just to +1/+1 counters. If you give Zack flying counters, trample counters, or other keyword counters, those can also be passed on to another creature.
Building The Deck
Zack Fair’s ability to pass on counters is limited by the fact that he has to die to do so, and a single +1/+1 counter isn’t valuable enough to deal with the growing commander tax as you loop casting and sacrificing him. But you canincrease the benefit by adding more counters, and cut the cost by sending him to the graveyard to reanimate.
While he isn’t set up very well as a Voltron commander thanks to his lack of evasion and supporting abilities, you can accumulate counters on Zack and swing wide, sacrificing him tomove all his counters and his most important equipment to whichever creature wasn’t blocked.
After sacrificing Zack and sending him to your graveyard instead of your command zone,reanimation effects like the one on Sun Titan can bring him back into play or to your hand to restart the gameplay loop, allowing you to keep stacking counters on your creatures.
The gamestate doesn’t actually keep track of individual counters, so abilities like Zack Fair’s aren’t moving counters from one creature to another: those abilities create new counters on the target. If you have effects that preserve counters after death,this can lead to increasing the number of counters when Zack dies, making his death both fun and profitable.
Finally, you’ll want several Equipments and a few ways to find them or put them into play.Zack’s old friend Cloud, Midgar Mercenary, is a perfect addition to the deck, since it both searches for Equipment and gives you a body to move Zack’s counters and Equipment onto.
Ramp
This deck has a really low mana curve, with 55 of the 66 cards in the deck at three mana or less. This largely eliminates the need for mana acceleration, but a little more mana means more opportunities to attach Equipment and activate other abilities.
Sword of the AnimistandLand Taxboth help you to get more land into play, but more importantly, theyhelp thin your deck so that you can find more important cardsto advance your strategy.
you’re able to use Land Tax to find lands and thendecide not to play themin order to get three more the next turn. This can really improve your odds of finding other key cards!
The Aethersparkis a great Equipment for Zack, since it gives him +1/+1 counters each turn, andif you manage to get it up to ten loyalty counters, you may remove them for ten mana. Usually you won’t need that, but you can also use it to draw cards, if you already have access to plenty of mana.
We likeExtraplanar Lensin mono-colored decks because itcan effectively double the mana production of the basic landsyou’re using. In white, it also helps decrease your lands in play, making Land Tax easier to use.
Extraplanar Lenslooks at your land’s name, not type. We recommend using Snow-Covered Plains to deny your opponents the benefit of this card, but regular Plains work just as well.
Draw
A low mana curve means there’s a real chance of playing out your entire hand, unless you include a good handful of draw options.
Buster Swordis about the most on-flavor draw option you could ask for. When any creature equipped with it deals combat damage to a player, you get to draw a card. On top of that,you can cast a card from your hand for free, as long as the mana value is no more than the damage dealt. With the mana curve in this deck, that’s almost any spell!
Esper Sentinelis white’s answer to Rhystic Study. As your opponents cast spells, they’ll trigger Esper Sentinel’s ability, allowing you to draw a card unless they pay mana equal to the Sentinel’s power.If you give it an Equipment or a few +1/+1 counters, you’ll draw more cards, but your opponents may decide to target it.
In a deck that spreads out +1/+1 counters,Dusk Legion Duelist is a great draw engine. It allows you to draw a card the first time you put a +1/+1 counter on it each turn, allowing it to grow and fill your hand at the same time.
Venat, Heart of Hydaelynis excellent, because sheprovides draw opportunities early, then draw, removal, and +1/+1 counters laterin the game. With 21 other legendary spells, and Zack being replayed frequently, she’ll draw you cards all the time.
Keeping Counters
It’s going to stink if you put all your counters on one creature, only for it to be destroyed. Fortunately,there are several cards available to keep the counters around, even if the creatures die.
The Ozolith is the standard: each time one of your creatures leaves the battlefield,The Ozolith stores all of that creature’s counters. Then, at the beginning of your combat, you can move all the counters onto a creature of your choice.
There’s a similar effect onReluctant Role Model, except that it moves counters directly onto a creature when one dies, andgenerates +1/+1, lifelink, and flying counters. Plus, it works with The Ozolith: if you sacrifice Zack with one +1/+1 counter, Zack’s effect will send one counter to Reluctant Role Model, The Ozolith will get a counter, and Reluctant Role Model’s effect will give himself another counter.
While Reluctant Role Model only allows you to move counters between creatures,Resourceful Defense allows you to move them onto any permanent. While that means you can store +1/+1 counters on a land after a board wipe, its secondary ability also allows you to move things like loyalty counters between planeswalkers!
There aren’t many ways to gain life in this deck, butAerith Gainsborough can still be a powerhouse if you move counters onto her before she dies. When she does, she’ll give all of her +1/+1 counters to every legendary creature you control, potentially giving you dozens of +1/+1 counters for a minor investment.
