Tifa Lockhart Landfall

Commander Overview

Tifa is mean, green, and ready to one-shot with ease! Tifa is such a cool card; I love being able to swing big and mono-green. Hence, this was a true best-of-both-worlds situation when this card was spoiled. I originally built this deck as a Voltron deck, but found it was a lot more fun and splashy when built as a landfall deck. We have so many amazing cards that support the overall game plan, and having all our opponents reduced to 21 life feels amazing! Tifa is a big swinging commander that can hit like a truck and end games quickly. While our speed can be impressive, we are pretty good even when the game goes long, and with so many ways to trigger Tifa multiple times, we can pack a big punch. Tifa is an awesome commander and a huge part of our deck.

How to Play the Deck

This is a pretty straightforward deck. I don’t think it’s great for beginner players because there are some complex interactions, and cards like Crucible of Worlds in the deck break a lot of the typical conventions you see as a beginner player. For an intermediate or expert player, this deck is great; it’s fun, fast, and can pack a punch very quickly. With so many ways to double trigger Tifa in a turn, we can turn a relatively benign turn into something crazy. Play lands, swinging big and hitting hard is how you play this deck.

Synergy’s in the deck

Our whole deck is built around Tifa, Tifa is the whole schtick of our deck and we have a ton of different ways to support them, whether its lands like Cabaretti Courtyard or Misty Rainforest we have many ways to double trigger Tifa and with cards like Azusa, Lost But Seeking we can easily trigger Tifa a bunch, our deck gets even crazier with the addition of cards like Crucible of Worlds allowing us to replay cards like Cabaretti Courtyard and continue to trigger Tifa. Since the whole deck is built around Tifa, we synergize well with them.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: The early-game is an exciting time for us! This is a great opportunity for us to get some early commander damage in and with all of the land synergy in our deck we can do quite a bit of damage at this stage, we don’t have a ton of other stuff to do in the early-game than attack and even if we are still hitting opponents for a few commander damage it can absolutely add up and make a difference in the later stages of the game. Unlike a lot of decks, we have a strong start.

Mid-Game: In the mid-game, we typically have a lot more setup time, so we can start double or even triple triggering Tifa in a turn, and when combining that with our other buffs/land abilities, we can hit like a truck, if an opponent ahs no creatures up they are truly in trouble at this stage of the game.

Late-Game: Our late-game is very similar to our mid-game, setup and drop as many lands as we can to hit like a truck with Tifa, not much changes that much between the mid and late game, and we hope we don’t get to the late-game in most games.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We are extremely good at ramp, our ramp spells are way better than most decks, especially since we can trigger Tifa with them, cards like Harrow or Kodama’s Reach represent additional triggers on Tifa. We are very good at getting a lot of lands out quickly and triggering Tifa as much as we can. Another underrated source of ramp that we have is all of the cards that allow us to play an additional land like Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, as well as a few others that not only allow us to ramp but trigger Tifa as well. Our ramp package is truly amazing for our deck.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

Even though we are in mono-green, we actually have quite a bit of card draw in the deck, and some that work very well with Tifa. Horn of Greed is by far one of the most consistent pieces of card draw in the deck, and we may even be able to build a little goodwill with our opponents for giving them free card draw, although that likely won’t last long. Lifestream’s Blessing is a little pricey but can be an extremely strong source of card draw, and since we typically have a ton of mana, it is something we can cast pretty easily. In all of the testing I did for this deck, I had no trouble with drawing cards, and my hand was always pretty full.

Removal

Removal outside of combat is something we are not amazing at; we typically hope to kill an opponent before they get to problematic, but we can definitely have a tougher matchup against some more aggressive decks. Removal is just something we are not amazing at, especially in mono-green. We are ok at removing artifacts and enchantments with cards like Krosan Grip or Nature’s Claim, but we do have very limited options here, so use them wisely! While we may not be able to remove opponents’ creatures, we can stop them from hurting us with cards like Constant Mists, which is just amazing in this deck, especially since we have so many sources of graveyard recursion for our lands.

Protection

We have duplication of a lot of effects in our deck especially when related to our lands, because of that we arent super hurt when our stuff gets killed, with the exception of Tifa, playing and keeping Tifa is the most important thing our deck can do so of course we have to pack cards like Snakeskin Veil or Overprotect and Tamiyo’s Safekeeping all of these are cheap “gotcha” options that can protect our commander and the overall gameplan.

Utility / Support

There are so many amazing cards in the deck, so I wanna highlight some of my favorites like Mightform Harmonizer, which is essentially an additional copy of Tifa, but using it to target makes our growth simply insane, an exceptionally strong card that we can trigger a ton. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods is another card that can just be bonkers, being able to recur all of our lands at once allows us to hit like a truck with Tifa, six mana is crazy easy for us to reach in this deck, if Tifa continously gets killed its also a great way for us to have a big creature on the board. Awaken the Woods is by far one of the coolest cards in the deck. While they can’t tap or attack unless we have Concordant Crossroads, they can trigger Tifa so many times, a great late-game finisher, especially since Tifa has trample.

We have a ton of Forests in the deck, as we should, it is a mono-green deck, but I wanted to highlight some strong cards that assist with buffing up Tifa like Primal Bellow, which can be a huge Buff to Tifa for cheap before we even landfall! Scapeshift is another absolutely insane card in the deck, sac all of our lands to trigger Tifa an absolute ton. Scapeshift is very often a finisher in this deck.

Mana Base

Our mana base is one of the most important aspects of our deck, having a ton of land and having cards that are great for Tifa are key to the deck, and don’t worry, we have some amazing non-basics. Since we can have a full hand pretty often, Reliquary Tower is truly necessary in this deck and has saved me from having to discard a ton of times. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is an important card in our deck, turning all of our lands into Forests can matter a ton, especially with cards like Primal Bellow or Staff of Titania. We also have a whole host of lands that double trigger Tifa, like Riveteers Overlook or Cabaretti Courtyard. These can be extremely deadly with Tifa, especially in the early game when opponents don’t have blockers. Lastly, I want to highlight Strip Mine and Wasteland. I don’t think I need to talk about how strong these cards are, but with all of the land recursion in our deck, we can easily disrupt our opponents and trigger Tifa!

Win Conditions

We can without Tifa, but for the most part, our primary win condition is Tifa.

Strengths of the Deck

We can one-shot opponents very early in the game.

We are certainly never short on mana, and we can easily fight through land destruction.

Weaknesses of the Deck

We are a one-trick deck; many opponents will auto-target us. We do have protection, but if they keep targeting us, it can be tough to get anything going.

Decks with a ton of huge creatures like +1/+1 counter-focused strategies can be a bit tough for us since we need a ton of power to fight through them.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Krenko, Mob Boss. Matchup Record: 4-1

I actually had a good matchup against this deck. I was nervous going in, but it went very well. If we focus them early before they can go crazy, it’s usually a pretty good game. I didn’t have a ton of trouble with Krenko. Most Krenko decks have just as selfish a game plan as we do.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Whispersilk Cloak and Invigorate.

Game 2: Vs Rosheen Meanderer. Matchup Record: 2-2

We split this matchup, and it was very interesting. We are both ramp-focused decks, but the creatures they get can be huge. It’s really a speed game. If we are more aggressive, we can take them out as they are vulnerable in the early game, but can get big quickly, just like we can. I try to keep a very aggressive hand.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Overprotect, Invigorate and Tifa’s Limit Break.

Game 3: Vs Betor, Kin to All. Matchup Record: 0-3

This was a terrible matchup for our deck, toughness truly is the enemy of trample, and this deck is no exception; it’s very easy for them get to huge toughness quickly. Combine that with them being in Abzan and having access to great removal, and this was a terrible matchup for our deck. Focusing on them first is the only real advice here!

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Exploration, Sylvan Safekeeper and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end. Tifa is such a fun commander, and I love that they’re mono-green. It feels weird that this deck is green, but wow, it feels fun to play. Tifa is certainly different and a different playstyle than most green players are used to, but I promise it’s worth it, such a fun deck to pilot!