Tifa, Martial ArtistTifa, Martial Artist | Art by Yumi Yaoshida

At the age of twelve, I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy VII. I was late to the party, having only been a small child when it first released, but the box art with the mysterious meteor and the massive sword captured my imagination. If younger me could have guessed I’d be still talking about it twenty years later…

I’m here today to talk about one of the commanders from the precons being released alongside the main Final Fantasy set. The cards are rife with flavor, and as always, they result in a lot of really unique designs which wouldn’t have come to Magic otherwise. Tifa, Martial ArtistTifa, Martial Artist is absolutely oozing with open-ended possibilities!

Who Is Tifa, Martial Artist and What Does She Do?

Tifa is one of the main characters of Final Fantasy VII. She starts out as the owner of the 7th Heaven, a bar in Sector 7 of Midgar, and the home base for AVALANCHE. She and Cloud were childhood friends who lost touch, reconnecting over a healthy dose of ecoterrorism and armageddon. As you do. She serves in the role of the Monk class in Final Fantasy games, meaning she’s a strong close-range fighter. How does that translate to card mechanics?

Tifa is a 4/4 with melee, which lets her get +1/+1 for each opponent you’re attacking when she attacks. If you attack all three opponents, she hits the magic number 7, which is setup for her second ability. Any time you hit an opponent with a creature with seven power or greater, you untap all of your creatures. If the damage happens during the first combat step, you get an extra combat phase per opponent hit.

Some subtle nuances here: the untapping happens every time you hit an opponent. The extra combat triggers only hit if it’s the first combat phase. If you hit all three opponents in the first combat phase, you’ll get three extra combat phases. If those creatures have double strike, you’ll get six. Diabolical.

The ability to trigger extra combats from the command zone puts her in the same camp as cards like Aurelia, the WarleaderAurelia, the Warleader, and the focus on big power can potentially put us in mind of commanders like Xenagos, God of RevelsXenagos, God of Revels. In practice, she’ll be a blend of both, requiring the big power to get those extra combats. The focus on combat may even bring up someone like Isshin, Two Heavens as OneIsshin, Two Heavens as One or Wulfgar of Icewind DaleWulfgar of Icewind Dale. Any of these strains could become the focus!

So this is an aggro deck. It wants to hit the magic number with three or more creatures and crash in to hit the jackpot. The deck values high power and attacking. Tifa herself lacks evasion, which naturally draws us towards the theme that precon comes with: Equipment. A distinction between this deck and the original design is that this one focuses on creatures that start with four power with the goal of only running out two or three creatures and equipping them with something that’ll immediately boost them to seven and give them a relevant ability to help the deck push through to its endgame.

Key Cards for Tifa, Martial Artist

We need three ingredients for our deck:

• Four-power creatures to hit the table early,
• Equipment to help them power up, and
• Payoffs for our big creatures to carry us into the endgame.

Our cheap four-power creatures include ones like Jolene, Plundering PugilistJolene, Plundering Pugilist and Outcaster TrailblazerOutcaster Trailblazer, both of which are three mana and give us benefits for big creatures. Gadrak, the Crown-ScourgeGadrak, the Crown-Scourge and Rhonas the IndomitableRhonas the Indomitable are both cheap beaters that can’t attack unless we meet a requirement that this deck is built to leap right over. Barret, Avalanche LeaderBarret, Avalanche Leader and his older cousin, Chishiro, the Shattered BladeChishiro, the Shattered Blade, come in on four mana and give us benefits for Equipment. The deck doesn’t naturally want to go very wide, but the extra tokens are useful.

Our creature suite has a natural benefit: bigger power, bigger damage. Leaning into it has risks of board wipes, so we really need to keep up the card flow. Helping with that are the usual suspects in Garruk's UprisingGarruk's Uprising and friends for extra cards every turn. Bonders' EnclaveBonders' Enclave is a premium version of this effect because of how “free” it is, being on a land. The recently printed Herd HeirloomHerd Heirloom acts as mana early on, then turns into card draw.

Not to be outdone, red offers removal via Sarkhan's UnsealingSarkhan's Unsealing and Nibelheim AflameNibelheim Aflame. (There is a genuine point of contention as to whether Nibelheim AflameNibelheim Aflame is actually an upgrade over Chandra's IgnitionChandra's Ignition. The former is cheaper, with a flashback option that has card advantage tacked on, while the latter actually domes opponents. In this deck, both are good, but we’ll be sticking with just the one.)

Not every creature in the deck can be a pure beatstick (although I did try). Of the 30 main deck creatures, 21 start with power four or greater. Of the remaining nine, four of them serve us some kind of ramp, like Fanatic of RhonasFanatic of Rhonas. The tiniest Cloud, Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary, and his fellow small party member, Red XIII, Proud WarriorRed XIII, Proud Warrior, boast some solid Equipment synergies worth the slot. Cloud tutors something up for us, and can double Equipment triggers. Red XIII ensures that all of our equipped creatures have vigilance and trample, which helps get damage through. The remaining handful provide some measure of card advantage, the ability to grow to size, or both.

Finally, our Equipment. I had a special focus here. Out of the Equipment I included, 10 of them immediately grant three or more power to give most of our creatures the magic seven. They range from Stitcher's GraftStitcher's Graft in pure efficiency to the very functional Forebear's BladeForebear's Blade with additional keywords to help push damage through. This ensures that most of the time, any singular creature and Equipment can reliably get us to the seven power Tifa needs for her ability to pop off. Two of our shinies are Blackblade ReforgedBlackblade Reforged and Wrecking Ball ArmWrecking Ball Arm, which are nifty little cheat codes that ensure any of our creatures can reach the requirement.

Equipment like Summoning MateriaSummoning Materia or Greatsword of TyrGreatsword of Tyr don’t necessarily get to the magic number, but they do push in enough value to be worth it. Don’t forget your Inspiring StatuaryInspiring Statuary: tapping Equipment for mana feels like cheating.

How Does Tifa, Martial Artist Win?

The gameplan is established: make low-mana creatures into seven-power threats. We have eight three-mana and nine four-mana creatures which have at least four power on their own, which ensures we have plenty of early threats. The early game will be the typical aggro plan: deploy ways to develop our board alongside creatures to turn sideways. Out of the creatures included, only three of them are pure stats; the rest provide some measure of ramp, draw, or additional value that pushes our game plan forward. Aggro decks have gained a lot in the last few years!

Raw power isn’t enough. We’ll need to get one of our engines going to keep us running smoothly in the midgame. A board wipe or two could knock us out of the game, which is where our engines come in. Our card drawing enchantments, in addition to cards like Dragonborn ChampionDragonborn Champion, will keep us from going into topdeck mode. The other way to dodge board wipes is cards like Cosmic InterventionCosmic Intervention and friends. Why Cosmic InterventionCosmic Intervention in the mix? It goes well with the other foretell card: Lifestream's BlessingLifestream's Blessing. Also, we’ll want to be getting our creatures equipped. Our equip costs are low, but zero is always better. A few of our effects have ways to cheat those costs, like the aforementioned Barret, Avalanche LeaderBarret, Avalanche Leader.

Tifa, Martial ArtistTifa, Martial Artist is the primary win-con in her own right. It’s going to be an exercise in board analysis to determine when to finally cast her. She’s not the type of commander you run out early to grind out value; you deploy her on a developed board to pull everything together into either a big smash or a win outright. Once she’s on the table, we should be getting an extra combat or three to accelerate our damage output. Not only that, but we have attack triggers that get to pop off an extra handful of times each turn, from the simple value of Sword of the AnimistSword of the Animist to the brutal Goreclaw, Terror of Qal SismaGoreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma.

Tifa isn’t our only endgame. We’re “building” our finishers for the most part, but there are some desirable effects that don’t dip below five mana. Stonehewer GiantStonehewer Giant can tutor an Equipment to the battlefield every combat, getting untapped by Tifa on connect. Xenagos, God of RevelsXenagos, God of Revels can give a creature haste and a massive pump every combat, meaning it can compound through extra combats. One of our own semi-one-sided board wipes, like Winds of AbandonWinds of Abandon or Nibelheim AflameNibelheim Aflame, will clear the path for an alpha strike.

Tifa, Martial Artist Commander Decklist

Closing Time…

And that’s a ring out! Tifa is a pure combat commander, through and through, with a nice big power push. I looked over the possibilities for a while before focusing on the power four with the Equipment support. This was a neat way to distinguish it from the precon as designed, though I couldn’t help but include a handful of cards from it. Tifa is thankfully open-ended enough that I could see versions focused on attack triggers, big creatures without Equipment, +1/+1 counters, or even some specific creature type that runs large, like Dragons.

As is, this deck is synergistic and hits hard. With an average mana value of just over 3, it runs out fast and builds up steam quick thanks to the plethora of engines. I’d put this in Bracket 3, easy, even though this version lacks Game Changers.

If you’re a fan of the four-power draft archetype, Equipment, or extra combats, give this one a try!