Seventh Heaven.
Okay, we can all agree that Tifa is the correct choice in Final Fantasy 7 (VII). There’s no way anybody believes this is a controversial take, so we’re not going to spend a single second longer thinking about it. If you’re looking for a Commander who simply wants to hit things and hit hard, then Tifa Lockhart is the Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY Commander you’re looking for.
As with every Commander Bestiary cover here at TCGplayer, we’re going to let you know everything there is to know about the character and the card. So, grab a (hero) drink, and let’s go ahead and get into things.
Lore Intro
Tifa Lockhart
FINAL FANTASY, Rare
Tifa Lockhart is an essential part of Final Fantasy 7 (VII) and is a part of Avalanche, the eco-warriors who serve as the main inciting force in the early game, but also as Cloud’s childhood friend and a potential love interest. She’s also a talented martial artist, and while other members of the party receive more powerful weapons, she improves her gloves and just happens to hit things much harder.
Strengths
Upon reading Tifa Lockhart, it may seem weird to have a one-power creature with trample, but there’s a good reason for it. Whenever a land enters under your control, Tifa doubles her power until the end of the turn. Even if you play something like Fabled Passage or even a Kodama’s Reach, that’ll make Tifa into a 4/2.
It’s a ton of power in one place and at the reasonable cost of two mana, meaning she’s easy enough to recast a few times during any given game of Commander. We’re also in mono-green, meaning there are several ways to ramp out on mana ahead of schedule without complicating the mana base too much. In fact, you could play this with just Basic Forests and do just fine.
Weaknesses
While having so much potential baked into one card, Tifa does come with several weaknesses, one being that she’s much easier to remove than anyone would like. Two toughness is pretty soft to removal in Commander, and her Landfall trigger only improves her power, meaning you’ll need to incorporate some ways to protect her. Also, Tifa is the kind of Commander that can steal games out of nowhere, so expect her to be a lightning rod for removal from your opponents.
Recommended Archetypes
Unsurprisingly, we’ll be leaning into the Landfall theme as much as possible, but also incorporating some equipment cards to ensure Tifa Lockhart can survive in a fair fight. You can definitely mess around with +1/+1 counters since she’s in green, but these archetypes tend to be more common in Commander and come with a higher pricetag (I’m looking at you, Bristly Bill, Spinesower).
Key Cards
If you like the look of Tifa Lockhart and want to create your own Commander deck, we recommend including the following cards:
- Traveling Chocobo
- Sword of the Animist
- Blackblade Reforged
- Genji Glove
- Ramunap Excavator
- Myriad Landscape
- Awaken the Woods
Strategy
Market Price: $24.96
Market Price: $14.20
Our strategy here is to accelerate on mana to make Tifa as strong as possible, and then end the game by attacking other players. It’s honest work, and it should be a lot of fun if you’re after a deck that’s really good at just doing one thing. Of course, we’ve got some essential cards to play alongside Tifa Lockhart, so let’s go over them.
MTG—FINAL FANTASY’s Traveling Chocobo comes with a whole lot of text, with most of it being relevant to Tifa. You can play land cards from the top of your library, but the Chocobo also allows you to double any trigger of a permanent if caused by a land or a Bird card. Essentially, we can double our Landfall triggers with Traveling Chocobo in play, meaning an Evolving Wilds can turn Tifa Lockhart into a 16/2 threat.
Sword of the Animist
Commander Masters, Rare
As with any Landfall strategy, you always need more lands and several ways to find them, which is where Sword of the Animist comes in. This equipment gives a minor +1/+1 boost to Tifa, but when you attack with the Sword, you search up a Basic Land card and then put it into play. Blackblade Reforged is a really nice payoff for having so many lands in play, where Blackblade will give equipped creature +1/+1 for each land you control on the battlefield. Rounding out the equipment package is the flavorful Genji Glove, giving the equipped creature double strike and an extra combat step. With Tifa at the helm, this will often be enough to take out two opponents at the table.
As we’re leveraging the Landfall theme as much as possible, having a few ways to interact with the graveyard is ideal here. Take Ramunap Excavator, which is one of many options that allow us to play our land cards from the graveyard. This is absolutely amazing with Fetch Lands, but if you’re going for something more affordable, you can get a lot of value out of it. Take Myriad Landscape as an example, which is a land that enters play tapped, and you can pay two generic mana to sacrifice it to put two Basic Land cards from your library into play tapped. Being able to do this once potentially allows for three Tifa triggers, so eight power with nothing else in play, so being able to do this on a few different turns is absolutely huge. Also, you can activate the Landscape at instant speed, meaning you can give your opponent a headache on how to block when Tifa attacks!
Awaken the Woods
The Brothers’ War, Mythic
Lastly, we have Awaken the Woods. This sorcery creates X 1/1 Forest Dryad Land tokens, as this is one of the few ways we can massively boost Tifa’s damage in a single turn. The Dryad tokens do enter play with summoning sickness, meaning they can’t attack immediately but can serve nicely on defense. One thing to keep in mind when playing with Tifa is to treat any land card you play as a combat trick of sorts, so sandbagging on lands is a reasonable line if you’re looking to maximize as much as possible.
Commander
Tifa Lockhart
Market Price:$180.38
Maindeck, 99 cards
- 1Tifa Lockhart
Creature (21)
- 1Traveling Chocobo
- 1Ramunap Excavator
- 1Ancient Greenwarden
- 1Loot, Exuberant Explorer
- 1Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 1Scute Swarm
- 1Mossborn Hydra
- 1Tireless Provisioner
- 1Tireless Tracker
- 1Springbloom Druid
- 1Sylvan Safekeeper
- 1Avenger of Zendikar
- 1Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
- 1Courser of Kruphix
- 1Wayward Swordtooth
- 1Llanowar Elves
- 1Elvish Mystic
- 1Eternal Witness
- 1Augur of Autumn
- 1Sakura-Tribe Scout
- 1Quirion Ranger
Planeswalker (1)
- 1Nissa, Who Shakes the World
Sorcery (11)
- 1Awaken the Woods
- 1Cultivate
- 1Kodama’s Reach
- 1Rampant Growth
- 1Scale Up
- 1Skyshroud Claim
- 1Will of the Sultai
- 1Splendid Reclamation
- 1Nissa’s Pilgrimage
- 1Chocobo Kick
- 1Overwhelming Stampede
Instant (10)
- 1Harrow
- 1Heroic Intervention
- 1Beast Within
- 1Snakeskin Veil
- 1Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
- 1Tyvar’s Stand
- 1Roiling Regrowth
- 1Primal Bellow
- 1Lifestream’s Blessing
- 1Tifa’s Limit Break
Artifact (17)
- 1Sword of the Animist
- 1Blackblade Reforged
- 1Genji Glove
- 1Swiftfoot Boots
- 1Lightning Greaves
- 1Whispersilk Cloak
- 1Skyclave Pick-Axe
- 1Staff of Titania
- 1Adventuring Gear
- 1Conduit of Worlds
- 1Basilisk Collar
- 1Champion’s Helm
- 1Trailblazer’s Boots
- 1Wrecking Ball Arm
- 1The Earth Crystal
- 1Explorer’s Scope
- 1Sol Ring$1.39
Enchantment (1)
- 1Retreat to Kazandu
Land (38)
- 1Myriad Landscape
- 1Rogue’s Passage
- 1War Room
- 1Command Beacon
- 1Guildless Commons
- 1Jungle Basin
- 1Field of Ruin
- 1Arid Archway
- 1Evolving Wilds
- 1Terramorphic Expanse
- 1Fabled Passage
- 1Cabaretti Courtyard
- 1Brokers Hideout
- 1Riveteers Overlook
- 1Blighted Woodland
- 1Escape Tunnel
- 1Promising Vein
- 1Naya Panorama
- 1Bant Panorama
- 1Jund Panorama
- 18Forest
That’s all you need to allow Tifa to punch her way to victory. If you want something a little less punchy, then go for the incredibly stubborn Absolute Virtue or Ultima, Origin of Oblivion for some colorless shenanigans. Alternatively, you can sign up for the Commander Bestiary newsletter to receive the latest articles directly to your inbox!