Tifa, Bracket 3? Need help

[u/nasada19]

Hey, I'm really really bad at building quicker B3 decks. I've tried many times, but I feel like my decks never really hit that sweet spot of a strong B3 deck when I sit down at the table.

I throw this together and wanted to check if I'm on the right track? It's just punching people with combat and hopefully running enough draw, ramp, and interaction to win reasonably.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Glksw3xcu0adY1mrdfoz_Q

[u/Honest_Tumbleweed330]

The ideal boardstate for Tifa is to have her and two other creatures with 7 power to maximize the amount of combats you can get.

For that we divide our creatures into three categories: cheerleaders, big chonkers and anchors.

Your cheerleaders are your supports that let you play your other creatures faster. Your mana dorks. You want your cheerleaders to work to Tifa's strengths, so creatures like [[Ilysian Caryatid]], [[Whisperer of the Wilds]] and [[Raucous Audience]] not only help you cast Tifa one turn earlier, but they also give double mana after she is on board.

Your big chonkers are 7+ power creatures that are either cheap to cast (4 to 5 mana) or give some sort of boardwide benefit. In your current list you have Anzrag, Godzilla, Hydra Omnivore, Nessian Boar and Traxos as your chonkers. You have a couple more in your 'considering' section. The best kind of chonkers are the ones that can give Tifa trample, since it's the last piece she needs to trigger her own extra combat. Things like [[Thunderfoot Baloth]], [[Beorn the Fierce]], [[Pathbreaker Ibex]], [[Ghalta the Unstoppable]] and [[Aggressive Mammoth]]. Other noteworthy chonkers are [[Groundchuck & Dirtbag]] to double your mana, [[Summon: Titan]] for ramp and [[Quilled Greatwurm]] for lots of counters.

Now that you have Tifa and a big chonker is time for the anchor, the fastest member of the team that locks together the 3-man unit of extra combats. These guys must have haste, trample and 7 power. Casting one of them should be a finisher, a declaration of your intention of having FOUR combat phases this turn and killing AT LEAST one person with Commander damage.
Currently you have two anchors: Blitz Hellion and Hideous Taskmaster.
Some examples of other ones can be [[Eivor, Wolf-Kissed]], [[Summon: Kujata]], [[Leatherhead, Iron Gator]], [[Decimator of the Provinces]], [[Tyrant's Familiar]], [[Kogla and Yidaro]], [[Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers]], [[Tyrranax Rex]] and [[Riders of the Mark]]

And that's pretty much it. You cast your cheerleader on 2, Tifa on 3, big chonker on 4 and anchor on 5. With whatever delays you suffer along the way to protect or remove imminent threats.

Some other cards worth mentioning:

[[Hunter's Insight]] will draw you more cards than you will know what to do with.

[[Trash the Town]] can be cheap draw, trample to get through or pump to get to that 7 power. Very versatile, and the draw also scales with extra combats.

[[Selvala's Stampede]] is crazy, and will win you the game on the spot if you happen to have Tifa and two anchors in your hand.

[[Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array]] best protection, as always.

[[World War Hulk]] to cheat some mana and pump up the jams. This also plays well with Eivor and her ability to bring Sagas from the graveyard to the battlefield.

[[Gogo, Mysterious Mime]] because two Tifas is better than one.

[u/longhairsilver]

Your card draw seems a little slow. Garruk’s uprising or similar effects are nice if you get them early but they are bad top decks. I would look into cards like [[Lifestream’s Blessing]] that reward you for having big creatures by drawing you a ton of cards right away. Also I would add more lands, I know you have a lot of dorks but you also have a bunch of large mana creatures so you don’t want to miss land drops or get blasted by an early board wipe

[u/Rubber_Ducky333 → u/longhairsilver]

Yup, I agree with this. Add two more lands (even with the mdfc). Also, Rishkarrs and last March of the ents can draw you cards and keep foot on the gas. You have a lot of instants for a deck that wants to put out big beaters. I think you can also cull the enchants some.