“I Just Wanted to Play Tifa. Then the Math Happened.”

“I Just Wanted to Play Tifa. Then the Math Happened.”

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I already understood that Reality Fracture was going to pour goodies all over Magic players.

That usually happens with the in-universe sets. Thankfully, WotC still hasn't forgotten that its core followers include those of us who still want cards that actually look and feel like Magic cards—and, more importantly, cards that will actually matter in our EDH games.

So when they announced that there would be a Green Valakut in this set, I immediately wondered what it would look like.

And sitting on my left is my Tifa Good Stuff deck, which I have been continuously improving as pieces for it appear, one set at a time.

Then I saw Roiling Canopy.

Every time a Forest enters the battlefield, as long as you control at least five other Forests, you get to give a creature you control +3/+3 until end of turn.

I could instantly see Tifa smiling.

Frankly, so could I.

And then I encountered the one thing every Magic player eventually fears:

Eww. Math.

Specifically, math involving potential combat damage.

I honestly just wanted a quiet night to write. Instead, this interaction sent me down a Tifa-shaped rabbit hole, trying to figure out exactly how far I could push her power for that glorious one-shot kill.

So here we go.

I started with Tifa, Azusa, Roiling Canopy, Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, and five Forests.

I then decided to replace one of my original Forests with Yavimaya and see what would happen if I played three fetch lands, each one fetching another Forest.

And that's when I realized what Yavimaya was doing to the math.

Yavimaya makes every land on the battlefield a Forest in addition to its other types.

That means my fetch lands aren't just fetch lands anymore.

They are Forests.

So I play my first fetch land.

Tifa sees a land enter the battlefield and doubles her power:

1 → 2

But because the fetch land is also a Forest thanks to Yavimaya, Roiling Canopy triggers as well:

2 → 5

Then I crack the fetch land and bring a Forest onto the battlefield.

Tifa doubles again:

5 → 10

And Roiling Canopy gives her another +3/+3:

10 → 13

At this point, I'm already starting to suspect that I have made a terrible financial decision by owning this deck.

But I still have two fetch lands.

So I play the second one.

Tifa doubles:

13 → 26

Roiling Canopy:

26 → 29

I crack the fetch land and fetch another Forest.

Tifa doubles again:

29 → 58

Roiling Canopy adds another three:

58 → 61

Tifa is now sitting at 61 power.

And I still have one more fetch land.

So naturally, I play it.

Tifa:

61 → 122

Roiling Canopy:

122 → 125

Then I crack the fetch land and bring in my final Forest.

Tifa doubles:

125 → 250

And because that Forest is, obviously, a Forest, Roiling Canopy gives her another +3/+3.

250 → 253.

And there it is.

253-power Tifa.

The progression looks absolutely ridiculous when written out:

1 → 5 → 13 → 29 → 61 → 125 → 253

And that's when I finally understood what Yavimaya had done to this little experiment.

Without Yavimaya, my three fetch lands would give me three Tifa landfall triggers from the fetch lands themselves, followed by three more when they brought in Forests.

That's six landfall events.

But with Yavimaya?

Every fetch land is also a Forest.

So those same three fetch lands don't merely give me six landfall events.

They give me six landfall events and six Roiling Canopy triggers.

Every single land entering the battlefield is now contributing to the madness.

At this point, I am no longer playing a reasonable Tifa deck.

I am conducting a controlled experiment to determine exactly how many Forests it takes to turn Tifa Lockhart into a natural disaster.

Apparently, the answer is six landfall events.

253 power.

And somewhere across the table, my opponent is probably rereading Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, Roiling Canopy, and Tifa Lockhart in exactly that order, trying to figure out where everything went horribly wrong.

Meanwhile, I'm just sitting there thinking:

I really should have gone to bed.

But at least now I know how hard Tifa can punch.