Dryad Arbor, Tree of Tales, Vault of Whispers, and Darksteel Citadel also give you two card types for one, and lands are usually pretty easy to pitch.

Thanks for the suggestions! Hadn't seen the tree and the vault yet, I'll try to get those.

I really wish this deck had the potential of becoming competitive. I feel that Spider Tribal's High CMC creature cost versus other tribal decks (Such as elf) and the sheer lack of Spiders with abilities that help ramp to alleviate that problem forces this deck to run at a crawling pace. I played my friends' version of this deck two nights ago and most of my turns end game were: "Play a spider... pass."

To be fair I understand that this general is Tier IV but I cannot help but feel disappointed in Spider Tribal as a whole. Ranting aside my friend did ask for help improving this deck. Bou is this build the most "competitive" version of Spider Tribal you have found during your methodical tweaking? Budget isn't a problem for this guy so any advice to help his deck compete against other Tier IV and Tier III generals would be much appreciated.

+1 Upvote from one Arachnophile to another!

I understand what you mean :( I've tried lowering the CMC but it's still slow compared to other decks. Now as for making this more competitive, I built this around Ishkanah, and strictly spiders, If you're not keeping it focused on Ishy or strictly, there should be other options to make it faster. My own issue with this deck though, is that I'm lacking some draw. Apart from that, I do okay against my friends, who also play Tier III and Tier IV commanders.

It doesn't get much more competitive than that as far as I know, but there are some things that could help. Descendants' Path and Slate of Ancestry are some I'm looking into for example. Another would be the infinite combos of Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar, and Cryptic Gateway + Cloudstone Curio - if you guys play with infinites.

If budget isn't a problem.. maybe Gaea's Cradle? Cavern of Souls? Sylvan Library is also a good one. and if you have the sylvan library, might as well run Abundance as that combos as well. Cover of Darkness could also be nice. Of course playing tutors like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Worldly Tutor will also speed up the game.

You could play more wipes and reanimate effects, but that will increase the CMC. Decree of Pain, and Patriarch's Bidding for example.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Fruit of the First Tree, Morbid Curiosity? You don't really have a lot of room to pull out things. The latter will give benefit for having a high CMC for your creatures. It won't be consistent draw. But it should get you what you need.

i had been thinking of a spider deck with her, EDH is perfect. i like this as a jumping off point. you earned the +1, friend.

awwwwwww +1 from me for cute spiders. :3 .