Competitive Mono Tribal Decks
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on June 23, 2015, 11:37 p.m. by SirFowler
I have been wanting to build competitive tribal decks for each mono color, but the only one that fails to live up to being competitive is mono-red. Think about it.
Mono-White has Knights
Mono-Blue has Merfolk
Mono-Black has Zombies
Mono-Green has Elves
However, there is no definitive tribal deck for red, mainly just burn. I have been working on a devil deck, but I feel it doesn't hold up as well as the others. Does anyone recommend a legitimate tribal deck for mono-red that is also competitive that I could play?
filledelanuit says... #3
Goblins is a deck. It is basically a creature heavy burn deck that runs Goblin Grenade and plays the mid game a little better than naya burn. It also beats hate more easily than naya burn. I don't have a list but TO should have a few and I know one did well at an IQ recently.
June 23, 2015 11:43 p.m.
Oh crap....
How could I forget goblins?! Wow, I feel stupid now XD
June 23, 2015 11:44 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #5
Is Knights.dec a thing actually? I havent heard anything about it.
June 24, 2015 3:06 a.m.
PepsiAddicted says... #6
Flanking knights was kind of a thing, long ago... In Time spiral. But not really anything worth building. Not now and not back then
June 24, 2015 3:14 a.m. Edited.
JexInfinite says... #7
Mono-white Soul Sisters is pretty much tribal. 85-90% of the creatures are humans.
June 24, 2015 3:15 a.m.
PepsiAddicted says... #8
June 24, 2015 4:21 a.m.
Rebels for white? I know they used to be amazing. Don't know about now though.
June 24, 2015 4:38 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #10
I figured soldiers would be the go-to tribe for white.
June 24, 2015 4:40 a.m.
Knights are good with stuff like Knight Exemplar and co. Soldiers may work better overall though.
June 24, 2015 8:43 a.m.
As mentioned above, Goblins are very much a thing in red. Take some token producers like Dragon Fodder, Krenko's Command, Mogg War Marshal, and Hordeling Outburst, and a big dose of pump effects like Shared Animosity, and it doesn't really matter if they have blockers or not.
I would steer you in the direction of Soldiers over Knights if you're going mono-White, though. The 1- and 2-drop options there are better (we're talking stuff like Boros Elite, Precinct Captain, Raise the Alarm as a token maker, and even Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), and Brimaz, King of Oreskos is better than anything any Knight has to offer if you ask me.
June 24, 2015 1:09 p.m.
Knights has Student of Warfare, Knight of Meadowgrain, Leonin Skyhunter, Knight of the White Orchid, Kinsbaile Cavalier, and +1/+1 and indestructible to your whole team via Knight Exemplar is pretty strong imo.
June 24, 2015 2:10 p.m.
Just mix the two and go Human Soldiers and Knights. It works for me.
June 24, 2015 2:19 p.m.
@JDMCRIB: Allow me to address your comment in the detail that it deserves. Tha said, bear in mind that this is just my opinion (backed by some pretty extensive testing of both decks, but still, an opinion nonetheless).
The list of Knights that you mention is indeed solid, but it's limited. Student of Warfare can be potent, but it's frankly too mana-intensive for mono-
tribal aggro. Any turn where your best play is to pump your Student of Warfare is probably a turn where you're not in the greatest spot. Knight of Meadowgrain is pretty baller, but Knight of the White Orchid's benefit is not overly relevant to White weenie, and Leonin Skyhunter is just ok (at least it has evasion, which is something I'll touch upon later in this discussion).
On the subject of 3+ drops (which is admittedly something I didn't touch upon earlier), the reason to run Knights at all in my opinion is Knight Exemplar, and it is markedly better than Field Marshal - no sense arguing that. However, given the relative paucity of pump effects that Knights have access to (and given how good its secondary effect is), it becomes quite the removal magnet. If the Knight Exemplar goes down, the Knights are no longer anything special. That doesn't necessarily apply to Soldiers. As for Kinsbaile Cavalier... it's a relatively small 4-drop (only 2 toughness!), and its effect is somewhat redundant with several Knights you can (and frankly should) consider including in your deck, such as Mirran Crusader. Another thing to consider is the mono- stipulation. Knights benefit tremendously from a splash of 
, because it allows them to play cards like Knight of the Reliquary and Selesnya Charm.
On the Soldiers front, in addition to the creatures I mentioned in my last post, you also get access to utility creatures like Dryad Militant, Soldier of the Pantheon, and Kor Firewalker, which can disrupt your opponent in ways that Knights can't. In terms of 3+ drops, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Field Marshal, and even some other cards like Preeminent Captain (which opens up the option of running Captain of the Watch), and Veteran Swordsmith present you with more pump options, and more importantly more creatures.
And the reason why having more creatures matters in this case is because mono- aggro is bad at evading blockers. Sure, white has fliers, but most of them aren't Soldiers or Knights. They also have creatures with protection, but those are (a) rare; and (b) conditional. And while you do have Brave the Elements, that one applies equally to Soldiers and Knights, and it favors gearing up for a big killshot (which is easier with more creatures on the table, by and large).
In order to get around this lack of evasion, you can (a) cherry-pick your creature selection to be evasive; (b) field large numbers of creatures; or (c) pack tons of removal. We can safely eliminate (a) just by glancing at the list of creatures available to us for both Tribes - just not enough random fliers/landwalkers/protection from multiple colors/otherwise-hard-to-block guys to go around. While Path to Exile is obviously powerful and an auto-include in both decks, it doesn't deal with tokens or multiple blockers very well, which means that one Lingering Souls or Timely Reinforcements ruins your whole day. That leaves us volume, which is something that Soldiers do really well and Knights do really poorly. Therefore, Soldiers are your mono- tribe of choice.
tl;dr: Mono- aggro has a problem with being too easy to block, and Knights don't have enough native evasion to solve it. Soldiers solve that problem with volume, and they have a bigger selection of good creatures and pump effects available to them. Therefore, I feel that Soldiers are better.
@Rocknj06: Human tribal in white with Knights/Soldiers as secondary tribes is certainly interesting (and I admittedly dabbled with Champion of the Parish as a secondary tribal piece in the past), but I feel it shuts out too many good cards.Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Raise the Alarm, Kor Firewalker in the sideboard, and Leonin Skyhunter from the Knight side of the equation all spring to mind.
June 24, 2015 4:08 p.m.
rothgar13 That was a very thought-out comment. Thanks for the response.
And in a way, I agree. In the case of strictly mono-color, Soldier is admittedly the better tribe, but if one chooses to splash into , Knights may be better due to Knight of the Reliquary being able to search up manlands and what-have-you.
June 24, 2015 4:16 p.m.
Yeah, the splash definitely favors Knights. A 
splash might be something to consider in a Soldier deck because of cards like Legion Loyalist as well as Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix, but that's not something I've tested just yet.
June 24, 2015 4:28 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #18
Errybuddy forgeting Wilt-Leaf Liege for the knights green splash?
June 24, 2015 5:22 p.m.
CMC4 is a difficult asking price for an aggro deck (unless you run AEther Vial, that is), but Wilt-Leaf Liege is probably worth trying to squeeze in there. You won't really get much mileage out of the pump effect for creatures (unless you really like Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers or Knotvine Paladin, and I'm not really a fan of either), but the pump for creatures might be enough to make it worth your while.
June 24, 2015 5:37 p.m.
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers sounds good, as the hybrid means being denied one of your colors doesn't matter, same with Wilt-Leaf Liege. I think that the deck can last long enough to pump out 4 mana. And I don't really like Knotvine Paladin too much either.
June 24, 2015 5:39 p.m.
How's this for a mono white tribal?
Live Long and Prosper Playtest
Modern*
SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 39 VIEWS
June 24, 2015 5:43 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #22
You forgot something SirFowler, which is our new buddy Collected Company! I actually made a small Knight Aggro deck today and it's doing things, not sure how well though. Oh, and don't forget that Hero of Bladehold is a thing, and that you cover most of your removal bases with Paladin en-Vec and Mirran Crusader. Another one drop for Knight is War Falcon, which ain't too shabby of a card for an aggro deck, though it's fine for knights or soldiers.
June 24, 2015 11:44 p.m.
Collected Company is an interesting piece for a Knight deck if you're splashing , but what gets cut for it is complicated, as both Wilt-Leaf Liege and Elspeth, Knight-Errant are very strong in that deck, and neither has good synergy with CoCo. Hero of Bladehold is great in a tokens deck, but below-average in Knight tribal (the tokens it makes are Soldiers).
I take a lot of issue with the choice of War Falcon, though. That is a deeply flawed card, and the reason why is because it's vulnerable to removal both directly (1-toughness creature with no protection) and indirectly (zapping a Knight means it can't attack). It makes enemy removal a potential 2-for-1, and it doesn't benefit from a lot of the tasty Knight buffs. I wouldn't touch War Falcon with a 10-foot pole.
June 25, 2015 12:19 a.m.
I say that Collected Company in place of Elspeth, Knight-Errant sounds good. Her token producing affect makes Soldiers, her second +1 is nice, but in the end digging for potentially 4+ power spread out over two creatures that is constant is... nice. And Knight Exemplar makes up for losing the ultimate, which you can conveniently get with CoCo!
Sounds pretty strong imo.
June 25, 2015 12:24 a.m.
JaceArveduin says... #25
I made sure to keep the cmc under three so I could use CoCo in my version, with a pair of Hero's being the exception because it's never a bad idea to keep a 1 man army that doesn't die to bolt, decay, and can't be stripped from your hand by IOK.
As for the Falcon, you're probably right, but this also isn't the type of aggro deck that's winning if it can't keep at least 2 creatures on the board shrug
June 25, 2015 1:20 a.m.
If I was going to add CoCo, I would just make it a selesnya deck by adding stuff like Qasali Pridemage and maybe even Wild Nacatl. I just don't know if it's that worth it to splash a color when it would just change the feel of the deck entirely.
June 25, 2015 1:46 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #27
People kinda forgetting it sposed to be mono white? Or is this just some tangent deck that should probably have its own thread?
June 25, 2015 2:11 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #28
Heres a soldier version as an alternate if interested.
June 25, 2015 3:51 a.m.
JaceArveduin says... #29
RoarMaster Eh, we were more talking about what would go into a Knight tribal to make it work, and while CoCo is green, you don't actually need any other green cards,just remove a few plains for 4 Windswepts and 4 Temples.
Currently build actually isn't even running Reliquary, swapped him out for Paladin en-Vec because protection's kinda powerful, ya know?
June 25, 2015 11:10 a.m.
Not sure where the original post went...but how does this thread have 28 replies and no one has mentioned Fish?
June 25, 2015 7:05 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #31
sylvannos merfolk was mentioned in the OP as the blue tribe. The original post was wondering what the red tribe was(goblins), but has since degraded into whats the best white tribe, and how to build it. I think...
June 25, 2015 7:19 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #32
Eyup, I'm pretty sure this turned into Knights vs Soldiers as the White tribe, and soldiers are probably better, though knights are quite hilarious with Collected Company, and War Falcon has been doing nice things for me so far, though I haven't been testing against tiered decks.
My list so far can hit pretty hard, but also gets hit hard by Electrolyze and other such effects, due to running Accorder Paladin and Daring Skyjek along with the Falcons. But with their power/evasiveness, if you get a Knight Exemplar out, they hit hard.
June 25, 2015 9:22 p.m.
@RoarMaster: Ah ok that makes more sense. TappedOut is broken or something right now and everyone's original posts have disappeared.
In that case, I'd say Humans are probably the strongest White tribe in Modern. Soldiers nor Knights have anything Humans don't that are essentially 3/3s for . In general, Humans have Champion of the Parish and Boros Elite. While not 3/3s right away, it gives Humans something to compete with Wild Nacatl or Kird Ape and their ilk.
Humans also lets you play Blade Splicer, White Knight, Knight of Glory, Ethersworn Canonist, Fiendslayer Paladin, True Believer, Imposing Sovereign, etc.
June 25, 2015 10:26 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #34
sylvannos There are quite a few fun human cards that buff other humans, the problem is that Hamlet Captain and Mayor of Avabruck Flip are green while Riot Ringleader and Kessig Malcontents are red. Of course, now I'm thinking about building a Naya human deck...
June 25, 2015 11:30 p.m.
Humans don't have enough juice, if you ask me. Sure, your 1-drops have good size, but that's it. They're mostly quintessential "big dumb creatures" with no evasion or cool tricks going on, the tribal effects are stretched out across 4 different colors (the ones mentioned above, plus Xathrid Necromancer in black), and they don't really go above 3/3s before pump (which is less readily available than it is for other tribes). I'd avoid.
June 25, 2015 11:53 p.m.
GreenGhost says... #36
I have a soldiers list, or rather had. It did consistently preform well against other aggro decks, such as elves. It was a blast to play but eventually wanting to be competitive overcame me and I went to black white tokens. Perhaps you might get some use out of this though.
June 26, 2015 10:39 a.m.
Let's put the mono-white talks on hold for just a minute. Goblin Piledriver is gonna be back, boys! Fire up your engines and let's make some Goblin aggro decks!
http://mythicspoiler.com/ori/cards/goblinpiledriver.html
June 26, 2015 10:50 a.m.
TheLordStormCrow says... #38
soldiers for white? with captain of the watch (and another cool thing for mono white soldiers is palisade giant with aegis angel, so you can swarm the board and your guys cant be killed from combat dmg or burn etc.)
June 26, 2015 1:06 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #39
The problem is (mono-white) Soldiers don't have that much tribal support, to my eternal dismay, and Captain is expensive, though there are ways to cheat her out with soldiers.
June 26, 2015 1:26 p.m.
I categorically disagree with that assertion, and you can go back to my earlier posts to see why. Soldiers have gotten a LOT more love over the years than Knights have (not all of it is good quality support, but the volume is there). While we're on the subject, I forgot to mention that Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is a Soldier, so you can sneak her in there somewhere to good effect.
June 26, 2015 1:41 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #41
Well guys, I went and prototyped a Mono-W soldier deck The Tower Guard, but I still feel like I want a few copies of Collected Company in it...
cosmokai2000 says... #2
I hear goblins are pretty good....
June 23, 2015 11:42 p.m.