Tribal for All!

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honeymomo

19 March 2010

2150 views

With every new MTG release there is always one thing that I'm always looking forward to, and that is the new tribal themes! I'm always curious about the new creature types (or reoccurring ones) that will appear. What attracts a lot of people to this type of deck build is usually the consistent flavour of the cards, easy synergy, possible Johnny combo opportunities, or maybe a mixture of all of the above.

When I first started to play, Lorwyn was the set that was out at the time. It was very attractive for me to get into considering all the girly cards and it mainly consisted of making use of the tribal feature. I was instantly addicted to Faerie/Rogue decks and it was easy to build around the “Going Rogue” pre-constructed deck. Each tribe worked together and gave bonuses and ended up being powerful in their own ways. Having a look at everyone’s creature type was very important to take into consideration for any moves that a player would make. For instance, Oona's Blackguard would give my rogues a boost and help me to get rid of my opponents’ hand. She also ate a lot of removal spells in her day when I played her for being an annoying threat!

Now my appeal for tribal has moved into a broader spectrum. My favourite tribal of all time is the Dragon creature type. Maybe this will reveal my voracious Timmy streak but alas, that would be going into a different article. I also enjoy playing with Goblins and for standard I of course picked Vampires. There are many different choices for making a tribal deck and I enjoy it because I can usually find synergy anywhere or force it to happen. I also find that from my experience it’s good for beginners to start out with a tribal deck. It’s easy to see some of the basic mechanics; some complicated ones and learn the strategy of how cards work together when it’s sorted out into a tribal atmosphere.

Tribal is also great for players because chances are you’ll find a tribe that’s perfect for you or fits your style of play. I usually choose Dragon so I have access to huge creatures but thanks to Dragonspeaker Shaman I can have them out for (2) less than usual. That is a great bonus to playing a tribe in my opinion. The choices range anywhere from Efreet to Wizard, Angel to Zombie and span the colours of WUBRG. A great starting point is to pick a creature that interests you. Even if you cannot find a lot of a certain tribe there is always a way to make it work for you. The introduction of Changelings is a great example of that.

Here is a great place to pick out a creature type of your liking:

http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/visual_spoilers_creature_types_text_list.htm

They list most of the creature types on this site. The links that you can click offer more than a few options but it is nice to see that they will still put some of the less populated tribes up.

You can also look at:

http://magiccards.info/search.html

After “Types (Oracle, English):” enter the creature subtype of your choice and a list will be generated of all the cards in your tribal interest area. This has been endlessly useful to me because I have a hard time memorizing all the cards. It also helps me to find some cards that will work in my tribal that I didn’t know about because they were out before I started to play.

Next I would like to highlight some great cards to use for tribal decks! To starts let’s imagine a scenario where you chose “Eye” as your creature type. There isn’t a lot to work with. As I said before, changelings will work out (but some of them are ugly! I know!) But don’t worry there are other cheatyface fun ways to play tribal with only a few creatures available. Conspiracy, is a great card for this instance. Let’s look further into things:

“As Conspiracy enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.

Creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield, creature spells you control, and creatures you control are the chosen type.”

This is fantastic. Now all your creatures are the types of your choice before they hit the table. Now you have the option to add more creatures to your deck even if their subtype doesn’t say “eye” it will still be considered as an Eye creature. Are your Johnny senses tingling? They should be because look how great this is for an ally tribal deck with Turntimber Ranger.

“Whenever Turntimber Ranger or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Turntimber Ranger.”

This would mean that you get the ranger that triggers but then when the wolf comes into play it too is an ally and triggers again and again. Because it is a “you may” ability you can stop this from happening whenever you want. I would choose to have 100 wolfs out! I’m not the best at explaining this situation but hopefully you understand the idea I’m trying to convey!

A lot of cards help you to have a cheaper casting cost with tribal. Urza's Incubator is a great example of this. It can go into any deck because it is a colourless artifact but it is very cost effective at (3) to cast. Not to mention great flavour of “Stop thinking like an artificer, Urza, and start thinking like a father!” for those who enjoy the flavour text. After mentioning this I also have to point out Cloud Key and Helm of Awakening. These can be used in many situations but are great for tribal. The draw back to Helm of Awakening is that your opponents’ spells are less too so you may not want to choose it. Cloud Key is also good for various other combos but it would be up to a Johnny to further this for me.

Another helpful card would be Konda's Banner because it gives not only a tribal bonus but a colour bonus as well. Bonuses like this are great in tribal and have very simple synergy to follow. For those who champion Standard will know that Coat of Arms is another great example of this but useful for standard tribal. The draw back is that your opponent too will have the bonus with Coat. I usually play Coat of Arms when I know that I am dominating the field with my own creature type (Bitterblossom anyone? Slivers?) And I am assured to have the bigger creatures.

A card like Rite of Replication can also be useful in a tribal deck. With its kicker cost you can pump out many creatures of your chosen creature type. Blue is also great for control. I see it as a great milling win condition in an Ally tribal deck with Halimar Excavator.

Taking a deeper look into tribal what it means to me is a more literal “tribe feel” if you will. I usually look for cards that have a race or class as their subtype. In other words, not all cards that give bonuses and have synergy are a tribe if you will. For instance, Master of Etherium isn’t exactly a tribal because artifact isn’t a race or class (to me). Artifacts, from a flavour perspective are like tools. Yes, creatures have surfaced in this realm but I just don’t get much of a tribal feeling from this type of thing. I look at artifacts more of as “artifacts” – an “object made by human beings, esp. with a view to subsequent use.” I consider classes such as rangers or soldiers a tribe because of the community feeling I get when using them for a tribal deck. If we look at the “Affinity” ability from Mirrodin, it is very powerful but to me it does not constitute as Tribal just an ability that works well with other cards. To summarize, just because it has synergy does not make something a tribe. There has to be a fine line drawn. A lot of cards can work together but a tribe is reflected based on creature and class subtype.

When building a tribal deck I usually find myself in trouble sometimes being mainly a tribal player. This trouble is that I will choose a tribal choice over something that wins. For a Spike this would be a no-no but for a honeymomo it is fine (please forgive me, I had to). To keep a theme strong in a Goblin deck chances are I’m going to pick Tarfire over a card like Lightning Bolt. I know that the bolt is better but something like that doesn’t concern me. I have more enjoyment knowing I have a card that will deal 2 damage with a mean little goblin throwing flaming poo over a strong 3 damage bolt. This does seem a bit much, but it is the daily strife a tribal player will face.

The upcoming tribes and current strong tribes are very exciting. To start we have Vampires and Goblins that are making a lot of noise. If you haven’t had a look at Goblins yet you may want to consider both Goblin Guide and Warren Instigator for your next decks. Kors are the major tribe for white and Merfolk are representatives again for blue. Green hosts many elves are per usual but they’re packing more of a punch with each new set. I’m also elated to see the new Eldrazi that are coming out. They look huge (Timmy), strong (TIMMY), and like they have awesome abilities! If you don’t have your Eye of Ugin ready I suggest you get them now! 1 is good for a deck since they are Legendary but you may want 2 incase a deck is packing land hate.

I feel that I’m rambling on now so I will end my first article here! I hope that I perked some interest in people to go tribal and have fun! I know that this is my favourite type of play and hopefully you will all like it too! On a final note if you want to get into tribal quickly and don’t have a lot of pieces pick up a Lorwyn or Shadowmoor pre-con deck!

Xoxo,

honeymomo