Advice on tribal deck card choice
Deck Help forum
Posted on May 18, 2021, 8:03 p.m. by Phosphonothioic
Mainly, I'm wondering which would be seen as a better fit for my given deck. Quicksilver Amulet or Cryptic Gateway
Also, I'm looking for opinions on where to steer this deck if anywhere. There are so many viable Beasts that it's been hard for me to make card choices. Then you have cards like Fierce Empath which could be useful. So, advice is more than welcome. Thanks! (If someone could guide me in how to format this into a list, that'd also be appreciated. Sorry for the current format.)
4 Arbor Elf 3 Arboreal Grazer 3 Kalonian Tusker 3 Krosan Warchief 3 Leatherback Baloth 2 Ravenous Baloth 3 Elder Gargaroth 3 Garruk's Packleader 2 Thragtusk 1 Rampaging Baloths
4 Wild Growth 3 Beast Within 2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Contested Cliffs 4 Fire-Lit Thicket 4 Rootbound Crag 12 Forest
wallisface says... #3
If anything, I would suggest you get a playset of Aspect of Hydra and tune this deck to be an aggro stompy beatdown deck (its the most obvious progression for it). That would involve trying to keep a high green-devotion count, and running a horde of low costing aggressive creatures
May 18, 2021 8:36 p.m. Edited.
Phosphonothioic says... #4
So, this is a previous iteration of my go at a Beast tribal.
It doesn't include the amulet or gateway and seems to be better costed in terms of ramping up aggro. But I'd probably want to switch in some Arbor Elves and Wild Growths. Wouldn't that make for a better ramp than the Mystics?
I do realize now that the deck runs Harbingers without running any Garruks, something else that would need to be addressed. I'm envisioning some mash-up of these two decks, there's just a lot of beasts to choose from. Thanks for your input peeps.
May 18, 2021 8:55 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
The following below is a list I used to run a while back for mono-green stompy. It’s obviously not tribe-orientated, but may give you some ideas of the direction to head.
- 16x Forest
- 3x Elvish Mystic
- 3x Arbor Elf
- 4x Pelt Collector
- 4x Experiment One
- 4x Avatar of the Resolute
- 4x Strangleroot Geist
- 4x Kalonian Tusker
- 3x Leatherback Baloth
- 3x Steel Leaf Champion
- 3x Khalni Hydra
- 1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger
- 4x Rancor
- 4x Aspect of Hydra
Note the above list is a bit old and can defo do with some improvements, but its a good baseline of what green does well - being hyper-aggressive.
In general for mono-green you want to either build your deck around being very fast & aggressive, OR build it around ramping to some massive auto-win threat. You appear to be trying to do a strange mix of the two, being sudo-aggressive while ramping to semi-big threats. I would suggest picking a defined path and building around that. If you want to be aggressive, don’t ramp so much, and field lower costing creatures. If you are wanting to ramp-big, get something like Tooth and Nail in there to cheat out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (or some other busted payoff)
The other thing to evaluate is how much sticking to your tribe is actually getting you. Whether you’re getting actual value out of confining yourself to this creature-type, or whether its just a self-imposed restriction without much upside.
May 18, 2021 10:34 p.m.
Phosphonothioic says... #6
It was strictly a self-imposed restriction without much upside. I realize I am putting myself in a box by going tribal in this case. I have a tribal W Knight deck where being tribal is very synergistic and has tons of upside.
I guess I should abandon the tribal and go with creatures that provide more function over "form", so to speak.
It must work decent for you, but I'm wondering how well the Evolve mechanic functions. It seems like you may get 1-2 pumps out of it, but I assume that's all you need because by that point you're either dead or have overwhelmed your opponent.
Thanks for your input thusfar.
May 18, 2021 11 p.m.
wallisface says... #7
The Evolve mechanic of both Pelt Collector and Experiment One are great, for the following reasons:
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They effectively make those 1-drop creatures able to swing for 2 on turn 2, and then keep getting bigger and remaining relevant. While they're unlikely to get bigger than a 3/3 before game end, thats still a lot of power and damage from a 1-drop creature!
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The counters also help to make Avatar of the Resolute massive on entry. It's not uncommon for that card to enter as a 5/4 trampler on turn 3.
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an aggro deck needs 1-drop creatures that can do damage, otherwise you're just going to be too slow to get the killing blow. Aggro decks are looking to win the game on turn 4 at the latest. So anything that can't help towards that cause is usually unideal.
In the above list, stuff like Khalni Hydra are being more cute than helpful, and is only really there cause I like the card, tbh. In general it's important, for an aggro deck, that you aim to kill the opponent before they can get their engine running.
May 19, 2021 12:38 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #8
“I guess I should abandon the tribal and go with creatures that provide more function over "form", so to speak.” I disagree in the strongest terms, Phosphonothioic. ;p
May 19, 2021 12:55 a.m.
wallisface says... #9
FormOverFunction does raise a valid point - at the end of the day you've gotta play decks you enjoy. If tribes are your thing, then don't make me pressure you out of playing what you enjoy. If the deck's performing well amongst your particular playgroup, and you enjoy it, then it's already doing everything it needs to.
My suggestions above have come from a place of competitive deckbuilding and playing against sweaty, optimised decklists. Mileage & Applicability to other playgroups may vary :)
May 19, 2021 1:55 a.m.
Yeah Herald's Horn would be amazing. Quicksilver Amulet or Cryptic Gateway are only really useful in Eldrazi or similar decks, where creatures cost 9+ mana.
I would also suggest Rancor or if you have deep pockets, Concordant Crossroads .
July 20, 2021 1:08 a.m.
You don't want to be sacrificing your beasts, the only win condition in your deck is attacking a lot with a lot of beasts. So I would either remove Ravenous Baloth or add Blossoming Bogbeast . Those 2 together are a wicked combo.
A few other good beasts that come to mind are Fangren Firstborn , Garruk's Harbinger , Nullhide Ferox , Questing Beast , and Ursapine . If your friends play counter-spell decks, consider Terra Stomper , or Spellbreaker Behemoth .
wallisface says... #2
Looking at the list, I would strongly suggest neither of these cards, as the current list doesn’t look like it would want either of them. By the time you’re able to cast either, you can pretty-much cast all of your creatures anyway. Why are you thinking these would help?
What format is this for? Casual? Modern??
Also, you should really try using this site to make this into a deck, and then post the link up here - it’ll be a ton easier to read & get help on that way. You should literally be able to create a new deck and copy/pasta your above cards in there.
May 18, 2021 8:34 p.m.