Why the Cleric Tribe?
Tribal decks are undoubtedly one of the most common Commander archetypes, and this is largely due to Commander being one of the few formats in which many tribes are viable. From the tried and true Elf tribal decks to the janky and casual Horse tribal decks, tribes are fun to play. Unfortunately, the mechanical nature of many tribes encourages one-note and highly linear deck construction and gameplay. Generally, these decks want to play a bunch of creatures, drop a couple of lords, and swing out at your opponents. So, when I decided to build a tribal deck of my own, I wanted to create something unique that would operate differently than turning creatures sideways. That is why I ultimately decided on the Cleric tribe. Life-loss and life-gain are not only essential to the identity of Orzhov in Commander, but also with the cleric tribe across Magic’s history. Furthermore, there are many established ways to win with lots of life and I had a lot of familiarity with clerics before building the deck, since I have always loved the Orzhov Syndicate from the first time I played Magic. Even disregarding life-gain payoffs, the tribe has a multitude of strong cards for Commander that just happen to be clerics, such as
Grand Abolisher
,
Selfless Spirit
, and
Weathered Wayfarer
, which supplements a common weakness of many tribal decks: a glut of cards that are synergistically powerful but weak in isolation. With my tribe and strategy established, I would like to walk you through the process by which I picked my Commander(s) and present you with a fun and engaging tribal deck that offers gameplay drastically unlike its competition.
The Commander…s?
When it comes to choosing the commander for the deck, the first card that comes to mind is
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
. She gives you the colors you need to make a working deck, she functions as a sac-outlet in the command zone, and she provides a payoff for gaining lots of life (something that the cleric tribe is designed to, exemplified in cards like
Ancestor's Prophet
and the soul sisters). However, what
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
does for the deck is not something that WB has problems doing on its own in the first place. Good sac-outlets are a dime a dozen in EDH and many are a lot better since she requires that you pay mana to sacrifice creatures, and while her ability to exile nonland permaments is very useful, it is not something that is hard to find in commander within the WB identity with cards like
Anguished Unmaking
and
Utter End
. Though her abilities maker her very useful in the 99, I wanted to look elsewhere for the general(s) of this deck.
So why are
Tymna the Weaver
and
Ravos, Soultender
better choices as commanders? The first boon comes from the inherent benefits that come with having partner commanders. Having two extra cards in your hand instead of the one extra card a single commander provides is just card advantage. However, having two commanders that share the tribe's creature type is extremely useful when considering cards like
Vanquisher's Banner
and
Battletide Alchemist
because partner commanders provide one more creature to enhance the potency of tribal effects. Furthermore, both partner commanders provide utility that is very useful to the deck.
Tymna the Weaver
provides an excellent source of consistent draw power, comparable and often better than cards like
Phyrexian Arena
, and
Ravos, Soultender
serves as an anthem, a recursion engine, and a flyer that can connect easily for
Tymna the Weaver
triggers. All in all, they provide the tools you need for a good tribal deck: draw power, recursion, and an anthem.
Suicide White
The Cleric tribe can gain a lot of life, and though there are good ways to turn life into draw power or board presence, it is hard to actually win the game with it sometimes. That’s why during the design process of this deck I figured that instead of trying to chip people down with my 2/2's, I would employ affects that caused life loss to each player and do my best to gain enough life to offset how much I hurt myself. The one card that inspired me to take this path was
Stern Judge
. That card did everything I wanted to do for the deck. It was a cleric and it had a way of chunking my opponents (as long as I had
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
out). So why stop there? With the inclusion of
Karma
this deck's strategy became clear. Additionally, cards like
Battletide Alchemist
and
Exquisite Blood
became a lot better too, since they can offset damage or even have me gain more life than life lost.
Da Combos
The most oblivious combo is Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond
. Though this combo is lack luster in the fact that it cost 10 mana to play and is not very interesting in its execution, both pieces are extremely useful in the deck, so why not run both. Another combo that is not “infinite” like most good combos are, but is likely to kill all opponents is Vizkopa Guidlmage + Children of Korlis and another outlet of losing a lot of life. The most consistent of these cards is
Necropotence
, but you run the risk of exiling a lot of cards in your deck if you have to discard too many. However, this combo works at instant speed, and with
Vizkopa Guildmage
the more mana you have to activate it’s second ability, the less life you actually have to pay/gain to kill the whole board.
Aetherflux Reservoir
is another great card to pair with
Children of Korlis
because it gives you the option to activate it twice, or just once while maintaining the same life total.
The combo I didn’t run in this deck is
Shaman en-Kor
and
Daru Spiritualist
with
Starlit Sanctum
. While
Starlit Sanctum
is actually useful as a utility land in the deck (and something I have used to win games before), the other two cards are simply terrible outside of the combo.
Daru Spiritualist
is irrelevant most of the time since targeted removal in commander is rarely damage or -X/-X based. Similarly,
Shaman en-Kor
is rarely useful because in the cases that is useful the two mana cost for its second ability is too high to ever be used effectively.
The Allstars
There are a few cards that really stand out in regard to what the goals of the deck are and how well they achieve those goals. My favorite card, and one of the best payoffs for playing a Cleric tribal deck, is
Battletide Alchemist
. This card synergizes extremely well with a several cards in the deck like
Mana Crypt
,
Command the Dreadhorde
, and
Karma
. Furthermore,
Battletide Alchemist
serves as an excellent politics tool in that you can prevent damage dealt to ANY player, which can come in handy when you have
Karma
out, and you don’t want to make too many enemies.
The next bomb for the deck isn’t even a cleric, but it can quickly push your board over the edge.
Archangel of Thune
is absolutely insane with a full suite of soul sisters to back it up such as
Soul's Attendant
,
Soul Warden
, and
Auriok Champion
. Often
Archangel of Thune
serves as
Cathars' Crusade
. However, she counts your opponents’ creatures entering as well as long as you have one of the soul sister’s out, and if you have two out your board can quickly grow in power and toughness.
The last card, and the reason I built I built the deck, is
Ancestor's Prophet
. For starters, the art on the card is so cool: an acolyte wielding the power of his devotion against the darkness with the help of his brothers and sisters in faith. It’s function also matches its flavor really well, and seriously help the deck gain a lot of life fast. Furthermore, it’s tap ability surpasses the summoning sickness problem, and lets me utilize many of the cheap, utility creatures that the deck runs very effectively. With cards like
Vizkopa Guildmage
and
Sanguine Bond
,
Ancestor's Prophet
, can quickly kill a player.
