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Shelob's Lair of Spiders

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Bracket 2 Casual Deathtouch Spider Tokens

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Arachnids (27)

Arachnophiles (3)

Deathtouch Tricks & Abuse (7)

Lures (4)

Mana Artifacts & Land Fetches (7)

Mass Card Draw (2)

Other Removal (7)

Other Utility Artifacts & Enchantments (5)

Planeswalkers (1)

The Lands of the Spiders (36)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Shelob, Child of Ungoliant

Sideboard

Other (3)

Maybeboard

Other (15)

Rejoice, Spider tribal lovers! With Shelob, Child of Ungoliant, we finally have a new powerful commander to build around.

Disclaimer: This deck is intended for friendly Tribal Commander games. If you want to spice things up, consider adding some less friendly cards such as Lightning Greaves, Thornbite Staff, Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor, The One Ring or Roaming Throne.

What is Tribal Commander?
Tribal Commander is a friendly format similar to 1v1 Commander with a couple of specific rules:
- Each deck has 30 creatures minimum
- At least 20 creatures and your commander share a single creature type
- You play with 30 lives, two wins and one free mulligan
- The game is intended to be friendly, so stay clear of too much mass removal, overpowered planeswalkers or gamechangers
- Unusual tribal types are more than welcome!

Last year was pretty good for spiders, giving us some new eight-legged critters to play with. Treetop Snarespinner is an obvious pick, Broodspinner plays well into the deck's graveyard subtheme, Twitching Doll is a lovely little mana dork and Spinner of Souls is pure value. In addition, I'm giving chance to Flesh Burrower, Convert to Slime and Bushwhack. To make room, I've removed some weaker spiders such as Drider or Aquastrand Spider, as well as Kodama's Reach and the rather slow Golgari Locket. Izoni, Center of the Web is fired, too - I really couldn't stand neither his ability nor his detective hat. The lands got improved too, just a little bit. Finally, I've removed Blightwidow and Vanquisher's Banner and replaced them with The Great Henge and Swiftfoot Boots to keep up with current Bracket 2. Feel free to keep these two out for friendly games.

I finally got to some updates! The deathtouch/lure theme seems to work really well with Shelob, which unfortunately means we have to get rid of some of the old tricks. This is why I'm removing most of the token dependant cards such as Second Harvest and Overrun as well as some of the weaker cards like Brood Weaver and Skysnare Spider or the rather unreliable Sylvan Anthem. Spider Spawning is going out as well, although it might return in the future. We have plenty of new goodies, though - Legolas's Quick Reflexes, Last March of the Ents and Roar of Challenge fit right in! Lolth, Spider Queen, Mineshaft Spider and Izoni, Center of the Web are newcomers as well. Let's see how they will fare. I also have my eyes on Deathreap Ritual, just not sure yet what to swap it with.

The deck did well in a local tourney, placing 8th out of 14! The deathtouch/lure strategy is definitely working. This is why I'm about to tone down some of the other themes such as toughness and graveyard support in favor of more of these effects. For start, I'm including Sudden Spoiling (welcome back!), Ruins Recluse and Gift of the Deity and removing Assault Formation, Ancient Lumberknot and Black Sun's Twilight. I'm also switching Harrow for Kodama's Reach as the risk was too great. I'm considering leaning more into the Lure strategy with cards such as The Wretched, Stuffy Doll, Revenge of the Hunted or Roar of Challenge, however I'm worried about the deck dilluting it's tribal focus too much.

Half a year passed and much has changed for spider decks, unfortunately. I made some minor adjustments - I removed some not-too-reliable spells such as Arachnus Spinner, Arachnus Web, Grapple with the Past and Sudden Spoiling. I've also removed Abrupt Decay and Master's Rebuke, although these may come back. So what's new? Most of all - Arachnogenesis, which is finally sold at an affordable price. I'm also including Mirkwood Spider and Nemesis Mask to make the deck even more deathtouch focused! I still have to add Ruins Recluse, but it's sold out at my location.

Just a week after Shelob getting released, I had the chance to test her in a tournament! With a total score of 4 wins and 9 loses, there is much to improve. Yet it's definitely more splashy than Ishkanah! The good news is, the deathtouch strategy works. The bad news is, I got betrayed by mana base in quite a few games. This is why I'm replacing the rather underwhelming Copper Longlegs with an Arcane Signet. More changes coming soon. I have my eyes on Arachnus Spinner and Arachnus Web. While these spells are very flavorful, they are also very overcosted. Might just replace them with a Venomous Changeling and a land.

The deck revolves around these four themes, typically associated with spider tribal:

We already had a couple of venomous spiders before, but Shelob, Child of Ungoliant really brings it to another level. What's better than a swarm of spiders with reach and deathtouch, you ask? Well, poisonous spiders, of course! Enter Fynn, the Fangbearer. Deathtouch works wonders not only with Bite Down-like removal, but with Lure-like combat tricks as well. Don't forget your Nemesis Mask and Viridian Longbow at home, these two cards can take control over the battlefield! And when Shelob or Fynn are not on the battlefield, we have Hoarding Recluse, Ruins Recluse and Deadly Recluse as cheap substitutes.

Token generation was a big thing for Ishkanah, Grafwidow and is a big thing for Shelob, too! The problem is, you specifically need Spider tokens. Luckily for us, Arachnogenesis just got a lot cheaper, and even without it, we still have Arasta of the Endless Web, Curse of Clinging Webs or Spider Spawning. Let's not underestimate the lesser token generating creatures such as Rotwidow Pack, Brood Weaver, Drider, Penumbra Spider and Twin-Silk Spider. With Shelob for Commander, the 2/1 menace Spider tokens from Drider, Lolth, Spider Queen or Izoni, Center of the Web will give your opponent nightmares.

Spiders just love to hang around in old crypts and graveyards! Ishkanah, Grafwidow, Spider Spawning, Graverobber Spider, Hatchery Spider and even Rotwidow Pack all need a well-supplied graveyard. Nyx Weaver and self-milling effects like Winding Way or Grapple with the Past help a lot with that. If you run Ishkanah, Grafwidow for your commander, you should utilize saccing artifacts and lands like Wayfarer's Bauble, Mind Stone or Evolving Wilds so that you can reliably trigger her Delirium. However, with Shelob, Child of Ungoliant this theme is not so important.

High toughness is something spiders were typical for - but Shelob changed the rules. With more and more spiders having their power and toughness equal, this theme is unfortunately becoming irrelevant. If you want to experiment or go with a more traditional spider deck, feel free to include cards like Ancient Lumberknot, Assault Formation, Severed Strands or even the rather overpriced Grim Contest. With creatures like Doom Weaver, Watcher in the Web or Silklash Spider, you'll make your enemies squeal in terror! This is a great theme both for Ishkanah, Grafwidow and Thantis, the Warweaverfoil, but not so much for Shelob, Child of Ungoliant. Still, with the exception of Drider, all our spiders have their toughness equal or higher to their power, and Last March of the Ents is a very powerful card here.

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93% Casual

Competitive

Revision 5 See all

(2 months ago)

+1 Bushwhack main
+1 Convert to Slime main
+1 Flesh Burrower main
-1 Golgari Locket main
-1 Jungle Hollow main
+1 Necroblossom Snarl main
-1 Sever the Bloodline main
-1 Swamp main
+1 Tainted Wood main
+1 Twilight Mire main
-1 Venomous Changeling main
-1 Witherbloom Campus main