What is your favorite tribe, and why?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 27, 2022, 6:25 p.m. by TypicalTimmy
I think it's been asked before, but we have many new players and users so I thought it would be nice to go over it again.
Title says it all.
Many users on here may be aware my favorite and most beloved tribe are the Minotaur, but why is this?
When I first began playing, I just went big or went home. Huge creatures, 8+ mana spells, massive combat swings, etc. Then, one of my former co-workers who happens to play competitively wanted to sit down at the table with us.
He brought his Modern Elfball deck, which won 1st place in a local championship. And I lost, again and again and again. At first losing wasn't so bad, but this guy also is not just a sore loser, but he has a bit of a God complex.
What do I mean by this? Any possible chance he gets in life to either put someone down, or prop himself up, he'll take. For example, when I was a machine operator maybe I'll have setup, did the fine-tune and achieved minimum scrap in about 45 minutes before production approval. He would, completely unprovoked, tell you he could have done it in 30 with zero scrap. Just to make you feel bad. Then, when it took him six hours and over 3,000 pounds of material, it was the fault of everyone else. Material suppliers for garbage plastic, engineers for poor tooling design, maintenance for failing machine upkeep, etc.
So anyway, there I am losing over and over. Eventually, I stopped playing Magic. Weeks would pass and he would still loom all of the loses over my head.
- "Oh yeah, that's cool. But how many games did you win? Oh right, none."
Eventually I had a bit of an epiphany... He's winning with big creatures and fast combat. What if I out paced him, with midrange?
So I went to work. My Rakdos Minotaur deck had 13 (mostly) instant speed kill spells and Minotaur lords by the playset, and ramp.
He dropped an Elf. BOOM Terminate. Another Elf, MURDERED. Elf? Dreadbore. Elf? Unlicensed Disintegration.
Eventually he had a boardstate of a few Elves, and I had just three Minotaur.
Rageblood Shaman, Neheb, the Worthy and Felhide Petrifier.
I move to combat. A 2/3, 2/2 and a 2/3? He shrugs and takes it.
Well, Unlicensed Disintegration. 3 more damage to face. Fugg.
Okay so what he takes 6, so 9 in total? Big whoop.
Nope >:)
Rageblood Shaman gives +1/+1 to the others. And Neheb, the Worthy gives +2/+0 because I just lowered my hand by enough with that last spell!
So really it's a 5/4, a 5/3 and a 5/4.
So 15+3 or 18. Lethal, at this point.
He freaks the F out and puts up blockers despite us having moved to combat damage resolution. Fine.
First strike, deathtouch and trample.
Still lethal.
He sank. His jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it. His 1st place prize winning deck lost.
I may have been beaten a half dozen times, but in this moment I was victorious and it infuriated him.
And that, my friends, is why I love my cows :)
I think mine would either be cats or gods.
Cats, namely the leonin type ones like Ajani's Pridemate, Leonin Vanguard or Leonin Warleader remind me of just starting to learn the game with the M19 Ajani Planeswalker deck. I still have an upgraded version of it on Arena that I play every now and again.
I also really love god typed creatures. They're few and far between (though a bit more common these days) and because of this, they usually have this... sense of awe around them. It's hard to explain. Like, Kruphix, God of Horizons and Bontu the Glorified just make me feel small and insignificant in comparison and I love it. The Kaldheim ones don't quite have the same effect, but I love the flavor and design of them nontheless.
December 27, 2022 7:52 p.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #4
Mine would have to be Allies. I first started playing MtG sometime around 2012-13, as a broke college kid.
One of my best friends got me into MtG via janky homebrew "Modern". He started playing during OG Zendikar block & waxed poetic about what a fun block setting it was. I think Kazandu Blademaster was one of my first favorite cards. I loved the art for it. I liked the flavor of Allies being an adventuring party that got stronger with more friends.
I ended up putting together a W/B Allies deck about 3 years before I got into EDH; right around the time of Zendikar 2 - Innistrad 2 Standard. Anguished Unmaking, Eerie Interlude, & Zulaport Cutthroat helped me round out a deck that was my pride and joy at the time.
December 27, 2022 8:09 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
Goblins were my first love, so I probably can’t talk myself out of that. Cards like Goblin Shrine made it an easy decision to make. Almost everything about the goblin cards of that era were as close to perfect as you could get. Obviously not as powerful as new cards... but flavor, mechanics, and overall feel we’re all so well balanced I couldn’t help but sign on with Mons. Next I would find out about Thrulls and Homarids... the thrulls have gotten a little love, but I’m HOPING against hope that we see the homarids again soon. Dwarves and Minotaurs are definitely up there too, just for those keeping score.
December 27, 2022 8:37 p.m.
Elves, ramp and ramp some more into big stuff. It appeals to my inner child.
December 27, 2022 10:31 p.m.
Always gotta answer with Skeletons. I would like Zombies, but they get way more push than I would prefer--I feel like every time there's a halfway decent Skeleton card, there's a Zombie that does the same thing except better, either pre-existing or in the same set (Clattering Augur vs. Master of Death for one example). The underdog needs some love, too.
Undead rivalries aside, I like the bone aesthetic in fantasy and am fascinated by calacas (the skull decorations used for Dīa de Los Muertos in Mexico--if you've seen either of the animated movies Coco or The Book of Life, those are built around calacas and Day of the Dead imagery). As far as game mechanics go, I also enjoy the resilience that regenerate brings, or used to bring. The skeleton tribe helped me learn the basics of how to use both and control decks, which are the basis of my favorite playstyle to this day. Discard: for when counterspells don't say "no" hard enough.
Of the "major" tribes, I would have to go with Elves. Lots of mana, lots of options, , and generally easy to build.
December 27, 2022 11:02 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #9
Snakes has to be the answer. If you want a story, read the description on My snake deck (that title took me two weeks...).
Besides that, most of my decks are tribal. I have a multitude of 60-card tribal decks of the most obscure kinds. From cats to minotaurs over turtles, bats, crocodiles to satyrs, knights and warriors I have a massive pool of those. And even many of my EDH-decks are tribal. I have a Syrix, Carrier of the Flame phoenix tribal, I recently built Magda, Brazen Outlaw, I have a RGWU giant deck...and I recently starting building Kibo, Uktabi Prince. And I'm sure I forgot a lot here.
So, one could say I like tribal.
December 28, 2022 4:26 a.m.
DoomNoodle says... #10
This is hard considering I love tribal decks and play angels,dragons,slivers,vampires, squirrels,zombies,vehicles,eldrazi,and goblins. Though thinking on it, eldrazi. Not only for their power, but the wonderful lore behind them all and just the overall aesthetic of them. It's one of my favorite decks to play just to look at all the skettiness I place on the board! Bellissimo!
December 28, 2022 3:31 p.m.
Slivers. Every other creature type besides eldrazi are part of general fantasy and theres nothing wrong with that I love my gobby boys and elf's. But slivers are some strange and unique even in the world of mtg. They're more alien and sci fi then fantasy. Also they're the most tribal tribe
December 28, 2022 4:29 p.m.
Three answers to this, from different directions.
First, my favorite fantasy creature type period is Dragons. They're huge, majestic, powerful, absurdly magical, ancient beings, who through all their eons of experience really just want to eat, hoard treasure and be left alone. They're as beautiful as they are terrifying.
As for MtG, my first love was Goblins. My first even remotely competitive deck was Goblin tribal, back when Ice Age was Standard legal (which isn't exactly true, because Standard format didn't exist back then). Placed 3rd in a tournament of 100 people back then, where many people were playing Power 9 cards. I was very proud of that deck, and updated it regularly with each expansion that was released for many years.
Currently, my favorite tribe is Squirrels, for pretty much the opposite reason that I like Dragons. I just like the idea of these small, harmless rodents thrashing through armies of much more opposing monsters. I'd probably enjoy Rats for the same reason, but haven't ever tried building a tribal deck for them. I've been building Squirrel decks ever since they were first introduced to MtG, and still do to this day. Back when they first appeared, nobody else I played with wanted to build that deck - neither my circle of friends, nor anyone at the LGC of my childhood - so I was able to trade for all of the cards I needed rather easily. And as soon as the first draft was completed, they all immediately regretted it.
December 28, 2022 5:33 p.m.
Necrosis24 says... #14
From an aesthetic and mechanical perspective I love zombies and their grotesque rotting corpses. To me it is a cool type of grotesque not like a disturbing one that makes me feel grossed out. They have also gotten some cool secret lair versions which I love such as Gravecrawler and the honorary zombie Grave Titan. Mechanic wise I love playing with my graveyard so zombies are the perfect match.
I also like goblins. I love how they are portrayed in MTG as creative idiots. They are inventors with a lack of brain cells which makes for some fun art and flavor text. Also its great fun pumping out hordes of goblins with Krenko, Mob Boss as it reminds me of LOTR when they are being chased in the Mines of Moria by goblins and you see them crawling out of the ceiling and down the columns like spiders. A truly terrifying position to picture yourself in which is a great contrast to the goblins in MTG.
Lastly I'd say angels as they were some of my favorite cards when I first started playing MTG. I was given a set of Serra Angel and traded my way to a set of Seraph of the Sword granted not the best cards at the time but for tabletop magic with my brother who also just got into the game they were my best cards. I was very big on boros aggro and lifelink, which ironically I've yet to build a commander deck around.
December 29, 2022 3:23 a.m.
Devils, I like deathpings. I see potential.
Warriors, I like the abilities on them
Warlocks, sweet abilities & generally badass
December 29, 2022 9:36 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #17
Slivers. With every creature being a lord, it's not only one of the strongest tribes, it's also one of the most flexible. Most players, myself included, typically run a keyword soup and throw it at anyone not wise enough to kill it fast. However, enough slivers have been printed where you can build a Voltron deck, a go wide deck, or even, if you wish, build a defender card draw deck around Arcades, the Strategist.
December 31, 2022 6:18 a.m.
jamochawoke says... #18
Warriors was my first tribe for sure. Collected every one ever printed (even the retconned ones) up until 2018. Ran multiple decks with them in Modern, Standard, and Commander. Started playing with the idea of Warrior Elves since they had the most support for the subtype but then Tarkir block was REALLY FUN for me with all the tribal love for Warriors they had lol. So that's when I really delved into deckmaking and stopped the kitchen table stuff.
But since I was collecting Tarkir block stuff so much I also got a ton of dragons, and then shifted totally into Dragons when I found out they were even more collectible and often made for way more fun and interactive (and powerful) decks!
wallisface says... #2
I'm generally not really at-all a fan of tribal decks - imo they're generally/usually just a bit too boring for my personal playstyle preferences.
If I had to pick a creature-type that appeals to me, it's either Phyrexian or Eldrazi.
December 27, 2022 7:09 p.m.