Get the deck picture? Because can run seals? ... Ah, forget it.
Jank makes the World Go 'Round
What is Tribal Tribal?
Well, at its simplest form, Tribal Tribal is the idea of creatures becoming other creature types, which you can abuse to no end. If you turn all of your creatures into whatever you want with Arcane Adaptation, suddenly Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero will tutor up whatever you need, Rooftop Storm is a cut-rate Omniscience, Knight Exemplar is a much, much cheaper Avacyn, Angel of Hope, etc. You create hilarious cross-tribe synergies that have no right to be on magic cards, like creating 10 Zombie Ally Ninja Cleric Sphinx Horse tokens a turn, all 40/40s with flying, shroud, unblockable, and with Fact or Fiction stapled to all of them like we're at the discount supply store.
What Tribes Are We Running?
Well, to make this deck fun, we're not running 2 or three tribes for maximum consistency, we're running a bunch of them, so that we get always get fun and interesting games. I'll go over all of them here:
- Allies: We're only running a couple, but what a couple they make. Sea Gate Loremaster is a repeatable Collective Unconscious for less mana. It's not broken, but it's fun, and isn't that what EDH is all about? Oh, and speaking of broken, Hagra Diabolist. With just Zur, five creatures equal 25 damage. This card wins you games, and quite a lot of them. It's also a great hit with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Seriously, someone should nerf this (pls don't, WotC)
- Clerics: Our cleric is low-key one of the best card in the deck. Battletide Alchemist is broken, making sure you'll almost never get dealt damage. Battletide Alchemist + Crested Sunmare/Knight Exemplar + Lord of the Unreal locks the game up, with your impossible to remove creatures not letting your opponents get through to you as you tutor up enchantment after enchantment and completely wreck your opponents very souls! ... I'm sorry, where was I?
- Doggies: Our one dog, Pack Leader, is actually great. It's one of the rare two-mana lords, and it gives our attacking creatures indestructible, sorta, so that's a thing too. I mean, this deck was labeled under Jank, what did you expect?
- Faeries: Scion of Oona is a great card for the deck, giving your team a pump, and even better, protection from all kinds of removal. Plus, it has flash, so you can flash it in if someone tries to Path your Zur.
- Giants: We're not running Realm-Cloaked Giant for the creature, oh no, it's all about that sweet sweet board wipe. In this deck, it's basically a Plague Wind for about half the mana, plus a body, so that's nice. Plus, sweet art!
- Goblins: Betcha you didn't see this one coming! Goblins have always been relegated to mono-red, and in my wildest dreams, Zur had some red in her too (why couldn't Krenko be black?), but people forget that the Lorwyn block had some sweet black goblins, and the best of the bunch is Boggart Mob. My god, is this card broken. It doubles the amount of creatures you have each turn, and is a 5/5, and is only four mana!
- Horsies: Our one horse, Crested Sunmare, is a beast in this deck. It gives all your creatures indestructible, and creates more horses! This in conjunction with Rick, Steadfast Leader will win you games.
- Illusions: This isn't actually an illusion, but Lord of the Unreal pumps up illusions and more importantly, gives them hexproof, so sue me. It's great, and blanks removal of all sorts. Sorry, Assassin's Trophy, take your 12$ price tag elsewhere. You're not wanted here.
- Ninjas: We all know that Yuriko is broken as a commander. But did you know that Yuriko is also broken as one of the 99? She does work drawing you tons of cards and outright winning the game in a couple of turns. Plus, she has ninjitsu!
- Rats: When I first saw Marrow-Gnawer, I fell in love. Rats, I thought, were crazily overpowered. I mean, imagine what would happen if you had 6 Rat Colonies on the battlefield. As I learned more about Magic, I realized that rats were not as powerful as I once thought, I still looked for an excuse to jam Marrow-Gnawer in any deck I found. Luckily, here's my excuse! In this deck, Marrow-Gnawer is a beast, giving your creatures unblockable (basically) and creating untouchable boardstates with hundreds of Rat Sphinx Horse Dogs. Wait, did the the Simic Combine just call?
- Slivers: Ah, slivers. The bogeyman of casual tables, too slow for cEDH (no, Food Chain Sliver, you don't count), they're popular for one specific reason: Lords! If you ever wanted a tribal deck where literally every single card synergizes with every single other card. Sounds sorta like this deck, right? Well, surprisingly enough, even though most sliver decks are 5-color, Esper has some of the best slivers in the entire Sliver Cinematic Universe (SCU). You've got Shifting Sliver, Galerider Sliver, and Shadow Sliver for that sweet sweet honey that is unblockability, and Crystalline Sliver for nice protection. You can't lose!
- Sphinxes: We've only got one sphinx, but it may be our biggest tribal payoff. Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign is completely broken, giving your creatures huge discounts and letting you Fact or Fiction approximately 1 bajillion times. Remember, it doesn't say nontoken, so Marrow-Gnawer says hi.
- Spirits: Is it a modern superstar? A Swiftfoot Boots on a stick? A graveyard aficionado? No, it's all three! Drogskol Captain gives your creatures hexproof, which is amazing for this deck with a lot of high-value targets. Plus a pump!
- Tribal: Sure, the name is ambiguous, but I'm proud of it. In this section we've got Coat of Arms, one of the best pump spells in the game. Watch out, though, it's symmetrical! Next up, there's Cover of Darkness, which is basically is unblockable for one tribe (hint: the tribe you choose). Faces of the Past combos with Marrow-Gnawer on its own, and Ghoulcaller Gisa + Basal Sliver for some nice little infinite combos. And finally, Kindred Discovery is amazing card draw. It also doesn't say nontoken, so Marrow-Gnawer says hi again.
- Wizards: Say it with me. Docent of Perfection
is amazing. Seriously, it gives a huge pump, relevant keywords, and token production, all on one card!
- Zombies: Also one our best tribes, we've got it all here. Rooftop Storm does a nice card:Omniscience Impression, Endless Ranks of the Dead and Ghoulcaller Gisa give you all the tokens, while Undead Warchief gives a great discount on your dudes. And finally, the one you've all been waiting for ... The Scarab God! This guy does it all. Immortal, he'll completely blow off pillowforts like it's a dust bunny on his waistcoat, give you crazy card selection, and has a dash of reanimator. Amazing in every sense of the word.
Some Other Cards of Note:
- Diplomatic Immunity: If you thought Zur the Enchanter was overpowered already, meet the card that pushes her to the "What was R&D smoking?" section of EDH. Tutor this out with her, and badabing, badaboom, you've got an untouchable Zur.
- Maskwood Nexus: Boy howdy, this card is broken. It makes your creatures all creature types, which means you don't have to pick and choose between your types, no, you can have 'em all! I cannot stress how good this card is. Landing it is an instant-win
- Mirror Entity: Lowkey our best creature. It turns all of your creatures into walking Mistform Ultimuses, and with all the buffs your creatures give to each other, it's basically a guaranteed kill.
- Oketra's Monument: Ramps you quite a bit, and it creates tokens from any cast creature, which makes it a great source of tribal fodder.
- Peer Pressure: Combos with Standardize, and completely hoses rival tribal decks. I'll be taking all your zombies, please?
- Standardize: Besides comboing with the aforementioned Peer Pressure, it's also useful for a quick creature type swap if your enchantments aren't cutting it.
- Xenograft: Color-shifted Conspiracy, but it gets the job done. What, you want more? Well, the art looks like it's straight outta Alien, so it's got that going for it.
Zur's Zany Goodbye
Well, that's it for now. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or even if you just want to rant about overpowered Zur, tell me! Have a great day, and as always, Happy Tapping!
