Minotaur Tribal is a deck primarily focused on powering out minotaurs and emptying its hand in order to turn on
Neheb, the Worthy
. It utilizes a discard/madness subtheme to take better advantage of the several tribe members that require discards to take fullest advantage of.
Minotaurs are a generally underpowered tribe, and so my early conceptions of this (admittedly casual) deck revolved around using red Ritual effects to power out higher-cost minotaurs (e.g.
Kragma Warcaller
) ahead of schedule, which ended up averaging out to around be playing an average tribal deck with a couple-card disadvantage. Upon the release of Amonkhet block, however, Neheb and his undead selves gave the deck a legitimate payoff for being in the tribe in the form of a powerful lord, and I have been trying to make this tribe work around him ever since.
Neheb, the Worthy
is one of the more powerful tribal lords in existence, granting blanket first strike, conditional +2/+0, and symmetric discard if he gets through. The main goal of this build of the deck is to maximize the amount of benefit that can be gained from each of this abilities, through keeping hand size low, taking advantage of discard effects, and playing a lot of cows for him to benefit.
Rageblood Shaman
is the only other Minotaur lord worth playing, and has the upside of being playable as a 4-of.
Bloodrage Brawler
and
Burning-Fist Minotaur
are a huge step up from the former
Deathbellow Raider
and 2/3s of its ilk. They are both important offensive threats; Burning-Fist in particular demands extra respect, as just a couple of untapped mana and a few cards in hand can make blocking very difficult.
Boros Reckoner
rounds out the package of good cheap minotaur that make blocking hard.
Simian Spirit Guide
,
Desperate Ritual
, and
Mox Tantalite
are all cards that serve the purpose of lowering hand size with upside. They allow this deck to put high mana cost cards up slightly-to-very much ahead of schedule. Spirit Guide and Desperate Ritual allow aggressive turn 1 and 2 plays such as
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
, while the Moxen give the deck a bump of mana on turn 4, usually allowing the remaining nonland cards in hand to be played out.
Neheb, the Eternal
, card:Neheb, Deadhorde Champion,
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
, and
Hazoret the Fervent
are all intended to be strong cards that can take over the game if they land ahead of schedule and stick.
Nahiri's Wrath
can pitch these cards if too many of them get stranded in hand without the ramp to support them.
I am looking for room to add in
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
, who I have been impressed with as a mana sink, and the new
Glint-Horn Buccaneer
as a source of card filtering and a payoff for discarding. Any additional opinions about card choices for the deck are welcome.
