Tribal in Commander
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Oct. 19, 2017, 12:46 a.m. by enpc
Chances are you've either played them or played against them at some point. Even the C17 decks were specifically tailored to be tribal focused.
So what're your thoughts on them? Do you like them, dislike them, or are impartial?
And what constitues a tribal deck in your mind? Does it have to only have creatures of that type?
I think it partially comes down to individual flavor, as I'd guess a majority of players have a "favorite" creature type to play. Not surprisingly, many of the recent decks have consisted of some of the most populous creature types available (zombies, vampires, wizards, dragons, etc.)
For WoTC, I think it's also an easy marketing opportunity to create tribal decks for all levels, as it gives players an easy starting point to build a deck with some synergy, with the ability to modify from casual to ultra-competitive within that same tribal themed model.
In regard to what constitutes a tribal deck, I'd define it as a vast majority of creatures of that type (roughly 3/4ths of creatures), and/or the ability to exploit that creature type regardless of the native creature types included in the deck (thanks to cards like Conspiracy, Xenograft and Arcane Adaptation, among others.)
Personally I have two of my ten EDH decks themed as tribal (Ticks and Leeches for zombies, and Double-Shot Of Patronus (Grixis Wizard Tribal) for wizards. I've built other iterations of both zombies and wizards previously, but neither felt strong enough from a game-play and synergy standpoint. Currently I think both of these do feel strong enough to be semi-competitive at the lgs, so they will probably stick around for a while.
October 19, 2017 1:25 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #4
I think they should be mostly the creature type of the tribe. Otherwise it isn't any different from any other non-tribal deck. 5 vampires in a deck with 30 creatures is not vampire tribal :P I suppose I would be impartial to the idea overall. I do love themes in a deck and enjoy tribal but not at the expense of making the deck worse than if it wasn't tribal. Atogs work as a decent tribe because Atogatog wants to eat only atogs. However, while demons are fun they don't really work as a tribe and you are better off with just a handful of them in a deck with other good things.
October 19, 2017 1:30 a.m.
I think anything other than Elves or Goblins is almost unplayable at a shop league level. Azami doesn't count.
It's really hard to make tribal decks work as establishing critical mass takes too long and is easily disrupted by decks that pack any kind of removal. Payoffs for playing these decks are minimal and the only reason to pick one up is vorthos.
October 19, 2017 9:28 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #6
I like them, but I haven't ever kept one built in person (although, I don't think I actually built any either IIRC).
I think I just like my synergies to be a bit more mechanic-oriented rather than flavor-oriented.
October 19, 2017 11:15 a.m.
Tribal is a fun place to start for your first EDH deck because unless you are doing something that requires serious sequencing they are simple to run. I think the "requirements" for a tribal deck are either 1/3 or 2/3 of the creatures in the deck have to be of the tribe. I actually helped someone build a goblin list last week as their first non-precon EDH deck.
October 19, 2017 1:32 p.m.
I dig them, I run goblins or zombies a lot and occasionally angels. I think tribes are very flavorful and add identity to the creatures as part of a story/community. I actually despise elves for example, so it is even better when I get to overwhelm them with a horde. Sticking on theme is important to me but some commanders such as Kaalia of the Vast support a crossover of tribes with pretty decent flavor.
October 19, 2017 1:51 p.m.
I'm curious about what can be done with partner commanders and tribal mechanics... haven't seen that fully exploited yet. Seems like it may be possible to both reach critical mass easier and toss more variety into your deck composition while fitting either commander in to whatever tribal theme is showing the most.
October 19, 2017 4:47 p.m.
There is many forms of Tribal deck in EDH/Commander. I have a Wizard Tribal Deck across many creatures and I have an Elf Tribal Deck which mainly concentrates on having Elves as my main creature in the deck
October 19, 2017 7:29 p.m.
freezerboy says... #11
I tend to agree with most of the sentiments here, even that tribal aren't necessarily competitive unless they're elves or goblins. So long as the deck takes into account the characteristics of a "tribe" then it should be considered tribal. While squirrels can be hard to make into a usable tribal deck, so long as you're keeping with a style of play that works toward their character then it seems viable to use changelings and that sort of mechanic. I have a ninja deck Agents of Darkness that doesn't run that many ninjas (because there just aren't many good ones), but keeps with the idea of their evasive character.
October 20, 2017 5:25 p.m.
They can be good if they're Goblins, and maybe Elves if its built right, but otherwise theyre easily beat and are very vulnerable to Board Wipe or Control Decks. I used to try and build them, tried in Standard, and Commander, put hundreds and dozens of hours into planning into a Humans deck (the most abundant creature type) and a Zombie deck (which wasnt built right so I dont really count it that much) and they were both very meh.
October 30, 2017 8:58 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #13
I like them even if they make it kinda hard to be creative. I wish some half-baked tribes like Giants and Minotaurs got more support (also, more token makers for Pirates so that they can achieve Ascend and steal stuff with Becket without relying on other creature types trough e.g. Conspiracy).
DarkMagician says... #2
I love tribal, two of my three EDH decks are tribal (Elves and Wizards). To me a tribal deck is one that mostly uses creatures of one certain type with perhaps a few creatures outside of that tribe for support. For example my Elf Ball EDH runs cards like Soul of the Harvest for gas, terrastodon to deal with pesky permanents and Craterhoof Behemoth to seal the deal.
October 19, 2017 1:09 a.m.