Brian Moorhead [mailto:bemore4096@yahoo.com]

Building tribal decks, part two- by BMoor

Sorry I left so much of a gap between this article and my last; it seems like November just flew by.  Anyway, last time I listed all the cards I could find in White, Blue, Red, and Green that allow you to give a bonus to creatures of a type of your choice, facilitating some real creativity at your next Tribal Wars tournament.  Unfortunately, I've since discovered two cards I left out: Tribal Forcemage, a green Elf Wizard with a morph trigger that gives your tribe +2/+2, and Defensive Maneuvers, a white instant that gives +0/+4 to a tribe until end of turn.

This time, I'm going to discuss Black and Artifact tribal cards, and there are plenty of them.  I'll start with Black.

Black is an excellent splash color for nearly any tribe, as was proved a while ago by a deck called Goblin Bidding.  It used Patriarch's Bidding to bring back all Goblins in your graveyard.  Only trouble is, Patriarch;s Bidding can help your opponent as much as you.  If you're not comfortable with that, try Aphetto Dredging, a "mini-bidding" that can reanimate up to 3 tribe members.  But what if you have a creature that fits great in your deck, but isn't the right creature type?  Every tribe has an "honorary" tribe member, just look at Wirewood Symbiote or Lord of Atlantis.  That's where black can aid you again, with the enchantment Conspiracy.  Conspiracy makes every creature in your deck, regardless of what zone it's in, a tribe member, allowing Aphetto Dreging to dredge up two Golems and a Myr, or whatever.  And once you've got them in play, get them through the blockers with Cover of Darkness, another enchantment that gives the chosen creature type fear.  All that leaves is the fifth and final Crown creature enchantment, Crown of Suspicion.  It can give the whole tribe +2/-1 for a turn, which can really pile on some extra damage.  Just make sure your creatures have enough toughness to withstand losing a point, or you'll really need that Aphetto Dredging.

And finally, Artifacts!

Remember when I said every creature type had a creature that benefited it?  Well, that creature is Brass Herald, an artifact creature who can search the top four cards of your deck for tribe members, and give them +1/+1.  And if you need more creatures than you have card slots, try Riptide Replicator or Volrath's Laboratory, two artfacts that can generate creature tokens of any type.  But if you'd rather just get your creatures out faster, you don't have to pay their mana cost.  Try Urza's Incubator, a card that shaves 2 off of tribe members' mana costs.  Or Belbe's Portal, which can put them into play at instant speed for a flat 3 mana.  Or Cryptic Gateway, which requires only two untapped tribe members in lieu of mana.  And if that still isn't enough, try Proteus Machine, with a Morph cost of 0 and a morph trigger that gives it a creature type.  Morph is great for making your opponents sweat. 

Okay, so you've got a huge army.  Now what to do with them?  Surely there are some artifacts that can give them a bonus of some sort, right?  Of course!  You could try sacrificing them for direct damage with Doom Cannon, but that's pretty slow.  You're much better off with the classic, Coat of Arms!  Turn 50 1/1's into 50 50/50's!  Just one problem: like Partiarch's Bidding, the Coat can give you this great bonus because it gives it to all players.  You might prefer Konda's Banner, an Equipment that gives everything +1+1 for being in the tribe, and another +1/+1 for sharing a color with the equipped creature.  While Konda's Banner is more limited, especially because it can only equip a legendary creature, it may come in handier if your opponent has read this article too.

And that's all the generic-tribal cards I've been able to find.  Please, if I missed any, or if you have anything to add at all, E-mail me at bemore4096@yahoo.com.  In the meantime, I'm going to go tinker with my Insect deck.