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Building tribal decks- by BMoor

Well, it's me, BMoor, writing in again.  You may remember my Golem deck or my black and green Cleric deck, also posted in this section.  At one time or another, we've all wanted to build creature type decks of unusual creature types.  So far, I've had luck with Golems, Mutants, Illusions, Dragons, Insects, Wurms, Viashino, and I don't intend to stop there.  So how do you build a good deck around creature types like these?  Well, first you have to recognize what the creature in each type have in common; their strengths, their weaknesses, the mana you'll need for them, and if any have any abilties that will compliment/impede one another.  Once you've picked a handful to feature in your deck, choose other spells that will compliment them.  But all that should hold true for any deck, shouldn't it?  What's the fun of playing a creature type if you can't use their type line as a weapon?  Well, don't worry.  Absolutely ANY creature type can be a tribal deck given enough creatures.

How is that you ask?  Well, it's because of all the cards in Magic: the Gathering that say those four beautiful words, "Choose a creature type".  And for your benefit, I've combed over card lists from Alpha up through Darksteel, plus cards I've seen in action with my own eyes, to find every card I possibly could that will give a boost to a tribe of creatures.  I've organized them according to color.

RED

Sadly, Red is really only interested in huge damage.  It doesn't much care about the type line.  But it does have a few things to contribute.  The most notable is Mana Echoes, an enchantment that gives you plenty of colorless mana when a creature comes into play.  In a color with so many notable X spells, this may be a boon indeed.  Red also has Crown of Fury, one of a cycle of cards that give a creature a benefit, and can be sacrificed to spread that benefit to the whole tribe.  Fury's benefit is +1/+0 and first strike, a great combat trick.

BLUE

Blue has little more to offer than Red, but it does have its Crown, Ascension.  As you may guess, Crown of Ascension gives flying.  But Blue can make powerful tribal decks nonetheless by providing not improvements to your creatures, but more of them.  We all know Mistform Ultimus, but few consider the other Mistforms.  Mistform Warchief especially will not only give you another body to reap the benefits, but gives you a mana discount on creatures that share a type with it.  And since it uses no mana to change its type, this can save quite a bit.  Blue also has Artificial Evolution and Imagecrafter, both of which change creature types to make them fit your plans.  And then there's Standardize, which will make every creature in play the type of your choice.  That's not too useful, though, unless you follow it up with Peer Pressure, which will give you control of all creatures of a type of your choice IF you control more creatures of that type than any other player.

WHITE

White is another dry hole.  Its crown, Awe, grants protection from black and red.  If your opponent isn't playing black or red, this won't help you.  Unless of course you want to save yourself from your own Earthquake or such.  Its only other tribal card that I could find is Shared Triumph, a two-mana enchantment that gives creatures of the chosen type +1/+1.  Not too powerful unless you can get four of them in play, but it's something.

GREEN

Now we're talking!  The Stompy color must have good stuff, right?  Sorry!  Stompy isn't a tribal deck.  Green's most favorite board sweeping effects involve "creatures you control", not "creatures of the chosen type".  And it's probably better off.  But take heart, I did say ANY creature type, didn't I?  As long as you've got enough creatures, you can try Alpha Status, a creature enchantment granting +2/+2 for each other creature of the same type!  With five Insects in play, that's +8/+8!  A much more significant boost than Crown of Vigor, which gives +1/+1, but can give it to the whole tribe for a turn.  Just make sure you play them before you play Steely Resolve, which makes the chosen type untargetable by spells or abilities.  If Steely Resolve is out, you can still turn type lines into power and toughness.  Try Caller of the Hunt, whose power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures in play of the chosen type.  Or Tribal Unity, an Overrun-like card with X in its mana cost!  If only it gave trample...

Well, my hands are cramping and my eyes are getting bleary, so I'll stop here for now.  I've still got Black and Artifacts left though, and they're both much richer in this field than any color I've gone over.  That's why I chose here to stop.

Did I miss one?  Have questions?  Think I'm an idiot?  Want to hear more about that Insect deck I mentioned?  I can be reached at bemore4096@yahoo.com.