T
TheCasualOblivion
Guest
Just for philosophical purposes, I'm trying to put together an understanding of which tribes work, which do not, and how they rank. I don't play in tournaments, or against tournament players, and I don't read decks outside of this site. I'd just like anyone to add to my list of opinions.
As far as I can tell, there are 6 power creature types, 1 of each color, and one that just appeared with Kamigawa The power types are:
Red: Goblin
Green: Elf
White: Rebel
Blue: Merfolk (old school players know what I'm talking about)
Black: Zombie and thanks to Kamigawa and my own Rat deck, I think we can add rats to this.
Goblins Elves and Rebels have a proven track record, and I don't think Zombies are that far behind. Blue Merfolk is an old school deck type, and the killer nature of that deck is not based on the Merfolk themselves, but the fact of there being enough passable ones with Lord of Atlantis, River Merfolk and Coral Merfolk to be nasty when backed by counterspells. Especially with counterspells like Thwart, Force of Will, Daze, and the ease in which blue can give them an island. Theres even a 1/1 Merfolk that'll do that.
As for the rats, I think Nezumi Shortfang and Marrow Gnawer are enough to put the Rat deck over the top. My rat deck is feared by most everyone who knows it, and those two cards are the bomb cards. Nezumi Shortfang, unless killed, can easily win the game all by himself, and Marrow Gnawer's true power isn't so much producing rat tokens as much as it is giving all rats fear. Especially giving Swarm of Rats fear. For example, I have 1 Ravenous Rats and 2 Swarm of Rats in play, I then drop Marrow Gnawer, and attack for 9 damage with fear. With Ravenous Rats, Chittering Rats, Swarm of Rats, Nezumi Cutthroat, and Nezumi Bone-Reader there are enough Rats to build a power deck. There isn't a lot of variety, since there aren't that many good rats, and the good ones mostly force discards, which requires you to build a discard deck, but if you have 4 of the good ones, they can hold their own really well in a discard based deck.
Right below these I would put Slivers. I don't have 100% faith in slivers. The thing with them is that if you leave them alone, they get out of hand in a hurry, but a deck that messes them up can do just fine. I haven't seen a sliver deck yet that could survive heavy disruption, or pack the disruption itself to establish control.
I haven't seen or heard of a deck based on Beasts, Soldiers, or Wizards or Clerics that is in the same league as these decks. Beasts are slow, and I haven't seen the card that would put Soldiers or Wizards over the top. Clerics seem like an intriguing choice. I might almost consider a strong cleric deck possible, though I have yet to see one. A couple of cards like the Cleric Avatar with Spirit Link and remembering that the Order of Leitbur/Ebon Hand have the cleric type make me suspect I might be wrong about them.
As for the others, some quick opinions, excuse me if I leave some Tribes out:
Angels/Vampires/Dragons--too slow
Knights--a lot of good ones, but no tribal bonuses.
Birds--I haven't seen a bird deck I would call better than just plain bad.
Snakes--Not quite there yet. Kamigawa makes these interesting. With some help from the next two expansions, Snakes might be something.
Samurai--As with snakes, though Kamigawa is short on buff cards for Samurai. With the exception of some slow legends, not a lot to make having a pile of Samurai better, just like the Knights.
Spirits--Another Kamigawa introduction. Again, not a lot of synergy yet. An open possibility to see these break open in future sets though.
Those are all I can really think of.
Please add to this
As far as I can tell, there are 6 power creature types, 1 of each color, and one that just appeared with Kamigawa The power types are:
Red: Goblin
Green: Elf
White: Rebel
Blue: Merfolk (old school players know what I'm talking about)
Black: Zombie and thanks to Kamigawa and my own Rat deck, I think we can add rats to this.
Goblins Elves and Rebels have a proven track record, and I don't think Zombies are that far behind. Blue Merfolk is an old school deck type, and the killer nature of that deck is not based on the Merfolk themselves, but the fact of there being enough passable ones with Lord of Atlantis, River Merfolk and Coral Merfolk to be nasty when backed by counterspells. Especially with counterspells like Thwart, Force of Will, Daze, and the ease in which blue can give them an island. Theres even a 1/1 Merfolk that'll do that.
As for the rats, I think Nezumi Shortfang and Marrow Gnawer are enough to put the Rat deck over the top. My rat deck is feared by most everyone who knows it, and those two cards are the bomb cards. Nezumi Shortfang, unless killed, can easily win the game all by himself, and Marrow Gnawer's true power isn't so much producing rat tokens as much as it is giving all rats fear. Especially giving Swarm of Rats fear. For example, I have 1 Ravenous Rats and 2 Swarm of Rats in play, I then drop Marrow Gnawer, and attack for 9 damage with fear. With Ravenous Rats, Chittering Rats, Swarm of Rats, Nezumi Cutthroat, and Nezumi Bone-Reader there are enough Rats to build a power deck. There isn't a lot of variety, since there aren't that many good rats, and the good ones mostly force discards, which requires you to build a discard deck, but if you have 4 of the good ones, they can hold their own really well in a discard based deck.
Right below these I would put Slivers. I don't have 100% faith in slivers. The thing with them is that if you leave them alone, they get out of hand in a hurry, but a deck that messes them up can do just fine. I haven't seen a sliver deck yet that could survive heavy disruption, or pack the disruption itself to establish control.
I haven't seen or heard of a deck based on Beasts, Soldiers, or Wizards or Clerics that is in the same league as these decks. Beasts are slow, and I haven't seen the card that would put Soldiers or Wizards over the top. Clerics seem like an intriguing choice. I might almost consider a strong cleric deck possible, though I have yet to see one. A couple of cards like the Cleric Avatar with Spirit Link and remembering that the Order of Leitbur/Ebon Hand have the cleric type make me suspect I might be wrong about them.
As for the others, some quick opinions, excuse me if I leave some Tribes out:
Angels/Vampires/Dragons--too slow
Knights--a lot of good ones, but no tribal bonuses.
Birds--I haven't seen a bird deck I would call better than just plain bad.
Snakes--Not quite there yet. Kamigawa makes these interesting. With some help from the next two expansions, Snakes might be something.
Samurai--As with snakes, though Kamigawa is short on buff cards for Samurai. With the exception of some slow legends, not a lot to make having a pile of Samurai better, just like the Knights.
Spirits--Another Kamigawa introduction. Again, not a lot of synergy yet. An open possibility to see these break open in future sets though.
Those are all I can really think of.
Please add to this