In the first tribal game, I used a green deck with walls as the tribe. The goal was to play a defensive game and lock everyone else down with Smokestack. I had also built a black deck with walls that used Pestilence to inflict damage, but I foolishly went with the slower green deck (and foolishly cut my Hurricanes at the last minute). I forget why. My deck accomplished virtually nothing and survived to be killed last by default: everyone else was more dangerous. I believe this was the incarnation I used in the actual game, but it might have been slightly different...
Lands:
20 Forest
1 Strip Mine
Support junk:
1 Regrowth
2 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Gaea's Blessing
Lockdown components:
2 Abundance
4 Sylvan Library
4 Rancor
4 Smokestack
Defense:
Wall of Brambles
Vine Trellis
Carnivorous Plant
Wall of Roots
Wall of Blossoms
For the next game, I decided lockdowns sucked and didn't really protect me from fast beatdown. The only solution was to gain infinite life. Despite a multitude of errors on my part, this deck managed to pull off a win...
Lands:
19 Plains
4 Starlit Sanctum
Disruptive stuff:
1 Balance
4 Disenchant
4 Swords to Plowshares
Miscellaneous combo components:
4 Lightning Greaves
3 Worthy Cause
1 Serra Avatar
Clerics:
4 Auriok Champion
4 Mother of Runes
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Soul Warden
4 Daru Spiritualist
Confident in my own superiority over the lot of you, I decided I'd build some crazy deck that would use Skullclamp to run through itself and get infinite creatures within the first few turns. It would be invincible. Except I totally had delusions of grandeur and took forever to draw into any white mana. By the time I got my combo, there was bound to be a response to it (and some "cut it out with the infinite combos, Oversoul" comments too). Specifically, a Pernicious Deed was my undoing...
Lands:
10 Plains
6 Forest
Soldiers:
4 Alaborn Zealot
4 Alaborn Musketeer
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Auriok Steelshaper
3 Intrepid Hero
2 Jungle Patrol
Token cavalcade:
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Raise the Alarm
Instant win:
4 Skullclamp
Cheezy infinite combo:
4 Overgrowth
4 Earthcraft
4 Mobilization
This game taught me that the "Mistform Ultimus" card could be used to fill slots for my tribe. I'd wanted to build a Chimera deck from the start, because Chimeras rule. With Mistform Ultimus, I could fill the 20-card quota for the tribe. I built a deck to exploit the nature of multiplayer to make my chimeras huge. But with Lifeline out, I'd want to be sure to draw into Tin-Wing for flying (to defend against flyers), and Lead-Belly for trample (obviously). I thought the deck's card-drawing power would be enough. But it wasn't. In retrospect, this deck was really sort of unreliable (I could have traded some of its speed for reliability), but you never know until you try...
Lands:
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Traitors
2 Crystal Vein
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
11 Island
More mana so that I can get my combo and die:
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
I don't want to be decked:
2 Reminisce
Lifeline and Lifeline-fetching:
4 Lifeline
1 Tinker
Chimeras:
4 Mistform Ultimus
4 Lead-Belly Chimera
4 Iron Heart Chimera
4 Tin-Wing Chimera
4 Brass Talon Chimera
I had failed yet again. Since there was now a rule that tribes could not be repeated, I decided to grab wizards before anyone else did. My initial idea was to use the Aphetto Alchemist/Mesmeric Orb combo that the CPA had talked about a while back. But I deemed it not broken enough. So I built this deck, which mainly relied on Arcanis and Mind over Matter being game-winners once they were played. The idea was to win fifth or sixth turn, preferably with both of those bombs on the table. But I'd settle for less. Well, I never drew Arcanis or anything that could get him into my hand. I mostly just drew a ton of Islands. I should probably have built the deck to function better up until it got its combo, but I still think it gave me abnormally crappy draws...
Manabase:
21 Island
4 Saprazzan Skerry
1 Sol Ring
2 Chrome Mox
Recycling:
3 Reminisce
Card-drawing:
1 Frantic Search
4 Curiosity
Six mana to win the game (except when you only draw Islands):
4 Mind over Matter
Wizards:
4 Zuran Spellcaster
4 Suq'Ata Firewalker
4 Prodigal Sorcerer
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Daring Apprentice
3 Arcanis, the Omnipotent