Tribal Update Report: Core Set 2020

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
I did not realize I’d be back so soon for another update report to the prestigious CPA Tribal Council. And now, here we are for Core Set 2020, also known as Core 2020, Magic 2020, M20, The Core Set for 2019, Oops All Chandras, The Set Before the Release of Commander 2019, Holy Crap, There’s a New Core Set Already, and (my personal favorite) Nineteenth Edition. I’ve observed some understandable fatigue in the Magic community, since it seems like War of the Spark and Modern Horizons both came out about five minutes ago, and both were such intense, impactful sets. Rather than succumbing to burnout, I’ll try to power through this and provide a meaningful report on yet another new set.

I call War of the Spark and Modern Horizons intense and impactful releases. The new cards from these sets have hit tournament Magic like a ton of bricks, and they’re generally great sets overall. Especially Modern Horizons. That one has a special place for me and is one of my favorite sets of all time. In the wake of such huge developments, this year’s regularly scheduled “core set” might feel a bit underwhelming. However, as I’ll touch on, this is actually a remarkably good set overall, and has some excellent tools for Tribal decks.

New Tribes
None. Ha, that was easy. Second time in a row I got to use this.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
New additions to existing tribes
Advisor: One new card. Possibly of interest in Commander or similar formats, but poor synergy for this tribe.

Angel: Five new cards. A couple of them look good, but this tribe is already so stacked that it probably doesn’t matter.

Ape: One new card. This tribe continues to get strictly chaff and no real reasons to play it.

Berserker: Two new cards. I doubt that they make the cut.

Bird: Five new cards. There’s actually some potential here for a more aggro-leaning build.

Cat: Two new cards and neither one is good.

Cleric: Five new cards. Somewhat awkwardly for this report, the most interesting ones have synergies for tribes they’re not members of, so they’re relegated to supporting roles.

Construct: One new card. With so many amazing utility options in this tribe, the new member is probably not worth running.

Crocodile: One new card. Planeswalker deck card for synergy with Vivien. So that’s a bummer for our purposes, probably.

Demon: Two new cards. I am currently skeptical. One of them is a graveyard-based beater that could be mana-efficient, but ensuring that it has enough value might be too conditional. The other is a huge legendary creature with great abilities, which would be a prime target for cheating onto the battlefield if this tribe didn’t already have a million other options for that exact role.

Dinosaur: Three new cards and all of them are quite good. The prospect of squeezing black in as a color for Dinosaur Tribal remains questionable, but the new red dinosaur is superb.

Dragon: Two new cards. Outside of highlander formats, they don’t make the cut. If you do find yourself in a highlander format with Dragon Tribal, then these new additions are worth consideration.

Drake: One new card. I was pretty confident that “Cerulean Drake” was already the name of a Magic card, but apparently not. I must have been thinking of Cerulean Wyvern, which is now retconned to be a drake. Go figure.

Druid: Three new cards. One is appallingly bad and Wizard of the Coast should be shamed harshly for this affront. The other two are decent. I’d guess there’s a slight chance that one of them is worth running.

Elemental: Twenty-six new cards if I counted that right! Look, core sets have a lot of reprints and this core set also heavily features elementals. With so many new elementals, does the tribe get improved potential for actual Tribal decks? I’m saying probably yes! Some of these are Chandra-themed, which is probably no good. Some are draft fodder, which is right out. Some of the cool ones are black, which rules them out if I’m still correct that “Temur” is the color scheme for a strong Elemental Tribal deck. But there are some efficient creatures here and some tribal synergies too. The new Omnath is especially promising.

Elephant: One new card. It’s interesting and unique, but also a member of a stronger tribe (clerics), and probably too expensive to be competitive. Unfortunate, but hey, this is the Casual Players Alliance. If you are willing to overlook the mana cost and awkward nature of this card, it really might be able to accomplish something.

Elf: Five new cards. Tired of me saying, “Elves don’t need anymore help anyway”? Good, because this set actually gives them something interesting. An unnecessary boost, but it’s potentially a real boost for once. Oh, two of them are bad and two more are borderline-mediocre and not of interest to such a power-packed tribe. But Elvish Reclaimer tutors for Gaea’s Cradle. Amazing.

Elk: One new card. Vivien synergy. Since Tier 5 is so bad that a Vivien synergy might actually be meaningful, I can’t immediately dismiss this as an addition to the tribe. But it is a five-drop, which is just what the tribe does not need.

Fish: One new card. It’s remarkably bad.

Giant: One new card. Doesn’t really fit with what this tribe would usually be going for.

Goblin: Five new cards. They’d probably be fine additions to a weaker tribe and just aren’t strong enough for Tier 1.

Golem: One new card. Interesting ability, but I’d guess probably not viable in this tribe.

Griffin: One new card. Ajani synergy, but only for the bad one in the current Ajani Planeswalker deck. So that’s a disappointment.

Horror: Two new cards. In my estimation, Horror Tribal is already kind of locked in and it would take something really special to change the way an optimal Horror Tribal deck is built.

Hound: One new card. It’s mildly interesting and plays into the tribe’s overall strengths, but without doing anything about its glaring weaknesses.

Human: Sixteen new cards if I counted right. A bunch more humans are in the set, but are reprints. Any good new cards for this tribe? I’m beyond caring! Probably the answer is no, but I don’t want to sift through the eleventy-billion different humans in Magic to figure out which ones are good.

Hydra: Two new cards. One of them is yet another X-costed hydra. The other one is almost certainly the best tribal synergy that this creature type has ever seen. In my original report when I ranked the tribes for the first time, I wrote, “Trying to mentally weigh the advantages against the disadvantages, I am tentatively placing the tribe in Tier 2. And if it’s close, the relatively new role of the tribe as ‘iconic’ ensures that more good hydras should be printed in the near future.” Well, here you go! Congratulations, Hydra Tribal fans.

Insect: One new card. Although I don’t see myself using it anytime soon, it is a bit interesting as an asymmetrical +1/+1 counter hoser. Protection from green also means it is robust against the color most likely to be hosed by it, which is something of a double-whammy. It’s also, um, not really what Insect Tribal needed.

Knight: Eleven new cards. Knight Tribal just got a bit better. The new mythics are unlikely candidates, but the set gives the tribe excellent two-drops and an insanely good one-drop, which is just what it needed.

Lizard: One new card. It’s a one-drop with a relevant ability, which is nice for any low-tier tribe and most of the strong tribes, even.

Merfolk: One new card. Interesting, but not really useful for such a strong tribe.

Minotaur: One new card. It is an interesting and powerful new three-drop, possibly one of the best three-drops this tribe gets. And as I’ve noted in the past, three-drops are not the deficiency that this tribe faces. So it might be a marginal improvement. But it’s not much.

Nightmare: One new card. It’s a Swamp-fueled creature. This is a step in the right direction for Nightmare Tribal, although the boost from War of the Spark is more important and might be a bit tricky to actually utilize.

Octopus: One new card. Limited fodder. The tribe still has no cheap creatures. It’s bad.

Ogre: One new card. It’s fine, but doesn’t shore up the tribe’s weaknesses.

Orc: Two new cards, both black. If WotC are moving orcs more into black to differentiate them from goblins, well, that probably doesn’t even work! Goblins still have better black cards than orcs and almost certainly will for years to come. Also, these are five-drops anyway.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Pirate: Three new cards. Some intriguing options, but I’m apprehensive. A Pirate Tribal deck probably needs to exploit the Raid mechanic to be successful. These new cards are not really focused on anything in particular. But they’re also not bad cards. So maybe?

Rhino: Two new cards. One has a synergy specific to elementals. The other one seems OK, but won’t improve the standing of Rhino Tribal.

Rogue: Five new cards. They’re surprisingly good, albeit disjointed. I’m tempted to say that if I’d placed Rogue Tribal in Tier 3, now would be the time to promote it. But that’s a moot point, I suppose. Still, these cards are nice additions.

Scout: Three new cards. Of particular interest, the new legendary creature Golos offers a five-color payload for all the mana-ramp a Scout Tribal deck is presumably doing, while having its own EtB trigger that fetches, to no one’s surprise, another land. So this is likely an improvement. I don’t see Scout Tribal breaking into the big leagues, because at some point “good at mana ramp” isn’t enough to compete. But hey, there’s something here.

Shaman: Three new cards. None of them offers anything special and the tribe wouldn’t make use of them.

Soldier: Four new cards. I thought about it, but ultimately, I don’t believe that these make the cut.

Sphinx: One new card, and it’s a strange one. Be wary of underestimating cards that say you can make your opponent lose the game. Then note that this big guy is unreliable and doesn’t make Sphinx Tribal better.

Spirit: Six new cards. As I noted in my initial report, Spirit Tribal can either focus on defense and utility for a control deck or focus on evasion and efficiency for an aggro deck. I tend to favor the former in multiplayer games, but I’m not sure which one is better at this point for this tribe. A couple of the new cards would seem to skew Spirit Tribal more toward aggro.

Treefolk: One new card. It’s not really what Treefolk Tribal should be looking for.

Troll: One new card. It’s mana-efficient, so a monogreen Troll Tribal deck might actually want it.

Vampire: Seven new cards. And enough of them are great that I pondered, “Am I going to have to promote Vampires to Tier 1?” The support these guys got in M20 is insane.

Warrior: Four new cards. I already tentatively threw these guys in Tier 2 because I’m too lazy to figure out what a good Warrior Tribal deck looks like. That hasn’t changed.

Wizard: Seven new cards. These are mostly Limited fodder and I’m not persuaded by any of them.

Wolf: Two new cards. Either one might be viable in Wolf Tribal. Maybe both!

Zombie: Three new cards. Two of them are generally decent overall while wholly unworthy of Zombie Tribal. But Rotting Regisaur is a 7/6 three-drop that can fuel your graveyard-based synergies. And a Zombie Tribal deck might actually want that!

New tribal synergy cards to look out for
Bishop of Wings: Although it probably just doesn’t do enough to matter, cheap cards with Angel synergies are always worth some examination. The tribe is easily strong enough for Tier 2, but is held back by its reliance on white over other colors and by its weak early drops. And this is a 1/4.

Field of the Dead: Zombie Tribal has plenty of ways to access token generation, so I don’t think this one is going to stick. But I could see a black/green Zombie Tribal deck using this.

Howling Giant: Recursion could benefit Wolf Tribal, although that’s a long shot.

Icon of Ancestry: New Tribal format staple? Maybe. It would seem to fit into a lot of decks.

Kaalia, Zenith Seeker: Well, for an individual tribe, those synergies don’t stack. You’d only care about one of the three. The colored mana requirement here might be a dealbreaker. Strong card anyway, though. Just tough to pull off.

Kykar, Wind’s Fury: This is a very strange card and judging it is something I find difficult. But it does get a Spirit Tribal synergy, so I’ll mention it here.

Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord: All hail our new vampire overlords.

Sorin, Vampire Lord: Bad card, but it’d be hilarious to get that ultimate in a multiplayer game.

Chandra, the Burninator (that’s a joke): This set has four Chandras in it. Seriously. Chandra planeswalker cards sometimes have Elemental Tribal synergies or just make elemental tokens. This set has some of that. It’s decent.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Overall set analysis
This is the second core set since last year’s relaunch of the core set as an annual product. Moving forward, I do not anticipate core sets to be the biggest contributors to Tribal formats. They tend to have more reprints and more cards that are simple or slight variations on existing concepts. Do not mistake this for a low power level. It’s very different from that.

In my previous report, I noted the concept of “the rich get richer.” Scrutinizing this set makes me think that the reality is more complicated. Some obscure tribes never really seem to get what they’d need to compete, but WotC does seem to like changing things up. While the really strong tribes like Goblins and Elves tend to get the most support over time, individual sets can offer more tools to less prevalent, but not totally impoverished tribes. I think this pushed some of the Tier 3 and Tier 2 tribes up more substantially than anything it did for the true heavy-hitters.

Winners and losers for this set? Tier adjustments?
Winners might be…
  • Birds
  • Dinosaurs
  • Elementals
  • Elves
  • Hydras
  • Knights
  • Nightmares
  • Rogues
  • Scouts
  • Spirits
  • Vampires
  • Wolves
For the third time in a row, I remain uncertain how to frame “losers” or if it even makes sense, but I’ll do it anyway because I feel like it…
  • Bears have been a rising star in recent sets, but got nothing this time.
  • Beasts, which once got pretty consistent support, seem to have fallen out of favor with WotC.
  • Cats lose out again.
  • Clerics get new stuff, but not in a good way.
  • Demons continue to flounder, it’s debateable whether they can really continue to compete at the level of the other tribes in Tier 2.
  • Dwarves miss another opportunity for new tools.
  • Soldiers seem to be quietly losing their edge as new sets shift emphasis toward other combat-themed “class” tribes.
Before I consider tier adjustments, there’s something going on in Tier 2 as a whole that warrants attention. As I tried to emphasize in my original comprehensive report, there isn’t a true gulf between most of the tiers. This is all just theorycrafting and estimation anyway, but it’s bound to be the case that there’s some overlap, some tribes in Tier 4 that can compete with most of Tier 3 easily, but which cannot overcome their deficiencies when facing Tier 2 tribes, etc. But I’m doing my best to capture the ideal places to demarcate these things. The boundary that is perhaps the most difficult to establish, and the one that would seem to be the most important of them all, is the boundary between Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Tier 1 rather pointedly contains the tribes that the CPA banned as overpowered in our games back in 2005 (Goblins, Elves, Zombies), and those have generally been the most explored, most heavily supported tribes over many, many set releases. It also contains tribes that haven’t received even close to that level of support, because those exceptional tribes have been blessed with some of the most powerful synergies and individual creatures ever. It’s one matter to deliberate over whether a tribe has enough powerful options to place it in Tier 2 rather than Tier 3. It’s another matter to say that a tribe has the power to elevate it into the ranks of the ultimate elites like Elves and Goblins.

The problem I’m noticing, and it was assuredly there to some extent before, but it seems even more pronounced, is that some of the Tier 2 tribes are just better than the others. They’re amazingly strong. But Tier 1? That’s a tall order. And I’m beginning to perceive the potential for a kind of Tier 1.5 to occupy that grey area. In particular, Sliver Tribal and Vampire Tribal got powerful new options in the two most recent sets, and while I remain uncomfortable promoting them to Tier 1, it’s pretty obvious that they’re a cut above the likes of Walls or Kobolds.

Barring input from the esteemed Tribal Council, I’ll eschew the division of creature types into any more tiers than what we’ve already got. And at this time, I still don’t think any of the Tier 2 tribes should be promoted, nor that any of the Tier 1 tribes should be demoted. But I’ll note that Sliver Tribal is looking very, very good. And Vampire Tribal is oh-so-close to having what it would take to be Tier 1. The power level difference between Vampire Tribal (Tier 2) and Faerie Tribal (Tier 1) doesn’t seem that significant. They seem comparable, really.

For now, to mitigate the disparity, I’ve decided to demote some tribes to Tier 3. This should make it clearer that a tribe needs the resources to be truly competitive to be Tier 2. There are some perfectly fun tribes in Tier 3 with some real power, but their deficiencies keep them held back from competitive status. And I’d say that Vampire Tribal and Sliver Tribal should be on a kind of watchlist for promotion.

Dinosaurs, Rogues, and Hydras were tenuous inclusions in Tier 2. The new printings in this set should validate these tribes.

Elemental Tribal gets a huge boost, the second most important one for any tribe with this set, but it’s still comfortably situated in Tier 2.

Nightmare Tribal gets promoted to Tier 4. Bad as it is, at least there’s probably a playable deck in here.

And I’ll tentatively demote the following creature types from Tier 2 down to Tier 3.
  • Kobold
  • Rebel
  • Wall
Ban list update recommendations
None at this time, thankfully.

Conclusion
Vampires are so, so good now. Like, really, really good.
 
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