Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Welcome to the second Tribal Update Report. While War of the Spark was a power-packed set with some notable goodies for all formats, its effect on Tribal-focused gameplay was relatively quiet. Well, Modern Horizons is both a high-impact set in general and an unusually potent release for creature types. So this report potentially has more of interest than the previous one. Even so, I’ll try not to ramble on too much.
Before we cover anything else, I’d better address the elephants in the room. All ten of them. Unfortunately, this is not some cheeky way for me to introduce the awesome boost given to Elephant Tribal in this set. Sadly, it’s just that those ten cards are for all tribes. This set revisits the “Changeling” mechanic. And it does so in a pronounced fashion. In a lot of decks, Valiant Changeling is going to be a 3/3 double-striker for just WW. And of course Morophon, the Boundless is going to be an alluring tool for twelve-year-old players everywhere. Perhaps the most notable of these cards is Changeling Outcast, an unblockable black one-drop that can benefit from every tribal synergy. Wizards of the Coast wanted to make this a kind of “creature types matter” set, but found “Changeling” to be a good tool for that.The effects of these new cards on your Tribal games is going to depend on your rules, so the overall effect of this set is very much tied to that, which makes evaluating it rather tricky and nuanced, if we’re trying to be comprehensive. I feel like if we’re going as far as, for instance, considering the potential of Irregular Cohort in Ox Tribal, this sort of report is just going to be meaningless.
Personally, I endorse Mooseman’s proposal...
With that major issue out of the way, let’s move on to the next major issue! Oh yes, this bonkers set has some stuff going on. Specifically, this set has a new card called Plague Engineer. The name is similar to a card I’ve proposed should be banned: Engineered Plague. And as it happens, the card is similar too. But this one is a creature! And for Tribal formats, it’s even more overpowered than Engineered Plague. My first instinct is to say it should be added to the Banned List, right alongside Engineered Plague. However, there’s another consideration.
Plague Engineer is a carrier. And previously, Carrier Tribal was Tier 7. It had only four real members and was effectively unusable, despite the presence of the reasonably powerful Phyrexian Plaguelord. Allowing this tribe to use its newest member would automatically promote Carrier Tribal out of Tier 7, and the synergy between the existing cards and black recursion spells combined with the sheer power of Plague Engineer would let it dominate Tier 6 and even promote it out of Tier 5. It might even make its way into Tier 3. The card is just that strong. Really. Banning a card that is key to the viability of an entire tribe is something I’d only advocate with trepidation. But letting every black-heavy deck have a one-off deathtouch creature with Engineered Plague stapled to it would be format-warping, I contend. So I’m going with my first instinct and advocating for a ban on Plague Engineer.
With the introduction out of the way, let’s move on to the tribes…
New Tribes
None. Ha, that was easy.
Before we cover anything else, I’d better address the elephants in the room. All ten of them. Unfortunately, this is not some cheeky way for me to introduce the awesome boost given to Elephant Tribal in this set. Sadly, it’s just that those ten cards are for all tribes. This set revisits the “Changeling” mechanic. And it does so in a pronounced fashion. In a lot of decks, Valiant Changeling is going to be a 3/3 double-striker for just WW. And of course Morophon, the Boundless is going to be an alluring tool for twelve-year-old players everywhere. Perhaps the most notable of these cards is Changeling Outcast, an unblockable black one-drop that can benefit from every tribal synergy. Wizards of the Coast wanted to make this a kind of “creature types matter” set, but found “Changeling” to be a good tool for that.The effects of these new cards on your Tribal games is going to depend on your rules, so the overall effect of this set is very much tied to that, which makes evaluating it rather tricky and nuanced, if we’re trying to be comprehensive. I feel like if we’re going as far as, for instance, considering the potential of Irregular Cohort in Ox Tribal, this sort of report is just going to be meaningless.
Personally, I endorse Mooseman’s proposal...
...but since these reports are currently to a hypothetical “Council” and the ruling on this mechanic isn’t set in stone, I assume nothing. Depending on the exact rules in a Tribal format, these new Changeling cards probably either boost a whole bunch of tribes that can use them, boost Shapeshifter Tribal specifically, or just get restricted anyway. I’ll continue this report essentially ignoring these cards. They’re generally good, but impossible to evaluate.Mooseman said:I would like to restrict Changeling, since they are a tribe unto themselves (Shapeshifters) and Mistform being an illusion. Say 16 creature cards that have the tribe actually printed on the card (or in errata) , then say no more than 2 of each changeling cards.
With that major issue out of the way, let’s move on to the next major issue! Oh yes, this bonkers set has some stuff going on. Specifically, this set has a new card called Plague Engineer. The name is similar to a card I’ve proposed should be banned: Engineered Plague. And as it happens, the card is similar too. But this one is a creature! And for Tribal formats, it’s even more overpowered than Engineered Plague. My first instinct is to say it should be added to the Banned List, right alongside Engineered Plague. However, there’s another consideration.
Plague Engineer is a carrier. And previously, Carrier Tribal was Tier 7. It had only four real members and was effectively unusable, despite the presence of the reasonably powerful Phyrexian Plaguelord. Allowing this tribe to use its newest member would automatically promote Carrier Tribal out of Tier 7, and the synergy between the existing cards and black recursion spells combined with the sheer power of Plague Engineer would let it dominate Tier 6 and even promote it out of Tier 5. It might even make its way into Tier 3. The card is just that strong. Really. Banning a card that is key to the viability of an entire tribe is something I’d only advocate with trepidation. But letting every black-heavy deck have a one-off deathtouch creature with Engineered Plague stapled to it would be format-warping, I contend. So I’m going with my first instinct and advocating for a ban on Plague Engineer.
With the introduction out of the way, let’s move on to the tribes…
New Tribes
None. Ha, that was easy.