MTG Top 10: Tribal Decks | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 174

[@theopreston8507]

**cough cough** top ten gods **cough**
Whew almost choked on what the public wants right there

[@jacobrickayzen2744]

Theo Preston hahaha. You’re right too - Gods are so awesome and unique

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@jacobrickayzen2744 I am planning on doing it once the new ones have more of a chance to see some play.

[@blakem5619]

Phenax for #1

[@lordofsalem3]

I love that eldrazi made the top spot but super bummed that slivers weren’t even on the list 😢

[@kaseybennett7415]

You're the guy that gives tribal players a bad name

[@Morkim287]

RIP. I love me some slivers but they couldn’t even top Kithkin :(
I wonder if his card payoff requirement kept them out...?

[@kaseybennett7415]

@@Morkim287 considering they are all payoffs, I doubt that heavily

[@KumanoMTG]

Do they even have a tribal payoffs? One of them is banned and the other one is just a sol land :D

[@kaseybennett7415]

@@KumanoMTG I mean, there's also all is dust kinda? And ancient stirrings in a roundabout way. They don't specifically say "eldrazi" but they do synergize specifically well with them.

[@researchinbreeder]

But where is Jace tribal?

[@Dartowl1]

Rank 0

[@Looser1121]

Man I hated caw-go. It destroyed the standard format. You could play the same 60 in legacy and top 8

[@XxkunaraxX]

Again, surprised that slivers aren't on here anywhere :o

[@ikrena4701]

I'm not sure slivers ever performed like *amazingly* in competition

[@XxkunaraxX]

ikrena They get hated like they were and are tier one xD

[@ThorsShadow]

@@XxkunaraxX They aren't, though. That's why they were never that successful competitively.

[@ikrena4701]

@@XxkunaraxX maybe casually they do, but competitively they've never really done that much, and I dont expect that to change

[@SomersBugtopia]

@@XxkunaraxX Slivers were never tier one, their representation sits in casual and casual only. I can't even point to a time where Slivers did anything for competitive.

[@fyodorbeenkens560]

Nice video nizzahon! I'm suprised that slivers didn't make the list.

[@NizzahonMagic]

They have 3 points

[@nathanbrooks668]

@@NizzahonMagic aren't they mainly in edh?

[@Recon-cv1fe]

You have to remember that these lists count toward the creature types that have consistently seen top 8's. Slivers have appeared in many tournaments but rarely see a top 8.

[@sasleralix4112]

I thought that slivers would be in first

[@GearyDigit]

@@nathanbrooks668 EDH doesn't get any points, to my knowledge.

[@FalseOracle617]

Yay Tribal!
The flavor is too much for me to ignore in a tribal deck, so most of my decks become tribal..

[@Alino-]

Yeah, I have never really done much tribal (even though it super interests me) cause i prefer decks that are more than just a bunch of +1/+1 anthems. But, Skeleton is my favorite creature type, if we ever get a proper Skeleton Lord (that is a skeleton, so not death baron) or cards that synergize with Regenerate then I'd definitely work out a skeleton deck

[@therighttorch1468]

congratulations

[@JalebJay]

ONLY 4 points for Extended Elves? When it took 6 spots in a protour top 8? WHAT?

[@KumanoMTG]

And counting a combo reanimator as a human tribal? Ridiculous!

[@gabrielLau96]

I've build a Gruul Elemental Tribal this year and it have been incredible strong against famous decks, like Mono-Red Aggro and Azorius Control for example.

[@tendietyrant4206]

Man I loved the tarkir standard. I played Mardu dragons. It was so fun playing soulfire grandmaster then draconic roar to gain a ton of life, then playing dragons. Kolaghan the storm's fury closed out so many games for me. I miss that standard so much, there were so many powerful decks around, that every match win felt rightfully earned.

[@mattwcook9127]

Man, I really wish I was into Magic during the Lorwyn-Eventide era... sooo cool

[@Ceracio]

Was there. Lorwyn-Morningtide wasn't that great, because Fairies and Elves were absolutely everywhere, and it got repetitive really fast. Shadowmoor-Eventide was far more fun. Loads of weird decks everywhere, that all worked pretty well. This is on the non-competitive scene, of course.

[@rodeofrancisco6130]

My favorite block.

[@jdcaceres]

It was. If Wizards revisited Lorwyn I might come back to Magic. At that time, Lorwyn was also paired with the first Ravnica (i.m.o. the best Ravnica block there ever was). Magic then was so much fun. It was balanced, fair and above all, flavorful. Soooo much flavor. Yeah, Fairies eventually broke that balance, but until that happened, playing Magic was such a delight. Soooo much fun.

[@egaliseur8430]

Kithkin Gang STAND UP we made it

[@brandonteppelin6353]

Magic Hobbits, now we just need a Legendary Ring artifact and a Saga about walking places.

[@ericr4677]

egaliseur 😂 😂😂😂

[@Grannit666]

I'm surprised Spirits didn't make the list

[@jacobprice5442]

I got a black white spirit deck that will destroy my elf deck with the right hand.

[@davispo7550]

Given Pioneer and Modern decks, spirits would probably make the list as soon as tournament play resumes, if not already

[@jacobprice5442]

Davis Po if you don’t play competitive, spirits have some great cards. Like I don’t play standard or modern, me and my friends play just for fun where any card can be used

[@jasonzmuda7872]

For even more tribaly-ness play this format:
- Choose a creature type. All cards in the deck must have that creature type in the card name, type or rules text (not flavor text).
- No more than one of each card (except basic lands).
- 60 card deck pulling from the entire library. No banned cards.
This is the main way I've played magic for the last 25 years. It's super characterful and fun!

[@JonathanLinneman]

I've thought about trying this exact format...with the addition of one creature operating as the deck's commander. Really neat to see that it's worked so well for you!

[@golgariguy]

Forgot Master of the Pearl Trident when talking about merfolk lords! A functional reprint of Lord of Atlantis

[@warpdrivefueledbyinsomnia8165]

It just seems like Zombies is so close to breaking into Modern. I hope we can see them emerge soon.

[@samuelvanetten4324]

I really hope that 2 and I hope vamps breakthrough

[@bobdole8830]

I'd love to see a more in depths analysis of tribal decks, not only how well they performed at tournaments

[@TheOkoon]

between arena and cardboard i run 7 of these . . . surprised vampire didn't make it

[@dirtyblonde1011]

Aside from a handful of specific vampires, they don't have any tribal bonuses that pump out more/buff exisiting vampires

[@ItalianCJ13]

@@dirtyblonde1011 I mean, that's a lie lol

[@dirtyblonde1011]

I can honestly admit that I had forgotten vampires got a bit of an overhaul recently. My mistake lol

[@2MeterLP]

Really enjoying wolf tribal right now. Garruk, cursed huntsman and Tolsimir, friend to wolves are a great combination. Throwing wolves at your enemies creatures is really fun. Works especially well with wicked wolf. Though they need a couple buffing cards to really shine, like Heraldic Banner

[@GROUDON132000]

What about slivers?
I though they would be number 1, literally the apex of tribal synergy.

[@danp9977]

When were slivers ever a high tier tech?

[@corey2232]

But they never were competitive or won tournaments.

[@minihali]

Slivers are too dependent on each other, so they never really made a splash in any format. Except pauper, where white-green slivers are a mainstay and Commander, where they are often the first target on the table due to having access to every color and (almost) every keyword.

[@NizzahonMagic]

They have 3 points

[@GROUDON132000]

@@NizzahonMagic Thanks for the answer, I though they would have more...XD.

[@izzitlife557]

I really expected slivers to be in here somewhere, but I guess slivers are just good for casual play

[@TheDougWay]

Ideas for top 10s: best/worst cycles, best banned cards if they wouldn't have been banned, cards that have seen play for the greatest length of time, best/worst old cards brought back into a standard, best creatures of obscure creature types, or best cards that cost a lot of mana that people put into decks that they expect to pay for normally, not cheat into play, or use something like delve or affinity to play for little mana.

[@crovax1375]

Technically speaking Changlings are the most supported tribe. Also I would of thought that Slivers would be somewhere on the list

[@09Dragonite]

I figured they didn't have a spot because Slivers are so reliant on other Slivers that they literally don't have room in the deck to toolbox spells that are rather important. One boardwipe sets them so far behind it seems fairly unlikely that they could recover, and most of these tribes pump their creatures so aggressively that they get out of range of some meta wipes like Anger of the Gods or they fish for other creatures/answers to better support the strategy. The issue with Slivers is that the entire strategy relies on already having the one specific Sliver on the board for the situation, but cards like Duskwatch Recruiter and Goblin Lackey just fish out ways to refill your hand in case of a board wipe while faeries can play hard control builds to counter the issues or stall the opponent. I'm not really sure how many top 8s Slivers have as a deck, but I felt the responses were fairly reasonable. Slivers might have beaten Kithkin or Dragons possibly, but the other spots on the list were quite stable.

[@gonzokules7794]

@@09Dragonite you can push slivers out of anger of the gods range very easy...

[@dirtyblonde1011]

Hate to say it, seeing as I've always been a huge fan of slivers, but they only have 3 points (if going by the guidelines of this top 10)

[@BeyondEcstasy]

Who else just saw that Lord of Atlantis is wearing a trilobite?

[@GunplaShock]

Me

[@natehuff9703]

For eldrazi there are literally cards called tribal sorcery, one that works as a better worldfire: all is dust

[@michaelvaughn-walker5783]

I dominated with goblins in scourge/onslaught block. Really strong just didn’t get enough shine with storm dominating at the time

[@volrosku.6075]

Zombies also played well in C19 standard as a second lord was printed as well as a few other good zombie cards

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

Spirits only recently got big, so I guess they didn’t stand a ghost of a chance of making it onto this list.

[@tonsofun1831]

Mattman324 I hate you, but thumbs up anyway for making me chuckle.....

[@stigmaoftherose]

Didnt spirits have good tribal support way back in kamigawa?

[@pumkinswift8263]

@@stigmaoftherose I mean, they had tribal support. Good tri am support, on thw other hand...

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

The only deck that really abused Spirits was Ghost Dad, and it had limited success as I recall. (Mostly due to limited major tournaments.)

[@Pasakoye]

Goblins Dwarves and Dragons are a blast.

[@zaindixon9811]

Slivers will forever be my favorite

[@DrakonLameth]

I'm going to agree with a couple comments about not seeing slivers on here, but I also saw the comment about them only having 3 points, which I guess makes sense. While they're in every color and in pretty much every keyword in the game, anything that targets an entire creature type can ruin them (see: Engineered Plague), and individually, they're usually quite weak, which means if you can stall them coming out, or take out a key sliver that runs a mechanic (winged/galerider, cloudshredder, pulmonic, all for flying, for instance), you've already destroyed the entire deck.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

Imperious Perfect is one of my favorite art pieces of all time

[@aklepatzky]

Beautiful video as always

[@davispo7550]

You hit the scary pieces of the goblin deck, but Matron and Ringleader provide you massive card advantage and are what keep the deck consistent and enable quick recovery

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yep, they're nice too. I had to only pick a few to talk about, though.

[@stevengreiner6789]

i love playing mono red goblins!

[@lestervaladez6127]

Shalom bud, another great vid

[@kitsu5013]

what about a top 10 planeswalkers from planeswalker decks? they might not be as strong as their booster packs counterparts but they can be casually fun

[@MostlyNotDps]

I was actually surprised to see Kithkin on the list. Really didn't think they were all that popular.

[@Jayzerbeem]

Wish they would revisit treefolk tribals. Cool to see kithkin and faeries though. That was the first block I got into.

[@hit1955]

Heheh I remember b/w zombies. Last hope ult + Annointed Procession+ Fanbearer

[@MADWORKTV]

I have a super sick kithkin casual deck and it’s always fun to play...and kind of competitive.

[@zulzmei]

my all time favorite tribe was soldiers from around onslaught block and the deftblade elite is one of my all time favorite cards

[@goombajenkins4317]

Soldiers were the original humans

[@avatarocing]

I love Lorwyn the most of all blocks :D but mainly because of their elemtals

[@jamescamp8992]

I was certain that slivers would be in here somewhere. Maybe they are more dominant in commander

[@plao34]

I was hoping Vampires would be up here

[@camocanine64]

I was really expecting slivers in the top spot, spirits on the list somewhere, rats and vampires as honorable mentions, faeries not being found anywhere near this list, and I'd never even heard of kithkin... Wow, was I ever in for some surprises!

[@brothersofthebackrow]

Just wait! I have a standard rakdos zombie deck right now that’s going to make it big I swear!!!!!

[@colinbrown74]

6:13 There are 6 races. Vampires and Zombies share the spot for Black according to Wizards. Basically, Undead.

[@darkmatter32x]

Gideon tribal is insane. A love and hate relationship with that deck.

[@latensi]

Really surprising to me how Zombie decks haven't found any tournament success outside of Standard. I really hope for someone to pull off a fun Zombie-surprise in an eternal format tournament!

[@riverswater5688]

Great video though I do wish you would start covering some commander formats with your lists

[@NuclearCricket17]

Keep up the Great lists :)

[@sicebae4988]

Affinity is always the Number 1 'Tribal'.
PS: Kinda surprised Spirit didn't make the list.

[@AyoJayArr]

I was also confused

[@sicebae4988]

@@AyoJayArr confused about affinity or spirit ?

[@kaseybennett7415]

Spirits are a fairly recent competitive deck in modern and while it was in standard at one point, it either didn't outmatch kithkin in competitive or it wasn't considered tribal because it's only real spirit payoff was mausoleum wanderer

[@philheaton1619]

Slivers didn't make the cut? I'm surprised!

[@tuluaaivao3527]

“Slivers.”
Why am I not surprised?

[@simeonkrompart6517]

lol, watching number 7.
i was putting the beginnings of a zombie deck together and though, "hmm, this decks synergy just isnt coming together like i want to. im having a hard time finding zombies that either buff eachother or wong go into the grave yard".
I saw diregraf captain and colosus, and thought "looks like i was going in the right direction". i also want grey merchant, even though hes a little aloof to the plan of the deck.

[@rodeofrancisco6130]

Wow.. you shocked me. I honestly expected Vampires to be apart of this list.

[@dimitriousdevilboon7714]

Vampires are extremely underated

[@rodeofrancisco6130]

@@dimitriousdevilboon7714 you mean overrated?

[@rodeofrancisco6130]

Atleast thats what I meant.

[@dimitriousdevilboon7714]

@@rodeofrancisco6130 underated. I've built a legacy vampire list that has taken down some tier 1 decks consistently.

[@Wandallz]

Everyone is on about the missing slivers, but honestly compared to angels who recieved tons of new cards yearly that is bigger suprise. Honestly who would have thought that kithkins outperformed angels?

[@HaydenX]

I knew number 1 before I clicked on the video...I play Legacy and Modern. I love Rebels and would love to see some new ones...I'd also like to see Lin Sivvi and her friends in MH2 whenever it comes out. In Modern we basically have Sixth Pride, Whipcorder and Cho Manno.

[@playernamedjuju8607]

I wish werewolves would be a bit more appreciated as vampires are in MTG, give us the Wolves!!! And a new Arlinn Planeswalker card, the vampires have been getting all the good stuff! If in ravnica werewolves where a thing they would be in grull or in Selesnya and I would have been happy!!!!!

[@taylorolson6228]

Artifacts? Thought for sure affinity would top the list coming into it

[@NizzahonMagic]

Artifact is not a creature type

[@taylorolson6228]

@@NizzahonMagic Oh sorry, pretty noobish when it comes to mtg, outside your videos xD Affinity decks do run a lot of constructs then though right? Did those not qualify as tribal decks for some reason?

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@taylorolson6228 Yes, they aren't tribal because they don't all have the same creature type, or even run payoffs for creature types generally

[@taylorolson6228]

@@NizzahonMagic makes sense, thanks for the clarification! Im interested in mtg, but dirt poor, so I've been binging the crap outta your vids! thanks a ton they are really good

[@09Dragonite]

Damn I wanna play faeries again...

[@Hundo_Mo]

This video coming out when Sorin was spoiled is very fitting

[@Timelord888]

Was surprised that Vampire wasn't on there

[@NizzahonMagic]

They have not had much success

[@skalliedA]

that sweet watermark on the tite card

[@michaelwambaugh6726]

Very surprised to not see slivers here..

[@NizzahonMagic]

Only 3 points, why so surprised? They have never been consistently good in the tournaments my top 10s measure

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

I miss Lin Sivi. Maybe I should make a rebels EDH deck.

[@jaredgrass8299]

*throws hydra deck into the air*

[@karrrisa4558]

Where did slivers rank?

[@wva6809]

I play wolf tribal just for fun... I really love it.

[@devondombrowsky7485]

What about spirits?

[@CallmeDou]

So my main two decks are Zombies and faeries, i love them both to death, but i also have Pirates, elves, vampires, Gorgons (oh yeah!) and i am building a rogue deck I LOVE TRIBAL MTG.
I have deck lists for modern Zombies and Faeries

[@davidminor4213]

Where did spirits rank?

[@Scienceboy0]

I was waiting the whole list for Spirits. Perhaps it's due to it being a relatively new tribal deck that hasn't had time to accrue enough points. Knowing where it ranked would be nice though.

[@davidminor4213]

Telomerase Right. Not complaining, just would like to know

[@andrewtaylor3167]

@@Scienceboy0 Late reply, but while there's actually been a decent variety of Spirit tribal decks, most don't fit the criterion for tribal listed. Ghost Dad (WB) from CHK-RAV Standard, Spirit Stompy (GW) from Extended and Lingering Souls (Innistrad Standards) all either meet or are just shy of the tribal payoff requirements, but I don't think there'd be many versions that meet the 80% mark (granted, Ghost Dad and Spirit Stompy wouldn't add much to the final count, even if Ghost Dad was popular at the time).

[@TheJoeHindy]

Imperious perfect + intruder alarm + birchlore rangers = infinite elves = infinite mana.
Add a wellwisher, limitless life. Add a treasure trove, draw whole deck. Add fireball, burn an infinite number tof players to death.
Love elves.

[@rave8249]

Knight tribal needs waaaaay more love, one of the strongest tribals out their, we have really good lords, ones that give double strike and even one that gives out indestructible. Knight is one of if not the best tribes for getting other creatures stronger

[@NizzahonMagic]

They have finally started to be successful post-Eldraine, but they have a long way to go to be anywhere near this list.

[@rave8249]

@@NizzahonMagic I will admit that before eldraine knight tribal in commander was really spotty since we didn’t have any solid commanders except for maybe aryel, but ever since gwyn came out, just the mixture of powerful lords, a powerful commander that can help boost cards more, and the ability to go wide with tokens, They really deserve a lot more consideration when choosing a tribe

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@rave8249 This video isn't about commander, so we are talking about different things!

[@rave8249]

@@NizzahonMagic ok, even in other formats there pretty good but I see why you wouldn’t put it here

[@dragonmaster613]

Slivers are king!
Especially in commander.

[@kheyonsmith1497]

Third tribal tier list I've watched today and none of them even mentioned rat tribal

[@NizzahonMagic]

Nope. Shouldn't be too surprising.

[@evang7954]

Warriors and giants.🤘

[@michaelsander2878]

Thanks MagicAids for the 5cHumans :)

[@zacarymartinez6649]

My favorite tribal deck is defenders, especially after additions like tetsuko that makes creatures with 1 or less power or toughness unblockable and high alert which gives creatures power equal to their toughness and lets defenders attack. I’ve had so many turn 4 wins with it that people were confused when they saw how strong it was. The only bad thing is the deck is kinda janky and heavily reliant on 3 cards to be really powerful

[@NizzahonMagic]

Defender is not a tribe my man.

[@zacarymartinez6649]

Nizzahon Magic wall defenders? Most of my creatures are called walls?

[@TransparentEclipse]

I will forever hate slivers, as the first games of magic I ever played were with a friend I made a sleep away camp who played a sliver tribal deck and destroyed me for the entire summer. 12 year old me never forgets

[@NVE88]

What is with Sliver ?

[@slambamwam3597]

Surprised spirits didn't make the cut.

[@richardalatorre4006]

Rebels also was made at a time when you could only have 1 copy of a legendary card in your deck and prevented the opposing deck from putting out their own copy. ...this is why the race to her was important

[@NizzahonMagic]

The "1 copy of a legend per deck" part was not in effect by Masques block. That rule was only in place very briefly (August 1994-November 1995). You could have the full 4 copies of Lin-Sivvi, as every deck did. You're right, though, about the second part of the legend rule at the time.

[@richardalatorre4006]

@@NizzahonMagic I thought it was both at that time my apologies. I knew the 1st turn player was super favored bc of the way legendaries worked but thought it was limited to 1 per deck at the time too. My bad.

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

Nothing beats my Spiders deck.

[@stuarmanha]

Oh wow, I was sure Vampires would show up here.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Nope! Vampire tribal has had very little success at the events I analyze.

[@AgentPedestrian]

CATS! They're getting more powerful and are doing really well in Arena

[@kingsarues1586]

AgentPedestrian if the magenta and glittering lion combo wasn’t banned cats would be beyond broken.

[@chrishernandez3915]

I’m a vampire player and was sad faced not to see them hear

[@crypticlemon2705]

Shame vampires, slivers and cats weren’t on the list

[@TB-xl9eg]

How about an updated list? Or 11-20 tribals?

[@sicebae4988]

So Dragonstorm doesn't count as dragon tribal?

[@dracosdiabolis1769]

no bear tribal, no shaman tribal.... Rogues? Well crap, gotta try harder for the next list.

[@kingsarues1586]

I wish tribal Aven made the list. They have one of the strongest lands in the game and the only down side is their curve is top heavy.

[@2brokegamers689]

You’d say goblin is red representative over ork or dwarf? That’s interesting

[@NizzahonMagic]

It isn't me who chooses what the representative race is, it is WotC.
And over the course of the game Goblins have been seen a whole lot more than orcs or dwarves.

[@eduardozepeda1337]

Is there a top ten demons & a 10 worst demons in the works?

[@BerylliumOxide]

If Slivers isn't in top 5, I'm setting a potato on fire.

[@trapvd]

Get that potato ready

[@ducklipsjim2617]

Link?

[@mikelong2756]

I'm a simple man. I see Lord of Atlantis I click like

[@altairacalen]

I wonder what Spirits were at, point’s wise

[@imperium3556]

I'm surprised Slivers haven't popped up in either of these lists, weren't they extremely powerful for a little while?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Nope. They have 3 points.

[@waltergriffith4368]

Yes they are all these people want to bad mouth sliver because they all been owned by sliver players and now are for life salty over slivers and want to down play them.

[@adrianvideche4179]

No Zombie Master mentioned in zombies :/ legacy zombie decks are pretty good.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Zombie Master has never been in a top 8, there's a reason i didn't mention it.

[@adrianvideche4179]

@@NizzahonMagic oh ok, thanks so much for clarifying that! Also thanks for the reply, huge fan of your top 10s :D

[@dirtyblonde1011]

Only slightly surprised that horrors didn't make the list