When I last looked at Tireless Tribe
combo, I was looking at more of a control deck than a combo deck. My problem was that you didn’t have enough stuff to be a combo-control deck as you were thin on ways to be either at that point. However, today we will be looking at a much more straight to the point combo deck and that is what I like to see.
The deck list we will be looking at today got 5th place in the challenge that was posted on 3/28/2022 and was piloted by the player zoohn. I will not waste anymore time. Lets do this!
Tireless Tribe – Never play less than 4 of this creature. It is the namesake of the deck after all.
Augur of Bolas
– I don’t really like this creature because it can’t find your Tireless Tribe and I can only imagine how many times you lose the game because of this. This is also my personal bias. I do understand this creature digs 3 cards deep and you can get cards like Ponder
off of it and that can find your Tireless Tribe. I also understand that it is good against aggro decks. However, I wonder if something like Impulse
would be better in this spot
Brainstorm
, Ponder
and Preordain
– The usual 1 mana cantrips. You are a combo deck and you max out on all of these.
Inside Out
– The other main piece of your combo. Never play less than 4 in my opinion.
Peek
– This is no Gitaxian Probe
, but it is definitely the next best thing. I love this card because having perfect information for a deck like this is extremely useful and it draws a card. At the very least it can be cast at instant speed and I almost wonder if there should be 4 copies.
Circular Logic
– This card serves many purposes in this archetype as having a 1 mana counter spell (with a Tribe on the battlefield of course, at worst it is 3 mana) that can do it all is extremely useful. I almost wish you could play 5 sometimes.
Apostle’s Blessing
– Although only a 1 of, this is still a good card to have access to and make your opponent have to play around it.
Blacksmith’s Skill
– This is the replacement for copies 2 and 3 of Blessing. I like this spell a lot. It is an excellent counter to removal and it gives Hexproof which means you can still go off. The extra 2 toughness it gives is all helpful and could mean the difference between winning on a certain turn or not. Do remember, you are a combo deck. This means just like in aggro, the less draw phases you give your opponent, the better.
Whiteout
– This is an interesting one and something we have seen before. You don’t get to use Gush
anymore (leave it banned!), but this is the next best thing as you can return this to your hand multiple times.
Wedding Invitation
– This replaces Shadow Rift
and I am a fan. First of all this can’t be hit by Dispel
or Pyroblast
. It is also draws a card to replace itself and you can just put it out on the battlefield and leave it there which can help with you mana/sequencing your plays. I like this choice.
The manabase is very simple and needs to stay that way as again, you are a combo deck. You want as little come into play tapped lands as possible so that you do not slow yourself down. You have 8 fetchlands to help fix your mana and then you have 11 basics. Now keep in mind, because you have Whiteout, you must have Snow Lands. Luckily as of writing this article I believe they are on the cheaper side.
The Sideboard
Blue Elemental Blast
– Take this you pesky red menace!
Dispel – Great sideboard card for fighting counter wars, heavy removal decks and Burn.
Gigadrowse
– I love this card and you sadly don’t see much of it. I know that earlier I said you are a combo deck and giving your opponent the least amount of draw phases is a good game plan. However, against counter heavy/control decks, you won’t be able to help the game going long a lot of the time. Gigadrowse is great in long games because you can just tap your opponent out and go for the win. The tricky part is, you need to actually untap with a Tireless Tribe in play because you have no way of giving it haste.
Holy Light
– Everyone needs a board wipe.
Palace Sentinels
– A great way to draw extra cards against creature light control decks. I am not sure this is actually a very good plan, but I am not gonna rule it out just yet. My theory is if you cast it on turn 4 and it resolves, that is awesome. After turn 4 or 5, it is just too slow.
Patrician's Scorn
and Standard Bearer
– Take this Bogles! Bearer is also good against things like Stompy.
Student of Ojutai
– This one is pretty interesting as you can gain tons of life against Burn and red decks with it. The big thing is that it has 4 toughness so it isn’t easy to deal with.
Verdict and Conclusion
I can tell you right off the bat that I love this version over the one I talked about previously. In my opinion, if you want to play this deck, this is the list you should start with in my opinion.
I will say again that losing Gitaxian Probe and Gush was a huge hit to this deck because it lost a lot of its speed and when you are a combo deck, being able to see your opponents hand is extremely valuable. However, not all hope is lost as Whiteout is a decent replacement for Gush as far as winning the game quickly is concerned and Peek is an instant, which makes it a decent replacement to Probe.
I like the idea of Wedding Invitation as here as well. Opponents shouldn’t necessarily bring in artifact hate against you, so you can usually just through it out there and let it sit to save mana. I am still not a big fan of Augur of Bolas
and will be trying Impulse or maybe Serum Visions
in its spot. I don’t claim this to be a better idea, it is just personal for me.
Do I think you should play this deck? Tribe Combo is one of those decks that if the meta is right for it, it can be a power house, but if the meta is hostile for it, it should probably be left on the shelf for that weekend and there isn’t really an in between. I say if you want to play this archetype, I would start with this list. Tireless Tribe is still a good deck in my opinion, it just needs the right meta game and the right list for it to shine. I also don’t think it would have gotten 5th place in a challenge if it wasn’t at the very least a decent deck. For leagues this deck will do just fine.
For the challenges, that is a bit tricky. I don’t think Tribe Combo has any bad matchups necessarily as you should have the tools and the speed to beat just about anything. Against any blue deck, Gigadrowse can really carry you and you should be just as, if not faster than most of the aggro decks. White also has some of the best sideboard cards in the format, so you should be able to adjust accordingly. At the end of the day, this is a combo deck and combo decks can sometimes just fall to their own draws. I think this deck can do well in challenges, but I am unsure if it will give you consistent results.
However, with all this being said, as always, do remember my words are not gospel. I will always encourage you to try a deck that I bring you despite my personal feelings. Remember that results will vary and always remember to practice!
Would you like to compete in a free Pauper tournament with some great prizes? Head on over to Gatherling.com on Tuesday nights at 8pm EDT and play in our weekly Pauper Classic Tuesday's event! Join the chat #PCT to chat with us and feel free to find most of the competitors on Discord!
Thank you so much for reading. Best of luck to you in your next tournament and I’ll catch you all next time!
