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By: AJ_Impy, AJ Richardson
Apr 08 2009 10:18am
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Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed readers, today we turn our attention to one of the most interesting set of stats on a creature since Darksteel Colossus. As with the big metal poster-child for inevitability, this thing has power, toughness and converted mana cost the same. As with the Golem, it has an ability that renders it practically unkillable: Protection from Everything. Now, when Colossus first saw print it had no creature type: It got errataed to its present Golem in the grand creature type update. Progenitus, however, comes with not one but two creature types: Hydra and Avatar. Funnily enough, both of these tribes got a substantial boost in the mythics of Conflux:

Child of Alara Progenitus  Apocalypse Hydra
The Penultimate Airbender

Let's get things started with a deck that can hard cast Progenitus on turn five with a good draw. As it turns out, with the legendary Hydra Avatar along with the angry baby, Child of Alara, there are now no less than four Avatars with the WUBRG array in their mana costs, Scion of the Ur-Dragon and the incredibly dangerous in this format Karona, False God completing the quartet. Now, there's a surprisingly affordable land in the classic card pool capable of filtering mana into the full selection of five. If we use that alongside a means of generating a large amount of mana, we can churn out any of our army of five-color monsters with surprising ease. Here, then, is the heart and muscle of our mana base:

 

Cloudpost  Vesuva Crystal Quarry

We can fill out the rest of our mana with 5-color lands and Tolaria West, which together with Sylvan Scrying lets us assemble our mana engine with remarkable speed and consistency, and in a pinch can be played as an actual land.



Now, although we can get to the full five colors quickly and easily, this still leaves us vulnerable in the early game. As such, a sweeper such as Nevinyrral's Disk, Plague Boiler or Oblivion Stone should be enough to keep us in the game. In this deck, I've used a mix of the latter two, as frequently you'll be in a position to play and activate them in the same turn. This is supplemented by Child of Alara, with the 6/6 trampling angry baby throwing a world-destroying tantrum whenever it's sent to the graveyard without any supper. Now, to take advantage of (Scion  of the Ur-Dragon), I've included a suite of one-of utility dragons: Hellkite Overlord for haste and the ability to survive the artifact sweepers, Dragon Tyrant for sheer damage-dealing capability, Flameblast Dragon for targettable removal and the ability to get around fog effects, and Nicol Bolas for hand removal and damage. We complete the tribal quintet with one that can be played off the quarry, or can be used as a massive card-drawing X-spell, Aeon Chronicler.


 

You're Avataring a Laugh

Mana from Heaven

4 Cloudpost
4 Crystal Quarry
4 Rupture Spire
4 Shimmering Grotto
4 Tolaria West
4 Vesuva
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Darksteel Ingot

Armies of the divine

4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Child of Alara
4 Scion of the Ur-Dragon
4 Karona, False God
4 Progenitus

Devastating utility

2 Oblivion Stone
2 Plague Boiler
1 Dragon Tyrant
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Nicol Bolas

 

 

For my next trick...

Now, what better way to build a deck around a 10-mana creature than by building it without lands? Yes, I'm in that sort of mood again. Now, if we take the above deck, the fact that all the tribe members are 5-color means that we can use them for any and all pitch spells. Now, take a look at the mana costs: they're all colored mana with the exception of one on Karona. Ladies and gentlemen, this deck not only intends to use Progenitus to fuel massive 10-point Shining Shoals and Sickening Shoals, it intends to be able, theoretically, to cast it. But how? Through an almost forgotten Oddysey mana generator:

Ten mana, Five Colors, No Lands
Charmed Pendant

They don't touch ground

4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Child of Alara
4 Scion of the Ur-Dragon
4 Karona, False God
4 Progenitus

Engine Room
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Charmed Pendant
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Ancestral Vision

Where did that come from?
4 Restore Balance
4 Sunscour
4 Soul Spike
4 Sickening Shoal
4 Shining Shoal

The trick with this deck is to aggressively mulligan into a Mox and go to town. You have no shortage of 5-mana beasties to imprint, after all. A quick Ancestral Vision should set you up nicely, and an early Restore Balance puts your opponent into a very bad position. Your aim is to stall for time, using mass removal liberally, until you can unsuspend a Lotus Bloom and get your Charmed Pendant into play. With a Lantern of Insight handy to let you know when to tap it, you can soon find yourself with a huge monstrosity facing a freshly Balanced board, and victory should ensue soon after. The deck has an impressive amount of card draw available to keep up with the pitch spells, but as with all landless decks, it's going to be a wild ride.

How to get Ahead (or five)

But wait, there's more! Our friend the 10-mana Avatar is also a Hydra, and with its world-ending sibling Apocalypse Hydra, you end up with a lethal amount of giant monsters worthy of the term Mythic. With fellow legendary Hydra Ulasht, the Hate Seed also in their colors, we have the makings of a pretty nasty deck here. Now, it just so happens there are quite a few X-cost Hydras out there, of which Apocalypse and Feral Hydra are probably the pick of the bunch. There's also a nice little accelerant in their colors who can help stoke things along nicely, step forward Rosheen Meanderer. As well as being a wonderfully efficient creature in its own right, a turn 4 Rosheen can lead into a turn 5 8/8 Feral Hydra, 14/14(!) Apocalypse Hydra or even a Savage Twister for 7 if the board needs clearing. Add in the Cloudpost/Vesuva/Crystal Quarry engine to get Genny out and fuel some really, really big hydras, and you'll be crushing your rivals in no time. We round out the tribe with Sprouting Phytohydra, infinite defensive creatures which we can multiply ourselves through gentle pings from Apocalypse and Ulasht, enabling us to make really, really big Ulashts as well.

Apocalypse Hydra
Making the Headlines

Headlands
4 Cloudpost
4 Vesuva
4 Crystal Quarry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Forest
4 mountain

Head them off at the pass
4 Rosheen Meanderer
4 Savage Twister
 

Headcount
4 Apocalypse Hydra
4 Feral Hydra
4 Progenitus
4 Sprouting Phytohydra
4 Ulasht, the Hate Seed

Head start
4 Reap and Sow
4 Sylvan Scrying

Rosheen Meanderer

 

That's all we have time for, folks. I hope you've enjoyed the return of the Art of Tribal wars as much as I have in writing it, and especially as much fun as I've had playing the format since the bugs with Changelings were ironed out. I've recently been trying to revitalise the format in the client, on the official wizards boards, on MyMTGO and here on PureMTGO, so if you've enjoyed this article, head out and try to innovate in the format, then tell people if you enjoyed it, see if we can get even more people involved. Until the next time, may you have fun with 10/10 unkillable monstrosities.

11 Comments

Would be nice to see some by Metalman (not verified) at Wed, 04/08/2009 - 13:39
Metalman's picture

Would be nice to see some games played with the decks. Theorizing is fun but playing a few games and talking about how the deck runs would be quite a bit more valuable, at least to me.

By the way...are there any stats on Tribal decks available. Whats good/bad. I hear rumors that "Knight" and "Goblin" are the best but Ive never seen any decklists. Just curious if you knew.

-M

AJ_Impy's picture

Whilst it is true that I usually test these decks in the casual room and tweak them until they win, I've tended not to focus much on that aspect in the Art of Tribal Wars. Then again, the column's two-year run has been patchy to say the least. I'll consider it as an option.

As to what's good, the marquee tribes are usually the place to go. Onslaught block showcased elves, clerics, soldiers, beasts, goblins, zombies, birds, wizards, illusions and slivers. Kamigawa went spirits, snakes and samurai, Lorwyn specialised in giants, treefolk, elves, goblins, elementals, faeries, merfolk and kithkin, with Morningtide turning to soldiers, wizards, rogues, shamen and warriors. It is possible to build a soldier or zombie deck which is almost entirely composed of Lords now. Also, you can build around tribal engines such as Haakon, Stromgald Scourge or Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. If you want the best, most spike-oriented decks, look at the pro lists for decks that were good enough for the big time and happen to be tribal, such as Goblin bidding, Elves! and Faerie control.

plain fun by devious (not verified) at Wed, 04/08/2009 - 14:11
devious's picture

Its good to read about a not so popular online format. i currently have 11 different tribal decks most of which are unusual. its not difficult to win playing elves, slivers, or goblins but avatars or hydras is just plain fun.

AJ_Impy's picture
5

Playing and winning with the odd tribes is what I find entertaining and enjoyable. As you say, it is more of a challenge, but that's half the fun.

Very nice article. Thanks by Leviathan at Wed, 04/08/2009 - 22:35
Leviathan's picture

Very nice article. Thanks for bringing more attention to tribal again. Hopefully there will be more players now that Lorwyn block is done.

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