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By: AJ_Impy, AJ Richardson
Aug 26 2009 9:29am
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Welcome back, gentle readers, after a brief hiatus for family reasons. Namely, when you read this, my wife will be commencing her studies in one of very few universities in the world to offer the right course, on the next continent over. I hope you'll join me in wishing her the very best of luck in her studies over there.

In any case, enough about the writer and on to the written. Mention Timmy, Johnny or Spike to any M:tG player and they'll have a stereotype in mind as to whom you mean: Wide-eyed, new-to-the-game Timmy looking for cool and fun cards to play, rules-savvy Johnny demonstrating cool and fun unexpected things, and ruthless Spike, looking to win at all costs, with cool and fun only there to be sacrificed upon the supreme altar of victory. 

Prodigal Sorcerer Shadowmage Infiltrator Soul Spike

The stereotypes are perhaps not wholly accurate: There's a measure of all three in just about every player, at least at some point. We all enjoy winning, and players still like windmill-slamming flashy effects with a smile on their face on the top tables of the Pro Tour. Seeing cool things in how your deck fits together and getting the most out of the interactions has the mark of Johnny, though no-one has a monopoly on that, be it in a handful of random cards deemed cool or a skilfully crafted draft deck with which a player intends to dominate and win packs. Nonetheless, the broad brush strokes that mark each type are a useful touchstone for card design at Wizards HQ, and from there, deck design in any given format amongst us, the player base. This week, we'll be looking through each set of eyes and building decks accordingly.

Timmy

Ah, Timmy. Fond of expensive, splashy and powerful cards or doing cool things, less bothered about potential card disadvantage, more bothered about being stopped from having fun. It is the enthusiasm of Timmy upon which our whole hobby depends: If people didn't have fun playing Magic, it would have died out long ago. Likewise, if newcomers to the game don't find it fun, they won't bother with it. Timmy tends to like linear designs, decks which practically build themselves but enable him to do cool things. In tribal, this often manifests in early stages as the 'Archetypal oversized elf deck'. Here's one I made earlier:
 

Timmy random pile of elf from my old decks
This one dates back to before the Scourge release
Creatures
1 Birchlore Rangers
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Patron of the Wild
4 Taunting Elf
1 Quirion Sentinel
1 Seeker of Skybreak
4 Stonewood Invoker
2 Wellwisher
1 Wirewood Herald
2 Wirewood Hivemaster
4 Timberwatch Elf
1 Heedless One
4 Wirewood Channeler
1 Primal Whisperer
3 Elven Riders
1 Elvish Soultiller
1 Serpentine Basilisk
1 Krosan Colossus
38 cards

Other Spells
3 Wirewood Pride
3 Elvish Guidance
6 cards
 
Lands
25 Forest
2 Wirewood Lodge
27 cards

 
Quirion Sentinel


A pretty much random pile of whatever elf cards I had in my earliest ever MTGO purchases, with a couple of cool things thrown in for good measure. The land balance is terrible, the curve is worse, yet it still occasionally won, even in those dark days, just due to getting the right mix of elves at the right time. Hands up if you've ever played a tribal game in which an Elf deck with more than 60 cards was involved? This is one of MTGO's gateway drugs, and the hallmark of someone coming into the game with enthusiasm and high expectations. It is that enthusiasm we should harness, encourage and even keep hold of within ourselves if we want the game to grow.

Uril, the Miststalker Rabid Wombat Evershrike

It is important to note that Timmy != 'New Player', though there can be some correlation. Plenty of new players prefer the competitive deep end right off, and can grasp the basic concepts of probability on which the game runs and decks are built by. Timmy is the enthusiast, the doer of cool things, the player of cool cards, who likes linear design but also 'build your own monster' cards. At one end you have the player who loads up on Rabid Wombat, Uril, the Miststalker, Evershrike and loads of Auras, but at the other end, there are some cards that let you customize them as you like without risking card disadvantage. There was a whole tribe of them back in Apocalypse, and it is to this tribe we turn, as discerning Timmies all.

Rakavolver Cetavolver Anavolver

Timmies don't care about mana costs so long as they get their cool monster, which is just fine when you're spending two to four colorless and three coloured of different colors to get the best effect. However, the trick is to know when to go for cheap vanilla and when to splash out. The Volvers are remarkably consistent: 2 mana nets you a 1/1, 3 gives you a Gray Ogre, 4 will always get you a Hill Giant, 5 gives you Durkwood Boars, 6 nets you a 5/5 and the lone possible 7 is a 6/6. One kicker gives you two counters and an ability, the cheaper one gives one counter and an ability. Timmy gets to build his monsters when and where he wants, and with a Doubling Season handy, he can have them come in considerably larger. For removal, we'll get cute: Swords to Plowshares is quality point removal, but our mass removal is selective, and none of it beats regeneration. Regardless of kicker, all our Volvers save the green have a CMC of three or less, and the green one can regenerate. As such, we can shape Austere Command around our team: there aren't many 3 mana or less creatures that could outshine a fully kickered Volver. Likewise, our Oblivion Stones can offer a modicum of protection and the opportunity to regenerate.

Austere Command Swords to Plowshares Oblivion Stone

Our path to victory is straightforward. We fly, trample, or just plow through all opposition, ramping up our mana and our creatures to overwhelm the opposition. Despite our sweepers we may have problems with swarm tribes, as Volvers for all their flexibility aren't at the cutting edge of the power to cost equation. Still, if you can drop a 5/5 lifelinked flyer, it's your opponent's problem to kill it or die. Either way, it's a fun deck to play, and that is the core of Timminess.

 

These things apparently 'Volve'
Tribal classic Timmy-style Volver deck
Creatures
4 Cetavolver
4 Degavolver
4 Necravolver
4 Rakavolver
4 Anavolver
20 cards

Other Spells
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Darksteel Ingot
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Doubling Season
4 Austere Command
16 cards
 
Lands
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Exotic Orchard
2 Godless Shrine
4 Jungle Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
2 Watery Grave
24 cards

 
Necravolver


Johnny

My archetype, or at least my dominant one. Timmy wants to do what he finds cool. Johnny wants to do original things that everyone else finds cool. Johnny is a showoff, an artist. He wants to make the cards in his deck put on a show for you, to perform amazing feats that you wouldn't have thought were possible. Johnny wants to play with one hand tied behind his back and blindfolded, whist unicycling across the metaphorical Niagara Falls. Johnny wants to make you lose through One with Nothing, Sorrow's Path and Crookshank Kobolds. Johnny wants to play without lands, or with all lands, or with obscure idiosyncrasies in the rules. To Johnny, the highest accolade is 'Wow, cool deck'.

How do we apply this to the Tribal format? That's a question I've been asking myself, consciously and subconsciously, for the best part of the past decade. Here are some of my answers. However, for the purpose of a more balanced perspective, I need to withdraw from my own posterior and think in more general terms. A Johnny tribal deck is built around a concept, that which it does which is cool. It can be an underused or antisynergetic tribe, a way of playing, or even a single card. That in mind, let's build our deck around an M10 reprint build-around-me, Warp World. Now, Warp World decks are best abused in two ways: Big permanents or come-onto-the-battlefield effects such as Bogardan Hellkite, or number of permanents. With this latter option, we're going to need a tribe with plenty of permanent generation, such as:

Siege-Gang Commander Mogg War Marshal Wort, the Raidmother

All three come into play and drop 1/1 goblins, with the Marshal giving us one when it leaves as well, consecutive on top of concurrent. We'll add another consecutive goblin and removal tool in Murderous Redcap, its persist maintaining our permanent count as well as reducing that of our opponent. If we're building around an 8-mana sorcery, we'll need mana. With plenty of goblins, the cheapest of which leave a goblin behind, Skirk Prospector gives us a great mana source. Also using our preponderance of tokens, Springleaf Drum gives us cheap acceleration, backed up by Mind Stone which can also serve to dig if need be. We can also get clever with our lands: Our deck is mono red, but there's a land that can drop 2 lands into play, namely Krosan Verge. Using (Stomping Grounds) and Sacred Foundry we can increase our permanent count and thin lands out of our deck with style. Needless to say, convoking a Warp World via Wort can be extremely nasty for your opponent: If you do, don't forget to tap mana and if you can sacrifice your Moggs and Redcaps if you can. For our last card, we'll run Nucklavee: a 4/4 body for only one mana more than an Anarchist, and mana costs are generally irrelevant here anyway. 

 

Warp speed, Mr. Goblin
Tribal Classic deck, Johnny tendencies
Creatures
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Murderous Redcap
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Wort, the Raidmother
4 Nucklavee
24 cards

Other Spells
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mind Stone
4 Warp World
12 cards
 
Lands
4 Krosan Verge
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
12 Mountain
24 cards

 
Warp World


Our path to victory is fun. We can swarm our opponent with masses of goblins, or more likely use Siege-Gang Commander to fling them at our opponent's head with mana generated from recycling Warp World or sacrificing to the Prospector. We may have trouble with fast fliers or powerful comes onto the battlefield effects on the opposition side, but if we go off, there is little our opponent can do to stop us. Even if we get multiple Wort, the Raidmothers in play from Warp World, that's still at least four goblin tokens.

Spike

And so we turn to the final member of the triumvirate, the Atropos to Timmy's Clotho and Johnny's Lachesis. Tribal is not a competitive format any more: How, then, do we make a deck as Spiky as possible? What's the most Spike we can put into a tribal deck?

The Spike deck
Tribal classic spike deck
Creatures
4 Spike Drone
4 Spike Worker
4 Spike Feeder
4 Spike Breeder
4 Spike Soldier
4 Spike Colony
4 Spike Tiller
28 cards

Other Spells
4 Quietus Spike
4 Doubling Season
8 cards
 
Lands
4 Llanowar Reborn
20 Forest
24 cards

 
Spike Tiller


Kidding. Seriously, Spike wants to win, first and foremost. He wants to get into a position where victory is absolutely certain, where defeat is not an option, where his opponent will inevitably lose. If Aggro is strongest, Spike will play Aggro. If Combo is strongest, Spike will play combo. If control is strongest, Spike will play control. Spike will play 'the best deck', for his individual value of best deck. It must withstand disruption, and disrupt the opposition. It needs to crush whatever everyone else plays underfoot. Nothing within the rules is off-limits as long as it wins. This includes something which led to each of its key spells not seeing print together again, the dreaded first turn of:

Swamp Dark Ritual Hypnotic Specter

Specter tribal has a lot for Spike to appreciate: Evasion, card advantage, denying the opponent options as a side-effect of the kill condition, all in a color which excels at efficient removal. We load up our deck with a set of Dark Ritual to enable the early discard start, preferably random with Hyppie but also conventional with Needle Specter. A turn-2 ritual opens up Shimian Specter or Abyssal Specter, with our killing blow being provided by Silent Specter, which morphs to come in early. For removal, we'll take the untargeted 2-for-1 of Chainer's Edict, the early game any-creature removal of Smother, and the exile effect of Unmake. Between regeneration-denying, sacrifice and exile, we should be able to deal with anything from shroud to indestructible to graveyard trigger to otherwise generally unpleasant.

The path to victory is direct, straightforward and brutal: Fly in, rip cards from their hands preferably from turn 2 on, remove what needs removing, get them into topdeck mode and win. The deck's removal is geared towards early drops with the intent of forcing later ones to be discarded: The random and targeted discard of Hyppie and Shimian are some of your best weapons. Bigger fliers can be a problem, so keep your Unmakes handy if need be, and a golem deck running Sand Golem and Dodecapod is one surefire way to get a major headache. (Curiously, I did once manage to play a discard golem deck against Specters one time. It was fun.) As with Kaleidoscope and Standard, Wilt-Leaf Liege is a royal pain in the discard. If you have a choice, always stack your Shimian Specter first. 

Making a complete Spectercle
Tribal Classic deck with spikish leanings
Creatures
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Needle Specter
4 Abyssal Specter
4 Shimian Specter
4 Silent Specter
20 cards

Other Spells
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chainer's Edict
4 Smother
4 Unmake
16 cards
 
Lands
4 Barren Moor
20 Swamp
24 cards

 
Silent Specter


I've had a fair few people asking me in recent days about what classic tribal deck I'd run in a serious tournament. Aside from the fact that the competitive side never grabbed me as much as it does most players, the fact is that the Tribal Classic format really is not particularly well suited to serious tournament play. You have no sideboard, and neither do your opponents. If there are prizes on the line, the spike attitude should be to exploit this for all its worth: Everything within the rules is fair game. No sideboards means that everything your deck can do is in the core 60 cards, as is everything your opponent can do. This has two major consequences. Firstly, you need maindeck answers to your opponent's dirty tricks, and secondly, as a Spike, you will need dirty tricks that your opponent can't defend against and doesn't have the option of siding in answers for.

Astral Slide/Lightning Rift decks with a powerful comes-onto-the-battlefield effects tribe could be deadly with no enchantment removal to deal with it, and a heavy dredge strategy built around Patriarch's Bidding, bridge from Below or Ichorid-type cards, with an imp or horror base will dominate against a deck with no graveyard removal. Back in the day the combo of choice was humans with Auriok Salvagers and (Lion's-Eye Diamond), with Trinket Mage to fetch combo pieces. Look at new or more recent combo decks for convertibility to Tribal: the current Time Sieve decks look like they would do just fine with 20 appropriate Myr shoehorned in. A Spirit deck using mana generators like Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide, Verdant Eidolon and Petalmane Baku to use Dragonstorm and mana instants to fetch four Kokusho, the Evening Star is a fairly extreme example, but for a spike, you should be open to all possible paths to victory in order to see which is best.

Banned and Restricted List changes

At long last, there are some alterations to the Tribal Classic B&R list. The inconsistencies I have done my best to point out are still there, but with the influx of new classic cards it is heartening to see the format taken into account immediately. There are four obvious bans: Channel, Strip Mine, Tinker and Balance, all of which are exceedingly dangerous in any format. In addition, a pair of World Enchantments will never see Tribal play: Arborea and The Abyss. Arborea is eminently abusable with a deck built around flash creatures and/or instants: If you're playing in your opponent's turn, you cannot be attacked. Even if your opponent opts not to play stuff either, you can build your deck to take advantage of this and just fling lightning bolt equivalents at his head until he loses. Comprehensive cheap moat effects do indeed have a negative effect, enabling a shoehorned 'burning bridges' archetype.

The Abyss, on the other hand, is akin to a number of legal cards in the format, such as Call to the Grave, Culling Scales, Keldon Twilight and the obvious Magus of the Abyss. However, all of these cards have a self-destruct or dodge condition: Unless you make it an artifact, give it shroud or make it indestructible, Magus of the Abyss will eat itself. If you successfully clear the 'field, Call to the Grave will be called to the grave. The Abyss has none of these problems, and can happily eat a creature a turn from your opponent whilst your army of artifact creatures, shrouded, persistent or indestructible folk laugh off the effects, turn after turn.

There will be those who would prefer as few bannings as possible in this, the casual format of casual formats, but the reasoning behind the bannings is clear, and their application is logical. I would still like the inconsistencies to be ironed out, but I won't be raising torch and pitchfork over these latest verboten cards. On that note, I'll leave you for this week. Until next time, know who you are and why you do what you do.

24 Comments

hmm by Paul Leicht at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 11:08
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I liked that last part best. I never really considered Tribal to be more casual than any other format but I can see your point. The B/R list in that light seems a bit weird. Yes I get that the Abyss is broken and has been since day 1. And Arboria is very breakable. But it seems to me that both ARE answerable and some tribes just wipe the floor with those kinds of strategies. Johnny Reigns supreme in a truly casual environment and so I am curious why they felt the need to ban or restrict anything. The spikish cards like strip mine and mana drain lose their value if they are put in such an environment I think. Sure some spikes will play just to see if the format can be broken but for the most part it is a land of Johnnies with the rare intrepid Timmy or Spike visiting.

Nice article. I think the archetypes of players could be expanded on 3 or 6 fold. What do you think?

The three archetypes are the by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 11:26
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The three archetypes are the three archetypes because they are who Wizards have in mind when designing cards. You can easily expand upon them through mixing and matching: Timmy-Johnnies, Spike-Johnnies and Timmy-Spikes, for example, or go by mayor and minor leanings, Spike with Johnny tendencies versus Johnny with Spike tendencies and so on. Do you have any additional archetypes in mind?

well by Paul Leicht at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 12:17
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I mean there is a whole group of very spikish multiplayer types who shun one on one interactions and then there seems to be a group (very minor) who shun small decks (though not good cards). They aren't Timmmies as they don't care about Flashy big creatures. They just want to have random game boards so that each game is truly unique. One of them Rafiki (sic) is constantly trolling in casual play. I get his point even though his message is stilted and offensive. It isn't my cup of tea..I'm really a Johnny Spike at heart. So there are a few different catagories that we don't normally discuss that are obvious. I am certain there are some that aren't obvious.

Multiplayer is a good point: by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:38
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Multiplayer is a good point: Wizards do design for it, but it could be considered more of a modifier. You have multiplayer Spike cards like Kokusho the Evening Star, multiplayer Johnny cards like Burning Enquiry and multiplayer Timmy cards like Verdant Embrace. Timmy is not so much flashy big creatures as it is about a certain mindset, namely that fun trumps efficiency. Bear in mind the random pile of elf example: A Timmy elf deck can be an 80-100 card pile of his favourite legolas clones, a Spike elf deck is a black-green netdeck from Lorwyn block, and a Johnny elf deck contains blue elves and generates insane card advantage. In that example the Timmy deck isn't about big creatures but what they consider fun: the finicky big deck crowd are a subset within the Timmysphere.

I hear you by Paul Leicht at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:11
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but I don't entirely agree. Particularly about the big deck crowd. I mean I wouldn't call Kurt Hahn or BDM or anyone else who plays 5 color and or highlander at pts Timmys or even subsection timmies. I really think its a different out look.

Ah, perhaps I misunderstood. by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:29
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Ah, perhaps I misunderstood. I was thinking of those who specify a minimum deck size of a few hundred in the casual room rather than the official big deck formats.

volvers? by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 11:37
Anonymous's picture

i have a volver tribal with the same crit base that I've loved, but recently when trying to join games its been saying the tribe was invalid, have you tried to play that volver deck recently?

As recently as last week. by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 11:41
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As recently as last week. I'll check again after the downtime.

spikes!? by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 11:57
Anonymous's picture

i remember one of my first games of magic I was beat by a friend who had a spike deck, any hope of seeing spike tribal for real from you AJ?

Funnily enough, I have built by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 13:44
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Funnily enough, I have built that deck up there. I'll consider going over its synergies in the next article.: It's remarkably effective.

Kicked my butt by Scartore at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:39
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It was fun to play against. Kind of like slivers for people with brains ;)

I think I need to build a U/W by hamtastic at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 12:20
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I think I need to build a U/W Wizards->Confinement deck now.

Dang, that's going to be annoying. I'll apologize in advance to any opponents.

First things first: I wish by Lord Erman at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 12:43
Lord Erman's picture
5

First things first: I wish your wife the very best of luck in her studies. Secondly, you made me laugh with the Spikey Spike deck; that was good humour.

And finally I have a suggestion: There may not be an officially competitive Tribal Wars anymore but should this mean that people can't enjoy the Spike side of the format? Wouldn't it be nice if somehow someone organized some Player Run Events? You know, this was exactly the way Pauper became an official format! Tribal Wars "may" become an official format once again if players show enough demand to it through PREs.

You may keep writing about the format but accept the fact that they alone won't and can't change a thing. But if WotC sees potential in the format, if they see a lot of players joining the PREs, then this format can be resurrected. Even if it can't, those PRE's could be a lot of fun for those few people who still like the format.

And someone should ignite the very first spark. Someone should organize those PRE's. Someone who loves the format, who plays it since years, who even writes about it since years and who has friends who can sponsor those PRE's and most importantly someone who has a pirate hat(!!!) should say "okay let's get dirty!".

Sounds familiar?

I cannot think of a better candidate for this "someone" than you. You love it, you play it, you write about it, you can arrange the sponsors and most importantly you have the hat!!!

Tribal Wars is a fun format but let's face it; "fun" alone isn't a good motivation to play a format. The key is that everybody loves prizes. And people don't really care who gives the prizes. WotC or a sponsor? Who cares?!?!

I love your articles about the format and every time I read one, I want to build a deck and play it. But then I say "what's the point?". PRE's could give me that "point".

Just some thoughts I came up with.

LE

That’s an interesting post I by Flippers_Giraffe at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 13:38
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That’s an interesting post I work the other way round I like playing Classic Tribal because it’s not supported. If it became supported by Wizards there would be a lot more people trying to break the format which is very easy as a lot of classic deck combos only need a few cards that could easily be added to any tribal deck to win.

Classic tribal is currently fun as the format doesn’t attract the pre players so you can play more of the fun tribes and still stand a good chance of winning and having fun doing so.

Tribal Std was or is supported by Wizards I have no idea if they are currently supporting it as it wasn’t fun to play as you would just have the top tribes dominating its why I stuck to classic tribal.

This kind of follows at you say the way pauper went I used to play the format when it was casual and we had loads of player run events which still happen I believe, but as soon as Wizards stepped in the casualness seemed to be lost and all the classic pauper decks I see (I haven’t played in a while) vanished and its now all tier one decks, I could be very wrong on this but that’s from my experience.

I am going to try pauper again soon to test the waters.

I was going to reply with a by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:22
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I was going to reply with a very long, detailed post going over the history of the tournament side of the format, what happened to it, and why it wouldn't be a good idea, but looking at the issue as a whole, there's enough in it for a whole article.

So you'll have an answer in full next week.

How much tweaking would it by StealthBadger at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:00
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How much tweaking would it take to make legacy goblins/elves/merfolk/faeries tribal legal? Probably not much... Still, you've got your 3 pillars just there (aggro, combo, control)!

If it were to become truly competitive, I think you'd need to have sideboards. Also, meglonoth probably wouldn't make the cut, which is always a letdown.

Absolutely, it would need by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 16:46
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Absolutely, it would need sideboards. But there's the rub: Your deck needs to be 33% the same creature type, and it doesn't check that after you've sideboarded. If sideboards were enabled, you'd basically be able to switch out all but 5 of your tribe members for noncreatures if the situation warranted it. Even if it were able to check post-board, it also thrws up other anomalies: Say you swap out a few nonrogue faeries for a few nonfaerie rogues, so that you no longer qualify under the same tribe you entered but under another tribe altogether. Should that be possible?

well by Paul Leicht at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:14
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imho if it is legal as a deck before and after sideboarding just because it changes from a faeries to a rogues deck shouldn't matter. I think that one is fairly straight forward.

It boils down to 'spirit of by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:43
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It boils down to 'spirit of the format', a nebulous and ever-changing concept.

As to the legacy tribes, it by AJ_Impy at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 16:50
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As to the legacy tribes, it would take a fair bit to bring them up to the regulation 20. Goblins probably need the least work, but the faerie decks tend to rely on Bitterblossom and have a substantially lower creature count in some cases.

From what I believe, the same by Zwick (not verified) at Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:16
Zwick's picture

From what I believe, the same "tier-one" decks in pauper were also the ones played in the casual room, I fail to see how Wizards has changed this other than making it more well known... and subsequently, people copy the best decks to see how they run, and how they like them. The only thing that has happened to Pauper is it became refined.

What he's saying is that by by Numdiar (not verified) at Thu, 08/27/2009 - 09:02
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What he's saying is that by making pauper actually mean something, you drive people to actually test and make an effort to find the best decks. When the format was more casual, for the most part you could play anything you wanted and do fine. Offering prizes attracts better and more competitive players.

Thanks Numdiar thats what I by Flippers_Giraffe at Thu, 08/27/2009 - 13:30
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Thanks Numdiar thats what I meant :)

same old same old by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:16
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I love tribal and had played in the std tribal bits that used to get run, but if it comes around to classic tribal for prizes people just run the same tribes, its like elves, slivers, goblins, wizards, zombies, clerics.. you get the same group of ccomboy ultra synergetic decks and those arent as fun to me and im sure many others whod rather see people play something a little different, i like the decks AJs always posting because they focus on making some of these generic tribes fit a bit better into a deck instead of just being a random pile of crits.. bottom line imo is that people would run the same decks in PREs and itd get stagnant