Tribal is an interesting thing to try to tackle in Commander. You’d think if there was any place that a tribal deck of any kind would thrive, it would be here. My personal attempts tend to speak to the contrary.

I had an ill-fated Zombies tribal build that traded back and forth between Sedris, the Traitor King and Lord of Tresserhorn depending on my mood. Before too long, I scratched out “Zombies” and wrote “Patriarch’s Bidding.dec” on the deckbox. Eventually, that also got scratched out in favor of “Folds Hard To Mass Removal.dec.” 

I then had mono-white equipment featuring Raksha Golden Cub. It wasn’t even a tribal deck to begin with (not intentionally anyway) until one of my close friends noted that the win condition tended to be White Sun’s Zenith rather than my huge, double striking, Sword of Fire and Ice wielding commander. He then lovingly began referring to the deck as “Mono-White Kitties!” 

The Kitties grew very accustomed to the dark end of the same Fat Pack box that had Folds To Mass Removal.dec for a good reason.

Most recently, my overdeveloped sense of poor timing came into play with Angels tribal. I wanted to make a deck based on my equally overdeveloped ‘Commander hipster’ tendencies, so I naturally built around a hard-to-find (and equally hard to understand the price tag on) foil copy of Radiant, Archangel.

To make a long story short, see “Zombies” above for results. Play a small army of Angels. Equip them. Watch everything die to Oblivion Stone. Good times.

The selection of Angels was a bit weak in some areas, and that and the poor performance finally pushed me over the edge. I finally took the thing apart and traded off the components. A week or so later, Avacyn Restored was spoiled.

I know…timing. I’m terrible when it comes to timing. (Ask my wife about when and where I proposed to her if you’d like some clearer evidence to back up that claim.)

Sean, after that intro I’m sure you’re either wondering why I chose your deck to work on this week or else you’re probably hoping that I get hit by a runaway cement truck on my way to work and my partner-in-crime Sean McKeown gets to step in and finish up here. Either is an understandable reaction.

My response is pretty simple: I love building tribal decks.

My reason is simple: Commander is a format with a massive card pool and a wide-open design space. It’s not hard to put together a deck, but after you spend enough time brewing and constructing, things can start to get stale. People love to discuss ‘staples’ and how they’re supposed to be avoided like the bubonic plague. (Guilty.) The reality is that once you spend time at the drawing board, you start to figure out what cards are the best at what they do and your decklists can start to look a little cookie-cutter-esque whether you like them to or not. (Guilty again.)

It’s not an easy mold to break out of, and this is precisely why I love design constraints. You get a fresh perspective on the building process, and that’s a refreshing thing every once in a while.

Ruhan is frequently overlooked as a commander due to his inability to be decisive on the attack. He is tough to beat in the ‘bang for the buck’ category, but I think many people end up in the same place—a build that leverages the color identity for a decent control shell coupled with a ‘Voltron’ style general beatdown.

Easy to play, easy to improve, hard to point in the right direction. That’s Ruhan all day long.

You’re in luck, Sean. Fortunately for you, I’m here today to not change that at all! (You’re welcome!)

You want very much to take things back in a tribal direction, and that’s my sole mission. I’m going to strip out a lot of options that don’t fit the ‘Giant’ theme almost to a fault; if it’s not a Giant, it’s gotta go. I’ll place my focus on trying to improve your mana curve (34 lands for what is essentially a “six-drop” deck is not a great way to go…) and make additions that both serve to improve the function of your deck and give it better staying power while staying true to theme.

You have also mentioned a minor budget cap, and I think this is the perfect place to be for that limitation. The reason I say that is that I personally don’t think tribal decks are particularly well equipped to be ‘tier 1’ in Commander. (I’m ready, commenters. Open fire.) It’s not that I think theme decks are inherently weak necessarily, but line Ruhan up next to premium versions of Sharuum the Hegemon or Kaalia of the Vast and I’m putting my money elsewhere. (Besides, he’d likely take off in the wrong direction anyway…)

As well, Giants in general are a pretty tough tribe to crack; they’re big, but only until you start realizing that there are cards like Krosan Cloudscraper and Worldspine Wurm out there. They’re also fairly solitary and don’t really lend themselves to swarm strategies that usually rule the Commander battlefield, and the hallmark of the creature type seems to be the inclusion of some sort of drawback in most cases. (Hello, Blind-Spot Giant! No…over here. On the left. No…your other left…)

As a result, I think I can bring some changes to the table that make this deck function a bit better and also take the focus off of Ruhan himself to help his family shine while also showing you that design restrictions can be a great tool for jump-starting some pretty creative decklists. We’ll hopefully end up with a solid tribal concoction that is fun to play but doesn’t break the bank.

Let’s get started!

The Main Issues

Here are the deck’s problems as I see it:

1. It seems to want to be a ‘big mana’ deck but can’t really support the strategy with the mana production.
2. It seems to be conflicted, running a bunch of defensive cards like the Propaganda you mentioned, but it wants to be an aggro deck.
3. The mana curve is straight-up ugly. It has some low end and then dives headfirst into the six-mana pool.
4. Gas. (Yeah, yeah. Funny. I get it.) It doesn’t seem to have a ton of options to keep things moving once they get going or to get moving again after a board wipe.
5. Theme. You nailed it… This is a Ruhan deck, not a Giants tribal deck.

The Fix

Let’s start with creatures:

OUT — Stoneforge Mystic, Trinket Mage, Adaptive Automaton, Mirror Entity, Duergar Hedge-Mage, Solemn Simulacrum, Balefire Liege, Brass Herald, Mindwrack Liege, Taurean Mauler

These cuts are easy enough because they’re not Giants. (I told you I was going to stay right on the theme thing, didn’t I?) These cuts range from reasonable helping hands (Stoneforge, Trinket Mage, Solemn) to Giant improvers (Lieges, Automaton) to on-color role-players (Hedge-Mage.) I know these aren’t going to be popular cuts in all cases, but if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this. If half of your creatures aren’t Giants, you’re not running a Giants tribal deck.

And no… Shapeshifters are cheating. They may technically have the Giant pedigree, but they mostly look like ET.

OUT — Sunhome Enforcer, Arbiter of Knollridge

These two are weak links in the Giant kingdom. You’re not running lots of mana, so Enforcer is going to be draining you dry for meager gains, and Arbiter takes things in the exact wrong direction. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time beating face only to give it all back. Sure, it might save you in a pinch, but most of the time, you’re going to be looking at this card and wishing it was something else.

IN — Jotun Grunt, Clone, Bloodfray Giant, Oathsworn Giant, Bloodshot Cyclops, Forge[/author]“]Chancellor of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Magma Giant, Quicksilver Gargantuan, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Borderland Behemoth

There’s a lot going on here, so let’s look at things in pieces:

–Clone, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, and Quicksilver Gargantuan all show up as perfect copies of the creatures they’re copying, so when you point them at your existing Giants they all become real Giants. And Gargantuan is basically bigger than most of the true Giants in your deck anyway, so he really fits. (Okay… In the face of the Shapeshifter cuts, maybe it’s a bit tenuous to go here, but I’m driving, so deal. My Giant car, my Giant rules.)

–Bloodshot Cyclops… Come on! How can you miss Chuck? You’re getting a bit of removal and direct damage in a native Giant, so he’s a no-brainer.

–Bloodfray Giant is shiny and new and helps to lower your curve while still packing an unleashed punch.

-Chancellor is that obnoxious guy who shows up to your party with a bunch of friends of his you didn’t invite, but you could use a bit of a bump in the finisher department, so we’re going to tolerate some Goblins for now. We use an Armada Games style points system at our shop, and there’s a point for first combat damage dealt to a player. Chancellor wins that for you every time.

–Borderland Behemoth is probably the biggest Giant in your deck most of the time. He’s a perfect fit for your tribal theme; he’s a Giant that needs other Giants to be around to really persevere.

–Oathsworn Giant isn’t really all that giant to be honest, but he’s the on-theme pump this deck wants. The vigilance for your team is the real Propaganda effect this deck should have; Giants don’t charge a toll—they just are Giants. That’s a better way to prevent attacks in my opinion.

–Jotun Grunt is cheap at face value, but due to the cumulative upkeep it doesn’t exactly lower the curve since you’re not really playing him early. He does offer you a reload option on any fallen comrades and also representing some solid graveyard hate at the same time.

-Finally, Magma Giant is a good-sized body with a nice removal ability tied on. If you want real Giant cred, play Chancellor the turn before you play this guy and wipe out your own Goblin horde. You’re just that hardcore… No non-Giants allowed!

… Okay, okay. On a serious note, I heard he’s pretty good against token decks too.

IN — High Market, Clifftop Retreat

We desperately need to start getting more lands into this list, so the last two creature slots are being repurposed to bolster your real estate. Clifftop Retreat is giving you a bit more juice in the color-fixing department, and High Market is going to be there to prevent you from getting smacked with your own Giants.

Next up: artifacts!

OUT: Dolmen Gate, Manalith, Infiltration Lens, Whispersilk Cloak

I’m simply not a fan of Dolmen Gate in this deck. Giants are tough, right? Why do they need a miniature Stonehenge to protect their feelings when they charge into battle? I think this slot could instead be used to help this deck fix its mana. Let the Giants do what they do best.

On the equipment front, I’m losing the two cards that seem to be the least Giant-like. Giants want big axes and hammers and stuff, not opera glasses and capes. I will miss the card draw of the Lens, but I’ll make up for it in short order.

Manalith gets cut because it has been recently upgraded in this format, plain and simple.

IN — Coastal Piracy, Chromatic Lantern, Loxodon Warhammer, Foriysian Totem

The Lantern is basically a strict upgrade to Manalith in Commander. Moving on from there, Totem is the ultimate giant-themed mana-fixer, helping to get you what you need to summon your huge team while also bringing in one of the iconic original giants (in spirit) at the same time.

I’m pretty sure there’s not much to say about the Warhammer. For some reason, there are a good number of Giants that don’t trample natively, so this will be a nice help in that category. (The lifelink doesn’t hurt either.)

Lastly, Coastal Piracy is the replacement effect for the Lens I just cut. This deck needs a good way to stay supplied once it gets rolling, and rewarding it for getting into the red zone is the best way I can think of to do that. Besides, I’d sooner believe in a Giant pirate than a giant sneaking around a castle with a pair of infrared goggles.

Enchantments are next:

OUT — Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, Prison Term, Faith’s Fetters

The primary offenders here are the ones you called out for underperforming in the beginning. Even excusing the lapse in theme, I don’t think a Giants theme deck wants a prison element on the strategy front either. Again, I’d rather do what I can to see your team get better doing what they do best.

Fetters and Term aren’t bad, but they aren’t exactly strong answers in this format. Auras need to really carry their weight to be viable in Commander, and you’ve already got better answers to problems in inclusions like Swords to Plowshares and Return to Dust.

IN — Fervor, Marshal’s Anthem, True Conviction, Rest in Peace

Enchantments need to make your problems into far bigger problems to make the cut in this deck. These selections do that well; Fervor is an important bump up in the haste department, while True Conviction makes each of your Giants into double striking, lifelinking monsters. (I know we’re trying to get away from Voltron land, but it’s not hard to make him into a one-hit surprise win condition with not much more than these additions and some of the equipment you’ve got lying around.)

I understand that this is an addition with color requirements along the same lines as Blue Sun’s Zenith, but this is a card that hits in the end game and breaks things wide open. It doesn’t draw three cards. I’m willing to go out on a limb for this power level, especially considering that I’ve made some strides to also add some extra mana fixing in the process.

Marshal’s Anthem is a concession to rebuilding. As I said before, this deck lacks a way to reuse creatures that die, and when we’re talking Giants, we’re looking at quality, not quantity. Every last man counts, so this is a great way to improve on things in general while also getting you the extra value you need to have.

And if you want to prevent opponents from doing the same thing, newcomer Rest in Peace is the best there is. It flies in the face of Anthem, but sometimes the lesser of two evils is losing out on bringing back a Giant or two in order to shut off The Mimeoplasm across the table.

Let’s move on to instants and sorceries.

OUT — Brainstorm, Blue Sun’s Zenith

I’m willing to concede that Brainstorm isn’t bad in Commander when used in the right deck. I don’t think this is the right deck; you need more positive card draw over cheap card quality.

And I also agree with you on Zenith. I think the triple-blue cost is prohibitive, and again, this isn’t a big mana deck. It wants to keep tapping out to roll threat after threat onto the battlefield, not sit back and draw a few cards at the end of the turn of the person to your immediate right. Simply put, there are better options out there.

OUT — Disenchant, Crib Swap

We’re upgrading both slots. And yes, the Changeling rule still applies.

OUT — Pollen Lullaby, Thoughtweft Gambit

I like a good Fog effect as much as the next guy, but I don’t think a Sleep that doesn’t actually tap things and only effects one opponent is really worth it in this format. If I wanted the effect, I’d just play Holy Day instead—and I don’t really want the effect to begin with.

And Gambit…I’m really not sure on this one either. This thing was a beating in Limited. Here, not so much. For six mana, there are far better outcomes.

OUT — Dream Fracture

And for three mana, there are far better counterspells. Like any that don’t give your opponent a card in the process.

OUT — Brightflame, Feudkiller’s Verdict, Insurrection

Brightflame is just not going to be viable in most cases. Your deck isn’t designed to produce massive amounts of mana, and in a world of big creatures, this is going to be a great tool against token decks most of the time but otherwise may just be Stream of Life on steroids. To deal with your average 6/6 beater, Brightflame will cost you ten mana. I don’t think it’s particularly worth it.

Feudkiller’s Verdict is the hardest cut for me. It’s a great thematic card, and I appreciate that. However, it’s really the ultimate ‘peacock’ card. You have to play it early to really guarantee it will work, and then you’ve only really succeeded in a relatively modest gain in life and a creature token that probably gets outclassed immediately for the investment. Also, everyone immediately starts gunning for you. Is that the best you can do for six mana?

This is compounded by the fact that I’ve seen this card played three times in Commander, and in all three, the rest of the table took it as a challenge to prevent the Giant token trigger from resolving. They were always successful.

Finally, Insurrection. It’s a great card, but I’m personally sick to death of it just immediately ending otherwise enjoyable games when it gets played. At this point, I’ve permanently relegated it to “only when it thematically matters” status, and I’m not sure that it fits the bill here, so I’m pulling it for other considerations.

IN — Windfall, Reforge the Soul, Time Reversal

The other way I want to keep this deck going is through the liberal use of draw seven effects. The idea is that you’re drawing Giant threats due to your theme, so hopefully your opponents will naturally miss the high-water mark in comparison. I’ve also started to believe in the power of draw-sevens as hand disruption as well lately; nothing is more enjoyable than refilling your hand with gas while simultaneously forcing the guy who’s been burning tutors to sculpt the perfect hand to bin his hard work for a random pile.

In Windfall and Reforge, we have some truly bargain level prices, and Time Reversal is going to add another option in the “recycle” department for you.

IN — Orim’s Thunder, Disaster Radius, Dismantling Blow

In a world where Akroma’s Memorial is printed in the current core set and people love their Omniscience shenanigans, I’ll play Orim’s Thunder any time I can meet the color requirements. Similarly, Dismantling Blow is a great way to be able to answer things you need to early and do the same while gaining value later.

Wrath effects are all well and good, but one-sided board sweepers are just better. With some of the Giant casting costs you’re packing, Disaster Radius should always be a blowout for the whole rest of the table.

IN — Coalition Relic, O-Naginata

Here are a few more artifacts to play with before we close up shop.

I’m not always a big fan of Coalition Relic. More often than not, I see it being tapped for a counter, which will then be spent during the next main phase without the Relic itself being tapped. Congratulations—you’re still playing Manalith for all intents and purposes.

Here, though, this deck actually benefits from the ability to tap out on turn 3, play the Relic, tap it for a counter, and then untap on your fourth turn, play a land, and be able to play a Titan. The key here is in remembering that Relic is mana acceleration, and this is the space and time to use it as such.

With O-Naginata, I’m adding another decent big stick for your Giants to hit things with. More trample enablers, half the effective cost of Loxodon Warhammer.

IN — Counterflux

While I did cut Stoneforge Mystic, I left Stoneforger Giant alone, and I also left the Sunforger and the associated utility package. Counterflux is the new go-to hard counterspell to add to the ‘Forger suite, providing an arguably better option than either Suffocating Blast (it’s cheaper to hard cast) or Double Negative (it counters more stuff at once.) 

I’m not advocating turning this deck back into a control list, but it’s important to be able to shut down the critical removal spell or board sweeper in a pinch, so it’s great to have the options in here.

IN — Sulfur Falls

For the last available slot, another land, and a solid mana fixer at that. Between the other two land additions and the added mana rocks, I’m now comfortable that this deck will be able to keep up just fine.

And with that, we’re done!

The List

Ruhan of the Fomori

Cassidy McAuliffe

Test deck on 10-14-2012

Standard

Creatures (24)

• 1 Clone
• 1 Magma Giant
• 1 Bloodshot Cyclops
• 1 Desolation Giant
• 1 Bloodfire Colossus
• 1 Oathsworn Giant
• 1 Jotun Grunt
• 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
• 1 Boldwyr Intimidator
• 1 Brion Stoutarm
• 1 Giant Harbinger
• 1 Hamletback Goliath
• 1 Sunrise Sovereign
• 1 Thundercloud Shaman
• 1 Borderland Behemoth
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Frost Titan
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Quicksilver Gargantuan
• 1 Chancellor of the Forge
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Ruhan of the Fomori
• 1 Bloodfray Giant

Planeswalkers (1)

• 1 Venser, the Sojourner

Lands (37)

• 6 Plains
• 7 Mountain
• 4 Island
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 High Market
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Ancient Amphitheater
• 1 Mistveil Plains
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Clifftop Retreat

Spells (38)

• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Oblation
• 1 Levitation
• 1 Orim's Thunder
• 1 Dismantling Blow
• 1 O-Naginata
• 1 Sunforger
• 1 Foriysian Totem
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Wild Ricochet
• 1 Obsidian Battle-Axe
• 1 Mirrorweave
• 1 Hindering Light
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Marshal's Anthem
• 1 Disaster Radius
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Time Reversal
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 True Conviction
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Reforge the Soul
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Counterflux
• 1 Rest in Peace

And here are the prices on the replacements:

Not too bad if I do say so myself. The only place I really broke from your budget constraint was on the Sulfur Falls, and even then, the whole list only rings out at $60.50. If you really wanted to, you probably could sacrifice condition a little bit and pick up a copy in slightly played condition and end up under the $10 mark for every card on the list. On top of all of that, you’ll receive a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com for your participation in this week’s Dear Azami, which should help things along nicely as well!

So there you have it…tribal Giants. I had a lot of fun on this one, Sean, and I really hope you enjoy it. I think it should hit a little closer to the mark in terms of what you originally had in mind for a tribal theme, and you should notice that it spreads the love around a little more with less focus on winning through Ruhan commander damage every time. It may not be a top tier strategy, but this deck still retains some bite with a strict list of some solid Giants and some new answers to complement the always-potent Sunforger package.

I hope this also serves as a bit of a look at how to start building with a theme in mind. It’s not easy to cut Trinket Mage from a blue deck, or Lieges from an aggro deck, or Solemn Simulacrum from any deck, but it’s a nice change of pace to build from the ground up without any preconceived ideas about what “should” be included. This isn’t a perfect example by any means and there are tribal fans out there that probably would have taken this list and built it completely differently, but the idea stands.

Don’t be afraid to go outside of the box sometimes when you build. It can be incredibly rewarding in this format.

See you all next time,

-Cassidy

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article, like Phil’s Garza Zol, Plague Queen deck or Jacob’s Skullbriar, the Walking Grave deck. Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!

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