Last updated on December 28, 2023

Pact of the Serpent - Illustration by Donato Giancola

Pact of the Serpent | Illustration by Donato Giancola

Everyone has a favorite creature type in Magic. Elves, zombies, merfolk, crabs, you name it, someone loves it. In fact, creature types are such a driving force in Magic that players build entire decks around a single faction of creatures, commonly referred to as a “tribal deck.”

While a deck full of vampires or spirits is cool enough on its own, tribal decks usually need support in the form of payoffs and enablers. Today I'm looking at the best generic tribal support in the game, the goodies that don’t pick favorites and work no matter what creature type strikes your fancy. It’s Brushwagg, isn’t it?

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What Are Tribal Cards in MTG?

Herald's Horn - Illustration by Jason Felix

Herald's Horn | Illustration by Jason Felix

Tribal cards are ones that support a specific creature type. The word in MTG originates from the card type that was introduced in Future Sight, but has since been abandoned by R&D. It’s been adopted as a slang term most commonly used to mean a card is “thematic” or supports a specific type of card.

Tribal is mostly used in relation to creature types. For example, a deck with a central elf theme can be called an “elf tribal deck.” Some players take it even further and use the term to describe any deck with a single central theme. Some players might refer to a deck designed to wrath the board every turn as “board wipe tribal.” We’re sticking with the creature-type focus today.

This list includes generic tribal pieces. These are the support cards that slot into pretty much any tribal deck regardless of what creature type it’s focused on. There’s plenty of type-specific support like Conspicuous Snoop or Lord of Atlantis, but we’re looking at universal effects that aren’t tied to any one creature type.

These tribal cards serve one of two purposes: they’re either payoffs for focusing on a single creature type, or enable getting more of that type of creature on board. Either way, these cards should fit nearly any deck with a strong tribal focus.

Best White Tribal Cards

#4. Resplendent Marshal

Resplendent Marshal

Resplendent Marshal is at its best in an angel or warrior deck, but its ability isn’t tied to those creature types. It triggers on ETB and death, but eating cards from your own graveyard isn’t something you usually want to do.

#3. And They Shall Know No Fear

And They Shall Know No Fear

And They Shall Know No Fear might just be #1 if this were a “coolest names in Magic” list. It’s still a relevant tribal card, granting mass protection and a power bump to all creatures of your selected type. It’s Make a Stand for a full mana cheaper, provided you’re committed to a single creature type.

#2. Conjurer’s Mantle

Conjurer's Mantle

Conjurer's Mantle is the newest card here and offers an addition to white’s growing roster of card advantage tools. It’s cheap to cast and equip, and it triggers on attacks while digging six cards deep, making it fairly easy to hit off this each turn.

#1. Folk Hero

Folk Hero

There once was a story of a card named Folk Hero. It was custom built to be paired with Burakos, Party Leader, where it would reward you for casting any of the four party creature types. Turns out it works well with most white tribal decks, or at least that’s how the story goes.

Best Blue Tribal Cards

#3. Distant Melody

Distant Melody

Distant Melody can potentially draw a bunch of cards, but it’s not a standout compared to other blue card draw spells. If you’re looking for a budget draw spell for your tribal deck, you might consider Melody, but it’s far from best-in-class.

#2. Reflections of Littjara

Reflections of Littjara

If you can resolve Reflections of Littjara and make it back to your next turn, you can really bring the hammer down by doubling every creature you play from then on out. Remember that this also works with the changeling spells like Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap.

#1. Kindred Discovery

Kindred Discovery

Spoilers: all the “Kindred” cycle appear here except Kindred Boon due to how painfully slow that card is. Kindred Discovery is a card advantage machine, and I think players often overlook that this triggers on attacks, not just on ETB. That means you get value out of it right away and continue to get value as you deploy more merfolk, spirits, or what have you.

Best Black Tribal Cards

#9. Raise the Draugr + Return from Extinction

Raise the Draugr is a cheap 2-for-1 if it targets two creatures of the same type. It’s nothing extraordinary, but this and the sorcery-speed Return from Extinction are filler options if you’re looking for some recursion.

#8. Skemfar Shadowsage

Skemfar Shadowsage

It’s no Gray Merchant of Asphodel, but Skemfar Shadowsage does a fine Gary impression in the right deck. You have to choose between dealing damage or gaining life, but with a wide enough board Shadowsage can become a reliable wincon.

#7. Haunted One

Haunted One

Haunted One makes it difficult for your creatures to die in combat so long as your commander can attack. The fun part is that your creatures keep undying until the end of turn, so you can follow up combat with a sweeper or sacrifice effect and still proc undying. You can get even trickier and find ways to tap your commander outside combat to trigger this background.

#6. Patriarch’s Bidding

Patriarch's Bidding

Patriarch's Bidding is mass reanimation for your selected creature type for a reasonable cost, with the downside being that your opponents get creatures back too. I prefer this with “big dumb creature” tribes like demons and dragons where the impact of your creatures easily outclasses whatever your opponents get back.

#5. Species Specialist

Species Specialist

Species Specialist plays in two different ways. Name the creature type you built your deck around and use it to replace any of your creatures that die, or name something your opponents are playing and pick off their creatures. The flavor text also suggests you should name “cat,” which might make you a terrible person.

#4. Haunting Voyage

Haunting Voyage

I prefer Haunting Voyage over Patriarch's Bidding as far as mass tribal reanimation goes. It’s more expensive, but the mana difference usually doesn’t matter by the time you’re casting spells like this. Casting Voyage from exile does what you expect Bidding to do without the hassle of giving your opponents creatures back too. Other foretell cards can disguise it, because otherwise your playgroup’s going to catch on any time you send this card to exile.

#3. Pact of the Serpent

Pact of the Serpent

Black has no shortage of card draw options, so Pact of the Serpent isn’t doing anything that unique. It’s flexible though, since sometimes you can point it at an opponent and burn them out Damnable Pact style.

#2. Kindred Dominance

Kindred Dominance

Kindred Dominance sees to it that your favorite creature type reigns supreme, destroying anything that’s not aligned with it. Seven mana is a lot for a sweeper, but a one-sided sweeper is worth it. It’s also unreasonably expensive and demands a reprint soon, so check out Crippling Fear for a small-ball alternative.

#1. Black Market Connections

Black Market Connections

Black Market Connections is already a powerhouse Commander card, offering any black deck card advantage and ramp in exchange for life. It’s also accidentally one of the best tribal support cards due to its ability to generate Changeling tokens. The least important and most costly mode in some decks is the default best mode for a tribal deck.

Best Red Tribal Cards

#4. Molten Echoes

Molten Echoes

Molten Echoes is an upgrade to Flameshadow Conjuring for tribal decks. Every creature you play entering with a duplicate copy is big game, even if they don’t stick around for long.

#3. Mana Echoes

Mana Echoes

A lotta echoing going on in red huh? You shouldn’t jam Mana Echoes into just any deck; you really need a reason to play it. Since it only produces colorless mana, it’s not actually great at letting you chain together spells. It is great at creating infinite combos with mana sinks that produce creatures. Sliver Queen is a popular choice, as are Emiel the Blessed and Slimefoot, the Stowaway.

#2. Kindred Charge

Kindred Charge

Kindred Charge is a red tribal finisher. You better make it count, since the tokens only stick around for the turn. You’ll often copy enough lords or synergy pieces to break the game wide open, and it scales well with tribes full of larger creatures. It’s already a beating in your typical goblin deck, but can you imagine resolving this in a dragon or demon deck?

#1. Shared Animosity

Shared Animosity

Shared Animosity frequently gives your creatures +5/+0 or more on attacks. It’s a finisher in the same vein as Beastmaster Ascension, so you might want to wait until your grand finale turn to cast this or it’ll just sit there making the table nervous.

Best Green Tribal Cards

#5. Steely Resolve

Steely Resolve

Steely Resolve doesn’t see much play, but it does a fine job at protecting your creatures. Shroud bars you from interacting with your own creatures, so take that into account if you put this in your deck. Be aware that this is a symmetrical effect that can occasionally grant shroud to an opponent’s creature.

#4. Descendants' Path

Descendants' Path

Descendants' Path is three mana for an enchantment that lets you scry the top card of your library to the bottom of your deck every turn. At least that’s what it does when I play it. For you, it might let you cast some free creatures here and there.

#3. Grave Sifter

Grave Sifter

Grave Sifter rewards specific tribes without usually sharing a type with those creatures, unless of course they’re elementals or beasts. It affects all players, but you’ll often break parity by restocking your hand with critters while most opponents only get one or two cards back.

#2. Kindred Summons

Kindred Summons

The best “Kindred” spell, Kindred Summons is often seven mana for 15-20 mana’s worth of creatures. You usually want 3+ creatures on board before you cast it, but meet that threshold and you’ll unlock this spell’s explosive potential. It has a fail-case of being a stone-cold blank on an empty board, but things are already going poorly if that’s the situation you’re in.

#1. Realmwalker

Realmwalker

I didn’t put many changelings on this list because they’re not really payoffs or enablers, just creatures that happen to fit any tribal deck. Realmwalker stands out since it’s actually an enabler, giving you occasional card advantage off the top of your deck.

Best Multicolored Tribal Cards

#3. Invasion of New Capenna / Holy Frazzle-Cannon

Invasion of New Capenna is fine on its own, but we’re really looking at Holy Frazzle-Cannon, and holy frazzle is this a card. Getting this battle transformed is the hard part, but put in the work and you’ll be rewarded with an equipment that should pump your entire board on every attack step.

#2. Etchings of the Chosen

Etchings of the Chosen

Etchings of the Chosen is a tribal anthem with a built-in protection ability. Sacrificing your creatures doesn’t gel with pumping your board, but most decks that want this usually have expendable bodies lying around.

#1. Morophon, the Boundless

Morophon, the Boundless

You can’t talk about anything tribal without Morophon, the Boundless sticking its ugly changeling face in your business. Yes Morophon, I get it, you’re the best at everything. To be fair, Morophon is limited to 5-color decks, so you only see it in tribal decks like dragons or slivers that don’t really need the help anyway.

Best Colorless Tribal Cards

#14. Pillar of Origins

Pillar of Origins

Even in a tribal deck, Pillar of Origins isn’t better than Arcane Signet or Fellwar Stone. It’s still a fine secondary mana-rock for multicolored tribal decks.

#13. Urza’s Incubator

Urza's Incubator

I’m not a fan of Urza's Incubator, but I assume people expect to see it on the list. The discount is at its best in tribal decks with expensive creature like angels or dragons. However, its effectiveness drops off as the game progresses, and most tribes already have cost reduction cards that provide extra benefits to the deck.

#12. Obelisk of Urd

Obelisk of Urd

Who or what exactly is an “Urd”? Obelisk of Urd plays hand-in-hand with go-wide token generating tribes. Elves, zombies, and goblins can all flood the board, use those creatures to convoke out a cheap obelisk, and jam with the rest of their pumped-up friends. Save this for the little guys, your dragons and demons don’t really need this sort of boost.

#11. Adaptive Automaton + Metallic Mimic

These two cards have different effects at different costs, but the end result is similar enough to cover them together. Adaptive Automaton is more expensive, but it provides an anthem effect regardless of when it hits the board. Metallic Mimic is only two mana, but it misses on creatures that entered play before it.

#10. Pyre of Heroes

Pyre of Heroes

Pyre of Heroes is a discounted Birthing Pod for tribal decks. It’s best used with a creature type that already wants to sacrifice its permanents, like zombies. I’m not convinced it’s good in your average elf or human deck, for example, although it can turn ordinary tokens into 1-drop creatures.

#9. Icon of Ancestry

Icon of Ancestry

Icon of Ancestry is yet another anthem effect with added card advantage. I prefer to save this for tribal decks full of cheap creatures so you can activate it and cast the creature you find in the same turn.

#8. Heirloom Blade

Heirloom Blade

Heirloom Blade is not that far off from the Conjurer's Mantle we saw in white. The equip bonus is larger, and it’s a death trigger instead of an attack trigger. Still, it has a similar play pattern of digging for the next creature that shares a type with the equipped creature.

#7. Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms

I’m not a fan of Coat of Arms, not because it isn’t powerful, but because it can be a headache to track in paper. It affects everything, and a stray elf-snake-druid Coiling Oracle will have you checking the types on every creature in play. If you want to avoid the constant numbers game with Coat of Arms, treat it like an Overrun and play it on the turn you intend to win.

#6. Vanquisher’s Banner

Vanquisher's Banner

Vanquisher's Banner is admittedly slow to get going, but being colorless means it’s a card-draw option for decks that don’t have access to great card draw. The anthem is useful too, although I think we’ve proven that tribal anthems are in no short supply.

#5. Path of Ancestry

Path of Ancestry

Ah yes, the tapped Command Tower. Path of Ancestry is a format staple even outside of tribal decks. I play it in every 3+ color deck I own and might even run a copy in my mono-colored tribal decks. It’s not that scrying provides a substantial advantage, but it’s a nice effect to have when you’re digging for lands or action.

#4. Maskwood Nexus

Maskwood Nexus

Maskwood Nexus turns all your creatures into changelings and pumps out extra Changeling tokens. It’s a bit more efficient overall than Birthing Boughs and enables some fun tribal synergies.

#3. Unclaimed Territory + Secluded Courtyard

The only difference between Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory is that colored mana from Courtyard can be used to activate abilities. They’re still close enough that if you’re interested in one you certainly want both. They’re must-have additions to any 2+ color tribal deck.

#2. Cavern of Souls

Cavern of Souls

Cavern of Souls is interesting because it’s perfect for any tribal mana base, but it’s also not so much of an advantage that you feel like it’s missing if you don’t have it. It’s an expensive card and I wouldn’t break the bank to get a copy, but I’d absolutely slot it in if I already owned one. It fills the same role as the lands above 90% of the time, occasionally hosing the “oops all counterspells” blue players.

#1. Herald’s Horn

Herald's Horn

I never build a new tribal deck without a copy of Herald's Horn. At the very worst it’s about on par with most 3-mana rocks, sometimes better since the cost reduction can apply to multiple spells per turn. At best it’s a mana accelerant that can draw 3+ cards throughout a game. I also love the complaint equity I get whenever I fail to reveal a creature.

Best Tribal Cards Payoffs

Tribal payoffs are interesting to talk about because the cards mentioned on this list are usually the payoffs themselves. What’s your payoff for filling a deck full of werewolves or birds or angels? Well, the payoff is that you get to unlock the potential of cards like Kindred Dominance or Herald's Horn or Mana Echoes.

Of course, each individual creature type has its own set of deliberate payoffs, usually in the form of lords or thematic tie-ins. Goblins have their Conspicuous Snoops, elves have their Allosaurus Shepherd, zombies get to run cards like Zombie Apocalypse, etc.

Some tribes like Kraken/Leviathan/Octopus/Serpent (KLOS) have their own subset of thematic cards like Quest for Ula's Temple or Spawning Kraken, whereas a tribe like dragons has incredible payoffs like Dragon Tempest or Scourge of Valkas. Most popular or even semi-popular creature types have some number of payoffs out there. The best way to find this is a simple “oracle:creature type” Scryfall search.

What Makes an MTG Deck Tribal?

A deck is considered tribal if there’s a deliberate focus on a single creature type (sometimes multiple creature types). This usually means that there are explicit rewards in the deck for that type, and the individual creatures usually benefit from one another.

Decks don’t need 100% of their creatures to share a type to be considered tribal. In fact, many tribal decks play creatures that benefit the tribe but don’t actually have that type themselves. Gisa and Geralf, Wirewood Symbiote, and Dragonspeaker Shaman are all examples.

Are Tribal Decks Good?

Tribal decks are as good as you make them. I can’t speak towards cEDH viability, but from a casual perspective they’re usually fun and synergistic enough to compete with the average deck.

Not all tribes are created equal, with some creature types receiving vastly more support than others. Nearly every set has some flashy new dragon or a few elementals and zombies, but rarely do you get strong support pieces for saprolings, dogs, kithkin, and so on. Decks focused on a very small tribe of creatures tend to be laxer and more flavorful than powerful.

What Is the Strongest Tribe in MTG?

Look, there’s no way I’m going to get this right in the eyes of most players, so I’m going to meet everyone in the middle and name badger the strongest tribe in MTG.

It’s very hard to pick an absolute #1 tribe, but my gut tells me the reward should go to dragons. Individual dragons tend to be monsters on their own, so you can imagine how a deck full of them operates when you slam death-lizard after death-lizard. Not to mention their support cards are ridiculously good, and commanders like The Ur-Dragon and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm are win-cons on their own.

I believe goblins, zombies, and elves are also all in the running. These are all small-ball tribal decks that are very good at flooding the board early and overwhelming your opponents. I know many people would claim elves as the top slot due to how much mana the typical elf deck can produce, but I find decks like “elfball” or goblin tribal to be extremely weak against sweepers.

Tribe'd and True

Unclaimed Territory - Illustration by Dimitar Marinski

Unclaimed Territory | Illustration by Dimitar Marinski

Tribal decks feel like a natural fit in EDH, and I know many players (myself included) whose first self-made deck was a tribal deck. It was zombies for me, but I’ve seen everything from bird tribal to centaur tribal to “tribal tribal” with Mistform Ultimus.

There are plenty of tribes to choose from, and the cards on today’s list should slot into just about any of them. Of course, I’d love to hear about everyone’s favorite tribal deck, and I’m curious what others would consider the best tribe in Magic. Let me know in the comments below, or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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