Thought I forgot about you, didn’t you? Well, I didn’t. I wouldn’t make you dedicated contestants wait a whole year for results… that just wouldn’t be right. Besides, it’s not like I ever did that before, right? Today I bring to you the results from the deckbuilding contest from August 2006 called “Class”-ified Tribal. Who won? You’ll just have to keep reading.

Considering there were only ten days from posting to deadline for deck submissions, I received quite a few decks. Actually, there were around 30 submissions. Some people submitted several decks; some people submitted the wrong decks. Some people revised their submissions three or four times and then there were others who withdrew their entries because they didn’t read the rules correctly. Overall, I’d have to say I was pleased with the results.

Just to amuse you, below is a breakdown of all deck submissions:

6 Shaman
4 Knight
2 Advisor
2 Elf*
2 Samurai
1 Artificer
1 Gamer
1 Lands*
1 Lord
1 Monk
1 Myr*
1 Mystic
1 Nightstalker**
1 Ninja
1 Nomad
1 Rogue
1 Scout
1 Snakes*
1 Warrior

* denotes a deck that didn’t qualify as a CLASS tribal deck.
** Nightstalkers are debatable – but I consider them a race and not a class.

Lots of Shamans and Knights. What was nice about Shamans is the variety of decklists. What wasn’t nice about Knights is that all but one used Haakon. And only one of the other three used something more interesting than just Haakon and Knights. The most interesting class used in a submission to this contest: Gamer.

So without spoiling the fun, let's take a quick look at the original guidelines for the contest.  After that, I'll jump right into the top five deck lists in descending order.

One to Rule Them All

At fifth place, we have a very creative deck by Cashew using the Lords class-creature type. Who would have thought? What’s even cooler about the deck list is the fact that he turned it into a sort of theme deck too. Here’s the deck:

Here’s a slightly modified version of his description, so you get a better feel for the theme in his class-ified tribal deck:

This deck at first seems weak, and against faster decks it may falter a bit. Playing off the noble class, it's the Lord tribe. While Lord's usually serve their own tribe, these lords all serve a higher master - The Mistform Ultimus.

He is the true lord, and his royal decree makes it so. Hopefully early assassination attempts will target your vassal lords mistaking them for the true ruler, allowing Ultimus to come into a land free of burden. Once he's in its only a matter of time before his conniving ways allow him to assert his dominion over the land.

Waging unfair taxes to prevent others from invading or forcing invasions at his command, he will eventually lay his own land into their borders and invade with his entire army untouched.

How’s that for a deck?! Remember that the Ultimus is all creature types, so each lord you have in play gives your Ultimus a boost of, let’s see, islandwalk, mountainwalk and forestwalk. What are the chances your opponent has one of those three basic lands? Reasonably high. If they don’t, Mr. Ross has included three Political Trickery and two Shifting Border cards to swap lands with an opponent to ensure your Ultimus can attack unblocked.

One problem I have with the deck is its three thousand dollar land base. Unfortunately, that is needed with all of the double-color costs in the cards. That and I would have swapped out Chamber of Manipulation, War’s Tax and Incite War for other, more efficient cards. Possibly even another Lord. In fact, one lord I was VERY surprised to see not included in the list was Lovisa Coldeyes. She’s red and would give the Ultimus +6/+6 and Haste. Of course, she is Legendary and doesn’t grant landwalk. Overall, this is a fun deck that actually performs much better than you think. I dare you to build a variation of it and see how it works. It even has the Alpha Status + Ultimus combo!

Quick Note: Lord of Atlantis will now affect other Lords of Atlantis since they are Merfolk now too… thanks to the Time Spiral Oracle update.

While the almighty Ultimus taxes the world, let’s look at our next deck. Placing fourth, the next deck may just assist the Ultimus with keeping track all his power.

Tax Advice

JSweeney is no stranger to deckbuilding contests here on Magic Deck Vortex – only this time around he makes a deck I didn’t think anyone would touch: Advisors.  Post-Time Spiral, there are only sixteen Advisor creatures in the game of Magic spanning all colors except green.

Who would expect the Advisors to find themselves in a control deck? Let’s take a look:

I would talk on and on about this deck, but again, let’s hear it from the creator of the deck:

This deck seeks to lockdown and control the game through it's taxing of attacking and spells, and tapping down the opponent’s offense and defense, until it overwhelms the opponent through superior numbers.

While playing, you want to use the compulsive research to either draw and ditch excess lands, or use it as a way to dump your legends into the graveyard, so that your loyal retainers can reanimate them.

You'd like to drop out Grand Arbiter Augustine the IV as quickly as possible, as it both stunts your opponent’s growth, and accelerates yours. Then, Michiko Konda helps you lock the game further, as you should have a tapper or two out that are tapping down the biggest threats, and if they have to sac a permanent when they deal you damage, they'll have to at least think if it's worth it before sending in some of the smaller stuff. (Especially when Ghostly Prison is out. getting in one damage for two mana and the loss of a permanent isn't nearly as attractive as just doing one damage.)

After you've locked them up, Masako makes it nice when you start building up your forces of soldiers from the Outpost, as you can continuously alpha-strike with them every turn, and not worry having enough blockers on your opponents turn.

Overall, I felt this deck was extremely original, despite the typical control strategy. I mean it uses the Advisor class-creature type! Good job, JSweeney, although I can’t say I’ll be asking you for tax advise this next year. Let’s move along to our third place deck, a tribe of extreme popularity… at least in this contest.

Shaman Circle

One of the nice things about the Shaman tribe is that, post-Time Spiral, there are 76 of them. With having so many different Shamans, it’s easy to vary the decks you make with them. With that in mind, Chris Newton took Shamans into a direction that no one else did in this contest with the following deck:

How ironic of Chris to put together a GW control deck using Shamans – I mean control decks are soooo not his thing. Seriously, though… here’s his description of the deck:

My hopes for this deck are pretty simple; lock up the opponent's board with Plow Under, Stunted Growth, and creature stall, until I get a Eternal Witness with a Flickerform on it, and I can begin to recur all of my board and hand control cards. With this deck, the Shamans will unite and defend the Forest (and my head) from invasion. By the time the opponent is ready concede the battle to my Shamans, they will not have a hand, graveyard, artifacts, enchantments, creatures, nor lands in play. They will be completely decimated by the Shaman Circle.

I am using the compliment of Fetching Lands, in Windswept Heath and Grasslands, to continually pull lands from my library, increasing my quality draw ability. Once the sufficient mana supply is in play for Sachi, my mana sources begin to stockpile as I play Shamans. From there, I use Plow Under and Stunted Growth to cripple the opponent. Story Circle keeps the trickle of creatures at a minimum, while I hunt for a Flickerform to get my Eternal Witness Protection Program in place.

I also have set up multiple Auras to place on my creatures, so that when I Wrath of G… er Winds of Rath, my opponents creatures are blown away, and my creatures are protected by the powerful Auras that surround the Shamans. Would it be Shamans or Shamen? Charim? I don’t know, I just know this deck would frustrate a lot of cute Tribal decks.

What I liked the most about this deck is the Stunted Growth and Plow Under cards. That and I liked the fact that he recurs them with Eternal Witness and Flickerform. All of this makes for a very cool deck to play, but not play against. Obviously, this tactic is going to take some mana but Chris has this covered with all Shamans in the deck and Sachi – who give all of your Shamans the ability to tap for two green mana.

And the Winds of Rath – what a nice touch! However, some of the deck could be reworked to offer even more mana and support. Particularly, I would have liked to see even more mana for the early game (perhaps another Utopia Sprawl). That and some of the Auras could be replaced with more efficient Aura. For instance, you could replace Unquestioned Authority with the new Pentarch Ward, Spirit Link or Serra’s Embrace.

Still, the deck is crafty and shaman abroad would be proud. Speaking of crafty…

Masters of Construct Creation

Our second place deck consists of another surprising tribe: Artificers. There aren’t a whole lot of artificers to work with, as there are only eight of them including Time Spiral cards. But our newest Artificer, Mishra, Artificer Prodigy, doesn’t fit into the deck well. Let’s see why:

Mishra wouldn’t work in this deck only because the majority of artifacts in the deck are alone. Although I’m sure the deck could be reworked to optimize on Mishra’s awesome abilities. In this interesting deck, eJammer uses four of the eight Artificers in an effort to make use of their varying abilities. While they vary, they all involve one thing: Artifacts. And what better way to make use of these artificers than to include Mycosynth Lattice?

Also, he uses quite a few combos within the deck, which was one of things that I really liked about it. While the concept of Mycosynth Lattice + March of Machines isn’t new, I thoroughly enjoyed Magus of the Unseen and Tower of the Magistrate with Lattice. I guess I’m a sucker for combos I haven’t seen or used before…

Here’s what eJammer says about the deck:

Playing with Artificers: Artificers create and manipulate artifacts, so this deck is built around that idea. Use Arcum Dagsson to bring out Mycosynth Lattice, Darksteel Forge, Reito Lantern, Scroll Rack, and Crucible of Worlds. Magus of the Unseen can start taking the opponent's creatures once Neurok Transmuter or Mycosynth Lattice is out. Attack with the creatures you take, and then sacrifice to the legendary artificers (Arcum Dagsson or Slobad). Sacrifice Mishra's Factory to Arcum Dagsson if the opponent does not have any creatures, and then use Crucible of Worlds to bring it back.

March of the Machines plus Mycosynth Lattice will leave the opponent without any lands, but the Vedalken Engineer and Coldsteel Heart keep mana flowing on your side. March of the Machines plus Darksteel Forge make an indestructible 9/9 win condition. Brainstorm and Scroll Rack put any artifacts meant for Arcum Dagsson from your hand into your library, and also provide library digging for key cards. Use Tower of the Magistrate and Neurok Transmuter to make your artifact creatures unblockable (untargetable by creature abilities) or remove equipment from the opponent's creatures. Reito Lantern can be used to recycle stuff that hits the graveyard prematurely, or remove threats from the opponent's graveyard. The Synod Artificer can untap the Mana Vault or Sol Ring for a good supply of colorless mana.

Significant Combos:
Arcum Dagsson + Mishra's Factory + Crucible of Worlds = Tutor for non-creature artifacts every turn

March of the Machines + Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge = Clear the board of lands and 0cc non-creature permanents, MotM becomes a 4/4 indestructible creature, Mycosynth Lattice becomes a 6/6 indestructible creature, and Darksteel Forge becomes a 9/9 indestructible creature.

Magus of the Unseen + Mycosynth Lattice | Neurok Transmuter + Artificer Legend = take stuff, use it, and then sacrifice it

Tower of the Magistrate + Mycosynth Lattice | Neurok Transmuter = unblockable artifact creatures and anti-equipment/aura

One thing that I do have a problem with is the fact that eight of the sixteen Artificers in the deck are Legendary, which can make for dead weight in the late game. Given that he has Mycosynth Lattice in the deck, why not include some of the red Artificers that destroy artifacts? Just a thought.

Overall, the deck is crafted well and I can imagine it playing decent against some of the tougher tribes. Except, of course, against the first place deck in the contest:

Deathmaker.

Ranking in at first place is a deck by Death_By_Beebles using the most popular tribe in the contest: Shaman. His deck includes everything from world destruction to recursion, all contained within a cute Shaman Tribal build.

Let’s see, he’s got the Sek’Kuar, Deathkeeper – Obliterate combo, Fecundity, Gleancrawler and Pandemonium all within the same deck list?! How on Earth did he fit 16 Shamans in the deck and still have all that other stuff going on? Well, he did through a play set of Sek’Kuar, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Golgari Guildmage and Eternal Witness. Let’s take a look at his brief description of the deck:

This deck has a myriad of different win conditions. The main idea of the deck, however, is to have Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, and plenty of other creatures in play, and then cast Obliterate, destroying everything and getting a bunch of 3/1 hasted Graveborn creatures that can win you the game. Pandemonium makes things interesting with Gleancrawler, letting you get back all those creatures you sacrificed to Carrion Feeder. Golgari Guildmage helps sacrifice things too, and helps retrieve previously passed-on participants. Sakura-Tribe Elder accelerates, and Farseek takes advantage of all the lovely Ravnica dual lands. Homura is a great sacrifice target, and he can make your Graveborn creatures even beefier (and who doesn't like attacking with a 3/3 flying Sakura-Tribe Elder??).

Me. I don’t like attacking with a 3/3 flying, firebreathing Sakura-Tribe Elder. That’s because I like attacking with a 4/4 flying, firebreathing Sakura-Tribe Elder but that’s because I like to play with Brass Herald too. Not that he would work terribly well in this deck list anyway, but I digress.

This is a well-crafted deck that takes full advantage of some unique Shaman abilities by splashing in a few creatures of other tribes – which is completely legit. Of all the decks submitted to the contest, this one shines in the playability factor as the mana curve is there, the combos are potent and the deck can recover from almost anything with all of the recursion within it.

Good Job and congratulations, DBB on winning the contest!

Honorable Mentions…

I would like to thank everyone that submitted a deck list for the contest and also for everyone’s patience for the results. There were many decks that didn’t quite make the cut for the top five but that deserve an honorable mention. Since this article is running rather long, I’m just going to present the deck lists, with minimal comments.

Note: These are in no particular order.

Hey! Not only was that another deck by YWN but it’s also an UN deck – YWN uses Staying Power to really make use of Bushido. Staying Power, for those that don’t know, makes until end of turn effects not end…

Oooh… another UN deck. And it’s a Gamer Tribal deck to boot. Here’s Mark’s description of the deck (quoted):

This is a Gamer tribal deck. There are four Gamers in Unhinged (and only Unhinged). But I only use two of them, otherwise the game will be getting chaos by "Mudhole" and "Artist". Thanks for Mistform Ultimus and Proteus Machine!!

So what does this deck do? Johnny wants to play combos, and the Magical Hacker wants to hack something. Here is a killer combo: Magical Hacker + Hopping Automaton!! 1000002/1000002 flying machine!! This combo may be done in turn 3 (turn 2 is possible, but it is too rare). If you can't find your combo piece, Johnny will help you by the thirst of playing combos.

Kind of cool, if you ask me.

The above deck is the unique Knights Tribal deck I was referring to earlier. Here's the creator's brief description:

This deck is primarily designed as a knight deck, but with a twist. Since one of the jobs of a knight is to hunt down evil, and witches are often considered evil, I figured we'd give the deck an almost Spanish Inquisition theme.

Well, that’s all for the results for “Class”-ified Tribal. I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed the contest whether you submitted a deck or you are just reading the results. There were some really fun and kooky decks in the submissions and overall I enjoyed reviewing all of the deck lists. I was a bit surpirsed that not one deck included Lovisa Coldeyes.  Perhaps that will be for the next contest...

Keep a look out for more deckbuilding contests in the near future.

Thanks,

John Streetz

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

Articles Spotlights from 2006
The Games People Play - Tactical Magic.
If I worked at R&D
The Beginner’s Guide to Rogue
Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Lands-More than Mana: Part One
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!