Welcome card-fans to another article by the original vampire of MDV: Luthervamplord! Okay, enough of that nonsense – on to the article.

Folks, I like my alternate formats. No, scratch that: I LOVE my alternate formats. You’ve probably gathered that from my other articles by now. Well folks, I’m here to talk about possibly my favorite format and the effect Lorwyn will have upon it. I’m talking of course, about tribal.

For those unfamiliar with the rules of the format:

• Normal 60-card minimum.
• The deck must be at least one-third creatures that share a type*.
• Engineered Plague, Tsabo's Decree, Endemic Plague, Circle of Solace, Peer Pressure, and Unnatural Selection are banned due to their tribe-wrecking natures.
• There are no sideboards.

*By type we mean either race or class; both are acceptable by the format rules. This means you can have a Human tribal deck or a Wizard tribal deck.

So I guess you’re wondering by now why I’m making a big deal about this format and the effect Lorwyn will have on it. In answer to that I’m going to say two words: Tribals and changelings.

Each of these new features of Lorwyn threatens to bust the format open and get straight to work on the gooey insides! Okay, perhaps that’s a bad metaphor and maybe I should stop watching Zombie B-movies but you get the idea.

Goblin Fireballs and Elvish Assassins!

Lorwyn includes 31 tribal cards based around the different clans released therein, but what exactly do these tribal cards do?

To answer that, I did something that I’m not prone to doing often: I read the instruction manual. Now I could just give you a direct extract from the rules book and leave you to figure it out by yourself here, but seeing as I’m such a kind old vamp I’ll break the rules down for you.

• Each tribal card is followed by the name of type of a clan such as ‘Elf’ or ‘Merfolk’ – This is the type of the card.
• If a card uses a type (i.e. Merfolk) as a noun (No mention of card, creature, etc) then it’s looking for a permanent of that type. Tribal enchantments of the right type can fill this requirement.
• If a card asks for a ‘Merfolk creature’, you can not use a Tribal Merfolk card to fulfill the abilities cost or effect.
• If a card asks for a ‘Merfolk card’ then it can be used on Tribal Merfolk cards, even those not in play, such as cards in your library or graveyard.
• If the subtype of a card is changed, it will only replace subtypes of the same class – only changing the creature type will affect a tribal card.
• Artificial evolution from Onslaught just got a new job as it is able to change the type on a tribal card, I.E it can change a ‘Tribal Instant – Merfolk’ to a ‘Tribal Instant – Pegasus’

“But what does all that mean to the format?” you ask. Well here’s what it means; it means that Wirewood Herald just got a kick-start in the power department; that it’s possible to fulfill the requirements of such creatures as Bloodthirsty Ogre with him as the only creature on the field; and unless I’m very much mistaken, Psychic Trance could trip out some decks to the ends of reality.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s try to keep it small to begin with. Okay, let’s look at a prime example within Lorwyn: Merrow Commerce.

The card’s ability is very carefully worded; take a moment to let it sink in:

“At the end of your turn, untap all Merfolk you control.”

Right off the bat, you should realize that it makes no mention of card type or even creatures; it simply states ‘Merfolk’. What this means is that this untaps all cards with the ‘Merfolk’ type, such as itself. Suddenly the Spikes and Johnnies are starting to see where I’m going with this; it untaps itself.

So why is this such a big deal? Okay consider you have two of these out and a Benthicore. What this would mean is that at the start of your turn you could use Benthicore as part of some tap cost, such as Springleaf Drum, tap the two Commerce’s to untap him and give him shroud, only to then untap him and grant him shroud during your opponent’s turn as well.

And the fun doesn’t stop there. Let’s look back at a bit of an oldie: Goblin Matron. She is probably a staple of most tribal Goblin decks before Lorwyn but with its arrival come new possibilities for her; after all she can now go grab you a Fodder Launch or a Tar Fire as well as all those usefully little creatures you’ve got stored away in your deck.

Taking a look at another old card, consider that Eladamri, Lord of Leaves can now bestow his protection upon your Prowess of the Fair as well. Also consider that Tidal Courier and the cards of his ilk now make for great pulling engines in the right deck.

Mistform Ultimus Has New Friends…

“Changeling (This card is every creature type at all times.)” These words open a seemingly infinite number of doors to the Tribal scene but there is one rumor I must lay to rest now: this doesn’t mean they can work in any tribe.

Let me explain. The rules for the tribal format state that you must have a third of your deck as the same type, but until play actual starts, all creatures with changeling are just Shapeshifter’s and nothing more as a keyword can never alter the rules of a format. So it’s still not possible to build a Saproling tribal deck yet; sorry guys.

What this does mean however is that changelings can be subject to any card that targets a tribe or can be used in any way a card of that type could be; they too are untapped by Merfolk Commerce, they too can be used to fulfill the requirements of Fodder Launch and they can even be championed by creatures of any type.

Champion is another keyword within the Lorwyn set which has some effects on the tribal scene but not nearly as far reaching as the new Tribal super type and the changeling keyword; but it wouldn’t hurt to fill you in on it none the less!

Champion a {type} (When this comes into play, sacrifice it unless you remove another {type} you control from the game. When this leaves play, that card returns to play.)

This keyword is a direct descendant from the Wormfang cards of the Judgment set and can also be linked to such cards as Worldgorger Dragon and Day of the Dragons. What it basically boils down to is that you temporarily replace one creature with another and when the second creature dies you return the first; meaning that you don’t gain an additional creature in the first place but you don’t lose one from the first death either. Also, you now have doubled the amount of triggers for ‘leaves play’ and ‘comes into play’ effects; this is worth considering a deck design around.

But let’s get back to the matter at hand; what effect will changeling have on Tribal? Well for starters they have such useful abilities that I wouldn’t be surprised to seem them cropping up in unexpected places; especially things like Changeling Hero; that thing will turn up in a few Soldier and Spirit decks for sure.

It also integrates with some abilities for some interesting fusion; for example soulshift. Since the changelings are considered to have all creature types regardless of which field of play they are in, they can be the target of soulshift. Another example is the Lord of the Undead, he can now return changelings as a bonus due to this rather widespread ability.

There are plenty more examples of cards that will now interact with the changelings but for now, I’m going to leave you with just a few to think on:

Riding off into the Sun…

Well, this brings us towards the end of the article, but before I leave I would feel remiss if I didn’t do a few things.

The first is something that to which I’m well known for, and that is custom card creation. Now I’m not going to go into the full blown explanation of how I arrived at this card, but I’ll give you the quick run-down on some of my logic behind it.

First off I want to give credit to Elyssiel of deviantart.com for the artwork that features in this card.

Now when I first heard about Lorwyn and the whole ‘Tribal flavor’ it was going to have my heart jumped a beat; could Wizard’s finally have heard all my wishes and gotten round to showing some proper love to my favorite clan: Wizards? Alas, ‘twas not meant to be. So that’s why I’ve created this card; to give a shout out to the greatest clan out there bar none: Wizards! Okay, just maybe Elves but only because of that damnable Elvish Soultiller!

Anyway, I’ve always wanted a way to play around with the phasing mechanic and it always seemed to fit right into the flavor of wizards for me; surely if a powerful wizard got in trouble he would simple teleport himself out of trouble.

Now admittedly it’s probably a little on the powerful side but I’m just letting you guys see what’s going on up there in the old grey matter; plus it’s my card and I can do what I want! Just kidding!

Another thing I wanted to do before I go was to touch on a field that I rarely touch in my articles; I’m going to build a deck – a tribal deck to be precise.

Now because I’ve taken to casual as my main standpoint - and since we’re a casual-based website – my deck will be built by the “Gentlemen’s Casual” format rules; everything but THE Lotus and the Moxen goes.

Okay people, real simple deck here but I’ll explain it anyway. Drop Slivers as fast as you can as the Gemhide Slivers will increase your mana base. Creatures like Ward Sliver and Sidewinder Sliver should keep you in the game long enough so that you can sink a large amount of mana into the Entity’s ability and really ramp their power up, as the Muscle Sliver’s and Ward Sliver’s effects will play on top of the stat change.

If I were going to change the deck at all, I might consider dropping a Lord of the Undead or two in there with a few swamps just so I have a way to regain my Entity if the plan goes to pot. I had also considered a few Spirits but decided that they wouldn’t really have much value in this deck unless I ran a couple of Hivestones but that just seemed like a weak play.

Anyway guys, my rambling has gone on for long enough now. So here’s hoping you’ve liked the article; if you did (or didn’t for that matter) let me know either by email or by posting the forum. All feedback is greatly appreciated and I make it a point in case to answer every piece I get.

So readers, this is Luthervamplord; Signing Off

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.