There's a tribal creature if I ever did see one.
I can't claim to have a record at making decent tribal decks. Wolves and Myr aside, I honestly don't care for them that much. Besides those two, the only time I made a serious tribal deck was back in Lorwyn times, after literally opening only goblins from a few back-to-back drafts. Today I'm going to turn to the same base strategy that I used when assembling that old thing: Sligh.
In a nutshell, Sligh is a type of aggressive deck that takes to heart the value of using all of your mana in a given turn. It plays cheap creatures for fast attacking combined with burn for removal and yelling "KO!" at your opponent's face. That last link goes more in depth and probably better than I could ever explain it.
Wait a second. I said burn, right? Well, okay, I'll disclaim now that going outside of red can severely hinder that burn part, which can't be understressed. We're fortunate to have a few ways to make up for it, but in the end, we lack the simple elegance of 'Bolt to the Head.
Onto the deck building.
We're making tribal, so screw our concepts of good creatures and turn to Gatherer for a preliminary list of Soldiers and Knights that might be inclusion-worthy. Linked are the M13 cards, since I don't like making you do all the work.
- War Falcon
- Odric, Master Tactician
- Knight of Glory
- Crusader of Odric
- Captain's Call
- Attended Knight
- Aven Squire
- Accorder Paladin
- Hero of Bladehold
- Kemba's Skyguard
- Mirran Crusader
- Riders of Gavony
- Silverblade Paladin
- Spectral Rider
- Champion of the Parish
- Doomed Traveler
- Elite Inquisitor
- Gideon's Avenger
- Loyal Cathar
- Mentor of the Meek
- Porcelain Legionnaire
- Thalia
- Timely Reinforcements
I see a few rather juicy inclusions that I want to use, but sadly won't. Immediately tossing in three Hero of Bladehold sounds grand, but that wouldn't be showing up Van Lunan, now would it? If budget is something you don't value, then by all means run her, Mirran Crusader, Thalia, and Champion of the Parish. Hell, that sounds like a pretty good reverse order of plays too! Moving on.
Copy/pasted from that-link-I-somehow-believe-is-easier-to-keep-referencing-than-just-to-relink, this is the general format of a Sligh deck:
1 mana slot: 9-13
2 mana slot: 6-8
3 mana slot: 3-5
4 mana slot: 1-3
X spell: 2-3
Removal/Burn: 8-10
That doesn't seem too hard to follow, no?
White Sligh
---Lands (23)---
23 Plains
---1cc Critters (12)---
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Elite Vanguard
4 War Falcon
---2cc Critters (8)---
4 Elite Inquisitor
4 Loyal Cathar
---3cc Critters (5)---
4 Attended Knight
1 Mentor of the Meek
---4cc Critters (3)---
2 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Riders of Gavony
---Removal (5)---
3 Bonds of Faith
2 Oblivion Ring
---X Spells (4)---
3 Divine Reflection
1 White Sun's Zenith
Okay, I kind of mish-mashed the X spells and removal a little bit. Divine Reflection tends to do that. But it's the only form of white burn I'm aware of in Standard that hits both creatures and players. Bonds of Faith tries to compensate its lack of player removal by strengthening most of your creatures. As far as general creature selection goes, I tried favoring creatures of card advantage; Attended Knight is the poor man's Blade Splicer, while Doomed Traveler and Loyal Cathar keep on swinging after they die. Mentor of the Meek is a one-of intended for the late game, to help use up that mana and keep up creature mass. Beyond boring old Plains, I leave the land up to you. My only advice is to favor battle cry over exalted.
Meh.
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