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Introduction
Every casual player once had that pet deck, which possibly was or is still a big tribal. Whether elves, humans, goblins, merfolk or maybe even something more peculiar, like horse or snake tribal.
Before we start, to get everyone on the same page, there is no official rule that determines a tribal. However, for all the “formats” that exist today with this theme, such as Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Commander or Tribal Wars, there is a consensus that a tribal deck has ⅓ of creatures of the same type.
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Taking this into account, I have separated 30 of the more than 200 tribes we currently have.
Not by order of magnitude, or importance, but with a mix of the most iconic ones, as well as some that might make you want to create that big tribal to have fun with your friends!
30 Tribes of Magic: The Gathering
Humans
Starting with the tribe that has the most representatives in the game created to date, reaching almost 3000 different legal humans, we currently have 2976 humans that can be played in Commander and Legacy. Every color has a great diversity of them. To get a sense of the size of the tribe, the second largest is Wizard, with less than a thousand different ones.
To this day, I would venture to say that there wasn't a single set without a representative of this tribe, and even in competitive formats we have strong tribal Human decks, like in Modern and Pioneer. However, an interesting fact is that the creature type only started to be printed on cards in Mirrodin. Until then, humans were portrayed with their class as Knight, Cleric, or Soldier.
Very versatile, they will usually appear in several other tribes, as they are more about race than class. Hardly a non-token card will be Human-only, without a secondary subtype.
For deck ideas, here's a list of Human Tribal articles in various formats.
Kavu
Originally from Dominaria and predominantly in green and red, these 6-legged beasts are huge carnivorous reptiles with sharp teeth, hooves or long fingers. They are excellent swimmers and tree climbers. Ancient legend says that the name Kavu originated from the translation of "carved in stone" in the great forests and seas near Yavimaya and Shiv.
They are ancient creatures that at some point in the age hibernated and lay dormant underground on Dominaria until the first Phyrexian invasion, when Gaea awakened them to defend the plane - which they did very well, standing up to and terrorizing the Phyrexians. Don't let their size fool you — even though bigger than an elephant, Kavus are very fast!
They were introduced in the Invasion set, and had a with a return in Dominaria, Modern Horizons 2 and Dominaria United.
From the history that we have had access to until today, in the current era the Elves managed to establish a healthy partnership with these protective giants. An interesting point of the tribe is that it has never owned a legendary creature card, even though there is Serahane, that can be seen here:
Bird
Bolt the Bird!
This is a tribe that emerged in the early days of the game and, like Humans, they have plenty of errata when picking up older cards for basically everything that has feathers and flies.
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Predominantly white and blue creatures with flying, had their first representatives printed “Bird” in red and black with Roc Hatchling and Circling Vultures. Soon after, several other creatures became Bird, like the cases below:
And for collectors, we even had a Secret Lair specific to this tribe:
Dauthi
Another creature that had cards adjusted via errata in the great suitability of types and subtypes. Dauthi is a kind of horror, ghost or specter.
Exclusive to black mana, we have only 11 creatures of this type in the game and in all of them, besides the color, there is something else in common: they all have Shadow.
Legend has it that they, the Soltari and the Thalakos, during a dispute, ended up being caught in the vortex between the planes of Dominaria and Rath at some point in history when the plane suffered some devastating ripple of energy. The three races don't have much information on history, except that today they roam in an incorporeal state, unable to communicate with people and planes, they roam observing and listening to everything. This situation is said to have driven them to the brink of insanity.
It is also said that although contact between the states of matter is not possible, some of them manage to drag victims to the other side, such as Dauthi Trapper who has the ability to transform creatures into shadows and thus make a victim of the other side.
Zombie
The third-largest tribe currently, with 446 legal creatures, the overwhelming majority of which are black (71%). These animated corpses of any race, mostly humans, have been present since Alpha when there were Scathe Zombies, Scavenging Ghoul and Zombie Master. Among the strongest tribes in the game when the talk is tribal, there were times when they turned out to be powerful, and I've seen some decks risking even a top 8 on Pioneer.
In addition to having several lords and having a graveyard-focused theme, the tribe also has an excellent interaction with tokens, managing to proliferate and fill the board faster than a goblin deck.
You can check out Zombie Bombardment on Modern
and the Lore of the tribe.
Slivers
Sharing a hive mind, their abilities are never unique, but rather shared.
First released in Tempest, these creatures were brought by Volrath, a shapeshifter and obsessive zoologist of Dominaria. He was so fascinated by these creatures on his (as yet unidentified) plane of origin that he decided to bring the Queen to study her and her broods. Volrath tried to genetically modify them, but apparently to no avail.
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During the first Phyrexian Invasion they were decimated, but a hundred years later, during the Cephalid Empress' Riptide Project Llawan, Cephalid Empress used DNA from ancient fossils to recreate them using the Riptide Replicator, it turned out that without a queen, the hive didn't know what to do next.
However, with the birth of Karona, the enormous discharge of energy in the plane gave rise to the Sliver Overlord that would be a union of several slivers. This same energy discharge that messed with the flow of space-time, made that several Slivers were also spread across various planes, and also spread between past, present and future, would gather and become the Sliver Legion.
You can check out all of its strength and sinergy in Pauper on this Deck Tech.
Dog
We can call it a rather young tribe that, despite having representatives as old as the game, was only expanded in 2021 with the change from the old Hound type to Dog. That left us with about 102 reps spread across the various colors.
This is yet another tribe that deserved a Secret lair:
I've also seen several fun and powerful Commander decks with this card:
Here's an example, from our colleague Honnah:
Cat
Closely following the tribe above, but with slightly more numbers (251 representatives), Cats brings together lions, jaguars and domestic cats, as well as sentient and humanoid cats, as seen recently in New Capenna. Mostly in white and green.
Usually themed around tokens, they have more lords than the Dog Tribe and even have a Tribe Companion that has not yet been banned: Kaheera, the Orphanguard.
The felines also had a Secret Lair to call their own and have an excellent interaction in combat with strong cards like Leonin Arbiter, Regal Caracal, Soul of Windgrace and Brimaz, King of Oreskos.
Snake
I'm not a biologist, but I looked for the answer to try to understand why in Magic we have Snakes and Serpents as distinct types. I ended up discovering that in the literature, snake is a subtype of serpent, and from the cards, you can see that the Serpent type is given when the creature is giant and usually linked to Sea Serpents from mythology, like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait.
Anyway, let's talk about the Snake type, which has twice as many representatives as Serpents (111 against 46).
It had its rise in the original Kamigawa block, where the Orochi, who inhabited the Jukai woods, were divided into 3 tribes: The Kashi, warriors of the species, the Matsu, scouts and snipers and the Sakura, associated with rituals and shamanic beliefs. During the Kami war, after having their forest invaded by men, the Kami expelled the Orochi from their forests.
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To summarize, now in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, we found out the Kami proposed to the Orochi to allow them to return to their lands if they abdicated their legs. Unfortunately, we haven't received any further information from this main culture, which has an entire family represented in the cards:
In other planes, snakes are just small, common reptiles.
Phyrexian
Perhaps the most recent on this list, and which was born with more than 200 different representatives, even recalled the speed of the Phyrexian infestation that devastated Dominaria. Until Vorinclex arrived in Kaldheim, we had already seen and known what Phyrexians were, but until then, they weren't an official tribe in the game. With Kaldheim, there was a huge change that adjusted all Phyrexian cards to the subtype.
As a result, decks like Infect became practically tribal, as all of their creatures are Phyrexian. On the future sets, we know that we will face more and more waves of Phyrexians and with that, this number of creatures tends to increase significantly.
If you are interested in their history, we have some articles that further explores the Phyrexian threat:
What is the Phyrexian Compleation
Demon
Did you know that the new Commander set, Warhammer 40k, is the one with the most demon-type creatures? There are a total of 17 representatives, even winning sets like Streets of New Capenna where the Demons are native. Demons are present in several historic moments, such as Liliana's contract, and also present in basically every plane, even if there are no cards that demonstrate this.
These creatures are not born, they are usually created through dark magic. As a result, its overwhelming majority is represented by black, blue and red mana, with exceptions for New Capenna, where we had Demons in all colors, Tarkir where we also had some Demons outside these colors, and in Strixhaven, where we had Demons in green.
Of course, this tribe has some curiosities, among them, the removal of pentagrams in certain images to ward off prejudice and avoid the satanic panic in the 90s.
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Dinosaur
Coming out of prehistory and fortified in Ixalan, these reptiles, predominant in green and red, are a tribe with contradictory histories. Starting with a comment in 2014 during an official event when it was said that a world of dinosaurs would be unlikely because they "do nothing". Then, in 2017, Ixalan is announced with Dinosaurs being one of the 4 main tribes of the plane.
The second contradiction is its type. We currently have “two” types of dinosaur reptiles: The ones that have the Dinosaur type, but some Lizards have also been adjusted via errata that, despite being printed Lizard, are considered dinosaurs in the Gatherer.
But what's wrong, if we saw that falcon turned into bird above? It turns out that the Lizard tribe didn't cease to exist, and not all Lizards are considered Dinosaurs. Take a look at this guy below, it has the Lizard type, but is clearly... a Raptor.
In addition to Ixalan, they are also present in Dominaria, Tarkir, Ravnica, Muraganda, Mirrodin, Mercadia, Ikoria, and Fiora.
Among the last curiosities still of this tribe, we have a homeless creature: Thrasta, Tempest's Roar released in Modern Horizons 2, and The Tarrasque that despite having a plane, is outside the main Multiverse, since it came out in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
Spirit
It is among the top 5 tribes in the game. Considered a top Tier on Pioneer, spirits are basically the energy of some being that once existed in life.
Its creation can take many forms, whether as an aspect of life as we see the Kami of Kamigawa, a more vengeful being who wants payback after their death or even simply humans who haven't found eternal rest like some spirits in Innistrad.
It has a color palette focused on blue, white and black, but I bet you can't guess which color is the first spirit creature in the game: Radjan Spirit. That's right, green!
But it didn't come alone, in Legends, where it was printed, we also had Thunder Spirit that was white. Both far from the powerful threats we currently have, like Spell Queller (but it was great on the Shandalar game!)
Regarding the planes in which it appears, Kamigawa has a strong presence of them in all colors, but they appear more often on blue and white on Innistrad, so much so that its predominant lords are blue, but at Strixhaven we had some interesting synergy in the Boros colors.
Upgrading the Spirit Squadron precon
Merfolk
Continuing in strong tribes, let's talk about Merfolks now. Present since Alpha, this tribe that has always appeared strong in Modern had a ray of hope with the inclusion of a new lord for Pioneer, but it still seems like they haven't found the right list, or are there more lords missing in the format?
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Speaking of lord, this is the tribe with the most two-mana lords:
Despite all this amount, only 2 are legal on Pioneer.
Are Merfolks humans who have adapted to the oceans, or are Humans merfolks who have adapted to living on land? Little is known about its origin, being always related to something magical. We know that they don't breastfeed and that their upper bodies are just leftovers to deceive fishermen. For you, in love with these sea creatures, I leave here an article by Wizards itself made in 2008 that talks (a lot) about them, including interesting questions: Merfolk Resurfaced.
Kithkin
Ever since these stubby little guys appeared on Lorwyn', I've been very excited to collect and have decks of all shapes and sizes that they're legal in. Although Amrou Kithkin is the first representative of the tribe released there in Legends, and we have some lost in the Time Spiral block, we came to find them in large numbers in Lorwyn.
Clearly, when we are going to describe a Kithkin, the closest to the universes we know (identical) are Hobbits from the Lord of the Rings universe. The creator of the first Kithkin himself, Quinton Hoover, confirmed that to avoid problems with J.R.R. Tolkien, he preferred to avoid naming them Hobbits.
They sing more than other races, value community, simplicity and openness. They are agile and very cooperative in battle, very faithful representatives of the color white. The curiosity of the tribe is that the name comes from the archaic English “kith and kin”, a term for friends and family.
Unfortunately, I don't know if we will have this tribe back soon, nor if it will ever happen, as the players' reception wasn't good. Anyway, what remains is to remember that the first Kithkin, Amrou, is from Dominaria, so there are already two planes that we know of having these inhabitants.
Goblin
Entering this classic tribe, which has 80% of the representatives in red, with just under 400 creatures (393 legal). There are many who love them and an equal number who hate them.
Usually represented by beings unintelligent, agile and a clumsy. They've been making taverns happy since Alpha with Goblin Balloon Brigade, Goblin King and Mons's Goblin Raiders. Then in the big errata, two cards stand out for the strange type, a “King” and a “Rock-Sled”, turned goblin:
Do we have a Goblin secret lair? But of course!
The deck is strong in all formats it appears, but it still hadn't made too many results on Pioneer, where Goblins still lacks some better synergies to work.
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Elf
Who are better: Elves or Goblins? It's an ancient fight, so old that a set called "Elves vs Goblins" was already released in the same proportion as Angels and Demons, such is the feud between these two tribes.
The funniest thing is that just as goblins are for red, elves are for green, and always in green and red aggro decks we have both tribes working together to maximize the deck's power.
Elves are the second most present tribe in the multiverse, second only to Humans. Regarding printed cards, they have already exceeded 500 (510 legal). Unlike other races, elves have a longer lifespan, being able to live centuries without aging.
Not much else to say about the pointy ears, they had no errata curiosity, or any specific Secret Lair, but they have to be respected for their huge tribal force!
Drone
This tribe has only 63 cards, the vast majority due to the Eldrazi. These creatures are simple beings that do some menial work. In Mirrodin they were created by the Vedalkens to guard, sentries, and some troops. Even though they are self-aware who have free will, but they are dumb slaves and never question an order from their masters.
The second plane where we had Drones was in Zendikar, where the Titans summon Eldrazi Spawn to aid their masters' mana production. Out of these two planes, we had Drones in the new Kamigawa and a strange animal that I didn't understand why it has the drone type:
Minion
No, not those yellow creatures from the movie. The minions are beings that work with evil forces and knowingly harm others through malice, whether for fun or for their own benefit, or even for the sect.
We had the first Minion card in Mirage with Shauku's Minion, and while MaRo said in 2014 that they would no longer use the Minion type, we had Xantcha, Sleeper Agent in Commander 2018 as well as Chainer, Nightmare Adept and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth in Commander 2019.
In addition, the tribe has received several reprints in the meantime. But maybe the tribe's days are numbered, as in Dominaria United, Braids, Arisen Nightmare came as a Nightmare and not a minion.
Another point that may make us have less or no next Minion are the planes, we only had Minions in Dominaria and Phyrexia, will we soon have more Minions related to Phyrexians?
Elemental
Water, fire, earth and air, form the first cycle of this tribe in Alpha with the following creatures:
Yes, I left out Force of Nature because it was a Force type that ceased to exist, because it was changed later on.
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Elementals are sentient beings composed of an elemental energy. The first 4 that I mentioned are the most common, but we can have some exotic ones such as electricity, or even rust and weather.
With only one lord, Incandescent Soulstoke, the tribe is quite synergistic, especially with ETB effects. A whirlwind of triggers worthy of making Zendikar proud is having Risen Reef + Yarok, the Desecrated or the famous Omnath, Locus of Creation on the battlefield.
Most lands that transform into creatures are elemental types, and we have several spell and animist cards that summon these beings into battle.
Kaheera, the Orphanguard, which I commented there in the Cats block, can be considered as lord of several tribes, including elementals, but it is not so synergistic since it receives no bonuses from other creatures of the tribe other than cats and beasts. But she's great to use as a companion if the deck is a tribal for Cats, Elementals, Dinosaurs, Beasts and/or Nightmares.
God
It's a good fight between pantheons if we take the three main planes where we have more gods, Theros, Kaldheim and Amonketh. Inspired respectively by Greek, Nordic and Egyptian culture, they differ by type and especially by abilities.
Theros's are enchantments until devotion to their colors is achieved, and they are all indestructible. The gods of Kaldheim have the ability to transform into objects or animals with double-faced cards. The Amonkhet gods aren't indestructible, but have the ability to return to the hand or library if they die.
With only 53 representatives in the tribe, we have 12 in Kaldheim, 13 in Amonketh and 22 in Theros. By force of fate, this tribe is very close to color equity, close to 15% in all of them.
Among the curiosities of the tribe, I can point out that Svyelun of Sea and Sky is the only printed Goddess of Dominaria and despite not having the type, Nicol Bolas considered himself a God, claiming for himself the creation of the plane and the gods of Amonketh. Two cards depict him as such:
Another interesting point of the tribe is that in Theros, with the Greek legend that the Gods came to earth and would have half-human children, a Demigod tribe was created, who would be semi-gods like the famous Hercules. Today we have only 5, in Kaldheim which also has this legend of the son of mortals with gods. And on Lorwyin, even though we have creatures called Demigods, they all have the Avatar type.
Ranger
This tribe is more of a class than a race, represented by hunters, scouts and even assassins who seek adventures and explore the world, normally hunting monsters.
Despite being present in Ice Age with Kelsinko Ranger, the tribe did not exist until recently in Modern Horizon 2. This citizen was mistaken for human only in the great tribe changes, and in Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, all cards with “Ranger” in the name have been changed again to include the ranger tribe.
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Currently, the tribe has 43 creatures with its type.
Dragon
Formidable creatures that inhabit all planes in some way, so much so that in almost every set released, there was at least a red dragon. They are iconic in fantasy worlds.
In the Magic: The Gathering Universe, it all started with The Ur-Dragon on Dominaria, where the beating of its wings gave birth to the Elder dragons, which in turn gave rise to the primordial dragons.
A curiosity for Commander lovers: The format's history goes back to these creatures.
One day, some judges decided to spend the waiting time in a tournament playing something fun with each other, the rule: use an elder dragon as commander of a 99-card deck to fight your opponents, referencing the war that took place between the elder dragons.
They named this friendly EDH “game” Elder Dragon Highlander, where the last dragon left alive would win the game. The rules are the basics of the current Commander: deck with 99 cards with only 1 copy of each, which must follow the colors of the commander dragon that was called General. Over time, this play style became informally popular among kitchen tables, until it was embraced by Wizards and the name was changed to Commander.
Leviathan
A small tribe, with only 22 creatures, but it includes the creature with the highest toughness of all: Charix, the Raging Isle and also one of the smallest (in size).
These immense whale-like creatures have gigantic mouths that easily swallow any vessel. The planes where these creatures are found are Alara, Dominaria, Mirrodin, Kaladesh, Ravnica, Ikoria, Zendikar, Tarkir and Segovia.
This last plane is the curiosity of the tribe. In it, everything exists in miniature, about 1:100 of normal sizes. It can be seen in Planechase's The Hippodrome and in Segovian Angel and our miniature Leviathan (where have you ever seen a 3/3 Leviathan?), Segovian Leviathan which, by the stories, would be the size of a full-grown elephant.
Homunculus
This Latin word means "Small Human", usually representative of small beings with only one eye, artificially made with a purpose for some service.
The first one-eyed with the name of the tribe was Bonded Fetch, weird by itself, since it has haste being a blue creature. Only two creatures in the game have haste while being only blue, it and Errant, Street Artist .
But later, Sneaky Homunculus from Nemesis and Hazy Homunculus from Prophecy became the first Homunculus printed before it.
Now here's some challenge for you: find Fblthp, the Lost on the card illustrations below:
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Thrull
Being a "sort of zombies", they are creatures made of dead flesh, usually and not necessarily a single body, but several different parts stitched together to form an animated being. They are predominantly linked to black mana.
They often use them as reservoirs of mana, as most of their purposes are sacrifice. Despite being created by the dark arts, we are only aware of these strange creatures on Dominaria and Ravnica.
In the foreground after being created, the Thrulls rebelled against their creators and took over the entire continent, exterminating all races existing there, which gave rise to the Fallen Empires. Goblins, Saprolings, Humans and Homarids all succumbed to the Thrulls.
In Ravnica, they are very present in the Orzhov culture, as a class of minor importance.
Vampire
The wedding party between the two most famous vampires in Innistrad: Crimson Vow couldn't have fewer representatives, in all it was the edition that brought more vampires to the game, 30 to be exact, of the more than 346 legal in Magic.
The first vampire in the game was Sengir Vampire, and despite being predominant in black and red, the 5% white that the tribe has makes decks have way more options.
Perhaps one of the most acclaimed tribes by players, as the race is a commonplace in pop culture, we have some articles about the tribe that I will leave below:
History of Vampires in Commander: main decks, products and commanders
Magic Tribes: Lore of Vampires
Scarecrow
The first scarecrow printed was called just Scarecrow. Then Shadowmoor added the most scarecrows at once, 23, including the troublesome Pili-Pala and Painter's Servant.
In Lorwyn, they were created by Kithkin shoemakers to help with the plantations, it is said that enchanted wood from dead trees was used. Some say that is why most of them refer to -1/-1 counters and features of hatred and revenge, which ended up being intrinsic in the wood after the destruction of the tree that gave rise to them.
Although almost all scarecrows are colorless, there is Straw Soldiers in blue, and the multicolored and powerful Reaper King.
Aetherborn
Originating from Kaladesh, these humanoid beings made of Ether are all found in black.
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Some of them are a species of vampires, stealing the life essence of other beings for themselves. They neither sleep nor eat, instead they focus on savoring every moment of life, as these are short. Living up to 4 years old, everyone is born trained and knowing how much time they have left before they die — and when the time comes, they throw a huge party with all their friends and people close to them.
It is somewhat contradictory to hold a party, since they do not eat or drink. However, they are beings that can absorb and feel what the surrounding beings are experiencing. Although in some individual cases some adopt a gender, they are referred to using neuter pronouns.
Kirin
Coming to the end of our 30 tribes, I close with this magical creature that in Asian mythology means an omen of good luck and long life.
As if it were the union of dragon, horse and deer, even without wings, they fly. In legends, they always say that they walked on clouds. An animal pure in goodness, which also means that its appearance will bring about the death or birth of a wise, good ruler.
In Magic, most representatives are white, and we have 1 in each of the others, in addition to the multicolored Hinata, Dawn-Crowned.
Although not tribal, this Commander Deck Tech might be worth checking out.
Conclusion
Just like the vision of a Kirin, whatever your tribe is, I wish you the best of luck in your decks and remember, the important thing is to have fun with your teammates!
We've reached the end of our 30th Anniversary Celebration list with 30 Tribes in Magic: The Gathering. Tell me what you think in the comments, and also which tribe you will choose to build your next deck!
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