Commander (1)
Changelings (19)
Ally (1)
Army (1)
Dalek (1)
Demon (1)
Dinosaur (1)
Doctor (1)
Dragon (2 + 3 lands)
Dwarf (1)
Eldrazi (1)
Elephant (land)
Goblin (land)
God (land)
Golem/Phyrexian (1)
Horror (1)
Insect/Rat/Spider/Squirrel (Land)
Mercenary (1)
Minotaur (1)
Mount (1)
Ninja (1)
Outlaw (1)
Party(1)
Pirate (1)
Scarecrow (1)
Soldier (land)
Treefolk (Land)
Vampire (1)
General Tribal Cards (4 + land)
Boring Lands (15), (37 total lands)
I've been playing Magic the Gathering constantly for over a decade, seriously jumping into the game when Shards Of Alara was released. It only took me one standard tournament of getting my face bashed in by Faeries and Jund that I realized the spike life wasn't for me. Merely being competitive and winning at all costs brings me no joy. I am competitive and I want to win, but I need to win with style. The more cards that my opponents have to read because they've never seen them before the better. Anyone can win with Craterhoof Behemoth, I'm not here for that. I have transcended such trite win conditions, I'm here to cause concessions with a Didgeridoo trigger. If I win a game and my opponents aren't vaguely confused and quite amused I have failed.
This deck's philosophy is extremely simple, every card in the deck must require me to declare a creature type upon casting, entering the battlefield, ability activation or otherwise buffing a specific creature type. Another way to say this is that every card must increase the amount of relevant creature types each of my Changelings has which means I'll play Dire Tactics but not Rend Flesh.
Rigerously following this constraint means that an example line of play is tap Ally Encampment for which can only be used to cast an Ally Amoeboid Changeling which only cost because it's a Dragon. Also, because I just cast a Spirit, Elder Pine of Jukai triggers. Then, since a Scarecrow entered the battlefield Reaper King triggers. Now because Amoeboid Changeling is a Knight it has haste because of Khorvath Brightflame. So I'll tap Amoeboid Changeling to turn my Elder Pine of Jukai into all creature types so that when I cast Peer Pressure naming "Praetor" I can steal my opponents Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur since I control more Praetors than he does.
On top of my previously mentioned restriction I also have a hard limit of 4 non-land cards per tribe to maximize the variety of represented tribes, otherwise this deck would rapidly turn into a Sliver/Dragon deck held together with Changelings and a smattering of other tribes. My build of this deck is a slave to these constraints. This means that Thunderherd Migration is strictly better than Rampant Growth because Thunderherd Migration allows me to say "Dinosaur" whereas Rampant Growth does not, even though in every other deck Rampant Growth is the strictly better card. You will not see Sol Ring in my build of this deck ever. I've helped several other people build different flavors of this deck and rarely does anyone stick quite as religiously to this constraint as I do. Again, I want to win with as much style as possible and constraints only maximize style. However, you might not be nearly as driven by this desire so don't be afraid to make the deck your own as there's a ridiculous amount of choices available while constructing this deck. I also have several preferences in regards to what I find "fun" that flavor my card choices. For example, I cut Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign purely because while resolving it often resulted in me winning the game, I found myself lightly storming off and monopolizing game time whenever it resolved.
So you want to build your own Changeling tribal tribal deck. You have a few questions to answer before you even select your first card.
How hard do you want to stick to your tribal theme. Where do you draw the line on goodstuff? Are Sol Ring and other mana rocks too good to pass up? What about off-theme removal, wraths or other interaction? How many off-theme utility cards that tutor, discard or sacrifice? Most people don't stick as rigorously to theme as I do, so get a vague idea of where you want you deck to fall on the spectrum of power level vs theme. For example, I'm running as many non-basic lands as possible that do relevant things with my Changelings and it definitely negatively affects my win %. Every now and again I have cards stranded in my hand, and I'm less willing to run certain cards because of their mana cost. I find these to be acceptable sacrifices for the ability to run Swarmyard, Elephant Graveyard and a slew of other utility lands in my 5c deck. Are you ok with that or do you want a more stable mana base?
Do you want your deck to lean towards combo or combat damage? Do you want lean towards control, mid-range or aggression? One of the delights of this deck is that the deck plays wildly differently from game to game. Some games you go wide and murder everyone with Mirror Entity. Sometimes you infinite combo out your opponents turn 8. Sometimes you control the board with removal and close out the game with general damage. However, you'll probably want to select which one you primarily want to build towards. My build is leaning towards a being a disruption filled mid-range deck that closes out the game with infinite combos.
The next question you need to ask yourself is which of the following cards are you most interested in; Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, Hibernation Sliver or Shared Animosity? I've found three main synergies that inform deckbuilding;
- Sacrifice/Aristocrat.
- Blink/Bounce.
- Token/Go-wide.
I first built this deck when the only Changelings were the Lorwyn ones. I was jamming Amoeboid Changeling, Skeletal Changeling and Fire-Belly Changeling. Didgeridoo was $5. Knowledge Exploitation was a quarter bin card. Skyshroud Poacher was a couple of bucks. Then along came cards like Anowon, the Ruin Thief, Lathril, Blade of the Elves, and Moraug, Fury of Akoum. As a result a bunch of the cards in my current build that started out as pure jank are now substantially more expensive.
One of the joys of this deck is that there are no unreplaceable cards. I played a game where the following happened
T2 - Mistwalker
T3 - Magda, Brazen Outlaw + Guardian Gladewalker
T4 - Mana Rock, Dragon Tempest, Masked Vandal, Universal Automaton killing two utility creatures (opponent scooped to losing both his mana dorks)
T5 - Mirror Entity (using mana rock and single leftover treasure) to kill a blocker, swing 50 (5 creatures, now with 10/10s from dumping 5 mana from lands + 5 mana from treasures generated on attack into Mirror Entity) to kill the second player.
At the time of writing Magda, Brazen Outlaw is $1, Dragon Tempest is $2.25, Mirror Entity is $2.5 and the 4 Changelings are <$1.00. Dragon's Hoard is $5 but completely interchangeable with any other mana rock. That's an incredibly inexpensive grouping of cards to blowout the table turn 5. This line of play was using The Ur-Dragon (who is currently $30), but my deck is built to exploit his eminence ability. There are plenty of potent generals who are <$5 that can helm the deck but they'll likely require different card choices to take advantage of their strengths.
What I'm trying to say is that an extremely functional and deadly tribal tribal deck can be built with only <$5 cards. Everything in this deck is about context. I own Skyshroud Poacher so I lean heavier into an elf sub-theme with Priest of Titania, Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves and the like. If you don't have access to Skyshroud Poacher you'll just need to be aware that Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves might not be strong enough to make your 99 without the ability to tutor him at instant speed. At one point I ran a mini-combo of Elephant Graveyard + Contested Cliffs + Venomous Changeling. Without Elephant Graveyard/Swarmyard the value Venomous Changeling offers will drop dramatically.
There's currently 21 common Changeling creatures, they should always be extremely inexpensive. Throw those Changelings into a pile with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge/Hibernation Sliver/Shared Animosity (or equivalent cards if these have spiked for some strange future reason) and then build your deck outwards to contain whatever synergy cards your budget allows. Your deck will be fully functional even without any high-ticket items.
Once you've got a rough idea of what themes you want to lean towards you can start thinking about which commander you want and there's actually at least 8 reasonable choices.
The Ur-Dragon - The Ur-Dragon is my personal choice. Since my deck is based around generating as much ETB value as possible, I want to be able to cast and bounce my Changelings as often as possible. Hence, mana reduction is extremely powerful. I also find that it is very easy to give The Ur-Dragon +1/+1 so he two-shots people, opening up an easy alternate win-condition. In addition to being a source of mana advantage he also provides massive card draw if he's ever cast. The final reason being he's extremely easy to cast. That doesn't seem right at first glance but Morophon, the Boundless is on the battlefield, The Ur-Dragon only costs for his massive onboard presence.
Morophon, the Boundless - You'd think that Morophon would have been the more obvious choice but my opinion The Ur-Dragon's eminence not requiring him to be on the battlefield makes him much stronger. That being said Morophon is much easier to get on the battlefield and keep on the battlefield with random things like Rattlechains or Knight Exemplar. Morophon also being a Changeling is significant upside over being only a Dragon. Once on the battlefield Morophon provides mana advantage with non-Changelings (like The First Sliver) and combos with Jodah, Archmage Eternal to make creatures of one type cost which are other upsides over The Ur-Dragon. I personally prefer the Ur-Dragon's consistency and more impactful battlefield presence.
Reaper King - Having a vindicate in the command zone is great. Reaper King is also a strong choice. I prefer mana reduction and card advantage from the command zone instead of removal. I've never personally tested him, but the anecdotal evidence that has been presented to me is that he draws far too much hate to be worth it.
Sliver Overlord - Having a repeatable Changeling tutor in the command zone is an extremely strong source of card advantage. It also synergizes extremely well with Amoeboid Changeling, Maskwood Nexus and Unnatural Selection. I personally find it to be a touch slow and to draw a lot of hate as a commander though. Definitely a strong choice.
Karona, False God - Karona was this deck's original general before The Ur-Dragon was printed. She's pretty good at smashing face. However, my deck has evolved away from face smashing and more towards combo wins. If your deck is much more on the token plan she could definitely be respectable. I'd have to imagine she'd get people real dead in combination with Najeela, the Blade-Blossom.
General Tazri - Did you want Mirror Entity from the command zone? That's actually an incredibly good option. Mirror Entity does a lot of work in this deck.
Atogatog - I'm not memeing here. Atogatog in the command zone is actually a legitimate choice. He can 21 damage people very easily with a Mirror Entity. Having an instant speed sacrifice outlet as your general is very very strong. Atogatog is pretty criminally underrated. I used to use Atogatog with Mirror Entity and Eternal Witness to loop Cruel Ultimatum. However, my current build doesn't value sacrifice outlets highly at all but I can see him doing massive work with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge or Faces of the Past.
Horde of Notions - I've not seriously considered Horde of Notions because his activation cost is so expensive, but if he speaks to you he won't be awful.
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - She actually goes infinite pretty easily with Maskwood Nexus and various Magda, Brazen Outlaw effects. A great choice if you're feeling like you'd like to go wide. I imagine she'd draw a fair amount of hate as she's known to be incredibly strong.
The First Sliver - This card is crazy strong in the 99. I imagine it would only be the same as a general. I just dislike how long cascade takes to resolve. Also, I can only believe that it draws a fair amount of hate.
Sliver Legion - If you want to go hard on tokens, this might be playable. It seems pretty boring and 1-note as a general to me though. You're asking to over commit into a wrath with no way to recover in the command zone.
Other non- options I've considered... Not being able to play Morophon, the Boundless in the 99 is rough but these still might be worth it.
Edgar Markov or Inalla, Archmage Ritualist for a token support build.
Arahbo, Roar of the World is probably also possible, but will be really limiting and +3/+3 isn't that great
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - I've played against a tribal tribal Yuriko deck. She's probably better as a just straight ninja deck with tiny Changeling synergies though.
Wort, Boggart Auntie - Could be go in a heavy aristocrats Haakon, Stromgald Scourge build.
The best ramp spells in this deck are Harabaz Druid, Manaweft sliver, Gemhide sliver, Magda, Brazen Outlaw and Dragon's Hoard. If you're not running these cards you should have a very good reason for it. I personally think that Priest of Titania is fantastic but she depends on how intensive you are. Some other solid ramp spells are Elvish Archdruid, Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro, Altar of the Pantheon, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, Bounty of Skemfar, Herald's Horn, Katilda, Dawnhart Prime, Rivaz of the Claw and Thunderherd Migration.
If you're going off theme Faeburrow Elder and Bloom Tender are incredibly strong choices.
For a bounce strategy you'll be leaning into cards like Hibernation Sliver, Wirewood Symbiote, Emiel the Blessed, Walker of Secret Ways, Kogla, the Titan Ape, Reflections of Littjara, Naban, Dean of Iteration and Molten Echoes to generate Changeling ETB triggers.
For Haakon, Stromgald Scourge you'll be getting Haakon into play (surprise surpise) using things like Entomb, Buried Alive, Birthing Pod, Pyre of Heroes, Belbe's Portal, Cryptic Gateway, Cryptbreaker or Maskwood Nexus/Arcane Adaptation and Moggcatcher/Skyshroud Poacher/Seahunter. Once he's in play you'll wreck the board with Crib Swap/Nameless Inversion or loop Changelings with a sacrifice outlet.
With tokens you'll be establishing a board presence with Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Notorious Throng, Rooftop Storm, The First Sliver, Atla Palani, Nest Tender, Turntimber Ranger, Rin and Seri, Inseparable, Avenger of Zendikar, Elvish Warmaster and Wirewood Hivemaster.
You'll be combining these engines with cards that generate value like Risen Reef, Wirewood Savage, Kindred Discovery, Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign, Gilt-Leaf Archdruid, Elder Pine of Jukai, Dragon's Hoard, Species Specialist, Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Xathrid Necromancer, Rotlung Reanimator, Merrow Reejerey, Faces of the Past, Skemfar Avenger, Undead Augur, Vanquisher's Banner, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Kindred Summons and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow.
You can also combine the engines with generate removal with cards like Harmonic Sliver, Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves, Ayula, Queen Among Bears, Spit Flame, Tuktuk Scrapper, Dragon Tempest, Qasali Slingers, Scourge of Valkas, General Kudro of Drannith, Be'lakor, the Dark Master and Reaper King.
The last consistent win conditions worth mentioning are the multitude of on theme infinite combos. If it generates infinite Changeling ETB triggers, these will be lethal with basically everything (for example Reaper King or Dragon Tempest) and with a single draw engine will draw into a lethal card.
Changeling Titan + Changeling Berserker + Changeling Hero
With Changeling Beserker already on the battlefield, put Changeling Titan onto the battlefield. Titan exiles Beserker. Next put Changeling Hero onto the battlefield, it enters the battlefield and exiles Titan. Titan leaves the battlefield, returning Beserker to the battlefield. Beserker exiles Hero. Hero leaves the battlefield, returning Titan. Loop and infinite number of times for an infinite number of Changeling ETB triggers. Note this also generates infinite mana with Gemhide Sliver/Manaweft Sliver effects since Changeling Berserker has haste and can be tapped for mana with champion triggers on the stack.
Wirewood Symbiote + Mirror Entity/Maskwood Nexus changing creature type effect + Harabaz Druid/Priest of Titania multiple mana generating creature.
Turn Wirewood Symbiote into an Elf. Bounce itself to untap the multiple mana generating creature. Recast Wirewood Symbiote for infinite mana.
Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves + Universal Automaton (or another free Changeling effect)
Cast the Changeling and gain 3 life. Pay 2 life to return it to hand and cast it again. Gain infinite life and Changeling ETB triggers.
Turntimber Ranger + Maskwood Nexus
Generate infinite Wolves and a very large ranger.
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge + Merrow Reejerey + 1 mana Changeling + free sacrifice outlet
Emiel the Blessed + Mana Echoes + a Changeling and 2 other creatures.
Both generate infinite Changeling ETBs by being mana neutral to flicker/cast a Changeling.
There's way more combos than I can list but sometimes you just randomly stumble on one and go "huh..."
Wirewood Symbiote + Harabaz Druid + Morophon, the Boundless + Changeling Titan + Changeling Hero = Infinite Changeling ETBs, add one more Changeling for infinite mana
Another weakness the deck has is being exploited by repeatable pinging. The worst examples of this are The Scorpion God and Marath, Will of the Wild. These matchups are extremely rough since you're running so many tiny utility creatures that they just eat up.
The deck also struggles against aristocrats builds since the deck lacks meaningfully ways to interact with the graveyard. These decks also usually run Grave Pact and can repeatedly boardwipe you with their recursion. Patron of the Vein excels in this situation. General Kudro of Drannith and The Scarab God can also help.
The deck also doesn't have a ton of great ways to interact with the stack, so anyone playing spell slinger/storm is basically impossible to interact with other than drawing a good hand to aggro them down. There's some counterspells like Wizard's Retort, Voidmage Prodigy, Sage's Dousing, Psychic Trance, Silumgar's Scorn and Spellstutter Sprite but none of them are particularly strong.
The final issue this deck has is Humility/Overwhelming Splendor. I strongly recommend against doing anything other than immediately conceding if these resolve as your only out is Knowledge Exploitation for a disenchant effect or someone else killing the player who cast them. Torpor Orb is also rough but not nearly as impossible to deal with. If for some reason you run into both these cards frequently you can also slot in Rootgrapple.
For me, I view Guardian Gladewalker more as a sorcery that reads " : trigger all tribal synergies" than as a creature. This means I prefer Guardian Gladewalker to Chameleon Colossus even though the Chameleon Colossus has a much larger impact on the board. I'm not using my Changelings to attack with the intent of threatening my opponents' life total. Their base power/toughness rarely matters to me. I find mana efficiency to be significantly more valuable to me than some chip damage. The best example of this is that I'd rather run Fire-Belly Changeling than Taurean Mauler. I found that even when Taurean Mauler became a 10/10, it wasn't worth the extra I spent to cast it.
Changelings with evasion are extra valuable because they can more easily trigger Magda, Brazen Outlaw and cards with damage triggers like Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow or Ingenious Infiltrator.
I personally run Changeling Titan, Changeling Berserker, Changeling Hero because they go infinite and are extremely synergistic with a bunch of cards in my deck. For example. Skyshroud Poacher, Moggcatcher, and Seahunter can all find the infinite champion Changeling loop by themselves. Anything that allows me to put the champion Changelings into play at instant speed (like the Moggcatcher cycle I just mentioned or other cards like Didgeridoo), means that I can put the champion Changeling onto the battlefield in response to removal or wrath to save a key creature. These Changelings also allow me to double up on ETB triggers. For example, if I have Wirewood Symbiote and another Changeling. Casting any other Changeling and bouncing it results in one ETB triggers. Casting a champion Changeling and exiling the other Changeling results in an ETB. Then, bouncing the champion Changeling results in the original changeling returning to the battlefield resulting in a second ETB trigger.
Cateran Summons has a floor of being a Changeling that costs (finding Universal Automaton). It can also be removal by finding Crib Swap or Masked Vandal. It can be recursion when finding Graveshifter.
Coveted Prize - Build your own Demonic Tutor with upside. This card is great but I dislike its unconditional nature. It's definitely worth running if that isn't something you're bothered by. Being able to find and cast Maskwood Nexus for is exceptionally strong.
Goblin Recruiter/Dwarven Recruiter have gone way up in value with Realmwalker since you can tear through the entire stack of Changelings in the next turn (plus any dwarves or goblins that are in your deck.
Knowledge Exploitation is an incredibly versatile card. Early game it is ramp. Mid-game it is a board wrath, spot removal or card draw as necessary. Heaven forbid your opponents are playing Expropriate or something of that nature. It is a bit meta-game dependent but I've found it to be very strong.
Higure, the Still Wind is a repeatable but slow tutor, that can also return an attacking unblocked Changeling to your hand so you can replay it. is just a lot for his effect. I'd highly recommend him in a slower, more battlecruiser style meta.
The World Tree, Contested Cliffs, Elephant Graveyard, Flamekin Village, Swarmyard and Sliver Hive are the best utility lands in the deck. I would highly recommend running all of them budget permitting. I find they all get activated frequently.
Riptide Laboratory is decent but not as strong as the previously mentioned lands.
Haven of the Spirit Dragon and Ally Encampment I have only activated once in my entire time owning this deck.
Unholy Grotto I never wanted to activate so I cut it. I didn't have Realmwalker in my deck at that time though, which makes it significantly stronger. It might eventually make its way back into my deck only because of this synergy.
Animal Sanctuary is funny to have but it's effect is basically worthless. I never activated it and was really hurt by its colorless nature on multiple occasions.
Tyrite Sanctum is extremely useful for protecting Morophon, the Boundless or another key Changeling. Tapping for colorless is rough so it might not be worth running if you're not running Morophon as your commander.
Murmuring Bosk, Wanderwine Hub, Secluded Glen, Auntie's Hovel, Gilt-Leaf Palace, Fortified Beachhead and Ancient Amphitheater, I run because they're super on theme. For a strict power upgrade fetches and duals are stronger.
Seaside Haven/Starlit Sanctum are both strong if you're going more of a sacrifice theme.
Griffin Canyon and Wirewood Lodge are both too narrow for my build but could be useful with some more attention spent on abusing them.
I rarely find any lords that give +1/+1 and a minor ability to be worth running. +1/+1 isn't worth very much, so the other ability needs to pull a lot of weight. That doesn't seem to usually be the case. For example, I found Scion of Oona and Lord of the Unreal to be very underwhelming because no one ever tries to burn removal on my non-Morophon Changeling creatures.
If you're leaning into Morophon, the Boundless to make your Changelings cost , Ragemonger and Edgewalker can offer some redundancy.
You should be playing Maskwood Nexus. If you need redundancy there is also Unnatural Selection/Conspiracy (this overrides creature types though)/Artificial Evolution/Unnatural Selection and Arcane Adaptation.
Cryptic Gateway and Didgeridoo - These cards give all my Changelings flash and uncounterable which helps me play a more reactive game and stop me from overextending. They also allow me to flash in the champion cycle of Changelings to protect a creature from removal which is incredibly useful, especially with The Ur-Dragon since he has a huge target on his head. The ability to play a more reactive game is extremly strong as the deck can get so punished for overextending.
Peer Pressure is a really funny card and a very solid removal spell. Stealing an opponent's commander can often cripple their early game plans. Then, late game you can steal a huge amount of creatures with Mirror Entity and a bunch of creatures.
Glimpse the Cosmos is basically scry 6, draw 2 for which is exceptional. It finds you lands and ramp early in the game or action late. This just smoothes out draws extremely well.
Crib Swap, Spit Flame and Dire Tactics are the best inexpensive and on theme removal spells. Deadly Plot is a cute removal spell that can also get Morophon, the Boundless back.
If you're going wide and need extra bursty draw then Distant Melody, Mass Appeal and Pact of the Serpent are all good choices.
Creatures
Moved to Second Post for ease of editing.
Commander (1)
Changelings (18)
Angel (Land)
Army (1)
Bird (Land)
Demon (1)
Dinosaur (1)
Dragon (4 + 2 lands)
Druid (1)
Elf (4 + land)
Faerie (Land)
Giant (Land)
Human... most frequently (Land)
Insect/Rat/Spider/Squirrel (Land)
Knight (1)
Minotaur (1)
Myr (1)
Rebel (1)
Rogue (1)
Scarecrow (1)
Sliver (5 + land)
Shaman (1)
Snake (1)
Sphinx (1)
Spirit (1)
Treefolk (Land)
Vampire (1)
Wolf (1)
General Tribal Cards (4 + land)
Boring Manabase Greed Reduction (1)
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