If you like to release the endless swarm and conquer your opponents with the power of the many, then Insect Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can command the swarm and unleash its power.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Insect is a catch-all creature type used for crawling or flying little creatures and larger and/or humanoid variants. The first creature to bear the type was Yavimaya Gnats in Ice Age (though the Carrion Ants from Legends was later issued errata to become an insect.) Insects are printed in all colors, but most prevalent in green and black. (source: MtG Wiki)
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord was introduced with the release of Jumpstart 2022 and it quickly became one of the best Insect commanders. Firstly, it is a master of graveyard recursion, letting us play lands and cast Insect spells from our graveyard. Unlike other powerful recursion commanders, Zask’s ability is not limited to once per turn, so with enough mana it can be insane. Its second ability can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. Whenever another Insect we control dies, we put it on the bottom of our library, then mill two cards. Putting an Insect in our library stops the recurring chain, but at least it fuels our graveyard, which is pure card advantage with Zask. It’s last ability is a mana sink that can prove very helpful, as by paying 
at instant speed, target Insect gets +1/+0 and gains deathtouch until end of turn, which is great both for offence and defence. All that make Zask a super efficient commander for Insect Tribal and a value engine.
Synergy Diagram
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Insects. Our priority is to add the ones that have Mill synergy and/or powerful ETB/Landfall abilities.
- Add Insect Tribal support. Cards that support or have Insect synergy seem like a great choice for our build.
- Add cards with Mill so we can fill our graveyard. Because of our commander Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, we are able to play every Insect and land in our graveyard so we get huge card advantage.
- Add cards with graveyard recursion so we can further amplify our graveyard recursion strategy.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Insect Tribal theme.
The deck:
Insect Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
13 Ramp: Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, Icetill Explorer, Horizon Explorer, Harrow, Nantuko Elder, Molt Tender, The Gitrog Monster, Hedge Shredder, Insidious Roots, Blighted Woodland, Myriad Landscape
10 Target Removal: Grist, the Hunger Tide, Caustic Caterpillar , Grist, Voracious Larva, Haywire Mite, Canoptek Tomb Sentinel, Webstrike Elite, Bridgeworks Battle, Khalni Ambush, Nameless Inversion, Golgari Charm
4 Board Wipes: Bane of the Living, Crippling Fear, Swarmyard Massacre, Golgari Charm (ping)
11 Graveyard Recursion: Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, Icetill Explorer (lands), Seedship Broodtender, Spring-Leaf Avenger, Altanak, the Thrice-Called, Deadbridge Chant, Mortuary Mire, Memorial to Folly, Patriarch’s Bidding, Victimize, Canoptek Tomb Sentinel
2 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog, Canoptek Scarab Swarm
2 Tutors: Buried Alive, Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex (mini)
3 Protection: Swarmyard, Golgari Charm, Revitalizing Repast
13,5 Card Draw: Zask, Skittering Swarmlord (card advantage), Circuit Mender, Izoni, Thousand-Eyed, Nantuko Cultivator, Altanak, the Thrice-Called,The Gitrog Monster, Skullclamp, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual , Deadbridge Chant (card advantage), Grim Backwoods, Stinging Cave Crawler, Eumidian Wastewaker, Festering Thicket
9 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Mightform Harmonizer, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Giant Adephage Fumulus, the Infestation, Giant Ankheg, Crash of Rhino Beetles, Mortal Combat, Altanak, the Thrice-Called, Moldgraf Monstrosity
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There in no score below the optimal low average and we see 3 categories that are above the optimal max average. We see two big spikes at Graveyard Recursion with 11 cards, and on Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions with 9 cards .
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord let us play lands from our graveyard, and this ability along with our self-Mill strategy, makes it a super strong ramp source.
Icetill Explorer is already a staple in Landfall, Graveyard recursion, Self-Mill and Lands matter decks, so being an Insect makes it an optimal choice for our Insect Tribal as it supports all our strategies and our Tribal theme.
Horizon Explorer is another top tier Insect that supports our Ramp strategy by letting our Lands enter untapped, while at the same time it reward us for being aggressive as whenever we attack a player, we create a Lander token. With our Insect Tribal theme we can easily go wide and attack many players at once to get multiple ramp value.
Harrow is a staple for decks that play lands from the graveyard, as it provides double ramp benefit: we can sacrifice a land to fetch two tapped lands from our library into the battlefield and recur the sacrificed land an a later turn. Great synergy with our Insect Tribal.
Nantuko Elder is an Insect Druid that has 
: Add 
. Alone it sounds average for its mana cost, but the fact that we can recur it with our commander, make it a valuable ramp tool for our Insect Tribal.
Molt Tender is an Insect Druid that has high synergy with our Insect Tribal as it can either help us fill our graveyard, or to exile a card from our graveyard at instant speed to add one mana of any color.
The Gitrog Monster is card that greatly fits our Insect Tribal as it allows for Land recycling (along with our graveyard recursion strategy), while at the same time it becomes a draw engine. A great pick for our build.
Hedge Shredder is an Artifact Vehicle that has high synergy with graveyard decks as whenever one or more land cards are put into our graveyard from our library we put them onto the battlefield tapped. Powerful ramp and it can also be crewed for just 1 to become a 5/5 artifact creature until end of turn that whenever it attacks, we may mill two cards. A top pick for every graveyard deck that cares about land recursion.
Insidious Roots turns all creature tokens into mana producers, by giving them : Add one mana of any color. An amazing ramp source for our Insect Tribal. Moreover, it works wonders with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord and our graveyard recursion strategy, as whenever one or more creature cards leave our graveyard, we create a 0/1 green Plant creature token, then put a +1/+1 counter on each Plant we control.
Target Removal
Grist, the Hunger Tide, among others, is a removal engine, as by -2 we may sacrifice a creature to destroy target creature or planeswalker. The fact that it’s a 1/1 Insect creature in addition to its other types as long as it isn’t on the battlefield, makes it an ideal recursion target for Zask, Skittering Swarmlord. Top tier synergy for our Insect Tribal.
Caustic Caterpillar is already an artifact/enchantment removal staple for graveyard recursion builds and it becomes optimal in our Insect Tribal as it is an Insect so we can repeatedly recur it with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord. Haywire Mite plays a similar role, letting us exile target noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment by sacrificing it, while we also get 2 life.
Grist, Voracious Larva works wonders with our Insect Tribal as if it enters from our graveyard or we cast it from our graveyard, we may pay to exile it and return it transformed as Grist, the Plague Swarm , a powerful Planeswalker that serves many roles, creating Insect Tokens, filling our graveyard, offering artifact or enchantment removal and being able to create a mass Insect army from our graveyard. A top pick for our build.
Canoptek Tomb Sentinel has great synergy with our Insect Tribal as it is an Insect so we can repeatedly recur it with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord to exile target nonland permanent. Moreover, it has Unearth
which is not optimal, but still a bonus.
Webstrike Elite is a great addition to our Insect Tribal as it acts as an Artifact/Enchantment removal at instant speed if we pay the Cycling cost. With great stats for its mana cost and Reach it is also a powerful creature for early game and we can always recur it with our commander.
Khalni Ambush // Khalni Territory and Bridgeworks Battle//Tanglespan Bridgeworks are fight variants, but have extra synergy in our deck since they also synergize with Deathtouch (given by our commander) and become strong removal.
Nameless Inversion count as Insect so it has amazing synergy with our commander. It can be cast from our graveyard repeatedly as long as we have Zask, Skittering Swarmlord in the battlefield.
Board Wipes
Swarmyard Massacre has great synergy with our deck as it works as an amazing one sided board wipe card for Insect, Rat, Spider and Squirrel Tribal decks and can start as low as -2/-2 and grow further as long as we have more Insects on board. A great wipe for our Insect Tribal!
Crippling Fear is a great budget mass removal for tribal decks as it can clear the board of our opponents while leaving ours intact.
Bane of the Living can be cast as a face down creature and when we pay its Morph cost to turn it face up,(
) all creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. A flavorful wipe for Insect Tribal.
Golgari Charm is another great flexible card that can act either as removal or as protection. As removal it can be either a mass removal for small creatures (All creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn) or as target removal for Enchantments.
Graveyard Recursion
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord is our graveyard recursion engine. Casting both Lands and Insects from our graveyard gives us amazing value. It even helps filling our graveyard, which synergizes greatly with that ability. The true power of our commander is the never-ending swarm.
Seedship Broodtender has great synergy with our Insect Tribal, as on ETB we mill three cards and by paying 
and sacrificing it at sorcery speed, we return target creature or Spacecraft from our graveyard to the battlefield.
Spring-Leaf Avenger is our Insect Ninja. Using its Ninjutsu on an unblocked attacker (like a small 1/1 Insect), will trigger its ability to return target permanent card from our graveyard to our hand, while it will hit for 6 and will leave us with a 6/5 body, which is not bad at all for (its Ninjutsu cost). A cool card for our Insect Tribal.
Deadbridge Chant works wonders in Golgari graveyard decks as on ETB we mill ten cards and it is a great recursion engine. At the beginning of our upkeep we choose a card at random in our graveyard. If it’s a creature card we return it to the battlefield, otherwise we return it to our hand. A great pick for our Insect Tribal.
Memorial to Folly is a land with graveyard recursion synergy, as by paying 
, and sacrificing it at instant speed, we return target creature card from our graveyard to our hand. A nice inclusion to our Insect Tribal.
Patriarch’s Bidding is one of the best graveyard recursion spells for Tribal decks.
Victimize is one of the best target graveyard recursion spells for graveyard and sacrifice builds. By sacrificing a creature, we can return two target creature cards in your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. A great fit for our Insect Tribal.
Graveyard Hate
Bojuka Bog is a staple for graveyard hate.
Canoptek Scarab Swarm is an amazing graveyard hate option, as it exiles target player’s graveyard and for each artifact or land card exiled this way, we create a 1/1 colorless Insect artifact creature token with flying. On top of that, it is an Insect itself, so we can cast it again from our graveyard, gaining top value and graveyard domination. A must-have card for our Insect Tribal.
Tutors
Buried Alive has amazing synergy with our graveyard recursion strategy, as it can tutor three creature cards into our graveyard and then we can recur them with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord. Amazing tutor card for our Insect Tribal!
Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex is a flexible card for our Insect Tribal, as we can either cast it as a sorcery to look at the top five cards of our library and put any number of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard, or we may cast it as a creature that works as an Insect Tribal anthem giving (among other Tribes) Insects +1/+1.
Protection
Swarmyard is a card with high synergy with our deck as it works as a protection card for Insect, Rat, Spider and Squirrel Tribal decks, regenerating target Insect, Rat, Spider or Squirrel with . A great utility Land for our Insect Tribal!
Revitalizing Repast is a cheap way to give a creature Indestructible until end of turn and can also be used as a Land, so it is a valuable protection MDFC for any Golgari deck.
Golgari Charm as we mentioned above, is a great flexible card that can also act as mass protection spell, regenerating each creature we control.
Card Draw
Circuit Mender on LTB let us draw a card, while on ETB we gain 2 life. That makes it a nice recursion target for our commander as we can gain great value by recycling it over and over. A great addition to our Insect Tribal.
Izoni, Thousand-Eyed is a great Insect Token creator on ETB, as we create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token for each creature card in our graveyard. In addition, by paying and sacrificing another creature we gain 1 life and draw a card. A great draw engine and a sacrifice outlet.
Nantuko Cultivator on ETB, let us discard any number of land cards, put that many +1/+1 counters on Nantuko Cultivator and draw that many cards. Great synergy with our Insect Tribal and a nice target for recursion to get multiple value.
Skullclamp is a card draw staple for decks with 1/1 creatures/tokens so it works wonders in our Insect Tribal build since most Insect tokens are 1/1’s. A must-have card.
Moldervine Reclamation is a card draw engine on token decks and we have many small Insect tokens on our build.
Deathreap Ritual can easily trigger with all our Insects, thus becoming a great repeatable card draw source.
Stinging Cave Crawler has nice synergy with our mill strategy as its Descend 4 can easily trigger with our build and on attack trigger, if there are four or more permanent cards in our graveyard, we draw a card and lose 1 life. Moreover, it has Deathtouch which is a nice bonus. A great pick for our Insect Tribal.
Eumidian Wastewaker on attack trigger forces both us and defending player to discard a card or sacrifice a permanent. We draw a card for each land card put into a graveyard this way. Along with our graveyard recursion strategy and with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, for us it may even be an advantage, while we get more value, either with rmoval or with card draw. With its Encore ability it can become more explosive. A great pick for our Insect Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Altanak, the Thrice-Called is a great multi-purpose card. With a 9/9 body and Trample it is alone a big threat, but it can also draw us some cards as whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, we draw a card. Moreover, by paying and discarding it, we can return target land card from our graveyard to the battlefield tapped. A top pick for our Insect Tribal.
Mightform Harmonizer is an Insect Druid with Landfall – Whenever a land you control enters, double the power of target creature you control until end of turn. A powerful effect that can be a finishing move in a deck like our Insect Tribal where we may have multiple lands enter the battlefield on a single turn. A great addition for our build.
Grist, the Hunger Tide can be a great finisher as with -5 each opponent loses life equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard, which can easily be lethal with our Insect Tribal.
Giant Adephage is a 7/7 Insect with Trample that creates a copy of itself whenever it deals combat damage to a player. A great threat to our arsenal.
Fumulus, the Infestation is a great Insect token creator with sacrifice synergy. Whenever a player sacrifices a nontoken creature, we create a 1/1 black Insect creature token with flying. Moreover, it can drain our opponents and net us a great amount of life, as whenever an Insect, Leech, Slug, or Worm we control attacks, defending player loses 1 life and we gain 1 life. A top pick for our Insect Tribal.
Giant Ankheg is a 8/8 Insect with Trample and Ward that gives other creatures you control Trample and Ward. A great pick for our Insect Tribal.
Crash of Rhino Beetles is a fine midrange Insect (5/5 + Trample) that gets +10/+10 as long as we control ten or more lands. It becomes a great finisher once we control enough Lands.
Mortal Combat offers us an alternate win condition, which is not that hard to achieve with our Insect Tribal build. At the beginning of our upkeep, if twenty or more creature cards are in our graveyard, we win the game. Counting 46 creatures, along with our self-mill strategy, it seems at home.
Moldgraf Monstrosity s a 8/8 Insect with Trample that on death trigger is exiled awe return two creature cards at random from our graveyard to the battlefield. If we have Zask, Skittering Swarmlord in play, we can instead let Moldgraf Monstrosity die, return two creatures, and not have to exile it. Nice synergy with our Insect Tribal.
Other synergy pieces
Great Insects
Scute Mob starts as a humble 1/1 but at the beginning of your upkeep, if we control five or more lands, we put four +1/+1 counters on it, so it can easily become an ever-growing threat. A great pick for our build.
Xantid Swarm has a powerful ability: whenever it attacks, defending player can’t cast spells this turn. Although it is fragile, with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord it can stick around and become really disturbing for our opponents.
Blightbeetle is a bane for +1/+1 counter decks of our opponents. Having Protection from green is more relevant than it seems, as those decks are primary green. A unique pick for our Insect Tribal.
Scute Swarm is a Landfall strategy staple for a good reason: it can quickly benefit from Landfall and build us a strong board presence. It greatly empowers our Insect Tribal.
Amzu, Swarm’s Hunger is an Insect Lord, giving other Insects we control Menace. Moreover, once per turn, whenever one or more cards leave our graveyard, we may create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token, then put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the greatest mana value among those cards. A must-have card that greatly empowers our Insect Tribal.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is a great inclusion in every Golgari sacrifice deck and it has great synergy with our Insect Tribal as it is an Insect Shaman. Whenever a player sacrifices another permanent, we put a +1/+1 counter on each creature we control. A great pick for our build.
Vorapede is a nice inclusion in our Insect Tribal as it has Vigilance, Trample and Undying.
Aatchik, Emerald Radian is a great inclusion in our Insect Tribal as on ETB we create a 1/1 green Insect creature token for each artifact and/or creature card in our graveyard and on top of that it can drain our opponents, as whenever another Insect we control dies, we put a +1/+1 counter on Aatchik and each opponent loses 1 life.
Hornet Queen is an ETB strategy staple for a good reason: on ETB we create four 1/1 green Insect creature tokens with flying and deathtouch. It becomes optimal in our Insect Tribal as we even have Tribal synergy.
Other
Old Rutstein is a multi-purpose card that can help us with Mill, ramp, Insect token creation and card draw. Because it is not consistent, it is hard to categorize it on our value system but nevertheless, it is a great value engine with Insect Tribal synergy.
The Swarmweaver has great synergy with our Insect Tribal, as on ETB we create two 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens with flying, but also it has a powerful Delirium ability: As long as there are four or more card types among cards in our graveyard, Insects and Spiders we control get +1/+1 and have deathtouch. A powerful anthem for our build.
Syr Konrad, the Grim works great with our strong graveyard recursion strategy and can drain our opponents to the point where he can be a secret finisher. Great pick for our Insect Tribal.
Crawling Infestation and Crawling Sensation work wonders with our Insect Tribal, as they are Mill engines and at the same time, they create Insect tokens. Great picks for our build.
Insect Token Creators : 20 cards
Grist, Voracious Larva, Broodhatch Nantuko, Springheart Nantuko, Hornet Nest, Old Rutstein, Scute Swarm, Canoptek Scarab Swarm, Fumulus, the Infestation, Saber Ants, The Swarmweaver, Amzu, Swarm’s Hunger, Ant Queen, Aatchik, Emerald Radian, Izoni, Thousand-Eyed, Giant Adephage, Hornet Queen, Living Hive, Crawling Infestation, Crawling Sensation, Eumidian Hatchery
Springheart Nantuko can also create token copies of our creatures.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve is similar to average with the exception of having more drops on 4-5 positions and an a lack of drops in position 2.
Card Type Distribution
The Insect Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 46 creatures. All other categories have a smaller presence with Enchantments at 7, Artifacts at 4, Instants at 5, Sorceries at 6 and Planeswalkers at 1. No Battles and are present at the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with Zask, Skittering Swarmlord our graveyard recursion strategy is much more consistent.
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If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
