If you like Greek mythology and the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, if you like attacking with brutal force with an army of menacing monsters, then Minotaur tribal is the right deck for you. Of course attacking strategy alone is not enough for complex commander games that seem more like a Labyrinth than a straight path to victory. Let’s see how we can thrive in the Labyrinth and become the monster who rules it.
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.
Although Minotaurs are an old tribe in magic, the first ones were neither strong enough nor many enough to create a dedicated tribal commander deck. When Theros block (the Ancient Greek inspired plane of magic) was released, minotaurs got finally some serious tribal support and after that the next step forward for the tribe was in Amonkhet block with some new and powerful members with Neheb, the Worthy to be the first notable commander of the tribe. Since then only a few minotaurs have been printed in the next sets but among them is the mighty Sethron, Hurloon General printed in Jumpstart, who is considered by many, the best Minotaur Tribal commander ever printed.
When Sethron, Hurloon General enters the battlefield or another nontoken Minotaur enters the battlefield under our control, we create a 2/3 red Minotaur creature token. Moreover, with 
Minotaurs you control get +1/+0 and gain menace and haste until end of turn. The tokens are quite strong and combined with haste, menace and the buff are becoming a true menace. The obvious choice is to go tribal with many Minotaurs in order to proc Sethron’s token generation and then go face. Menace is a form of evasion and when our mighty Minotaurs are buffed and can’t be blocked, they can be unforgiving.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building. But in some cases, I do a mix of top-down and bottom-up building.
In some tribes there are mechanics that are bound to a tribe. In our case one mechanic bound to some Minotaurs is discard. In such cases we can build a subtheme on our deck giving it more depth, without sacrificing its tribal focus.
On the one hand Neheb, the Worthy has discard synergy and gives Minotaurs first strike so he is a suitable commander. On the other hand Sethron, Hurloon General does not care about discard at all, but with the Minotaur token generation, having more attacking Minotaurs, buffing them and giving them evasion (with menace) and haste, can serve better a main aggro strategy where discard and menace are subthemes. Both can be good commanders but I think Sethron has more tribal potential while Neheb is better for a build with more gravity on discard.
One thing to notice is that Sethron aggro build can support a strategy that causes discard by opponents on player damage since menace support can pair with discard on that direction and create a deadly combo.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck.
- Add the best Minotaurs. Sethron cares about nontoken Minotaur EtB (Enter the Battlefield) triggers so the obvious choice is to fill our deck with enough Minotaurs to create an army of Minotaur tokens. Combining all the Minotaurs with Sethron, Hurloon General’s second ability, we can buff our Minotaurs and make them battle-ready (with haste) and hard to be blocked (with menace).
- Add Minotaur Tribal support. Our priority is to pick Minotaurs that buff our tribe stats since we get both the combat boost and the tokens created by Sethron.
- Add Minotaurs that care about or have menace, discard or both (ideal).
- Add menace support cards.
- Add discard support cards.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Minotaur Tribal theme.
The Deck
Minotaur Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
10 Ramp: Patchwork Banner, Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Hazoret’s Monument, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion , Didgeridoo , Neheb, the Eternal , Rakdos Signet , Pillar of Origins , Ragemonger
14 Target Removal: Tahngarth, Talruum Hero , Rakdos Charm , Labyrinth Raptor , Terminate , Bedevil , Feed the Swarm , Cathartic Pyre , Warstorm Surge , Vandalblast , Feast of Sanity (ping), Merciless Javelineer (kinda ping), Skophos Maze-Warden (too situational), Longhorn Sharpshooter, Sundering Eruption (land removal)
3 Board Wipes: Crippling Fear , Blasphemous Act , Lord of Shatterskull Pass (late game)
3 Graveyard Recursion: Witch’s Cottage , Patriarch’s Bidding , Raise the Draugr
2 Graveyard Hate: Rakdos Charm , Bojuka Bog
2 Tutors: Icon of Ancestry , Deathbellow War Cry
2 Protection: Swiftfoot Boots , Haunted One
11 Card Draw: Hazoret’s Monument , Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion , Glint-Horn Buccaneer , Vanquisher’s Banner , Key to the City , Faithless Looting , Cathartic Reunion , Cathartic Pyre , Soulreaper of Mogis , Ardent Dustspeaker , Bitter Reunion
5 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Moraug, Fury of Akoum , Berserkers’ Onslaught , Rage Reflection, Sethron, Hurloon General , Gornog, the Red Reaper
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and target removal seems to be a strong point of the deck with 14 cards. Card draw is good at 11. Finishers are more than usual at 5 and that is because our aggro strategy needs at least one finisher card to be able to finish games quickly. Overall the numbers show a good and balanced dispersion.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Hazoret’s Monument combines red mana cost reduction (and most of our minotaurs and spells are red) with card draw whenever we cast a creature (which is very often in our Minotaur Tribal deck) as long as we discard a card (discard synergy too). Sounds like a perfect fit for our deck.
Whenever Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, we may discard any number of cards. If we do, we draw that many cards and add that much 
. Until end of turn, we don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end. Amazing synergy here: discard, card draw, ramp and Minotaur Tribal synergy. Also great stats and trample, which helps a lot with combat damage to a player. One of the best Minotaurs out there.
Didgeridoo can summon every Minotaur from our hand directly into play for 
. Needless to say it is very powerful. It is an artifact of old times that in the time it was printed it hadn’t so much value since there were no many great Minotaurs around. But every new good Minotaur that is printed above 3 mana cost adds more value to it. A must-have card for Minotaur Tribal.
Neheb, the Eternal is a powerful Minotaur and a must-have for Minotaur Tribal. His second ability is the most valuable: At the beginning of our postcombat main phase, we add for each 1 life our opponents have lost this turn. Combined with our aggro strategy and the evasion given by menace, he can produce a ton of mana on our turn and that alone can give us a boost to lead the game.
Ragemonger is a great Minotaur Tribal card because he offers Minotaur 
mana cost reduction that is ramp but also color fixing.
Patchwork Banner is one of the best cards for Tribal builds as it combines ramp and tribal support. Being both a mana rock and a Tribal Anthem gives us amazing value for its mana cost. Of course it is a top pick for our Minotaur Tribal!
Target Removal
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero is one of the few red creatures in magic’s history with vigilance. Vigilance is quite nice for an aggressive deck but his target removal ability is what matter the most. For 
he taps and deals damage equal to its power to target creature. That creature deals damage equal to its power to Tahngarth. Alone he can be a repeatable small creature removal. With a little buff he can even wipe middle to big threats.
Labyrinth Raptor is a menace strategy support card that can be absolutely bonkers in our build. With it, our opponents may choose either to don’t block our creatures or to block them and sacrifice a blocker per blocked creature! So it’s win-win for us. It can even buff creatures with menace as long as you have enough mana. I truly believe that the “labyrinth” in the card name is not so random here. Maybe the only bad about this card is that it isn’t a Minotaur, but still the synergy and flavor here indicate some card designer mastery. It is one of those cards that can make you thrive in the Labyrinth and turn the game into a living -raptor- nightmare for your opponents.
Cathartic Pyre is a flexible card that can work as target removal and as a card draw with discard synergy.
Warstorm Surge is always great in creature-heavy decks as it can be a repeatable removal or even a finisher. Minotaurs have good power stats so it works even better in Minotaur Tribal.
Feast of Sanity and Merciless Javelineer can serve as repeatable target removal for smaller creatures, but discard synergy makes them even more valuable tools for our Minotaur Tribal build. They even combo together -as long as we have enough mana and cards to discard- to clear bigger threats as for 2 mana we can do 1 damage and place a -1/-1 counter on target creature, for 4 mana 2 damage and 2 -1/-1 counters, and so on. Everything else is a welcome extra.
Skophos Maze-Warden and Labyrinth of Skophos are an amazing flavor pair for Minotaur Tribal. Alone the cards are average at most, but when they combo together we can have an expensive but repeatable target removal than can become better when Skophos Maze-Warden is buffed.
Longhorn Sharpshooter is a nice inclusion for our Minotaur Tribal. It has a fair body for its mana cost and Reach but its true power lies in flexibility as we may choose to pay the Plot cost to deal 2 damage to any target at instant speed and cast it on a later turn at sorcery speed for free. Nothing overpowered but still a useful option.
Sundering Eruption is a MDFC which offers us land removal, but the reason we include it in our Minotaur Tribal is the fact that it can give our creatures evasion by making creatures without flying unable to block so it greatly fits our aggro combat oriented strategy.
Board Wipes
Crippling Fear is a great budget mass removal for tribal decks as it can clear the board of our opponents while leaving ours intact.
Lord of Shatterskull Pass is a Minotaur leveler that needs a lot mana spent to reach his full potential but when he reaches level 6, he can be devastating for our opponents as whenever Lord of Shatterskull Pass attacks, it deals 6 damage to each creature defending player controls. So he can be a potential repeatable one sided board wipe with enough mana dump. Sounds great for our Minotaur Tribal!
Graveyard Recursion
Patriarch’s Bidding is one of the best graveyard recursion spells for tribal decks.
Raise the Draugr is another good graveyard recursion spell for tribal decks.
Tutors
Deathbellow War Cry has very expensive mana cost but if we cast it, getting 4 Minotaurs tutored into the battlefield can totally be worth it in Minotaur Tribal.
Icon of Ancestry is good in every tribal deck, the buff is always nice and the repeating tutoring ability can help a lot in getting the Minotaurs we need.
Protection
Haunted One can be used both as a good offensive buff but most importantly, as a great mass protection spell that supports attacking since death can only make our army (and our commander) stronger. A great pick for our Minotaur Tribal.
Card Draw
Glint-Horn Buccaneer is a great Minotaur that has haste, discard synergy (on self-discard it deals 1 damage to each opponent) but more importantly for and by discarding a card he offers card draw at instant speed as long as he’s attacking. The procedure can be repeated as long as we have mana to spend so we can draw (and discard) multiple cards per turn. A great pick for our Minotaur Tribal build.
Vanquisher’s Banner is great in any tribal deck. The buff is important but the card draw is by far the greatest aspect of the card. It can continuously supply us with draw since our deck is full of creatures of the same type.
Key to the City has great synergy with our Minotaur Tribal deck strategy (discard, attacking) and also provides repeatable card draw for .
Soulreaper of Mogis can sacrifice a creature for in order to draw a card. The cost is expensive but it can be a repetitive source of card draw in our Minotaur Tribal since with Sethron, Hurloon General, we are expected to have many tokens around.
Ardent Dustspeaker is a good source of impulsive draw in our Minotaur Tribal and can even return an instant or sorcery from our graveyard to the bottom of our library.
Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion are draw staples but I refer to them here only because in our Minotaur Tribal deck they even provide discard synergy so they become even better. Bitter Reunion is probably a new red draw staple, as for some decks it is an upgraded Tormenting Voice since it can also be sacrificed for to offer haste to all our creatures for a turn, which is huge (at least in decks with many creatures).
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Moraug, Fury of Akoum is a great card on its own, but synergy with our Minotaur Tribal deck makes it a powerhouse. Moraug supports greatly our attacking strategy by buffing our other Minotaurs for each time they have attacked this turn and his landfall ability can give us an additional combat phase to attack again. With Sethron, Hurloon General on board, things can easily get out of hand. There’s no need to explain what happens if you let an army of hasty menacing buffy Minotaurs hit your face. Twice.
Berserkers’ Onslaught and Rage Reflection are spells that can act as finishers since they give our Minotaurs double strike. They become extra deadly combined with our commander’s abilities. Great picks for our combat oriented Minotaur Tribal.
Gornog, the Red Reaper is one amazing addition to our build. He greatly supports our aggressive strategy and he works as a Warrior Tribal Lord making our Warriors unblockable by making our opponents’ creatures Cowards that can’t block Warriors. In addition, he is buffing their power by X where X is the number of Cowards our opponents control. In our deck we count 14 Warriors which is almost 1/2 of our creatures, so we have high synergy and it makes him a potential finisher. He is a Warrior himself and Sethron, Hurloon General is a Warrior too, so we have a high chance to have at least 2-3 Warriors in play. Moreover, by making a creature a Coward, we’re overwriting its creature types so we also ruin various Tribal synergies of our opponents. A great utility card and a must-have for Minotaur Tribal!
Last but not least, in our finishers is no other than our commander Sethron, Hurloon General himself. With his second ability for he empowers all our Minotaurs (including the tokens he creates) with +1 attack, menace and haste and that alone can finish games on its own.
Other synergy pieces
Great Minotaurs
Gnarled Scarhide is a flexible card as you can choose either to cast it as a creature or as an aura for . At it is a great choice and we can even get a 2/3 Minotaur token if Sethron, Hurloon General is around.
Neheb, the Worthy is just amazing. It gives our Minotaurs first strike which is super useful in offence and defence. As long as you have one or fewer cards in hand, Minotaurs you control get +2/+0 and whenever Neheb, the Worthy deals combat damage to a player, each player discards a card. He could be our Minotaur Tribal commander (as mentioned earlier in the article) but he is a powerhouse in the 99.
Felhide Petrifier is a great Minotaur Tribal piece, as it gives all our Minotaurs deathtouch and supports greatly both offence and defence.
Fanatic of Mogis can be a mini finisher in the late game or just another aggro piece in the middle of the game.
Felhide Spiritbinder is slow but can do some crazy stuff by copying creatures and giving them haste. Sandstorm Crasher is like an upgraded version of Felhide Spiritbinder with the downside that it needs to be exerted. Its ability can be activated one turn sooner and has no mana cost, so it is much more consistent. Moreover, it has Trample which is a nice bonus. Nice inclusions for our Minotaur Tribal.
Bloodrage Brawler has great stats for its mana cost and the self-discard can even be an advantage in our Minotaur Tribal build. Burning-Fist Minotaur has first strike and can be buffed for +2 power for and by discarding a card, an ability which can be used many times at instant speed, great for attacking, blocking and discarding.
Oracle of Bones is an aggro piece that can cause havoc if the tribute isn’t paid. With Deathbellow War Cry in our deck our opponents might regret being too risky.
Dreamshaper Shaman may sacrifice nonland permanents and work as a pseudo draw/ramp. Most of the times the trade will be worth it in our Minotaur Tribal build, especially if we sacrifice just tokens.
Labyrinth Adversary is a nice inclusion for our Minotaur Tribal. It has an average body for its mana cost and Trample but its true power lies in its ability that let us pay whenever we attack to make target creature unable to block.
Minotaur Lords
Rageblood Shaman is a great Minotaur Tribal lord as apart from the usual +1/+1 buff he gives all Minotaurs Trample which is perfect for our aggro strategy. Kragma Warcaller is another great pseudo lord that gives all Minotaurs haste and +2 power when they attack which is great for our build. Anaba Spirit Crafter is one of the first Minotaur lords, is much weaker than modern lords, but still can find a place in our deck since even the +1 power buff on all Minotaurs can be worth it, in a deck that attacks a lot and has many Minotaurs.
Other Menace support
Angrath, Captain of Chaos and Goblin War Drums give all our creatures menace which is very important to our aggressive strategy because as I mentioned earlier, menace is a form of evasion.
Sonorous Howlbonder is one of the few creature cards in our deck that are not Minotaurs but its ability compensates for this, as it makes menace on our creatures even better by requiring 3 creatures to be assigned as blockers instead of two, making our army really menacing and almost unblockable at big numbers. Great utility card for our Minotaur Tribal.
Other Discard support
Pain Magnification takes our aggressive strategy to the next level. By combining all of our tools and strategies, it can be the end of our opponents. Attacking in big numbers with our Minotaurs (that by Sethron’s buff alone or by only one buff from the many others in our deck all have at least 3 attack each) and combined with menace (evasion) and haste can discard an opponents hand and let him struggle in pain. If combined with more discard support cards the effect can be even more devastating! Another great utility card for our Minotaur Tribal.
Raiders’ Wake is a perfect example of the bond between our strategies. We attack, and then the opponent discards a card and looses 2 life.
Megrim has great synergy with Pain Magnification and Raiders’ Wake and can pressure our opponents life total even more.
Other
Akoum Warrior // Akoum Teeth is a flexible card as it can be either a Minotaur or a land. Perfect fit for Minotaur Tribal!
Castle Embereth is a great land for Minotaur Tribal. Fits the aggressive strategy and gives our Minotaurs even more power!
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace has nice discard synergy.
Mystifying Maze can disrupt our opponent creatures for 
. The cost is expensive but it fits the flavor of Minotaur Tribal.
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 seems normal, there seems to be a bit more middle-range drops than usual but that’s because many Minotaurs are within that middle-range mana cost.
Card Type Distribution
The Minotaur Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme, with all other categories to be somewhat balanced. Angrath, Captain of Chaos is the only planeswalker and he supports the menace theme.
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, the menace and discard support strategies are build around our aggressive attacking strategy and can act as kinda hidden finishers.
Update v1 (Outlaws of Thunder Junction)
Update v2 (Assassin’s Creed)
Update v3 (Bloomburrow)
Update v4 (Foundations)
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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). For more information on Minotaur tribal, check out the Minotaur Reviewer’s work on the Commander’s Herald. I enjoy reading his reviews and take them into consideration for upgrading the deck.
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
