If you like deadly strikes that can assassinate your opponents then Snakes and Gorgons Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can become a herald of death.
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.
Gorgons, also known as medusae, are snake-skinned humanoid women with hair made of snakes or snakelike tendrils. Incredibly deadly, these creatures are rare across the various planes. Gorgons have the ability to calcify organic entities that look at the gorgon’s face. The transformation is rapid, leaving the victim as a stone statue, usually frozen in a position of abject fear or agony- a fine trophy for the gorgon’s macabre collection.
The first creature to bear the creature type was Masked Gorgon in Judgement, though the Infernal Medusa from Legends was later issued errata in the Grand Creature Type Update to become a Gorgon instead of a Medusa. Mechanically, Gorgons tend to either have deathtouch, or an ability that destroys creatures – of those without access to deathtouch, three have deathtouch variants, and five others destroy creatures in other ways. They also tend to have lower power and higher toughness. (source: MtG Wiki)
Aphelia, Viper Whisperer was introduced with the release of Foundations Jumpstart and she became the ultimate Snake/Gorgon commander, supporting both Tribes and Deathtouch Tribal. She is a Gorgon Assassin with Deathtouch and two powerful abilities. Firstly, on attack trigger, we may pay 
to create a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch. Secondly, by paying 
at instant speed, we gain “Until end of turn, whenever one or more Gorgons and/or Snakes you control deal combat damage to a player, that player loses half their life, rounded up”. That makes her a super efficient finisher and gives our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal a deadly consistency.
Synergy Diagram
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Snakes and Gorgons. Our priority is to add the ones that have evasion and ones that have Deathtouch.
- Add Deathtouch Tribal support. Cards that support or have Deathtouch synergy seem like a great choice for our build.
- Add cards that provide evasion. Because of our commander Aphelia, Viper Whisperer, we want to be able to pass through enemy defences and deal deadly strikes using her last ability.
- 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 Snakes and Gorgons Tribal theme.
The deck:
Snakes and Gorgons Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
11 Ramp: Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Lotus Cobra, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Thieves’ Tools, Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro, Viewpoint Synchronization, Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, Insidious Roots, Vraska, the Silencer
13 Target Removal: Hooded Blightfang (Planeswalker removal), Ambush Viper , Golgari Charm, Persistent Constrictor, Viridian Longbow, Visara the Dreadful, Bridgeworks Battle, Khalni Ambush, Mortarpod, Serpent Assassin, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Putrefy, Xathrid Gorgon
4 Board Wipes: Hythonia the Cruel, Crippling Fear, Rush of Dread, Golgari Charm (ping)
4 Graveyard Recursion: Sosuke’s Summons (self-recursion), Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, Sidisi, Regent of the Mire, Persistent Constrictor (Persist)
3 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog, Vraska, the Silencer, Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Tutors: Tower Winder (Command Tower tutor), Diabolic Tutor
10 Protection: Prowling Serpopard, Hexdrinker(self-protection), Mire Boa (self-protection), Saryth, the Viper’s Fang, Whispersilk Cloak, Revitalizing Repast, Rampaging Aetherhood (Ward), Golgari Charm, River Boa(self-protection), Toski, Bearer of Secrets (self-protection)
10,5 Card Draw: Ohran Frostfang, Seshiro the Anointed, Ohran Viper, Caustic Bronco, Skullclamp,Driven // Despair, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual , Warlock Class (1/2), Vraska Joins Up
8 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Aphelia, Viper Whisperer , Fynn, the Fangbearer, Bloodletter of Aclazotz Wound Reflection, Grievous Wound, Quietus Spike, Warlock Class, Rush of Dread
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 6 categories that are above the optimal max average. We see three spikes at Target Removal with 13 cards, Protection at 10 and on Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions with 8 cards .
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Lotus Cobra is a powerful ramp card on its own and already a ramp staple for Landfall decks and decks that need color fixing. Being a Snake makes it an ideal choice for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Sakura-Tribe Elder is already a ramp staple in decks that care about creatures, Sacrifice and/or Graveyard Recursion, so being a Snake makes it an ideal choice for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro is both a Snake Lord and a mana producer. She gibes other Snakes we control +0/+1 and Shamans we control 
: add 
. Although we have only a few Shamans in our build, she is a Shaman herself, so she can ramp on her own, with any Shaman addition to multiply the value. With Maskwood Nexus all our creatures are Shamans too, so we can get stellar ramp value.
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary has potential to become a repeatable ramp source, while it can also help us with Graveyard Recursion too. By paying , and returning it to our hand, it let us reveal the top four cards of our library and put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped. In addition, we put the rest into your graveyard. By filling the graveyard, we can later take advantage of its Channel ability, by paying 
and discarding a card, we return X target nonlegendary cards from graveyard to our hand. A great addition to our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Insidious Roots turns all creature tokens into mana producers, by giving them : Add one mana of any color. An amazing ramp source for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal. Moreover, it has Graveyard Recursion synergy, 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.
Viewpoint Synchronization seems like a great ramp choice if we can cast it for its Freerunning cost, something that shouldn’t be difficult with Aphelia, Viper Whisperer, since she is cheap and can attack early, while Deathtouch (and maybe any of our evasion givers), can ensure she can pass damage to an opponent enabling the Freerunning.
Vraska, the Silencer is a Legendary Gorgon Assassin can turn nontoken creatures an opponent controls into Treasures Artifacts for us! Whenever a nontoken creature an opponent controls dies, we may pay to return that card to the battlefield tapped under our control. It’s a Treasure artifact and it loses all other card types. A great utility card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Target Removal
Ambush Viper has Deathtouch and Flash, so it is able to ambush at instant speed an attacker and act as creature removal. A great and flavorful option for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Hooded Blightfang is a Snake with Deathtouch Tribal synergy, offering us life drain whenever a creature we control with Deathtouch attacks. In addition, it gives our creatures with Deathtouch the ability to destroy any Planeswalker as long as they deal any damage to it. A nice utility card for our build.
Persistent Constrictor is an also drain our opponents, but in addition we put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature they control on each opponent’s upkeep, which can be very useful to remove small threats which is ideal for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal. Having Persist, makes it more persistent and consistent.
Viridian Longbow offers us ping damage that combined with Deathtouch becomes lethal. In addition, with it our creatures can target players too so combined with Aphelia, Viper Whisperer, we can easily trigger her last ability. A great pick for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Visara the Dreadful is a powerful Gorgon with a 5/5 body and Flying, but what makes her really dreadful is her ability to destroy target creature on and that the destroyed creature can’t be regenerated. A great choice for repeatable creature removal on our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
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 and become strong removal.
Mortarpod is a way to deal ping damage to creatures and players and even if we need to sacrifice the equipped creature, it has great synergy with our build and our Deathtouch strategy, since our 1/1 tokens with Deathtouch can become creature removal and on top of that we can easily trigger the last ability of Aphelia, Viper Whisperer. A great utility card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Serpent Assassin is a bit expensive but on ETB, we may destroy target nonblack creature, so it greatly fits our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons on combat damage to a player trigger, let us put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, which help us remove small threats, while at the same time she has “Whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, create a 1/1 green Snake creature token with deathtouch”. If we manage to give her evasion, she can be a great Snake Token creator, something that greatly helps our build. She works wonders with Persistent Constrictor, letting us quickly flood the board with Snakes. A great pick for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Xathrid Gorgon is a bit expensive but has a powerful ability that nullifies creatures by turning them to stone. By paying 
, we can put a petrification counter on target creature. It gains defender and becomes a colorless artifact in addition to its other types and its activated abilities can’t be activated. A powerful ability that can be repeated and greatly fits the flavor of our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Board Wipes
Hythonia the Cruel is too slow, but offers an one-sided board wipe, destroying all non-Gorgon creatures when she becomes monstous (by paying 
), so she greatly fits the flavor of our Snakes and Gorgons 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.
Rush of Dread is a flexible sorcery that has Spree (Choose one or more additional costs). at + target opponent sacrifices half the creatures they control, rounded up, at + target opponent discards half the cards in their hand, rounded up and at + Target opponent loses half their life, rounded up. Its power lies in flexibility. As a mass removal it is average, but in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal, its true power lies in the last option. Combined with the cards in our build that duplicate life loss, it can be a great finisher out of nowhere.
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
Sidisi, Regent of the Mire by and sacrificing a creature we control with mana value X other than Sidisi, let us return target creature card with mana value X plus 1 from our graveyard to the battlefield at sorcery speed. It is a kind of Birthing Pod for graveyard and it has no mana cost for activating its ability, so we can get amazing value from it. A great card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Sosuke’s Summons is an amazing card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal, as it can be recurred whenever a nontoken Snake we control enters, providing us with endless snakes. A top pick for our build.
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary has been already analized on the Ramp section of this article.
Graveyard Hate
Bojuka Bog is a staple for graveyard hate.
Vraska, the Silencer can also be used as a great Graveyard Hate card, as she can steal the best enemy creatures and turn them into our own Treasure trove.
Pharika, God of Affliction is a Legendary Enchantment Creature — God and can also be used as a great Graveyard Hate card, as by paying at instant speed, we exile target creature card from a graveyard and its owner creates a 1/1 black and green Snake enchantment creature token with deathtouch. In addition, we can also exile our own dead cards to use her as a repeatitive Snake Token creator. A top card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Tutors
Tower Winder is a tutor for Command Tower which is one of the best Lands available, which alone is cool. In addition it is a Snake with Reach and Deathtouch so it greatly fits in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Diabolic Tutor is a budget black tutor that is very useful in our build because we have various combo and we need consistency.
Protection
Prowling Serpopard is essential in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal as it makes all our Snakes and Gorgons immune to counterspells which is great in a creature-heavy deck.
Hexdrinker is a Snake Leveler, which levels up by paying and on level 3-7 becomes a 4/4 with Protection from instants, while on level 8+ it becomes a 6/6 with Protection from everything. It is worthy to be mentioned that Protection from everything also means it can’t be blocked by anything, so it has extra synergy with our Snakes and Gorgons build.
Saryth, the Viper’s Fang has great synergy with our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal as it works both as a mass deathtouch enabler and a board protector depending on tap/untap. A great utility card for our build.
Whispersilk Cloak works wonders in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal as it both protects our top priority creature with Shroud and makes it Unblockable which is essential for our build. A must-have card for our build.
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.
Rampaging Aetherhood is a Snake Hydra with Trample and Ward that essentialy doubles its stats at the beginning of our upkeep. It can quickly grow into a big threat and its build-in protection combined with Trample, could make it a hidden finisher.
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
Ohran Frostfang is a great card and draw engine for any green creature-heavy deck as it provides attacking creatures with Deathtouch and whenever a creature we control deals combat damage to a player, we draw a card. It is optimal in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal since it is a Snake and we have a Deathtouch Tribal subtheme. A must-have card for our build.
Seshiro the Anointed is a powerful Snake Lord, buffing other Snakes we control with +2/+2 and it becomes a draw engine in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal, since it has “Whenever a Snake you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card”. Another must-have card for our build.
Ohran Viper draw us a card whenever it deals combat damage to a player, while it essentially has Deathtouch, which makes blockers think twice. A great card for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Caustic Bronco on attack trigger, let us reveal the top card of our library and put it into our hand. It has Saddle 3 and we lose life equal to that card’s mana value if Caustic Bronco isn’t saddled. Otherwise, each opponent loses that much life. It can be a repeatable source of card draw, and needs a little setup to unlock its full potential. A nice inclusion in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Skullclamp is a card draw staple for decks with 1/1 creatures/tokens so it works wonders in our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal build since most Snake tokens are 1/1’s. A must-have card.
Driven // Despair is a flavorful choice for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal. Driven provides us with Card Draw and our creatures with Evasion (Trample), which has high synergy with our build. Despair give us another form of evasion (Menace) and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card”. The combination of card draw and evasion make it a great card for our build.
Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a legendary Squirrel that is a draw engine in any green creature-heavy deck. It is durable (Indestructible), it attacks each turn and turns our combat damage to a player into card draw.
Moldervine Reclamation is a card draw engine on token decks and we have many small Snake tokens on our build.
Deathreap Ritual can easily trigger with all our Deathtouch Snakes and Gorgons, thus becoming a great repeatable card draw source.
Vraska Joins Up is a Legendary Enchantment that has “Whenever a legendary creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card”. Our commander is very cheap and we also run enough Legendary creatures to multiply its value. Moreover, on ETB we put a Deathtouch counter on each creature we control which greatly synergizes with our Deathtouch Tribal subtheme. A great pick for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Aphelia, Viper Whisperer is the backbone of our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal. She is our number one finisher, as her last ability works both with Snakes and Gorgons and instantly becomes fatal with cards that douplicate Life loss.
Fynn, the Fangbearer works wonders in a deck full of Deathtouch creatures since every creature with Deathtouch that deal damage to a player forces that player to get 2 poison counters. With him, our Snakes and Gorgons become a huge threat.
Bloodletter of Aclazotz, Wound Reflection and Warlock Class (needs Level 3), are powerful cards that douplicate Life loss. Combined with abilities that make an opponent to loose half his Life, they become lethal.
Grievous Wound, Rush of Dread and Quietus Spike are powerful cards that make an opponent to loose half his Life, so combined with cards that douplicate Life loss, they become lethal.
Lethal Combo (trigger by doing any damage to player)
Other synergy pieces
Great Snakes
Stonecoil Serpent is a valuable Snake for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal, as it has flexible mana cost and can always be played on curve, while it also has Reach, Trample and protection from multicolored. A great pick for our build.
Pharika’s Chosen and Wasteland Viper are cheap Snakes with Deathtouch, so they naturally fit our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Other
Cobra Trap is meant to be played with its alternate cost. For , it is a super effective Snake Token creator. A nice pick for our Snakes and Gorgons Tribal.
Maskwood Nexus helps a lot with consistency in our deck since we’re playing both Snakes and Gorgons, ensuring that all our creatures are both. That helps in many occasions and we can get the benefits of each Tribe for all our creatures. Another cool interaction is with Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro that turns all our creatures into powerful mana generators (Since they are all Shamans too). Moreover, it also works as a Snake/Gorgon token creator by paying 
, for a 2/2 changeling. A great utility card for our build.
Snake Token Creators : 8 cards
Deathtouch Strategy: 16 cards
Pharika’s Chosen, Wasteland Viper, Aphelia, Viper Whisperer, Ambush Viper, Fynn, the Fangbearer, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Tower Winder, Hooded Blightfang, Pharika, God of Affliction, Vraska, the Silencer, Saryth, the Viper’s Fang, Ohran Frostfang, Hythonia the Cruel, Xathrid Gorgon, Quietus Spike, Vraska Joins Up
Wasteland Viper by paying and discarding it at instant speed, also provides Deathtouch along with a +1/+2 buff until end of turn to target attacking creature. Pharika, God of Affliction, Aphelia, Viper Whisperer and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons create Snake Tokens with Deathtouch.
Evasion Strategy / Direct Damage: 16 cards
Changeling Outcast deserves a special mention as it has unblockable and being a changeling means that it is both a Snake and a Gorgon. A top pick for our build! Mortarpod and Viridian Longbow help our Snakes and Gorgons deal direct damage to an opponent triggering our finishers.
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 2 and 6 positions and an abscence of high mana drops (7+).
Card Type Distribution
The Snakes and Gorgons Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 36 creatures. All other categories have a smaller presence with Enchantments at 9, Artifacts at 11, Instants at 5 and Sorceries at 8 No Battles and Planeswalkers 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 Aphelia, Viper Whisperer and the Snake Tokens with Deathtouch she creates plus her finisher ability, our strategies are much more consistent.
Update v1 (Tarkir: Dragonstorm)
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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.
