If you like to summon the best arcane masters at your command, on a quest for power, then Wizard Tribal is the right deck for you! Let’s see how the master wizards can teach our opponents a lesson!
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.
Wizard is a creature class introduced in Alpha with Prodigal Sorcerer. It is the primary blue spellcaster. Wizards are masters of channeling mana into powerful spells. They are ubiquitous throughout the known multiverse and are known to nearly every race. (source MTG Wiki)
Back to 2017, with the release of Arcane Wizardry, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist came to MtG, offering us the ultimate Wizard Tribal commander. Although her ability that let us tap five untapped Wizards we control at instant speed to make target player lose 7 life is quite strong, her true power comes from her Eminence ability : Whenever another nontoken Wizard enters the battlefield under our control, we may pay 
to create a token with Haste that’s a copy of that Wizard that is exiled at the beginning of the next end step. That makes her the ultimate Wizard doubler and one of the best Wizards to lead Wizard Tribal.
It is worthy to be mentioned that Inalla’s Eminence work wonders with ETB as we can get double ETB and multiply our benefits. Moreover, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is a commander that favors multiple combos, either limited, or infinite. Wizards sure know how to do some tricks and Inalla is the ideal Archmage to probe the depths of the darkest sorceries.
Although you can call it a precon upgrade, my build is more a precon remake than an upgrade so you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
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.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Wizards. Our priority is to add the ones that have powerful ETB effects.
- Add Wizard Tribal Support. Cards that have Wizard Tribal synergy are great additions for our build.
- Add cards that support and synergize Bounce and/0r Blink strategies. Cards with Self-Bounce and Blink result in more ETB, while Wizards that Bounce opponent targets on ETB can be duplicated for super value.
- Add cards that take advantage of Inalla’s Eminence ability to create powerful combo.
- 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 greatly fit the Cat Tribal theme.
The deck:
Wizard Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
10 Ramp: Stonybrook Banneret , Sol Ring , Herald’s Horn , Patchwork Banner , Arcane Signet , Ruthless Technomancer , Talisman of Creativity , Rakdos Signet , Izzet Signet , Dimir Signet
16 Target Removal: Aether Channeler , Step Through , Wizard’s Retort , Sage’s Dousing , Ertai Resurrected , Venser, Shaper Savant , Galecaster Colossus , Aether Adept , Barrin, Tolarian Archmage, Beguiler of Wills, Patron Wizard, Vindictive Lich, Flame of Anor, Crosis’s Charm, Basalt Ravager, Spikefield Hazard (ping)
3 Board Wipes: Cyclone Summoner , Kindred Dominance , Profaner of the Dead
6 Graveyard Recursion: Bloodline Necromancer , Archaeomancer , Apprentice Necromancer, Marchesa, the Black Rose (kinda), Havengul Lich, Ruthless Technomancer
3 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog , Puppeteer Clique , Havengul Lich
4 Tutors: Step Through , Vedalken Aethermage , Tribute Mage , Trophy Mage
8 Protection: Wizard’s Retort , Sage’s Dousing , Ertai Resurrected , Venser, Shaper Savant , Patron Wizard , Archmage of Echoes (self-protection), Teferi’s Veil, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
13 Card Draw: Aether Channeler , Azami, Lady of Scrolls , Sage’s Dousing (1/2), Sea Gate Oracle , Watcher for Tomorrow (kinda), Cloudkin Seer , Shadowmage Infiltrator , Barrin, Tolarian Archmage , Sage of Fables , Pol Jamaar, Illusionist , Herald’s Horn, Seething Landscape (1/2), Dour Port-Mage, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
6 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Inalla, Archmage Ritualist , Wanderwine Prophets , Mistbind Clique , Vindictive Lich, Timestream Navigator, Vela the Night-Clad
As we see from the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and seven categories are above the optimal max average. We see a great spike in Target Removal category at 16 that is merely a result of our Bounce strategy, while Protection at 8, Card Draw at 13, Graveyard Recursion at 6, Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions at 6 and Tutors at 4 are highlights of our Wizard Tribal.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Stonybrook Banneret is a cost reducer for both Wizard and Merfolk Tribal decks. In addition it as Islandwalk which is a nice bonus.
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 Wizard Tribal!
Herald’s Horn is great for every creature tribal deck. It works both as ramp and a kind of card draw, so it is very valuable for our Wizard Tribal.
Ruthless Technomancer has great synergy with our Wizard Tribal as on ETB, we may sacrifice another creature we control to create a number of Treasure tokens equal to that creature’s power. With Inalla, we can get double treasure! Moreover, it can help with grave recursion, as by paying 
and sacrificing X artifacts at instant speed, we can return target creature card with power X or less from our graveyard to the battlefield. Great utility card!
Target Removal
Bounce Target : 7 cards
Aether Channeler is a great flexible card, as it can be used for token creation and card draw as well. Step Through is average as a bounce card, but an excellent Wizard tutor. Venser, Shaper Savant is powerfull as it has Flash and can be used at instant speed and can target both spells and permanents. Galecaster Colossus is expensive but has great Wizard Tribal synergy as it can be used for repeatable opponent target permanent bouncing by just tapping an untapped Wizard. Barrin, Tolarian Archmage can target Planeswalkers and creatures and has bounce synergy (turning self-bounce into card draw) and Crosis’s Charm can also remove nonblack creatures and artifacts by destroying them.
Counter : 4 cards
Wizard’s Retort in a Wizard Tribal deck where we control a Wizard most of the time, it becomes a Counterspell, while being 10x cheaper. Sage’s Dousing costs a bit more and has a worse counter effect, but in Wizard Tribal it will also let us draw a card and on top of that it is a Wizard Tribal Instant so it can be tutored by Wizard tutors. Ertai Resurrected on ETB and at instant speed, can be used either to counter target spell, activated ability, triggered ability, or to destroy another target creature or planeswalker (with the only drawback that its controller draws a card). Patron Wizard works wonders in Wizard Tribal, as by tapping an untapped Wizard we control, we counter target spell unless its controller pays , making him a top addition to our build with high synergy and power.
Beguiler of Wills has a powerful control ability as by 
, we gain control of target creature with power less than or equal to the number of creatures we control. A great target for Inalla and a great addition to our Wizard Tribal.
Vindictive Lich has a powerful ETB that becomes stronger in a 4-player table as we can choose all three modes if each one target a different player. It is flexible and although it does not seem optimal either as removal or as a finisher, with Inalla it can duplicate its effectiveness and become a great option for our Wizard Tribal.
Flame of Anor is an amazing flexible spell that can be used either for removal (creature/artifact) or for card draw. It has Wizard Tribal synergy as if we control a Wizard we can choose two modes so we can get double value. A top pick for our build.
Basalt Ravager has a powerful ETB and works well with our Wizard Tribal build as it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Wizards we control. We can copy it with Inalla to get double value.
Board Wipes
Cyclone Summoner on ETB acts as an one-sided board wipe, as (if we cast it from our hand) we return all permanents to their owners’ hands except for Giants, Wizards, and lands. Optimal mass removal option for both Giant and Wizard Tribal.
Kindred Dominance is the ultimate removal for all tribal decks that have black in their color identity, since it is an one sided board wipe, destroying all other creatures and leaving our board intact.
Profaner of the Dead has great synergy with our Wizard Tribal as with Inalla’s dublication, it can always act as an one-sided board wipe for creatures with toughness 2 or less and has great potential for being much better.
Graveyard Recursion
Bloodline Necromancer on ETB let us return a Vampire or Wizard creature from our graveyard to the battlefield. A useful recursion tool for both Wizard and Vampire Tribal, but gets optimal in our Wizard Tribal build due to Inalla’s duplication.
Archaeomancer on ETB returns target instant or sorcery card from our graveyard to your hand. Although we run few spells in our Wizard Tribal, most of them are powerful, so Archaeomancer worth a slot in our build.
Apprentice Necromancer by paying , and sacrificing it at instant speed, it let us return target creature card from our graveyard to the battlefield with Haste. Even if we have to sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step, that is a quite strong recursion ability and it enables a nice power play with Inalla, where if we have enough mana we can copy both Apprentice Necromancer and the recursion targets to get multiple value over two turns.
Marchesa, the Black Rose has Dethrone and give other creatures we control Dethrone, which works wonders with her last ability: “Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step”. Not only we recur our Wirards, but with Inalla, we can copy them, getting double value from ETB among other benefits. A great utility card for our Wizard Tribal.
Havengul Lich is an amazing recursion engine, as by paying at instant speed, it let us cast target creature card in a graveyard this turn. It also copies all activated abilities of that card until end of turn. In addition, it can be used as a kind of graveyard hate card as it does not specify our graveyard so we can steal the best creatures of our opponents. A great pick for our Wizard Tribal.
Graveyard Hate
Bojuka Bog is a staple for graveyard hate.
Puppeteer Clique has Wizard Tribal synergy since it is a Wizard and it is a great tool for removing on EtB the best creatures of our opponent graveyards and putting them on the battlefield under our control with haste until end of turn. It also has great bounce strategy synergy as we can get multiple value by many EtB triggers.
Tutors
Step Through has Wizardcycling and Vedalken Aethermage Wizardcycling
and that makes them excellent Wizard tutors. Must-have for Wizard Tribal.
Tribute Mage and Trophy Mage on ETB let us search our library for an artifact card with mana value 2 (Tribute Mage) and 3 (Trophy Mage), reveal that card and put it into your hand, so they are very valuable to our Wizard Tribal since we can get specific mana and/or utility artifacts. They synergize well with Inalla too giving us a chance to get super value.
Protection
Counter : 4 cards
All our counterspells also act as protection spells too if needed.
Venser, Shaper Savant can also bounce spells as we have already mentioned before in this article. Another thing to notice, is that this works against a spell that can’t be countered.
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor is a great protection card as she makes spells our opponents cast that target a creature or planeswalker we control cost more to cast. Moreover, at −2 we create a 2/2 blue Wizard creature token, draw a card, then discard a card, which helps us a bit with card draw and board presence. A nice utility card for our Wizard Tribal.
Teferi’s Veil is an amazing utility card for our Wizard Tribal. It can be used both as a way to protect our Wizards on our opponent’s turn, but also as a way to avoid the exiling of the temporary tokens, as after attacking they phase out at end of combat (that is before the beginning of our next end step, thus we are keeping them for good). One of my favorite picks for our Wizard Tribal.
Card Draw
Azami, Lady of Scrolls is a top card for our build as it has great Wizard Tribal synergy and becomes a draw engine in our deck, as by tapping an untapped Wizard we control, we draw a card.
Draw on ETB : 4 cards
Draw on ETB is a great option for our Wizard Tribal as with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist we can pay to duplicate our Wizards and get double the ETB. Sea Gate Oracle also offers us card filtering. Pol Jamaar, Illusionist provides amazing draw for our Wizard Tribal. On ETB we draw a card for each Wizard we control which is great and we can get insane value with duplication effects and bounce. A top card for our build.
Watcher for Tomorrow has Hideaway 4 and although by itself it is not optimal (since to get the card it needs to leave the battlefield) it has great synergy with Inalla. The copy leaves the battlefield at the beggining of our end step so we get more instant value.
Shadowmage Infiltrator a nice addition to our Wizard Tribal. It let us draw a card on player combat damage trigger, but the fact that it has Fear helps a lot. Copying it with Inalla, gives its copy Haste so ge can get instant value.
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage has great bounce synergy as it has “At the beginning of your end step, if a permanent was put into your hand from the battlefield this turn, draw a card”. Being able to bounce a creature or planeswalker on ETB help us get instant value and with duplication effects he can do some crazy stuff, getting many bounce triggers, ETB triggers and draw many cards. A top card for our Wizard Tribal.
Dour Port-Mage has also great bounce synergy, but also works whenever a temporary duplicate token is exiled and that makes it an amazing draw engine for our Wizard Tribal. Moreover, by paying 
, wee return another target creature we control to its our hand. A top card for our build.
Sage of Fables has great Wizard Tribal synergy as on other Wizard ETB, we put a +1/+1 counter on it and by paying 2 and removing a +1/+1 counter from a creature we control, we draw a card. In addition it has nice synergy with Marchesa, the Black Rose as those +1/+1 counters can prove even more useful.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Vela the Night-Clad has Intimidate and gives other creatures we control intimidate, which alone is very strong evasion and in a creature-heavy deck such as our Wizard Tribal can be a potential finisher. Moreover, it has synergy with bounce and exiling of our copy tokens, as it drains our opponents whenever a creature we control leaves the battlefield.
Infinite Combo
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist as we have already analized, can also act a finisher. By tapping five untapped Wizards we control at instant speed, target player loses 7 life. We can use her ability multiple times as long as we have enough Wizards and that makes our commander an ideal leader for Wizard Tribal! She is also part of many combo in our deck, some of which are infinite combo and will be analized below.
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist + Bloodline Necromancer + Ruthless Technomancer results in infinite colored mana, infinite creature tokens with haste, infinite death triggers, infinite ETB, infinite lifeloss, infinite LTB, infinite sacrifice triggers and infinite Treasure tokens. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
Wanderwine Prophets is a part of two infinite combo:
- Wanderwine Prophets + Inalla, Archmage Ritualist results in infinite combat damage to opponents and infinite turns. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
- Wanderwine Prophets + Molten Echoes results in infinite turns, infinite LTB and Infinite ETB. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
A top inclusion for our Wizard Tribal.
Mistbind Clique is part of an infinite combo with Molten Echoes and results in infinite LTB and infinite ETB. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC). If we add to that Vela the Night-Clad our infinite LTB become infinite drain and finish the game. Moreover, if we cast it on an opponent’s turn, and play the same (but not infinite) pattern with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, we can still tap all lands target player controls which is considered a soft lock. Another top inclusion for our Wizard Tribal.
Timestream Navigator is part of four Infinite combo.
- Timestream Navigator + Riptide Laboratory + Inalla, Archmage Ritualist results in infinite turns. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
- Timestream Navigator + Molten Echoes + Riptide Laboratory results in infinite turns. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
- Timestream Navigator + Reflections of Littjara + Riptide Laboratory results in infinite turns. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
- Timestream Navigator + Archmage of Echoes + Riptide Laboratory results in infinite turns. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
A top combo material and another top inclusion for our Wizard Tribal.
There are more infinite combo in our deck, even from cards that we cannot count alone as finishers.
Bloodline Necromancer + Molten Echoes + Viscera Seer results in infinite creature tokens with haste, infinite death triggers, infinite ETB, infinite LTB, infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite scry 1 and return all Vampires and Wizards from our graveyard to the battlefield. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
Dualcaster Mage + Ghostly Flicker results in infinite blinking of creatures, artifacts and lands we control, infinite ETB, infinite landfall triggers, infinite LTB, infinite magecraft triggers, infinite mana artifacts we control can produce and infinite mana lands we control that enter the battlefield untapped can produce. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
Naru Meha, Master Wizard + Ghostly Flicker results in infinite ETB, infinite landfall triggers, infinite LTB, infinite magecraft triggers and infinite mana lands we control can produce. The combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC).
Other synergy pieces
Great Wizards
Viscera Seer is a great 1-drop for Wizard Tribal as it offers us a sacrifice outlet, which is crucial for some combo, but also works great with Wizard duplicants that are expendible anyway, offering us Scry 1 which is great for topdeck manipulation.
Dualcaster Mage is a staple for spellslinger builds for being very flexible as it can copy target instant or sorcery spell and let us choose new targets for the copy. In addition it is a combo material. In our build, it has Wizard Tribal synergy and we can get further value by duplicating it.
Umara Wizard is a MDFC Land card that can be cast as a Merfolk Wizard with “Whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or Wizard spell, Umara Wizard gains flying until end of turn”. A nice addition to our Wizard Tribal.
Doublers : 7 cards
We see that we have a strong doubling strategy. Inalla, Archmage Ritualist with her Eminence is the core part of our build, but we have othr power ability/trigger/creature doublers that can elevate our game to a higher power level and optimal effectiveness. Molten Echoes is a great card with high synergy with our Wizard Tribal and a combo part in many of our infinite combo.
Wizard Tribal Lord effects / buffs : 4 cards
Naru Meha, Master Wizard can also copy target instant or sorcery spell we control on ETB and has Flash so she is a great pick for our Wizard Tribal. Docent of Perfection needs to be transformed into Final Iteration but its effect is a strong one: Wizards we control get +2/+1 and have Flying.
Keep the duplicate tokens : 3 cards
Obeka, Brute Chronologist has many uses and one of the best of them in our Wizard Tribal is ending the turn before the next end step, so we can prevent the exile of our duplicate tokens. The Master, Multiplied prevents sacrifice and exile of our tokens by triggered abilities and also negates the “legend rule”, making us able to copy Legendary Wizards and keep the copies. Works wonders with our Wizard Tribal. Teferi’s Veil has been analized before in this article (see Protection category).
Wizard Color Fixers
Those are budget Lands that work great in Wizard 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 a bit more midrange than average. There are more drops at positions 3-5 and less drops at positions 1-2. There is also an absence of 8+ drops.
Card Type Distribution
The Wizard Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant creature-heavy theme with 46 creatures. Artifacts follow at 9 and all other categories have a much smaller presence with Instants at 6, Enchantments at 3, Sorceries at 2 and Planeswalkers at 1. No Battles are present for 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 our commander Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, and her powerful Eminence ability that is always available, combined with our Bounce strategy cal lead to multiple ETB and raise the effectiveness of our Wizards to be much higher levels than the one the numbers show. Inalla’s Eminence has high gravity in our build and provides us with high power, synergy and a unique playstyle.
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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.
