If you like to command the shadows and summon The Nine to turn hope to despair and victory to death, then Wraith Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can call the Nazgûl to bring ruin upon our opponents.
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.
Wraith is a black creature type used for cards that depict spirit-like apparitions that are supposed to portend the death of their beholder. These spectral undead are often shown wearing a hooded cloak that partially obscures their face (or lack thereof). The first card to bear the type was Bog Wraith in Alpha. All classic black wraiths had Swampwalk. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth features the nine ring-wraiths, or Nazgûl.(source: MtG Wiki)
Along with the nine Nazgûl, came some notable Wraith cards and among them is Lord of the Nazgûl, a powerful and unique commander that is perfect for Wraith Tribal and supports builds around instant and sorcery spells, since on cast we get a 3/3 black Wraith creature token with Menace. The absolute best part is that if we control nine or more Wraiths, Wraiths we control become 9/9 until end of turn, an excellent finisher ability that may be not that hard to trigger with a proper build. Moreover, it comes with a special ability that gives Wraiths we control protection from Ring-bearers, a condition that makes our build perfect for using the Ring tempts you ability and that is flavorful.
In our Wraith tribal build, we try to abuse the abilities of our commander, casting cantrips and low mana cost spells to quickly fill our board with nine Wraiths and bring death and despair to our opponents. In addition, Wraith creature cards, clones and shapeshifters can also help us. With a proper balance, building a Wraith army can be easier than it seems and under the command of Lord of the Nazgûl, we can make them an unstoppable force.
Synergy Diagram
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Wraiths. Our priority is to add the most powerful ones.
- Add Wraith Tribal support. Cards that support Wraith Tribal seem a great choice for our build. Cards that create Wraiths are also valuable.
- Add a considerable amount of cantrips and cheap spells. Since our build is build around Lord of the Nazgûl, we need many low mana cost instants/sorceries to be able to quickly summon many Wraiths.
- Add grave recursion spells. Since there are no many creature Wraiths, we need to be able to recur our Wraiths and if that spells are instants or sorceries, we even get more free Wraiths with the help of our commander. It is worthy to mention here that instants and sorceries with self recursion abilities like the rebound ability, are extremely useful for our build since we can get double the free Wraiths from them.
- 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 Wraith tribal theme.
The deck:
Wraith Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
33 Lands
11 Ramp: Canoptek Wraith , Black Market Connections , Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Dimir Signet , Talisman of Dominance , Patchwork Banner, Inherited Envelope , Myriad Landscape , Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch , Dark Ritual, Glamdring
13 Target Removal: Witch-king of Angmar (kinda), Ringwraiths , Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin , Swan Song , Glorious Gale , Counterspell , Feed the Swarm , Snap , Soothing of Sméagol, Negate, Go for the Throat, Sink into Stupor, Fell the Profane
2 Board Wipes: Crippling Fear , Decree of Pain
9 Graveyard Recursion: Ringwraiths (self-recursion), Sauron, the Necromancer, Sam’s Desperate Rescue, Echoing Return, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch, Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy, Rod of Absorption (not graveyard but it is a special recursion from exile), Rona, Sheoldred’s Faithful (self-recursion)
3 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog , Cremate, Rod of Absorption (instants and sorceries)
2 Tutors: Ringsight , Waterlogged Teachings
12 Protection: Lord of the Nazgûl (from Ring-bearers), Roaming Throne (self-protection), Witch-king of Angmar (self-protection), Swan Song , Counterspell , Snap, Soothing of Sméagol, Negate, Mithril Coat, Lightning Greaves, The One Ring (player), Swiftfoot Boots
14 Card Draw: Opt (1/2), Birthday Escape (1/2), Consider (1/2), Call of the Ring , Archmage Emeritus , Sauron’s Ransom , Black Market Connections , Brainstorm , Gandalf, Friend of the Shire , Decree of Pain, Frantic Search, The One Ring, Distant Melody, Cremate (1/2), Night’s Whisper, Gríma, Saruman’s Footman (card advantage)
2 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Lord of the Nazgûl , Soulblade Djinn
As we see from the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and five categories are above the optimal max average. We see three great spikes, Card draw at 14.5, Protection at 12 and Graveyard Recursion at 9 to be the highlights of the deck.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Canoptek Wraith is ideal for Wraith Tribal since it is a Wraith and helps in ramp which is very welcome in a deck that has no access to green. It is able to fetch 2 basic lands with the same name as a land we control into the battlefield tapped, as long as we sacrifice it and pay 
after it deals damage to a player. Because it can’t be blocked it is better than it sounds.
Black Market Connections is a powerful card since it serves many purposes. It can be repeatedly used as: 1) ramp by creating Treasure tokens 2) card draw 3) for creating Shapeshifter creature tokens with changeling that count as Wraiths. The life loss is not a big problem in commander. Amazing utility card and the last ability is very strong for our Wraith Tribal build.
Inherited Envelope has synergy with our the Ring tempts you strategy and is a classic 3 mana rock. It also fits the flavor or our deck.
Dark Ritual is a classic black ramp spell that greatly fits our build because it is both a cheap instant that triggers Lord of the Nazgûl Wraith creation and at the same time it help us cast more spells. Greatly fits the flavor of the deck too.
Glamdring provides first strike and +1/+0 for each instant and sorcery card in our graveyard that greatly fits our cantrip strategy. Moreover, whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, we may cast an instant or sorcery spell from our hand with mana value less than or equal to that damage without paying its mana cost so it help us cast free spells too.
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 Wraith Tribal!
Target Removal
Both Witch-king of Angmar and Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin cause opponents to sacrifice creatures. Witch-king of Angmar punishes opponents each time they deal damage to us while Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin on attack trigger causes defending player to sacrifice a creature with the least power among creatures they control. Both are powerful Wraiths and a must-have for Wraith Tribal.
Ringwraiths on EtB causes target creature an opponent controls to get -3/-3 until end of turn. In addition if that creature is legendary, its controller loses 3 life. Moreover, it has self-recursion to our hand when “the Ring tempts you” and of course it greatly fits our Wraith Tribal as it is a Wraith Knight.
Swan Song, Glorious Gale, Counterspell and Negate are our counterspells and are great both for target removal and protection. Glorious Gale has “the Ring tempts you” synergy if it counters a legendary spell. All work well with our Cheap Spell strategy.
Feed the Swarm is a new staple and fits our deck since it has low mana value and can hit both creatures and enchantments.
Snap is a free removal and has greatly synergy with our deck since we can trigger a free Wraith creation from Lord of the Nazgûl. Soothing of Sméagol has similar utility, it costs 
but has “The Ring tempts you” so it has extra synergy with our build. Both can even be used for protection targeting our own creatures, so they are great utility cards.
Fell the Profane and Sink into Stupor are nice instant MDFCs for target removal and the best part is that they only take the place of lands. Great synergy for our Wraith Tribal!
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.
Decree of Pain is a flexible removal as we can cycle it for 
and it becomes a small board wipe, giving creatures -2/-2 until end of turn, or we can cast it for 
to destroy all creatures (plus they can’t be regenerated) and draw a card for each creature destroyed this way. Its flexibility makes it a nice choice.
Graveyard Recursion
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned is a powerful card that gives each instant and sorcery card in our graveyard flashback. (The flashback cost is equal to that card’s mana cost.) That works wonders with our Cantrip/Cheap Spell build since we can cast many of our dead spells again and proc many times the Wraith creation of Lord of the Nazgûl gaining extreme value. A key card for our Wraith Tribal.
Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch // Temple of Cyclical Time gives instant spells we cast from our hand rebound, letting us play them again for free at the beggining of our next upkeep. Of course that is extremely powerful in our build as we get multiple value and multiple Wraith tokens from Lord of the Nazgûl. Even upon death, Ojer Pakpatiq becomes a land that help us ramp until it is restored again to its previous form. Another key card for our Wraith Tribal.
Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy works wonders with our Cantrip/Cheap Spell strategy since he needs many low mana cost instants and sorceries to shine. Casting our spells again from our graveyard gives us multiple value and multiple Wraith tokens from Lord of the Nazgûl. Yet another key card for our Wraith tribal.
Rod of Absorption can be an amazing utility card, as it can potentially let us cast a great amount of instants and sorceries filling our board with Wraiths with the help of our commander. It practically absorbes instants and sorceries that are being cast by all players and let us cast any of them by sacrificing it and paying the sum of ther mana value and sacrificing it. It can be a kind of recursion for our dead spells and a powerhouse in our Wraith tribal.
Sauron, the Necromancer is a repeatable grave recursion tool for our creatures as on attack trigger he is creating tapped and attacking copies that are 3/3 Wraiths with menace. He has great synergy with “The Ring tempts you” strategy as if he becomes our Ring-bearer, those copies are not exiled at the beginning of our next end step but stay for good making him a must have for Wraith Tribal.
Echoing Return is a cheap graveyard recursion spell that has great synergy with Wraith Tribal since apart from having low mana cost, it can return all our Nazgûl at once and we run nine of them. A hidden diamond for our build!
Sam’s Desperate Rescue is another very cheap graveyard recursion spell and this one has synergy with “The Ring tempts you” strategy.
Graveyard Hate
Cremate is a nice cantrip that contributes in graveyard hate and our overall strategy.
Tutors
Ringsight is a great sorcery tutor for commander and has “The Ring tempts you” and a kinda low mana cost, contributing in many of our strategies.
Waterlogged Teachings is a nice instant tutor so it has great synergy with our cheap spell/cantrip strategy. Being a MDFC means it can also be played as a color fixing land. A great pick for Wraith Tribal!
Protection
The One Ring is a great utility artifact and a very powerful one. It gives us protection from everything until our next turn on EtB. In addition it has Indestructible so it is hard to be removed and with burden counters it slowly draws us more and more cards and drains our life in return. It greatly fits the flavor of our Wraith Tribal.
Our counterspells are great for protection too and can proc our commander to create more Wraith tokens.
Since our Wraith Tribal is build around Lord of the Nazgûl, we need to protect our commander as best as we can so we run some great protection equipment. Mithril Coat is a great new card that gives Indestructible at Instant speed (for legendary creatures) and greatly fits the LOTR theme of our deck.
Lord of the Nazgûl gives us protection from Ring-bearers which seems not a great deal, but is a nice bonus protection anyway and it greatly fit the flavor of our Wraith Tribal.
Card Draw
Call of the Ring has great synergy with “The Ring tempts you” strategy and it can become a draw engine in our Wraith Tribal build. Greatly flavor too.
Archmage Emeritus works wonders with our cheap instants and sorceries and can draw us multiple cards per turn.
Sauron’s Ransom is a great card for giving us card advantage and has “The Ring tempts you” so it fits many roles. Greatly fits the flavor of the deck too.
Opt, Consider, Cremate and Birthday Escape are cantrips that help us easily trigger the Wraith creation of Lord of the Nazgûl. Birthday Escape has also “The Ring tempts you” so it has high synergy with our Wraith Tribal build.
What if Gandalf, Friend of the Shire joined the dark lord? In our twisted version, with Gandalf on our side, our opponents stand no chance. He gives our sorceries flash which is quite strong and becomes a draw engine with “The Ring tempts you” strategy as long us we choose other Ring-bearers than him. He fits our LOTR theme and our strategy.
Frantic Search has great synergy with our Wraith Tribal as we get “Draw two cards, then discard two cards. Untap up to three lands.” and a free Wraith at instant speed, enabling us to play more spells and get more Wraiths.
Distant Melody is great in any creature tribal deck with blue color as all of them run a good number of creatures, thus providing us a good number of card draw. Our Wraith Tribal does not run many Wraiths but it creates a great number of Wraith tokens so we get a great Wraith number anyway.
Gríma, Saruman’s Footman can be a great source of card advantage as he can’t be blocked and on dealing combat damage to an opponent we steal an instant or sorcery from our opponent and may cast it for free. Amazing for our Wraith Tribal build and also fits the flavor of our deck.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Lord of the Nazgûl is our ultimate finisher. The whole deck is build around summoning nine Wraiths and unleash a devastating attack. The Wraiths will have minimum 9/9 and Wraith tokens have Menace which is a form of evasion so most times we will need no more setup. Sometimes we will have more than nine Wraiths and with higher stats and/or other abilities so the attack can be even more fearsome.
Soulblade Djinn can easily buff our Wraiths casting multiple cantrips in a turn and become an alternate finisher in absence of our commander. A nice backup plan that has great synergy with our strategy.
Other synergy pieces
Great Wraiths
Roaming Throne on EtB becomes the creature type we want so in Wraith Tribal it also becomes a Wraith. It has Ward
which helps protecting itself and it is a Tribal triggered ability doubler, so it has great synergy with Wraiths like Nazgûl and above all, with Lord of the Nazgûl since it doubles his Wraith token creation. Amazing utility card!
Other
Rona, Sheoldred’s Faithful and Mirkwood Bats are cards that help us drain the life of our opponents. Rona, Sheoldred’s Faithful is connected directly to our spellslinger strategy and has self-recursion, while Mirkwood Bats are connected indirectly to our spellslinger strategy as with Lord of the Nazgûl that is translated to creating Wraith tokens (but we have more token creators related to casting instants/sorceries so it can become even better).
Soulstone Sanctuary is a nice addition for Tribal builds but works better in a build like our Wraith Tribal. Being able to make it a Wraith by paying 
, can help us activate sooner and with more consistency the last part of the last ability of Lord of the Nazgûl.
Token creators with spellslinger synergy
Apart from Lord of the Nazgûl we run some other token creators related to our spellslinger strategy so that we have more ways to build our board. Talrand, Sky Summoner and Murmuring Mystic are classic cards for that strategy, while Alela, Cunning Conqueror fits perfect to our cantrips and cheap spells strategy.
Levitation is an enchantment that gives creatures we control flying and that makes our Wraith tokens to have double evasion (Flying and Menace) which helps us deliever finishing blows more consistently.
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 close to the average curve with the exception of more low mid mana drops on 3-4 drop positions and less high mid drops on 5-7 drop positions. That is a result of our low mana instants and sorceries strategy.
Card Type Distribution
The Wraith Tribal Card Type Distribution shows a balance between creatures (28) and spells (Instants at 17 + Sorceries at 10 = 27 total) and that is a result of both creature tribal focus and our spellslinger strategy. Artifacts at 12 are also an important part of our build as they are mostly ramp and utility cards. Enchantments have a much smaller presence at 3. Planeswalkers and Battles are not 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 all our strategies build around Lord of the Nazgûl, we have high chances to quickly summon nine Wraiths with the help of our commander, so the chances to finish the game are much more consistent than the statistics numbers shown.
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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.
