We don’t know a whole lot about Commander 2017 yet, but what we do know is that there are going to be tribes, meaning there are some cards that can go in just about any deck you build, provided it’s on-color. I’d like to talk today about some 75% tribal cards that may get overlooked and suggest you think about picking them up sooner rather than later, provided they aren’t reprinted.

Again, this isn’t one of Gathering Magic’s finance articles — I’ll leave that to the indomitable Jim Casale. However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t impart some good advice about how to handle the long gap between the set being fully previewed and people actually buying the cards for their new Commander decks. If you have a shopping list going into preview season, you can be ready to buy once you are sure the card isn’t going to be reprinted in Commander 2017 (thereby dropping its price since people can easily get lots of copies in the Commander 2017 precons) and you can be ahead of the wave of people buying those cards as they discover they want them in their decks. Maybe even buy two copies since the price is likely going up and you don’t want to pay more later. Remember, if you want a card for a tribal deck, it’s pretty likely other people will want that card, too. Let’s talk about some cards that are great in 75% tribal decks so we can be ready to go when preview season starts. I don’t need to tell you about Coat of Arms, but there are a few tribal goodies that are underutilized now that I think you should be aware of.

	This card is pretty slow, but I do love how reusable it is; and, if you have a good density of tribal cards in your deck, this gets you free creatures. Not bad for a bulk rare.
	This card sees some play in decks where tribal stuff really matters like General Tazri and Reaper King. I think it has potential in other tribal decks, though; and, with the advent of a ton of new cards where tribal affiliation was taken into account when the card was designed and new commanders to build around, this will find new homes. This has a lot of potential.
	A lot of people have latched on to Steely Resolve because it makes your tribal creatures harder to target and the price is moving up accordingly, but Cover of Darkness is still pretty cheap. Just like Steely Resolve isn’t Asceticism, this isn’t Intimidation, but it’s much better in a tribal deck. Making your creatures harder to block is useful, and you can deal a lot of damage easily if your tribal creatures are also getting tribal bonuses to power and toughness and stacking additional abilities. This is an under-the-radar card but it’s very good and perfect for a 75% build.
	This isn’t good in all tribal decks, certainly, but if you wanted a second Quicksilver Amulet in your deck, there you go.
	I know this card is probably bad but it is so appealing to me for some reason. I don’t want you to think that to build a 75% tribal deck you just jam bad cards, but in the right deck, this could draw you a few cards and serve as a permanent boost. Making a 6/6 dragon into a 7/7 isn’t great, but making 37 Saprolings into 2/2s can get there. I don’t hate this guy and he’s CHEAP.
	Finally, a good cohort ability.
	Not everyone is aware of this card and how many cards it can draw you in most tribal decks. Wizards and Faeries players are of course already on board but this is a great pairing for a go-wide tribal strategy and can dig very deep into your deck for you.
	I bet you had to read this one. I am a big fan of elf cards that work in non-elf decks. Bloodline Shaman is another one I couldn’t ever get to work the way I wanted but which didn’t have to go in elves, which was good at least. Soultiller can do a ton of work keeping your library packed full of your fallen brethren and keeping you from getting poached by spells like Rise of the Dark Realms.
	It’s no secret I’m a fan of Wrath effects with upside. Your opponents get to keep either their best creature or some members of their best tribe, but you also get to keep a lot more creatures, usually, because you built with this card in mind. This is a cheap wrath that can sometimes leave your whole board alone. I’d pay attention.
	It may seem obvious to pick up cards that boost the power and toughness of your creatures but this card was a bulk rare for a long time and it was easy to snatch up lots of copies. I don’t see this getting reprinted in C17; and, if it’s not, this will be a good card to pick up. It’s kind of expensive for an anthem, but I like being able to subsidize the cost by tapping summoning-sick creatures. Stock up.
	This is a pet card of mine but I like to keep mentioning it. This can be good in a tribal deck, morphing into a creature in that tribe. This can also be great if there is only one Eldrazi in the whole deck. I love this card and more tribal decks got me thinking about this again.
	When this was previewed, it drew a lot of comparisons to Coat of Arms, which was not correct. What this does do is endow one creature with the power to really clobber someone depending on which tribe you’re running and how many members of that tribe are cheering you on. This is cheap to play and equip and can turn one small, lowly creature into a pretty big bruiser. This isn’t for every tribal deck but it’s a bulk rare that packs a lot of wallop for the cost.
	This is a poor man’s Craterhoof Behemoth, but it still packs a wallop. If you have a lot of small creatures that don’t look that threatening and want to triple their power in response to blockers or just make there be enough combat damage on the board that everyone declares you the winner without you having to do any math, this is your card.
	“Stop being alive, now.”
	This is a hard sell most times because you’re not guaranteed to hit a ton with it; plus, you have to choose a player meaning you don’t get as much value out of it as you would with something like Damnation. Still, with more tribal decks popping up, be aware of a card like this.
	Similar to Conspiracy, this is a card for making sure you get tribal bonuses every time even if you run some off-tribe utility creatures or make generic tokens.

I think there is some combo and synergy potential with a few of these cards. Remember, we’re getting 15 new cards per deck and not all of them are weird cat/dragon hybrids; some of them are spells that will synergize with tribal decks. Could one of those spells break something like Xenograft or Call to the Kindred wide open? I don’t know, but what I do know is that there are a lot more tribal cards than Coat of Arms and Descendants' Path. Watch the previews as they come in with cards like this in mind and if your card isn’t available for cheaper in the Commander 2017 decks, you might want to buy it before others snap them up.

Also, as a quick aside, I’ve said this before a few different places, but pay particular attention to Mana Echoes and Patriarch's Bidding. Mana Echoes is on the upswing in price already with the advent of The Locust God, but it has even more upside if it’s not included in the Commander 2017 precon. Those cards in particular are likely to become prohibitively expensive if they don’t get a reprint this fall, sort of like what Phyrexian Altar did in 2015 when it wasn’t printed in the Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck.

That’s all for me, everyone. Join me next week where we’ll be brewing a deck — maybe one of yours. Send me a decklist if you’d like me to take a look, hit me up in the comments section and remember to like and share this piece on social media. Thanks for reading, everyone. Until next time!