For the Casual Challenge, I actually had to put some of my decks away so as to not write about them. Sure, I could have written about my Vial Wizards deck or Goblin Aggro - but truthfully, who wants to read another article about tribes that already do well in this format? Instead, I decided to look at tribes that even casual players have a tendency to ignore. I'll also go over an elf deck that has no Wellwishers or Timberwatch Elves and wins by not attacking (and no, it's not an Elfball deck).

The first underused tribe I'll be looking at today is the Faerie tribe. In the few years I've been playing Magic, I've only ever met one other player who plays with a Faerie deck (and his had a set of four Berserks in it, making it much better than mine).

What most people don't realize is that Faeries are fast creatures with evasion abilities. This actually makes them perfect for the beatdown strategy. People may chuckle at your tribe choice...until you shove hulked-out Faeries down their throat.

Faerie Tribal Featured by Chris Hyde on 2005-06-05 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9827.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Bonesplitter Creatures 4 Argothian Pixies 4 Cloud of Faeries 4 Cloud Sprite 4 Scryb Sprites 4 Sea Sprite Enchantments 4 Rancor 4 Seal of Strength 4 Unstable Mutation	Instants 4 Ferocious Charge Basic Lands 7 Forest 8 Island Lands 4 Yavimaya Coast Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven	Stats: Average mana: 1.00 Average creature mana cost: 1.60 Average creature power: 1.20 Average creature toughness: 1.00 Deck Composition: Creatures: 33.33% Basic Lands: 25.00% Lands: 6.67% Instants: 6.67% Legendary Lands: 1.67% Artifacts: 6.67% Enchantments: 20.00%
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This deck only runs twenty lands, since it's aggro and has a curve that tops out at three. Basically, you play a Faerie and swing and pump until the opponent is dead. It sounds simple, but it's surprisingly effective.

Your first turn is usually spent dropping a flyer or an on-the-board creature pumper like Seal of Strength. Cloud of Faeries can make second turn a very explosive turn, either spitting out three Faeries total or two forms of cheap creature pump. Pendelhaven has obvious uses in this deck with the plethora of 1/1 creatures. Sea Sprites are a metagame choice, since I do expect lots of little red hasted men on the other side of the table in tribal wars. (If that became too much of a problem, then Weatherseed Faeries may find their way into the deck too.) Argothian Pixies don't have flying, but they can burst through any artifact creature based decks for the kill and are Masticore-proof.

The above list is the bare backbone of a Faerie deck. If you have more money, the Ferocious Charges can become Might of Oaks (you might want to add more lands, though), and the Bonesplitters can become the aforementioned Berserk. If you like to run more lands in your deck, then Overrun opens up as an option.

It's also important to note that Faeries actually do have two tribal leaders in Faerie Noble and Willow Priestess - that, while not used in this deck, can actually be pretty useful depending on the build. The Noble obviously helps the aggro strategy while also saving unprotected Faeries from the Tims of the world, and the Priestess stops any targeted black removal while potentially dropping Faeries into play at end of turn. Also, Faerie Conclave is another worthwhile addition to the deck, but it does slow down your aggro strategy and points the deck towards a more aggro-control style.

While Faeries actually have tribal cards, the next group I've sadly built a deck around has no tribal unity to speak of. It also has the added insult of containing one of the worst creatures ever printed.

I am speaking, of course, of the Imp tribe.

Imp Tribal Featured by Chris Hyde on 2005-06-05 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9827.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 2 Cackling Imp 2 Chimney Imp 4 Foul Imp 4 Hell's Caretaker 4 Nettling Imp 4 Putrid Imp Enchantments 4 Freed from the Real 4 Opposition	Instants 4 Dark Ritual Summons 4 Jumbo Imp Basic Lands 8 Swamp Lands 4 Polluted Delta 4 Tainted Isle 4 Underground River 4 Underground Sea	Stats: Average mana: 1.70 Average creature mana cost: 2.90 Average creature power: 1.30 Average creature toughness: 1.40 Deck Composition: Lands: 26.67% Enchantments: 13.33% Creatures: 33.33% Basic Lands: 13.33% Summons: 6.67% Instants: 6.67%
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Since the Imps have no tribal elder, Hell's caretaker was the most fitting creature I could find and has synergy with Freed from the Real (more on that in a bit).

Basically, the deck works like a fast beatdown deck in the early game with an imp at every part of the mana curve. I know some of the Imp choices may look a bit questionable (or, in Chimney Imp's case, very questionable) since there are better choices at those mana costs - but just bear with me for a moment and I'll explain.

First of all, for those of you who've never been killed by a 32/35 Phyrexian Walker or a 64/8 Elvish Impersonator as I have been, I will tell you about the loophole to the die roll cards from Unglued. Basically, the die has to be a six-sided die with six distinct sides used for gaming purposes. This description does not rule out Backgammon die (which have sides of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64). Also, in the case of Jumbo Imp, the card does not specify that you have to roll the same die for the two different rolls. So, with a Backgammon die for the first roll and a standard six sided die for the second, you can end up with a huge flying beatstick. With Dark Ritual, this can happen as early as turn 1.

(I make no guarantees to the legality of this claim, as it is Unglued world, but it's sufficiently amusing that I chose to allow it - The Ferrett)

Nettling Imp with Freed from the Real equals reusable creature removal once Opposition is on board. Cackling Imp and Freed from the real give the deck a reusable source of life loss as a finisher or to break through stalemates. Chimney Imp and Freed from the Real...

Umm...

I guess it spawns lots of bad jokes about "untappage."

On the other hand, Freed from the Real, Hell's Caretaker, and Chimney Imp in the graveyard, gives you a repeatable hand destruction effect you can play on your upkeep to deny draw phases to opponents.

I'll give you minute to let that sink in. Yes, I did just say you can use Chimney Imp to deny your opponent's draw phase.

A fun addition to deck could be Intruder Alarm, which not only makes the Chimney Imp lock less mana intensive, but also, provides an alternate win condition when Cackling Imp is in play. In fact the only reason I didn't include it main deck is that there are no less than five billion Intruder Alarm combos on the Internet (although this is probably the only one that involves Chimney Imp).

If you up the Blue mana count, Freed from the Real can be replaced by its superior (but less splashable) predecessor Pemmin's Aura. Overall, this deck doesn't win as much as the Faerie deck above (although it does have its share of "I win" moments) but it is much more successful in capturing the flavor of the Imp tribe. If you can get some of its combos to go off, you may even get your opponent to smile.

The last deck I'll talk about is one that uses a very popular creature type (elves) to do something very unpopular (win by making spells almost impossible to play).

Elf Prison Featured by Chris Hyde on 2005-06-05 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9827.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Ebony Owl Netsuke 4 Sphere of Resistance 4 Storm Cauldron 4 Trinisphere	Creatures 4 Elves of Deep Shadow 4 Fyndhorn Elves 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Priest of Titania 4 Skyshroud Ranger Instants 4 Storm Seeker Basic Lands 20 Forest	Stats: Average mana: 1.47 Average creature mana cost: 1.20 Average creature power: 1.00 Average creature toughness: 1.00 Deck Composition: Creatures: 33.33% Artifacts: 26.67% Basic Lands: 33.33% Instants: 6.67%
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Trinisphere may be a restricted card in Vintage - but in every other format it's legal as a four-of, and with twelve different elves capable of putting it out on the second turn it doesn't lose much of an impact, especially with Sphere of Resistance to back it up. Priest of Titania can break any semblance of symmetry left in the artifacts' effects, and Storm Cauldron not only makes it almost impossible for your opponent to play spells but also sets them up for a slow death by Owl or a fast one by Storm Seeker (two cards whose flavor I'm still trying to figure out).

A nice addition to the deck would be Aether Vial, but either the Owl or Stormseeker would have to go out for Vial to come in.

This deck is fun to play once or twice, but becomes very boring for both players after a few games, so I wouldn't recommend playing more than once or twice a night. In fact the only reason I built it was to have an elf deck that looked nothing like any other elf deck I may run across. (On a side note, I'm still trying to come up with a creative Goblin deck, and have failed miserably about eight times now.)

On the other hand, I think that's part of the fun of tribal. Anyone can stick a Coat of Arms in a deck and call it a day. The real fun comes in taking the established creature types and finding new ways to use them or finding underused ones and trying to have fun with them. In fact, I know between Fire Ants, Instill Energy, and Saber Ants, there lie the makings of a good insect deck. In fact, Ferropede is an insect too, so you could probably throw in Nature's Will, and Winter Orb to make a one-sided land lockdown. And don't even get me started on Shamans. The point is, there's a lot left to be explored - so have fun!

I know I will.