For Tribal Wars, it's usually a clear-cut choice: Color X means you play with tribe Y. Black is Zombies, Red is Goblins, Blue is Merfolk, and Green is Elves. Occasionally, you'll get a Black or White Cleric deck, or a multi-colored Wizard deck.

But there are plenty of other options out there! Here, I'll go into the Green and the Black alternate choices, from the Very Old School. Even though there are no red decks in here, I will assume that the creature-type hoser An-Zerrin Ruins is also unacceptable in Tribal Wars.

The much-maligned expansion Fallen Empires was the first expansion to have multiple themes for creature cards. Sure, green had some Elves in there, but the main green creature type of the expansion was Thallids.

These fungi were supposed to be even more in tune with the forest than the elves were. However, future expansions have shown that the elves came out victorious. Although Saprolings have survived, Thallids are a mere footnote in history. It's always fun to put together a Thallid deck, and Tribal Wars gives you just the excuse you need.

Thallids Featured by James Sambrook on 2005-05-29 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9796.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Feral Thallid 4 Spore Flower 4 Thallid 3 Thallid Devourer 2 Thelonite Druid 4 Thorn Thallid Enchantments 4 Eladamri's Vineyard 4 Fungal Bloom 3 Night Soil	Legendary Creatures 2 Kaysa 2 Nemata, Grove Guardian 2 Verdeloth the Ancient World Enchantments 4 Arboria Basic Lands 20 Forest	Stats: Average mana: 2.05 Average creature mana cost: 3.50 Average creature power: 2.23 Average creature toughness: 2.42 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 32.79% Legendary Creatures: 9.84% Creatures: 32.79% Enchantments: 18.03% World Enchantments: 6.56%
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As anyone who has ever played a Thallid Deck (well, anyone who will admit to having played a Thallid deck) will tell you, Fungal Bloom is key. Normally, each of your Fungus critters get one counter during your upkeep. With Fungal Bloom, you can add a spore counter for GG at any time. Eladamri's Vineyard gives you GG at the start of your main phase. You can use that mana to put a spore counter on any of your Thallids, and give your opponents two points of mana burn if they can't spend it on anything.

Night Soil prevents Reanimator-style decks (Black zombies, I'm looking in your direction!) from playing nasty tricks with their graveyard. Suck out two of the creatures they just sacrificed, remove them from the game, and put another 1/1 token into play on your side.

Arboria is a very nice enchantment in this deck. It's an Enchant World from Legends that states “Creatures can't attack a player who didn't play a spell and didn't put a card into play during his or her last turn.” You can remove three spore counters from your Thallids or Thallid Devourer during your opponent's turn to put a Saproling into play, and still get the full protection of Arboria since the token didn't come into play during your turn. If you do need to play something, be sure that you've got your Spore Flower charged up to Fog your opponent's attack. And for true fun, ping your opponent with the Thorn Thallid twenty times until they die. They'll never be able to look you in the face again.

Thankfully, the game-enders in this deck do not include the Thorn Thallid. Instead, they're the two treefolk Legends who each give Saprolings a boost and a Green card that really should get more use:

Thelonite Druid.

He's a lowly 1/1 Druid for 2G, but his ability is very handy: 1G, Sacrifice a green creature and Tap: All of your forests become 2/3 creatures until end of turn. Sacrifice one of the Saproling tokens that you created, and attack your with all of your land and creatures. It's like a Natural Affinity that only works for your side.

Black's creatures in Fallen Empires were Thrulls. These guys were actually pretty useful, believe it or not. Here's the Thrull deck that can be used in place of the ubiquitous Zombies that black uses. Almost everything in here is from Fallen Empires — but please don't hold that against the deck.

Thrulls Featured by James Sambrook on 2005-05-29 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9796.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Armor Thrull 4 Basal Thrull 4 Blood Vassal 2 Ebon Praetor 4 Mindstab Thrull 4 Necrite 4 Thrull Champion Enchantments 4 Breeding Pit	Instants 4 Dark Ritual Sorceries 4 Hymn to Tourach Basic Lands 22 Swamp	Stats: Average mana: 1.93 Average creature mana cost: 3.38 Average creature power: 1.92 Average creature toughness: 2.38 Deck Composition: Creatures: 43.33% Enchantments: 6.67% Basic Lands: 36.67% Sorceries: 6.67% Instants: 6.67%
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I've played this deck in non-tribal games, and games that open like this:

Turn 1 - Swamp, Dark Ritual, Mindstab Thrull
Turn 2 — Swamp, Hymn to Tourach, Attack and sacrifice the Mindstab Thrull.

...usually end very well. Breeding Pits normally give you just a chump blocker. With a Thrull Champion out, these token thrulls can actually do some damage. Ebon Praetor, while a nice card in the deck, gets my vote for (in Comic Book Guy voice) Worst. Card Art. Ever. Seriously, what the Fyndhorn is that?!? (What's up with Stasis? — The Ferrett) If you want to stay true to Fallen Empires, put in some Thrull Wizards and Soul Exchanges.

Okay, okay. If you want a serious Tribal Wars deck, I'll give you a merfolk deck. In keeping with the theme of the article, though, most of these guys are from Fallen Empires.

Merfolk Featured by James Sambrook on 2005-05-29 As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9796.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Howling Mine	Creatures 4 Coral Fighters 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merfolk Looter 4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident 4 River Merfolk 4 Sea Scryer 2 Seasinger 3 Vodalian Knights 4 Vodalian Soldiers Enchantments 4 Illusionary Terrain Basic Lands 20 Island	Stats: Average mana: 1.35 Average creature mana cost: 2.03 Average creature power: 1.27 Average creature toughness: 1.33 Deck Composition: Creatures: 55.00% Artifacts: 5.00% Basic Lands: 33.33% Enchantments: 6.67%
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Illusionary Terrain is there to give your opponent islands. Lots of islands. You'll only be able to hold it up for a couple of turns due to the steep Cumulative Upkeep, but it should be enough. Or just play it long enough to take the best creature on the board with your Seasinger.

With the Howling Mines out, you may be able to draw your second one before the first one runs out. If that happens, just stop paying the upkeep on #1, and then play #2 right away.

The Tribal Council has spoken. Until next week, may you not be voted off the island.