Hello! I'm just getting into pauper and search the forum for a treefolk deck with only one result. It was essentially a thread suggesting not to play treefolk. In the face of this, I give you my treefolk tribal deck!
So far I like it, I know everyone says treefolk doesn't have real synergy so it isn't worth making a tribal deck for, but I've found little interactions like grisly salvage with tilling treefolk give it a unique extreme consistency, and grisly + everbark + battlewand can lead to some real power. Overall it's been performing well, but I am considering swapping 2 footbottom feast our for 2 cloudcrown main to up my delver game, as well as adding 2 rancid earth to my side. Being not particularly experienced, I could really use advice on my board. I focused it on beating mono black control, grave hate of course, and delver + affinity hate. Wickerbough killing auras is nice as well, I almost want it main given the prevalence of both.
My desire is of course to make this as competitive as possible, if that's not at all possible, please explain. Like I said, I'm new to the format and it's been performing reasonably well online in the competitive move, so if there's some horrific brick wall I'm gonna hit with this deck I'd rather know now than later.
I don't think Treefolk can really be competitive, since they are very expensive, have little to no synergy together and no Treefolk are worth running for their raw power other than Tilling Treefolk.
Regardless, I think it could still make a decently fun deck to play.
I think the two strongest treefolk are Tilling Treefolk and Weed-Pruner Poplar, as they both have the opportunity of giving you card advantage. This puts you into two colours already, as you've already done.
Bosk Banneret will help you achieve those high-costing Treefolk while developing a good board position, which I think is the only way this deck has of winning. It should therefore be running a minimum amount of removal as well. Good thing black is one of the colours. I would go straight for Chainer's Edict, as it gives you an early play as well as a late game play that exceeds the cost of the Treefolk you're running, therefore not getting in the way of your curve. Nameless Inversion seems decent, as it's another cheap removal spell that also easily acts as a pump spell for you. Perhaps Funeral Charm could be an interesting choice in that regard. Since you're using Tilling Treefolk, I'd say Quicksand is another piece of removal that is easy to include. It is excellent against Kiln Fiend and other aggro decks, and you can get it back for even more hurt.
Looking through other passably playable Treefolk, I noticed many of them seem to have good hate effects on other popular archetypes, which opens up the possibility of maindecking these hate cards for lack of actual playable Treefolk. This means you might be able to steal a few games from actual competitive decks. I see Wickerbough Elder as good maindeck material, and Treefolk Mystic can really stick it to a Hexproof deck, while still having a semi-decent body. Cloudcrown Oak is also a good flying hoser. Crabtree Cohort could be your big 5/5 fatty that the opponent needs to deal with. Bog-strider Ash seems to cover a lot of ground with two hating abilities (I guess Goblins were pretty Black during Lorwyn), but doesn't seem strong enough for maindeck presence.
By winning through board presence, you not only need removal, but also some way to assure you have a critical mass of creatures. On top of running lots of Trees, you should think about some recursion. Footbottom Feast seems awful. I would go for Font of Return. It's a real game-ender, as it gives you the card advantage and selection you need to take over the late game (hopefully you'll get there). That will be your Treasure Cruise, of sorts. I'd also go with Grim Discovery, as it will most likely have tons of targets, especially with Quicksand and cycling lands.
I love tribal decks and really love what you have accomplished with this list so far. Quicksand looks like a really logic choice.
Although it's definitely not a T1 list, it's still a lot of fun and I would be interested to see how it performs against other tribal decks (namely goblins, zombies and elves that have all been played at some moment in pauper depending on the bans).
My own rules when building a Commander deck:
1) Underrated general that I can build around but the deck must work without him/her too.
2) Every card must be legal in both banlists.
3) No infinite combo that could win (and ruin) instantly a multiplayer game.
4) Synergy at all costs; stay on theme, avoid goodstuff.
Having tried it out a bit, I think the deck needs more land if it's going to run so many cycling lands plus the quicksand.
It's also still quite slow. Maybe doing like the Beast Tribal deck and running the Arbor Elf+ Utopia Sprawl combo to fix and ramp would be better than abusing land drops...
Whoa! Posts haha. So I've been running this deck since November and have been generally pleased with it. Yes it's a tad slow, but it's highly resilient and has maindeck hate and decent synergy. Battlewand has been absurd and poplar keeps the removal down. I do want to replace foot (though late game totally stacking my deck and using tilling as a draw engine seals the deal pretty well) and possibly grisly salvage. I've tweaked the deck since posting it so I'll post and updated list when I get around to it. some cards you guys have suggested simply don't work well though such as ambassador crabapple and tree folk mystic. I just don't think the deck wants pure beaters and as for mystic, wickerbough is just a better card in many cases, at least in my experience online. I do have to say, I hadn't thought of using quicksands, and love the synergy with tilling, so I'll try that and get back to you all!
4 Bosk Banneret
4 Tilling Treefolk
2 Everbark Shaman
4 Battlewand Oak
4 Black Poplar Shaman
4 Weed-Pruner Poplar
2 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Grisly Salvage
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Footbottom Feast
Lands
4 Barren Moor
4 Tranquil Thicket
8 Forest
8 Swamp
2 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Lignify
2 Bog-Strider Ash
2 Bojuka Bog
4 Wickerbough Elder
1 Yavimaya Scion
So far I like it, I know everyone says treefolk doesn't have real synergy so it isn't worth making a tribal deck for, but I've found little interactions like grisly salvage with tilling treefolk give it a unique extreme consistency, and grisly + everbark + battlewand can lead to some real power. Overall it's been performing well, but I am considering swapping 2 footbottom feast our for 2 cloudcrown main to up my delver game, as well as adding 2 rancid earth to my side. Being not particularly experienced, I could really use advice on my board. I focused it on beating mono black control, grave hate of course, and delver + affinity hate. Wickerbough killing auras is nice as well, I almost want it main given the prevalence of both.
My desire is of course to make this as competitive as possible, if that's not at all possible, please explain. Like I said, I'm new to the format and it's been performing reasonably well online in the competitive move, so if there's some horrific brick wall I'm gonna hit with this deck I'd rather know now than later.
I don't think Treefolk can really be competitive, since they are very expensive, have little to no synergy together and no Treefolk are worth running for their raw power other than Tilling Treefolk.
Regardless, I think it could still make a decently fun deck to play.
I think the two strongest treefolk are Tilling Treefolk and Weed-Pruner Poplar, as they both have the opportunity of giving you card advantage. This puts you into two colours already, as you've already done.
Bosk Banneret will help you achieve those high-costing Treefolk while developing a good board position, which I think is the only way this deck has of winning. It should therefore be running a minimum amount of removal as well. Good thing black is one of the colours. I would go straight for Chainer's Edict, as it gives you an early play as well as a late game play that exceeds the cost of the Treefolk you're running, therefore not getting in the way of your curve. Nameless Inversion seems decent, as it's another cheap removal spell that also easily acts as a pump spell for you. Perhaps Funeral Charm could be an interesting choice in that regard. Since you're using Tilling Treefolk, I'd say Quicksand is another piece of removal that is easy to include. It is excellent against Kiln Fiend and other aggro decks, and you can get it back for even more hurt.
Looking through other passably playable Treefolk, I noticed many of them seem to have good hate effects on other popular archetypes, which opens up the possibility of maindecking these hate cards for lack of actual playable Treefolk. This means you might be able to steal a few games from actual competitive decks. I see Wickerbough Elder as good maindeck material, and Treefolk Mystic can really stick it to a Hexproof deck, while still having a semi-decent body. Cloudcrown Oak is also a good flying hoser. Crabtree Cohort could be your big 5/5 fatty that the opponent needs to deal with. Bog-strider Ash seems to cover a lot of ground with two hating abilities (I guess Goblins were pretty Black during Lorwyn), but doesn't seem strong enough for maindeck presence.
By winning through board presence, you not only need removal, but also some way to assure you have a critical mass of creatures. On top of running lots of Trees, you should think about some recursion. Footbottom Feast seems awful. I would go for Font of Return. It's a real game-ender, as it gives you the card advantage and selection you need to take over the late game (hopefully you'll get there). That will be your Treasure Cruise, of sorts. I'd also go with Grim Discovery, as it will most likely have tons of targets, especially with Quicksand and cycling lands.
I think I'd maindeck something like this:
4 Bosk Banneret
4 Tilling Treefolk
3 Cloudcrown Oak
2 Ambassador Oak
2 Wickerbough Elder
2 Treefolk Mystic
3 Crabapple Cohort
4 Weed-Pruner Poplar
4 Chainer's Edict
2 Nameless Inversion
Recursion (6)
3 Grim Discovery
3 Font of Return
Lands (24)
6 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Barren Moor
4 Quicksand
You have a good draw engine going for you, and Grim Discovery should help you either get lands drops or draw even more cards with this mana base.
Hope this helps!
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16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
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Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Although it's definitely not a T1 list, it's still a lot of fun and I would be interested to see how it performs against other tribal decks (namely goblins, zombies and elves that have all been played at some moment in pauper depending on the bans).
Rules Advisor
Pauper decks: Weenie Tokens — Zombies
My own rules when building a Commander deck:
1) Underrated general that I can build around but the deck must work without him/her too.
2) Every card must be legal in both banlists.
3) No infinite combo that could win (and ruin) instantly a multiplayer game.
4) Synergy at all costs; stay on theme, avoid goodstuff.
It's also still quite slow. Maybe doing like the Beast Tribal deck and running the Arbor Elf+ Utopia Sprawl combo to fix and ramp would be better than abusing land drops...
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio