Tribal Aggro in Historic

Today, Wizards of the Coast announced the next Arena Open will be using the Historic format:

On August 1st we're holding the next Arena Open, and the format is..... Historic! Bring your best Historic deck and compete for some sweet rewards (like $2,000). pic.twitter.com/xFyhOKURGU

— MTG Arena (@MTG_Arena) July 9, 2020

I've actually spent the last few weeks playing a bunch of Historic, so this is exciting to me. I always love a good tribal deck, and I've played many different tribes over the years, most recently Elves and Merfolk. In my past, I've played Spirits and first got my start playing Goblins back in Onslaught block. I want to give a quick overview of the various tribal aggro decks I've tried or played against.

Merfolk

This is my latest iteration, but by no means perfect. I tried an 80 card Yorion version when companions were still original power level, but 80 card aggro is not the place to be. I think the core is Speaker, Biomancer, Mistbinder, Reejerey, Trickster, and Adept. I'm not sure about the rest. Deeproot Elite has been very good, but is probably worse the better the opponents decks are. You can combo off with Kumena and Reejerey, but I'm not sure how many you actually want to play. The real issue is the mana. There are a lot of cards you would like to play like countermagic and my MVP from standard Sleep, but 4 Ziggurat and 4 Territory make casting non-creatures difficult. I've seen versions with 4 Mist-Cloaked Herald, which is probably pretty great with Deeproot Elite, but I never liked it in Standard. Watertrap Weaver has been overperforming.

Vampires

This has been my strongest Historic deck. When I first put it together, I won my first 15 matches or so. I've cooled off since then, and it's definitely not the best deck in the format. It struggles against Gruul, but was surprisingly good vs UG Nexus. Silversmote Ghoul is the real deal with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. The removal options are unexciting despite how many you have, I haven't found one that I want to play in the main deck. There isn't a good answer to Embercleave and a lot of the plan against Gruul was to block, so that is why it's been unfavorable. I recently added the last 4 one-drops in Skymarch Aspirant to be a bit more aggressive, but I've yet to achieve city's blessing. Legion Landing would be nice, but once again the mana issue comes up. Playing enough non-Territory white sources to support really cuts into the black and will lower consistency overall.

Humans

I haven't actually played any games with Humans, but I've seen some lists that had success and I've played against it a few times. I'm skeptical about the amount of lords, so I put the Icon in this 3 color only version. Playing Red for Judith is probably better than Icon. I think also lacking on interaction. Deputy of Detention is widely played, but it's not a human. I guess that doesn't matter for Judith. I've no idea if Whisper Squad is playable. I do think Hero of Precinct One has potential in some builds. 

Goblins

I've only played against Goblins and I've beaten it every time. Conspicuous Snoop is good and Chainwhirler still dominates some matchups, but the rest of the deck looked real bad. I'm not sure what your top end is supposed to look like. Ringleader and Matron are to costly without Vial to cheat them in. No Piledriver or cheap lord or similar card makes it hard to actually kill with a swarm. Maybe Icon of Ancestry is the answer? I don't have a list to share, just wanted to express my skepticism.

Elves

I don't think you can play this with only 4 Llanowar Elves. Pelt Collector just isn't the same, you end up being a worse version of Gruul. Imperious Perfect is a card you get that Pioneer version doesn't have, but overall you are down too many cards to keep up with the high powered tier one Historic decks.

Soldiers / Knights

I don't know if there are enough payoffs in either tribe, but there are a lot of cards with these types. Maybe someone else can come up with something good, but I think they usually are better off focusing on Humans. 

Other Tribes

Cats and Dogs get a push with M21, but I don't think there are enough cards existing yet. Maybe by this time next year. Dinosaurs can't really compete with the stronger Gruul cards from Eldraine. 

That's all I have for now. I'm excited about the Arena Open, and I'm going to keep working on Historic until then. 

-Ty