Sethron, Hurloon General Minotaur Tribal

Commander Overview

When considering a Minotaur typal deck, you have a few options for commanders. You can run Boros spellslinger with Firesong and Sunspeaker, or you can go mono-red with either of the printings of Neheb. But, Sethron, Hurloon General is probably the best for a true typal deck, as it explicitly supports the minotaur gameplan, which is aggro. Access to black makes it easier to draw more cards and remove problem pieces as needed.

This deck takes advantage of buff minotaurs and extra combat steps to knock our opponents on their butts, so if that sounds like your jam, keep reading!

How to Play the Deck

The first gameplan of this deck is to find ways to give ourselves extra combat steps. Aggravated Assault and Full Throttle are non-creature methods, while Moraug, Fury of Akoum offers a cheap, repeatable double combat turn.

But, the other gameplan in the deck is built around discarding cards. Many of the minotaurs have abilities that trigger whenever we discard. For that reason, we have cheap draw/discard effects like Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion, and Thrill of Possibility.

Synergy’s in the deck

There are a few standout creatures you can use to get repeatable effects, and it’s pretty cool. Felhide Spiritbinder and Sandstorm Crasher both let you make token copies of creatures that go away at the end step. What are good targets to copy? Well, Fanatic of Mogis or Warfire Javelineer ping off opponents or creatures when they enter. Or you could make Kragma Warcaller tokens and buff the board for a big swing.

Speaking of big swings, extra combat enablers all say “untap all creatures”, which gets around the exert mechanic some of the minotaurs have. This means you can exert Sandstorm Crasher more than once, making even more tokens of stuff.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game – Because a lot of the minotaurs are 4+ mana to cast, we want to keep hands that give us at least 2 lands, a mana rock, or a way to get a rock, like Thrill of Possibility or Faithless Looting. There are a few cheap minotaurs you can work with, too, like Gnarled Scarhide and Deathbellow Raider.

Mid-Game – We want to be in a position where we have Sethron on board, enough mana to dig a bit through our deck, and a support piece like Feast of Sanity or Monument to Endurance.

Late-Game – As the game progresses, we need to be gearing up for turn with multiple combat steps, as that’s our trick to success. Using Bloodline Bidding to return all our minotaurs to the battlefield is awesome, and using Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion and Neheb, the Eternal to make more mana during combat help us stay in the game.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

Ramping is hard in Rakdos, but the gameplan of discarding to draw more cards should help us find lands pretty consistently. Plus, we have the typical mana rocks in Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, and Heraldic Banner. Dark Ritual was also an auto-include.

While not really, ramp, I included The Fire Crystal because it gives us a red cost reduction and makes our minotaurs hasty.

If you wanted to make this deck a bit more explosive, you could include some of the rituals like Rite of Flame, Geosurge, or Pyretic Ritual.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We have a lot of card draw potential in this deck, specifically around stuff like Laughing Mad, Big Score, and Demand Answers.

But outside of bursts of cards, we can use Pyrexian Arena to double up each turn, as well as Monument to Endurance to replace whatever we’ve discarded.

Removal

Chaos Warp is the only really common piece of removal in the deck because it’s so versatile. Bitter Triumph can destroy a creature while also giving you a discard trigger, while Rakdos Signet can get rid of a problem artifact or knock down an army of 1/1 tokens.

The other two pieces, Dark Withering and Fiery Temper have Madness, which synergizes well with our discard theme. Dark Withering is a terrible card without Madness, but because you can cast it for only 1 black mana, it gets a lot better.

Protection

This deck runs pretty much no protection because we wanna run fast and focus on the gameplan instead. There are also ways to get cards back from your graveyard, so it’s not that detrimental.

But, if your pod loves running spot removal, you could swap in Bolt Bend or Imp’s Mischief to take off some of the heat.

Utility / Support

The best way to support a typal deck, in my opinion, is to make declaring blockers as uncomfortable for your opponents as possible. Minotaurs do this quite well, with cards like Felhide Petrifier, who gives your minotaur creatures deathtouch. Additional, Rageblood Shaman gives them a bump and trample, while Kragma Warcaller grants a +2/+0 buff when they attack. Having all three on board is a trifecta of hurt for your opponents.

If you’re having trouble finding these kingpin pieces, you can spend a reasonable 8 mana to cast Deathbellow War Cry, which allows you to find all of the good minotaurs and throw them right onto the battlefield. And because Kragma Warcaller grants haste, you can immediately go sideways.

Mana Base

The lands in this deck are pretty straightforward. Path of Ancestry is an include because all creatures are Minotaurs, so you can get a scry off any creature cast. Forgotten Cave and Barren Moor both cycle for 1 pip, so they are good as late-game discard triggers on creatures or the Monument of Endurance.

Rogue’s Passage is included in case it gets down to the point where one of your guys has to connect, but can’t.]]

Win Conditions

Ideally, we want to have a board with 5-6 creatures and a few token minotaurs before we swing out for a big push. Cards like Kindred Charge are awesome to play before you chain combat steps. This works great with the Sandstorm Crasher combo, because you can realistically make 2 copies of something good on your first swing, and if you have a second combat, another 2 copies.

Collective Inferno and Rage Reflection are good ways to make your minotaur army more formidable if you can’t make a bunch of copies of them.

Pet Cards

I’ve included Underworld Breach in this deck because it’s very powerful to escape minotaurs, discard/draw spells, and other pieces you’ve dumped into your graveyard throughout the game. A lot of people get nervous when they see a Breach, but you can assure the table that there are no combos with it in your deck, it’s simple recursion, similar to Tortured Existence.

Magar of the Magic Strings presents some interesting opportunities for combat shenanigans. If you use his ability to exile Deathbellow War Cry to throw down 4 more minotaurs (plus the 4 tokens from Sethron’s ability), you can quickly amass an army. Alternatively, if you’re able to chain together extra combats, either with Full Throttle or a combination of Neheb mana into Aggravated Assault, you can get the effect of Magar’s ability multiple times. Kindred Charge three times a turn sound good? It’s possible!

Didgeridoo is an autoinclude. Just read the card and accept that it is good.

Strengths of the Deck

Putting down 1 creature makes an additional token, going wide is the strategy.

Digging to find good cards with draw/discard effects.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Minotaurs aren’t as supported as other creature types.

No ways to respond to countermagic or stax pieces.

Conclusion

Minotaur tribal has the potential to be a pretty powerful bracket 2 or low 3. This version only has 1 game changer, and it;s not a part of any combo. But, you’ll notice that Neheb, the Eternal and Aggravated Assault can create enough combat steps to destroy everyone, granted you have enough creatures and deal at least 5 damage a combat step.

The deck is aggro at its finest, and it allows you to play some under-appreciated gems from Magic’s history. When was the last time you saw someone play Flurry of Horns! Hopefully this deck serves you well, and scratches that bull-horned itch.