How to build Koloth, Tribble Hunter

At a table of four, six of the eight Tribbles Koloth makes each turn belong to your opponents, and every one of them has to attack somebody other than you. This build gets paid for the fights those six start, and turns its own two into cards and damage.

Their Tribbles reach combat a full round before yours do

A token can attack on its controller's turn if that player has controlled it since the turn began. The player on your left gets two Tribbles at your end step and attacks with them on the very next turn, at one of the two players who are not you. The next player does the same, and so does the one after. Your own pair waits the whole round, so by the time it first attacks, the opponents' six have already been through three combats, each one aimed away from you.

That does not make them good attacks. A 2/1 that can't block dies to any blocker, and the player sending it chooses only where it goes, never whether it goes. Plenty of them die on the first swing. The ones that connect are damage your opponents deal each other on turns you take no part in.

Spiteful Banditry is how the list gets paid for the ones that die. Whenever one or more creatures your opponents control die, it makes you a Treasure, once each turn, and that includes their turns. Every opponent has to attack with their Tribbles every turn, and a 2/1 that meets any blocker dies, so it pays out often, and mostly on turns that are not yours. Cast it with X at 0 and that is all it does. Cast it with X at 1 and it first kills every Tribble on the battlefield, yours included, while Koloth lives through it on three toughness.

Rite of the Raging Storm makes Koloth's offer again with bigger bodies. Every player gets a 5/1 Lightning Rager with trample and haste at the start of their upkeep and sacrifices it at the end step, and nobody can send a Rager at you or at your planeswalkers. Yours is a hasty 5/1 on every one of your turns, and since it enters, Impact Tremors and Purphoros count it.

Goad sends every Tribble at a player, so none of them can take your crown

Goad says attack a player other than you if able. A creature that attacks a planeswalker is not attacking a player, so while any player other than you can be attacked, no Tribble may be sent at Chandra, Torch of Defiance, whoever controls it. The same wording guards the monarch. The crown changes hands when a creature deals combat damage to the monarch, and no Tribble is allowed to attack you while there is anybody else to attack.

So the list takes the crown three ways. Court of Embereth makes you the monarch as it enters, then makes a 3/1 Knight in each of your upkeeps and, while you are the monarch, deals damage to each opponent equal to the number of creatures you control. Two Tribbles arrive at every end step, so that number grows every turn. Emberwilde Captain makes you the monarch too, and any opponent who attacks you while you hold the crown takes damage equal to the cards in their hand. Throne of the High City is a land you can sacrifice for the crown at .

Only a creature that is not a Tribble can take it back in combat, and those creatures are what the removal in this list is for.

Curse of Opulence picks the player Koloth left open

Koloth tells each Tribble who it may not attack. Which of the other players it does attack is up to its controller, and Curse of Opulence gives them a reason. Enchant the player you are most worried about. Whenever that player is attacked you make a Gold token, and so does every opponent attacking them. Each of the other two now gets paid for sending their Tribbles the same way on their own turn, and you get a Gold every time they do. One red mana turns a scatter of 2/1s into a steady attack on the player you chose.

Clamp a Tribble after it has attacked, not before

Your Tribbles arrive at your end step and have to attack on your next turn. Skullclamp gives +1/-1, so a 2/1 Tribble becomes a 3/0 that dies and draws two cards. Equipping is sorcery speed, which makes the order of the turn matter: attack with the pair first, let the damage land, then clamp whatever survived in your second main phase. Two survivors are four cards for , from creatures that could never have blocked. If a blocker is sure to kill one, clamp that one before combat instead and keep the cards.

Idol of Oblivion draws a card in any turn you created a token, and Koloth's trigger counts, so tap it once the trigger has resolved in your end step. Replicator copies a token you control for , and a copy of a Tribble is a Tribble: it gets the +1/+0, it is goaded and it can't block. It is one more attacker, one more Impact Tremors trigger and one more pair of cards off Skullclamp. When mana matters more, point it at a Gold token or a Treasure instead.

The Tribbles are white, so Torbran adds nothing to them and 2 to everything that cashes them in

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell adds 2 to damage a red source you control deals to an opponent or their permanents. Koloth's Tribbles are white, so their attacks get nothing from him. What he does reach is every red card that turns a Tribble into damage. Impact Tremors deals 3 to each opponent per creature instead of 1, so one Koloth trigger is 6 to each opponent before anyone attacks. Purphoros, God of the Forge deals 4 per creature instead of 2. Goblin Bombardment, Witty Roastmaster and Hellrider each go from 1 to 3.

Twinflame Tyrant covers the half Torbran misses. It doubles damage from any source you control to an opponent or their permanents, whatever the colour, so a Tribble's attack hits for 4. With both out, the player taking the damage chooses the order the two apply in, and they will double first and add second, so an Impact Tremors ping comes to 4 rather than 6.

That same rule is why Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might is not here. On its own it lifts every small burst of noncombat damage from a red source up to its power of 4. Beside Torbran the damaged player applies Torbran first, 1 becomes 3, and Ojer lifts the 3 to 4, so the second card buys a single point.

No edicts, because every opponent always has a Tribble to give up

Making a player sacrifice a creature is the usual answer to one you can't target, and here it never works. Every opponent gets two fresh Tribbles at each of your end steps, so an edict takes a 1/1 they were about to lose in combat anyway. The removal in this list deals damage or shuffles instead: Chaos Warp, Abrade, Burst Lightning, Bonecrusher Giant's Stomp, Pyrokinesis and Fiery Confluence. The Wrath of Khan is the one card here that makes an opponent sacrifice anything, and its third chapter asks for a nontoken permanent, which is exactly the sacrifice a Tribble can't make. Its first chapter deals 4 damage to a creature an opponent controls and, if it survives, lends it to you for that turn's combat.

Koloth leaving frees every Tribble at the table to attack you

The +1/+0 and the goad live on Koloth, so they end the moment he leaves the battlefield, and the Tribbles stay. Each opponent is then holding a stack of 1/1s that still can't block but may now attack anyone, and the whole table knows who made them. So Koloth carries more protection than a four mana commander usually would. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots stop targeted removal. Mithril Coat has flash and attaches itself to a legendary creature as it enters, so it can answer a destroy spell or lethal damage after that spell is cast. Its attach is targeted, though, and the shroud from Lightning Greaves stops your own abilities as well, so move the Greaves off Koloth before you need the Coat. Deflecting Swat costs nothing while you control a commander and sends a removal spell somewhere else.

None of those stops an exile sweeper. If Koloth dies on your turn, recast him in the second main phase if the mana allows, because the goad comes back with him and covers every Tribble already on the battlefield.

Down to two players, theirs all come at you and yours still can't block

Goad only steers a creature while there is someone to steer it to. Once a single opponent is left, every Tribble they control must attack you in each combat, and every Koloth trigger hands them two more. Your own Tribbles can't block any of them. Electrickery overloaded for deals 1 damage to each creature you don't control, which kills every opposing Tribble and spares yours. Goblin Sharpshooter pings a Tribble, untaps as it dies and pings the next, so it can empty a whole side of the table in one go. Delayed Blast Fireball deals 2 to the opponent and every creature they control, or 5 if it was foretold.

The cleaner plan is to arrive there with the last opponent already low. Purphoros, Impact Tremors and Court of Embereth hit every opponent at once, so the life totals fall together, and the list is trying to finish the table rather than one player at a time.

Mob Rule takes back everything you handed out

The deck gives away six creatures on each of your turns, and two sorceries collect them. Mob Rule's second mode gains control of every creature with power 3 or less until end of turn, untaps them and gives them haste. Every Tribble is a 2/1, so it takes all of them, plus most of the small utility creatures on the other boards. Insurrection takes every creature at any size for two more mana. With Hellrider out each borrowed attacker also deals 1 to the player it attacks, and whatever survives the combat goes into Goblin Bombardment before the end of turn hands it back.

Coat of Arms is the slow form of the same idea. Every creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield sharing a type with it, and every Tribble shares one. With eight on the battlefield each is a 9/8. Yours attack whoever you like. Theirs attack each other, still can't block and still can't touch you while a third player is standing. It counts the opponents' other creatures too, so check their boards for a tribe first, and keep Electrickery for the day only one opponent is left, because their Tribbles will be just as large.

Vengeful Ancestor and Pandemonium both point back at you

Goad cards look like natural partners here and two of the obvious ones are traps. Vengeful Ancestor makes each goaded creature that attacks deal 1 damage to its controller, which reads like a tax on the opponents' Tribbles. Koloth goads yours as well, so it charges you 1 for each of your own Tribbles every time they attack. Pandemonium lets each creature that enters deal damage equal to its power to a target its controller picks, which hands every opponent two 2-damage shots at each of your end steps, and Koloth has three toughness. Troubling Tribbles is the only other Tribble card in Star Trek, and it is white, so it sits outside Koloth's colour identity.

The core list

The ninety-nine under Koloth hold nineteen creature cards, eleven enchantments and thirty-five lands. Each price is the lowest a paper copy of that card sells for right now, and hovering a name shows the card.

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Thirty-three of the lands make red, and the two that don't take the crown and draw

Every land but two taps for red, and on the play the list finds one red source by turn two 98.5 percent of the time and a second by turn three 93.4 percent of the time. Colour is never the question, so the two colourless lands cost nothing to run. War Room draws a card for and 1 life, the life it asks for being the number of colours in Koloth's identity. Throne of the High City is the third road to the crown. Castle Embereth enters untapped beside any Mountain and gives your creatures +1/+0 for , which is a point more from every Tribble on the turn it counts. Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance can be discarded at instant speed for two hasty 1/1 Spirits, at less while Koloth is out, and those Spirits enter like any Tribble, so Impact Tremors and Purphoros count them.

The cheap list's sweepers kill your Tribbles too, and the bracket 4 list makes them attack twice

Dropping to the budget rung takes the total from at least $359.98 to at least $100.41, and the bracket floor goes with Jeska's Will, the only Game Changer in the core list. The engine stays whole: Impact Tremors, Witty Roastmaster, Skullclamp, Goblin Bombardment, Court of Embereth, Torbran and Mob Rule are all still there. What goes is most of what made the damage and the endgame one-sided. Goblin Sharpshooter and Delayed Blast Fireball become Fiery Cannonade and Kozilek's Return, which deal 2 to every creature, yours included, so clearing the last opponent's Tribbles now costs you your own, though Koloth survives both. Twinflame Tyrant becomes Gratuitous Violence, which still doubles what the Tribbles deal in combat but no longer touches Impact Tremors, and Purphoros becomes Electropotence, which charges for each creature's damage. Bolt Bend replaces Deflecting Swat and costs unless you control a creature with power 4 or more, which Koloth is not. Darksteel Plate replaces Mithril Coat and has to be equipped at sorcery speed.

Going up to bracket 4 costs at least $821.97, and five Game Changers set the floor: Jeska's Will from the core list, then Mana Vault, Ancient Tomb, Gamble and The One Ring. The two mana cards put Koloth down a turn or two early, which matters more here than for most commanders, because every turn he is out is two more Tribbles for every player. Gamble finds Skullclamp, Court of Embereth or Mob Rule. Aggravated Assault untaps your creatures and adds a combat, and a goaded Tribble attacks in every combat, so each activation is another swing for the pair and another round of Hellrider pings. Fiery Emancipation triples damage from every source you control, Tribbles included. Phyrexian Altar turns borrowed creatures into red mana once Mob Rule's combat is over, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is a one mana attacker that makes Treasure. The cost is the table: a list that can steal a board and attack with it twice belongs in a bracket 4 game and nowhere gentler.

FAQ

Do my own Tribbles have to attack when Koloth is out?

Yes. Koloth goads every Tribble, yours included, so yours attack in each combat if able. You choose which opponent each one attacks, and like every Tribble they can't block.

Can an opponent's Tribbles attack me?

Not while another player can be attacked. A goaded creature has to attack a player other than you if it can, so their Tribbles go at your other opponents, and while that is possible they can't attack your planeswalkers either. With one opponent left there is nobody else to choose, and every Tribble they control must attack you.

What happens to the Tribbles if Koloth dies?

They stay on the battlefield as 1/1s that can't block. The +1/+0 and the goad both come from Koloth, so they end when he leaves, and from then on each Tribble's controller can attack anyone with it, you included. Casting Koloth again puts both back on every Tribble at once.

When is Koloth, Tribble Hunter legal in Commander?

On 13 November 2026, the day Star Trek Commander is released. A deck checker run before then rejects him as an unreleased card, along with the four other new cards in this list, and accepts everything else.

Does Troubling Tribbles go in a Koloth deck?

No. Troubling Tribbles costs , and Koloth's colour identity is red only, so it can't be in the ninety-nine. Koloth's own Tribble tokens are white, but tokens a card makes have no effect on colour identity.

How much does this Koloth deck cost?

At the cheapest paper price of each card, the core list comes to at least $359.98. The budget version needs at least $100.41, and building up to bracket 4 takes at least $821.97. All three leave out the five Star Trek cards, which have no price yet. Deflecting Swat is the dearest single card in the core list at $72.46, and it is the first card the budget rung swaps out.

Is Koloth, Tribble Hunter a good commander?

He is a strong engine with a visible cost. Each trigger gives you two attackers and gives each opponent two attackers that can't hit you, so at a full table he is card draw with Skullclamp, damage with Impact Tremors and protection for the monarch at once. The cost is that the gift goes to everyone, which is why so much of this list is protection for Koloth and sweepers that only hit the other side.