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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Nov 15 2013 11:55am
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 Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse, the PRE where 150 is the new 100.

   Table of Contents 

  1. Last Week on Tribal Apocalypse...
  2. The High Price of Winning
  3. Show and Tell
  4. Tribal Lab
  5. Announcement Time!
  6. What's Next

THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST

 As already announced, tomorrow it'll be our 150th event of the Blippian Era (yay!). To celebrate it (more or less) properly, we'll go back to the beginning for a special Tribal Wars Alpha (formerly known as Tribal Wars: Origins). You'll find the rules here. You'll also see the list of the playable tribes, which are, like the name suggests, the creature types that were already in existence back when Limited Alpha Edition was released in august 1993. Mind you, I said "types", not "tribes", because you won't be allowed to use any other creature types than those listed, not even off-tribe or as secondary types of creatures with an allowed type. Meaning that no matter what you play, a Giant Shaman is NOT allowed, because Giant was in Alpha, but Shaman wasn't. Note that the Big Shot Tribes in the list (Cat, Druid, Elf, Goblin, Human, Vampire, Wall, and Wizard) are banned, but their types aren't, so you can play a Human Soldier in your deck. Also, have a look at the special prizes, because you can win 2 extra tix if you play all the original members of your tribe you can – it mostly just means playing a playset of a single card, but most of the times will be a terrible or sub-par card, like Hurloon Minotaur in a Minotaur deck, Hill Giant in a Giant deck (that also has to deal with Stone Giant and Two-Headed Giant of Foriys, by the way), or Shivan Dragon in a Dragon deck, which isn't bad but it's not exactly prime choice anymore. Have fun and 150 of these days! (Wait, that's 22,500 events!)

  

Why did I choose only red cards for my examples? Unclear.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 3.44, Week 149 BE
  • Date: November 9
  • Attendance: 19
  • Rounds: 3
  • Special Rules:  Regular Tribal (just plain old Legacy Tribal Wars) 
  • Winner: SBena (Merfolk)
  • Other undefeated: Coolcat1678 (Elf), Edison_88luckyplayer (Sliver)
  • 1 Loss: ML_Berlin (Soldier), endless_nameless (Construct), Robin88 (Kor), pk23 (Human), fliebana (Human), Kingritz (Golem)
  • Special Prizes: True Underdog Prize and New Kids on the Block Award to AJ_Impy (Nymph)
  • Tribes: Berserker, Construct, Demon, Elf, Goblin, Golem, Human (x2), Kor, Merfolk, Myr, Nymph, Shaman, Sliver, Soldier, Sphinx, Treefolk, Vampire, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Look at our co-sponsor SBena getting his 1st place groove back after such a long time! (Event 97 with Knight was his last win). All thanks to his newfound passion for the Merfolk.

 

 And look, this was a regular event, so we got undefeated combo Elf second place (with Coolcat1678) and undefeated Sliver third place (with Edison_88luckyplayer). What would you expect? Goblins? Bad day for them, their only representative was out of the money. To piss them off more, let's feature the Elf deck, for once. Also because I generally find Slate of Ancestry slightly more interesting than other solutions Elves use to refill the hand. And it was a more aggro-oriented build, trying to crash the enemy lines with an Ezuri, Joraga Warcaller, Timberwatch Elf, or plain old Elvish Champion boost, and with the help of Taunting Elf. Also, gotta love Mercy Killing used to increase the local Elf population.

 

 What else was there, beside mono-colored juggernauts based on a prominent land? Well, AJ_Impy made 4 out of 4 with the New Kids in the Block Awards, winning the first match ever with, in order, God, Satyr, Octopus and, now, Nymph. Which was a fun deck but the only one of the sequence that didn't manage to end Top 8. He tells about it in Show and Tell below. Where he also shows.

 

 In other news, and to feature a colorless build after a 5-color build after 2 mono-colored builds, Kingritz won RexDart's challenge with this Golem deck full of rings. Not sure if Ring of Gix would make for a good engagement ring, but its combo partner Rings of Brighthearth might. Those actually look like wedding bands, don't they?

 

 And that's it.


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

 Also known as: how much do the top decks cost? As of November 15, 2013, here's the answer (MTGO Traders prices; mtgGoldfish charts and analysis; the cheapest version of each card is always used; basic lands count zero):

  • 1st place, SBena's Merfolks: $130.67 (nonland cards: $66.03; tribal base: $44.84)
  • 2nd place, Coolcat1678's Elves: $5.13 (nonland cards: $4.61; tribal base: $4.33)

 Merfolk's most effective lineup has been refined across several formats, so most of its elements – namely the lords – are now fixed. As a consequence, none of them is bulk-level cheap (except for Cosi's Trickster, which isn't used much and was more of a personal choice anyway), with Lord of Atlantis being particularly on the expensive side these days (he gained 4 tix the last month alone). The deck also has to feature Mutavault, of course, and despite the M14 reprint, the linear tribal dream land is back to be quite pricey again. And the other reprinted staple, Aether Vial, is oscillating like crazy, and currently sold around 5 tix apiece.

 On the other hand, you can say the same about Elves being played over and over again in every possible format, but they still make for a typically cheap build, instead. Probably because you have a wider range of choices, but even one of the most obvious ones, Priest of Titania, never made past the half tix (she's 15 cent now), in virtue of being common. The rare ones like Elvish Archdruid or Ezuri, Renegade Leader are still a few cents, anyway, with Joraga Warcaller being currently the most expensive Elf of this build at $0.84.

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
  2. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145 (cheapest event winner)
  3. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  4. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
  5. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
  6. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111
  7. Coolcat1678's Elves, $5.13, 2nd place on Event 149
  8. ellmaris's Goblins, $6.52, 2nd place on Event 103
  9. Heureka's Weirds, $6.53, 3rd place on Event 140
  10. kokonade1000's Rats, $7.55, 2nd place on Event 140

 NOTE: not adjusted to current prices; data collected since Event 85.


SHOW AND TELL

 

 AJ_Impy tells about his Nymph deck, first of its kind: "The thing about playing Nymphs is everything is an enchantment, and everything can help you Frankenstein up what you need. Evasion on attack, vigilance or first strike on defence, or just cumulative +2/+2s to the face. And that's before adding 'whenever you cast a spell, draw a card', 'whenever you cast a spell, put a 4/4 white angel with flying into play' and 'enchanted creature gets first strike and +X/+X, where X is the number of nonland permanents you control', that latter for 1 mana. Fun little deck."

  

 And now AJ_Impy shows what he just told. This is game 2 of round 1 against fliebana's Humans.

 And this is game 2 of round 2; this time the opponent is Deonmag with his Zombies.

 A note about last week's Scarecrow deck tech by Bazaar of Baghdad. The embedded video was only the beginning of a longer one that Bazaar kindly recorded. For technical reasons (it's a big, hi-def file), it didn't upload. I'll try and have it featured again next week, in time for the 150th anniversary.

 Check the complete archive of Show and Tell here.


ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Just to remind you of a few things: 

 RexDart's Engagement Ring Challenge has been won! Kingritz won 2 matches with his Golem deck featuring 12 rings and thusly took the Sword of Fire and Ice home. Congrats!

 The Up-and-Coming Prize is now 3 tix! So go find a tribe that never won an event (the Unhallowed list) and try and be the first to break it!

 The Tribal Achievements: Welcome to the second season of the Tribal Achievements! Find new ways to have fun within Tribal Apocalypse, challenge yourself to complete all kinds of strange MTG feats, and make some tix in the process.

 The Hamtastic Award: The Biodiversity Prize dedicated to the memory of Erik Friborg has started again, for its 8th edition: be the first to run 10 different tribes in a row and you'll get 5 tix on SBena_Bot! You have to play all the rounds of an event in order for the tribe to be added to your sequence. If you repeat a previous tribe, your whole sequence resets. AJ_Impy, ellmaris and milegyenanevem are the current leaders, with 4 tribes played.

 The Mongoose Pride Prize! As the last tribe standing after everyone else had been played at least once, Mongoose has become the protagonist of a dedicated prize that will remember forever that you all neglected them despite Nimble Mongoose being featured in high-profile, tier-1 Legacy decks. The Mongoose Pride Prize will permanently award 1 tix (at SBena_Bot) to everyone who'll just... play Mongoose. That's right, you just have to play them and you'll get 1 tix, till the end of times. Well, there's just one clause: you have to win at least one match with them within the event (byes and forfeits don't count). Let's show them all what the mighty Herpestidae can do, shall we?

  
Hard to kill, hard to play (apparently)

 The Top Players Lockout: Every time a Top Player (either a Google Era Top 8, an Ultimate Champion or a seasonal Top 8) will end undefeated, they will not be allowed to register the same tribe and deck again for 5 events (i.e. they'll have to register a different deck or decks 5 times before coming back to the undefeated one). With "deck" is meant a specific, recognizable archetype (e.g. Wall-Drazi), which in some case will be linked to a specific combo card (e.g. Helm of Obedience). A list of the current lockouts is maintained here.

 Videos: Send us replays of your games and we'll feature them in these articles! Don't know how? Read this quick guide in 6 easy steps and start saving your tribal feats for posterity!


 WHAT'S NEXT

 The upcoming Tribal Apocalypse events of the Blippian Era (every Saturday at 17:00 GMT):

  • 3.45 (Week 150 BE), on November 16: 150th Special: Tribal Alpha! (play only with the Alpha Types)
  • 3.46 (Week 151 BE), on November 23: Slug Special! (Tribute to BlippyTheSlug, every deck will have Slugs in it)
  • 3.47 (Week 152 BE), on November 30: Pure Tribal (no off-tribe creatures, no Big Shot Tribes nor T9 cards allowed)
  • 3.48 (Week 153 BE), on December 7: Tribal Underdog (only Underdog Tribes allowed)

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2013!

Take the Quick Survey about the ban list and the event rotation!

 See you all in the Tribal room!