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Apr 10 2014 12:00pm
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 Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse, the PRE where it's Week 9 since the Legacy Tribal Wars format was removed from MTGO then promised to be reinstated. Never forget. 

   Table of Contents 

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

Check the full archive for the "Diaries of the Apocalypse" series


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 Singleton or Kaleidoscope? You tell me. The voting process for deciding what to do in the third week of the month is still ongoing. The current tally is here (I'll move it to this comment section eventually). Nothing will change until we'll get to 30 votes. I remind you that the options are only two: Leaving Singleton as the only format to appear in the third week (resulting in about 12 Singleton events per year), or adding Kaleidoscope to what will become a Specialist Format Week, shared with Singleton (resulting in about 6 Singleton events and 6 Kaleidoscope events per year). 16 votes to go.

 When we'll be finished with this, I'll open another voting regarding, once again, the Swords of X and Y (plus their cousin Batterskull). As announced, it's time to reevaluate their banning. I personally haven't seen any changes in the decks following the return of Stoneforge Mystic, while I grew uncomfortable with so many cards banned in Regular events right now, as I want those to only exclude things that really warp the format in a major way. And I like this "passing resolutions by open vote" system, so there will be a "30 votes to decide" about that, too. With the caveat that any format where the Swords will be restored will automatically lose universal access to Stoneforge Mystic (she'll be confined to her tribes again).

Maybe this thing will make you want to keep Stoneforge Mystic around?

 But first things first, so please start by telling me which of the Singleton options you like better. If the "shared week" option wins, the first K-scope event will be put in calendar for May 17 (then we'll have 3 more this year in July, September and November).

 Also, we still haven't chosen the special event for May 24 (and, if you like, the one for August 23, too). I heard some ideas, tell me more (in these comments, please, not with a PM while I'm playing a Tribal Apocalypse game and trying to focus!), and in this case I'll just choose the one I'll find more intriguing. I'd like for one of the two events to be multiplayer, anyway, either Commander or 2HG, with or without special additional rules. We should do at least one of them per year.

 And while we're on the topic of the Journey into Nyx spoilers (the set's prerelease will begin May 9), the Theros trend of revisiting obscure, forgotten tribes continues: meet the second Nautilus and the second Starfish ever!

 

Yeah, we really needed these.

 And to remain on the aquatic wildlife, we also get a very good Kraken this time.

 Of course the juiciest spoilers so far are the Boros and Izzet Gods, both excellent.

 

Why do the first 5 multicolored Gods all have one ability, and these have two? The Boros one in particular seems over the top.

 And then there's Ajani 4.0, the first Selesnya planeswalker (how many different colors will Ajani switch to? That guy is having a very complex life). And I don't know you, but even at 5 mana, this looks pretty powerful to me.

Two plus abilities and card advantage? This has "20 tix or more" written all over him.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 4.13, Week 170 BE
  • Date: April 5
  • Attendance: 15
  • Rounds: 3
  • Special Rules: Tribal Underdog (only Underdog Tribes allowed)
  • Winner: MisterMojoRising (Soltari)
  • Other undefeated: mihahitlor (Soltari)
  • 1 Loss: Gq1rf7 (Minotaur), Lord Erman (Minotaur), romellos (Centaur), brettmemphis1989 (Rebel), Leys7 (Insect)
  • Special Prizes: romellos (Centaur)
  • Tribes: Avatar, Bat, Centaur (x2), Giant, Insect, Jellyfish, Minotaur (x2), Rat, Rebel, Soltari (x2), Vedalken, Volver
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Soltari rising. The white shadows end up with two undefeated finishes over two registered decks, consequently taking their second win of the year (the third overall), thanks to MisterMojoRising and mihahitlor. Here's their lists (Soltari are straightforward guys, they don't have time for flourishes.)

by MisterMojoRising - 1st place
Creatures
4 Soltari Foot Soldier
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
2 Soltari Champion
2 Soltari Trooper
4 Mirror Entity
4 Mother of Runes
24 cards

Other Spells
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Spectral Procession
3 Battle Screech
11 cards
Lands
23 Plains
2 Kjeldoran Outpost
25 cards

 
Soltari Monk

 

 

 See what they did there? Yeah, they did the same thing. Well, MisterMojo has more lands, due to Kjeldoran Outpost's tendency to kill them, and Mother of Runes off-tribe. Miha has removals. In both case, the true protagonists are the Spectral Procession/Honor of the Pure package, and Battle Screech, which has been massively rediscovered lately.

 What else did well in this Underdog event? Well, we got another same-tribe couple at 3rd and 4th place: Minotaur. Two very different builds this time: Gq1rf7's is a super-aggressive Rakdos deck complemented by classic Jund cards like Terminate, Blightning and Bituminous Blast (and even Sorin's Vengeance, to boot).

 

 The second Minotaur army, piloted by Lord Erman, is instead a combo affair centered on Zedruu the Greathearted creating a lock with Statecraft, then winning via a Boros Reckoner sent behind enemy lines and hit with a fully levered Lord of Shatterskull Pass. It's a belabored strategy, which indeed lost against Gq's aggro rage, but it's really fascinating nonetheless.

 


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Also known as: how much do the top decks cost? As of April 10, 2014, 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, MisterMojoRising's Soltari: $20.54 (nonland cards: $20.34; tribal base: $2.80)
  • 2nd place, mihahitlor's Soltari: $23.00 (nonland cards: $23.00; tribal base: $2.80)

 All right, they're essentially the same deck. Miha's costs a bit more because of Path to Exile. The most expensive card in both cases is Spectral Procession.

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
  2. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154 (cheapest event winner)
  3. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  4. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  6. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
  7. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
  8. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111
  9. Coolcat1678's Elves, $5.13, 2nd place on Event 149
  10. ellmaris's Goblins, $6.52, 2nd place on Event 103

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


SHOW AND TELL

 

 Last call for the Robin and the Nine Hoods Deckbuilding Challenge: try and grab it this Saturday, as you won't get more chances to do it. Here's the rules:

  1. Your tribe must be Archer.
  2. Your deck must include one copy of at least 9 different Archery Theme cards from this list: Bow of Nylea, Nylea, God of the Hunt, Crossbow Ambush, Slingbow Trap, Viridian Longbow, Arrow Volley Trap, Arrows of Justice, Avenging Arrow, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Hail of Arrows, Infused Arrows, Serrated Arrows, Archery Training, Hankyu, Heavy Arbalest, Viridian Longbow, Wolfhunter's Quiver.
  3. You must include at least 3 copies of one Legendary Archer to play the role of Robin Hood and lead your upstart band of rebels to victory.
  4. You must enter Tribal Apocalypse with the deck and achieve at least 2 match victories, not including byes or forfeits. 

 Only one prize is available and it is handled and assigned by RexDart (so not Kumagoro nor MTGO Traders). If two or more players both achieve the challenge, the player with the most match wins will take the prize. If the players are still tied, the player with the most unique number of cards from the Archery Theme card list will take the prize.

 The prize will be one Mercadian Masques non-foil copy of Bribery, so that you can rob the rich of their best creature and give it to the poor... or just give your opponent a nice face-smashing!


ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Just to remind you of a few things: 

 The Underdog Prize: During any event of the regular rotation (but not during the one-time special events), all players who are running an Underdog Tribe are eligible for a 1-tix credit on Pennybot. The tie-breakers are first the number of Underdog categories (for instance, a tribe that's simultaneously Endangered and Unhallowed will take the prize over one that's only Endangered), then the points achieved in the final standings. During Underdog events, only the True Underdog tribes are rewarded (those are the tribes belonging to all three categories of Underdog at once).

 The Up-and-Coming Prize: When a tribe wins an event for the first time ever (losing Unhallowed status), its pilot will get a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders.

 The Hamtastic Award: The Biodiversity Prize dedicated to the memory of Erik Friborg has started the second quarter of 2014. The quarter will end June 28. By that date, the player or players who registered the greatest number of different tribes will get a 5-tix certificate from MTGO Traders.

 The Tribal Achievements: The new list of achievements for the 2014 season is here. Unlock the most of them by the end of the year and you'll share a 25-tix Jackpot.

 The Champion's Challenge: AJ_Impy, our reigning Ultimate Tribal Champion, has issued a running challenge of his own: play with a deck featuring 4 copies of a card he'll nominate, and win 3 matches with it during a single event, and AJ will reward you with 1 tix (which you'll keep as eternal memento because it's the tix the Ultimate Champion gave you). You'll be required to prove through a screenshot (or calling either me or him as witnesses, but only if we're not playing!) that you actually played the card and/or activated the card's abilities at least once during the event. And the first chosen card is... Sunforger! Good luck, folks!

 The Top Players Lockout: Every time a Top Player (either a Google Era Top 8, an Ultimate Champion/Tribal Player of the Year, 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):

  • 4.14 (Week 171 BE), on April 12: Regular Tribal (just plain old Legacy Tribal Wars)
  • 4.15 (Week 172 BE), on April 19: Tribal Singleton (only one copy of each card except for basic lands)
  • 4.16 (Week 173 BE), on April 26: Pure Tribal (no off-tribe creatures, complete rules here)
  • 4.17 (Week 174 BE), on May 3: Tribal Underdog (only Underdog Tribes allowed)

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2014!

Vote for your favorite Burn spell on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

16 Comments

Kaleidoscope-Singleton by Tribal Apocalypse at Sat, 04/12/2014 - 13:52
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

Kaleidoscope-Singleton voting.
Players are being asked the question: "Do you want for Kaleidoscope to replace HALF the Singleton events from now on?" (resulting in 6 Singleton events + 6 Kaleidoscope events per year)

The current tally will be update below. 30 votes needed before a decision will be taken.

Pro-Kaleidoscope: romellos, Gq1rf7, mihahitlor, AJ_Impy, justcanceled, RexDart, Winter.Wolf, brettmemphis1989, smawatts, ChNidox
TOTAL: 10

Pro-Singleton: MisterMojoRising, Dawwy, ML_Berlin, Gonzzy, longtimegone, arcbounddaylabor
TOTAL: 6

Abstained: Lord Erman
TOTAL: 1

TOTAL VOTES: 17

Why 30 votes? It seems by AJ_Impy at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 06:56
AJ_Impy's picture

Why 30 votes? It seems needless and arbitrary.

Presumably because that by longtimegone at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 07:29
longtimegone's picture

Presumably because that threshold ensures that a significant number of event participants have a chance to hear about this and make a vote.

Since I see that you voted by longtimegone at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 07:35
longtimegone's picture

** I replied to the wrong post with this, I intended to direct the question to AJ.

Since I see that you voted for Kaleidoscope, do you mind if I ask what you see in that format?

The big drawback to me was that the combination of tribal and multicolored requirements seems to narrow down the playable options to a very small group. Additionally, the color requirements for the multicolored format can mean that those who cannot afford a wide selection of color fixing lands can be excluded. In regular tribal, there are usually at least some good deck options that don't require fetch lands and duals to function well.

What do I see in the by AJ_Impy at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 08:19
AJ_Impy's picture

What do I see in the format?

Lots.

I was writing articles about Kaleidoscope before it was even implemented in the client. I wrote a tribal crossover article for it back in the day. Since then, Kscope was expanded to the full legacy cardpool, which adds in a number of interesting extra options. It is possible to build perfectly serviceable 'monocoloured' Kscope decks using hybrid and split cards, using only one type of basic land. Presumptions that duals and fetches are mandatory is misleading, and the better lands in the format such as pillar, reflecting pool and exotic orchard are far cheaper than duals or even shocklands.

I see potential, I see a very interesting restriction and deckbuilding challenge. Also, I'm perfectly willing to answer 'I don't have a Kaleidoscope deck and can't afford to make one' with 'Here, have a Kaleidoscope deck'.

Also, bear in mind the opposition. Singleton has an even narrower range of playable tribes, requiring 20 actively playable unique members. It is absolutely detested by a large number of event participants, according to the recent survey, but it does also have its fans. Any opportunity to dilute the amount of the schedule it occupies is better than the alternative.

What longtimegone said. Any by Tribal Apocalypse at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 11:39
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

What longtimegone said. Any number would be arbitrary. 30 is not too large (we have more than 100 unique players in the newsletter alone), yet large enough.

We do have 100 unique by AJ_Impy at Mon, 04/14/2014 - 03:51
AJ_Impy's picture

We do have 100 unique players, the question is how many players do we have that care enough to express a preference? We've had a full cycle of all our usual events since the vote opened, this week's singleton should give the fans of that format a chance for a rally. We are in month 4 of 12: How much of the year do you want to allow to pass before finalising this? I suggest at the very least a temporal boundary in addition to the numerical one, if we must have a numerical one.

It's simple: I'll keep by Kumagoro42 at Wed, 04/16/2014 - 08:30
Kumagoro42's picture

It's simple: I'll keep collecting votes until the quote will be fulfilled otherwise I WON'T finalize anything. Why should I if people don't care? The rule was there from the beginning to ensure that enough people wants the change. If they don't, no change will happen.

And the first potential Kaleidoscope event is for May 17. You can see we're not exactly in a hurry here.

And no, we didn't have a full cycle of events since the vote opened. We didn't even have a full cycle of event since we had the first Kaleidoscope event and I had the idea. The voting opened 10-11 days ago during TribAp 170, got transcribed first on the current article at the time (TribAp 169), then in this one. You can see the timestamp from the first tally being April 5, Sat, 04/05/2014 - 22:55 my time (GMT+1), which is right after TribAp 170 ended.

At the present time, a by AJ_Impy at Wed, 04/16/2014 - 11:55
AJ_Impy's picture

At the present time, a majority of those that care enough to vote want the change to happen. Why should those who don't care enough to vote, or even to show up for the events, overrule that? When was the last time we had thirty people attend?

I forgot to mention (it by Kumagoro42 at Wed, 04/16/2014 - 15:49
Kumagoro42's picture

I forgot to mention (it seemed obvious) that as soon as one side hits 50%+1 of the quorum, that ends the voting. So with the recent influx of votes from the newsletter (people who don't read these articles and weren't in the room the last 2 weeks, but who do count in our community), we're 1 vote short for Kaleidoscope to ratify.

Ah, ok, that's reasonable. So by AJ_Impy at Wed, 04/16/2014 - 16:34
AJ_Impy's picture

Ah, ok, that's reasonable. So it's essentially a best of 30. Objections withdrawn.

UPDATE (since I can't edit by Kumagoro42 at Thu, 04/17/2014 - 17:42
Kumagoro42's picture

UPDATE

Pro-Kaleidoscope: romellos, Gq1rf7, mihahitlor, AJ_Impy, justcanceled, RexDart, Winter.Wolf, brettmemphis1989, smawatts, ChNidox, endless_nameless, BlippyTheSlug, Bazaar of Baghdad, SBena, Leys7
TOTAL: 15

Pro-Singleton: MisterMojoRising, Dawwy, ML_Berlin, Gonzzy, longtimegone, arcbounddaylabor, Robin88, Deonmag
TOTAL: 8

Abstained: Lord Erman
TOTAL: 1

TOTAL VOTES: 24 of 30

Last update: April 17, 21:00 GMT

The reason you can't edit the by Paul Leicht at Sun, 04/13/2014 - 16:27
Paul Leicht's picture

The reason you can't edit the tally on your original post has to do with the fact that people responded to it. It is an unfortunate "feature" of this site that comments eliminate the ability to edit posts. For what it is worth I also think 30 is arbitrarily large since apparently its been well more than a month and we have only slightly over half this quorum, still needing 12 more votes. At this rate it could take 3-4 months to finally get a decision (by committee).

It's not been over a month, I by Kumagoro42 at Wed, 04/16/2014 - 08:21
Kumagoro42's picture

It's not been over a month, I started the poll during TribAp 170 (when the latest published article was about TribAp 169), so it's 10 days. And now I'll move it to the newsletter.

It has to be large enough to be democratic. We have 100+ regular players. What meaning would have if I just decided after the first 10 votes or so? I might have well decided it without a poll, then.

I agree that there should be by Paul Leicht at Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:47
Paul Leicht's picture

I agree that there should be a democratically determined decision if you can't simply make one but it seemed like 30 was a high number to seek. 10 days from your proposal? How come I remember this discussion from last month? (Don't say "because you're insane, Paul" because while that could be true it isn't relevant here. :p

Meanwhile it seems you found a way to reach people so yay for that.

It's probably because I did by Tribal Apocalypse at Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:53
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

It's probably because I did propose the idea at the end of the K-scope event on March 22, but I didn't ask to vote until April 5.

By the way, the new article is going up tomorrow, on Friday.