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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Dec 25 2014 1:00pm
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 Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse!

   Table of Contents 

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

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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 Happy Tribal Holidays, folks!

 This week's Pure event will end the 2014 Tribal Year (we already know romellos finally took the Player of the Year title, but it'll be announced next time, when the fight will be officially over). We end on a "pure" note, which will be a good omen, hopefully.

 For now, let's just give a welcome to our new Diaries columnist, m4vis (smawatts is still active but took a break; come back, Shawn! We miss you!), introducing his commentary space called "The Unhallowed". And then maybe let's hear some nice seasonal carols (we were talking of Leviathan Christmas decks in the room last week, and we're called Tribal Apocalypse, after all)...

 You can get more info about the best collection of holiday songs you'll ever find by chanting "Cthulhu fhtagn" three times and clicking here.

Expect a returning season of doom... starting next week.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 4.50, Week 207 BE
  • Date: December 20
  • Attendance: 16
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Regular (No Elves & Goblins)
  • Winner: Zoltan (Kithkin)
  • 1 Loss: romellos (Warrior), Bazaar of Baghdad (Merfolk), _Kumagoro_ (Demon), ML_Berlin (Human), mihahitlor (Knight), Deonmag (Zombie), MisterMojoRising (Warrior)
  • Underdog Prize: m4vis (Spellshaper)
  • Tribes: Cleric, Demon, Golem, Hound, Human, Kithkin, Knight, Merfolk, Sliver, Spellshaper, Sphinx, Vampire, Warrior (x2), Wizard, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Well, what would you know, the "No Elves & Goblins" gimmick got us really close to the always elusive Singularity (i.e. all different tribes in an event), with only Warrior as a duplicate. And Kithkin triumphing while piloted by newcomer (returning? I think he already played in the past) player Zoltan. Good job!

 

 In the meantime, our #1 player-in-waiting romellos put Bloodsoaked Champion into his other tribe, the mentioned Warriors. The supporting section is kind of all-cutthroat all-the-time, but the tribal lineup is just great. I mean, Jazal Goldmane, Stonehewer Giant and Toshiro Umezawa?

 

 I attempted a Kaalia of the Vast deck with Demon.

 

 I know Kaalia is actually more into Avacyn...

Art by Sonellion

 ...but I gave myself a Griselbrand for Christmas! (Nothing says "You've been a good boy" than Griselbrand). So I wanted to play with him. And I even managed to have Kaalia summon him a couple of times, as shown below.

 Anyway, this is the Spellshaper (!) deck m4vis also provides us with replays for, in his own, brand new section. Enjoy.


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks, courtesy of the amazing Deck Pricer from mtgGoldfish (MTGO Traders prices as of December 23, 2014):

 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. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
  4. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  6. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  7. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
  8. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
  9. Gq1rf7's Vampires, $4.38, 2nd place on Event 188
  10. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111

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


THE UNHALLOWED
by m4vis

 

 So I only recorded my last match, because the other matches were pretty cringe worthy (as in I last 30 turns, slowly dying only to lose in a very anti-climactic way). Originally I planned to make this deck mono-white Astral Slide, but when I assembled the cards I wanted to play, it appeared that it would work better as a control deck. My opponent, ChNidox, was running a cool Hound deck, but had the wrong answer to the most important question against many of my decks: Can you destroy artifacts? Anyways, on to the games.


SHOW AND TELL
by _Kumagoro_

 

 Two instances in which my Demon deck managed its ultimate trick: cheating Griselbrand into play via Kaalia of the Vast. The first is against tournament winner Zoltan with his Kithkins. Gris gets exiled almost immediately, but the 7 life he gains before checking out make the difference between win and loss.

 And this is against Golden_Lin's Sliver (last week's winner!), where our winged redhead again calls her massive bodyguard for assistance.


ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Just to remind you of a few things:

 

 Cockatrice Wants You! And Badger, too! Be the first to win a match with these new eligible tribes and you'll win a 1-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. Remember: only tribes with at least 3 members are effectively considered tribes in Tribal Apocalypse (since tribes that field an equal or greater number of Changelings than actual members count as Shapeshifter decks). Tribes with exactly 3 members are allowed to play in Underdog events with 8 slots filled by Changelings, whereas nobody else (but, of course, Shapeshifter decks) can play with more than 4 Changelings in those events. And of course this will happen only as soon as the Changelings will work on V4 as promised.

 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 fourth quarter of 2014. The quarter will end December 27. 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 at least 1 match and at least a total of 3 games 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. The current card is... Kusari-Gama! 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 5 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):

  • 4.51 (Week 208 BE), on December 27: Pure — END OF SEASON! NEW CALENDAR NEXT!

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2014!

Vote for your favorite Flyer on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!