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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Jul 27 2015 12:00pm
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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

 A few things.

 Newsflash: the Bug Blog acknowledges the Changeling Issue (using the Legacy Tribal Wars tag, even!), which means it's something they're going to fix, eventually!

 Current events: my Tribal Evaluation for Magic Origins is finally here! Come read everything about the creatures that'll change the format forever!

 Rule changes: Elf, Goblin and Human decks (that together amount to almost one third of all the 1st places) will not count for the Hamtastic Award anymore, effective next quarter. They just don't make for tribal diversity enough.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 5.28, Week 237 BE
  • Date: July 18
  • Attendance: 21
  • Rounds: 4
  • Subformat: Regular
  • Winner: Bazaar of Baghdad (Bird)
  • 1 Loss: kokonade1000 (Goblin), arcbounddaylabor (Kithkin), Dawwy (Human), mihahitlor (Goblin), Gonzzy (Goblin), ScionOfJustice (Wizard)
  • Underdog Prize: m4vis (Artificer)
  • Tribes: Artificer, Beast, Bird, Elf, Goblin (x4), Human (x5), Kithkin, Rat, Soldier, Warrior, Wizard (x2), Zombie (x2)
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 It was sort of a Combo Week, which is a change of pace considering aggro won the previous 5 events in a row (and something like 7 out of the last 10). Mostly, we saw the feared return of Aluren after, uh... event 64 (that makes 173 weeks, or more than 3 years).

"Welcome back!", says nobody, ever. But me, because I like stuff that we don't see often.

 And it was the 4th time overall an Aluren deck showed up at all in Tribal Apocalypse BE, so you can see how that card's barely in the meta (at least, so far). Sure it's a strong card, but it does play into a tribe's strengths after all, since you need a tribe that supports CMC 3 or less, and that's most tribes therefore the opponent's too, so at the same time you'll need a tribe that helps finding a way to combo out somehow. The classic combo is Cavern Harpy/Parasitic Strix, so Bazaar of Baghdad chose to go with Birds in order to exploit the Strix's presence but also Augury Owl, Baleful Strix and Raven Familiar's library-digging, plus Birds of Paradise's acceleration (the more usual Aluren tribe is Human, to have the all-fetching Imperial Recruiter already in-tribe). It looks like an excellent build. Plus, if we want to be honest, Cavern Harpy should count as part Bird, too.

 

 Another deck, another combo: m4vis attempted Eggs with Artificers (which, by the way, is a tribe that's got a lot of support in Magic Origins.) It's about filling the battlefield with cheap artifacts that make you draw into more gas by sacrificing themselves while giving back mana – like Chromatic Star, or the titular Egg cycle from Odyssey. Then you play Second Sunrise or Faith's Reward, rinse, repeat, until you hit Tendrils of Agony for the kill.

 

 You can see both Aluren.dek and Eggs.dek playing against me in the Show and Tell section below. Matt also sent us videos for the Horror deck he played one week earlier, you'll find them in his own section.

 Eggs didn't do so well (2-2 as a final score), but a third combo deck ended up in the money, and it was the most unusual of the lot: ScionOfJustice's Wizard build. The deal here is dropping Helm of Awakening to turn Sensei's Divining Top (and further Helms) into a 0-cost card, fueling Altar of the Brood. The Wizards helps digging for all of that, and Trinket Mage in particular fetches all the pieces.

 

 Finally, AJ_Impy has been absent from my articles lately, sometimes to leave room to other players, but this double strike-themed Human deck needed to be featured.


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 July 24, 2015):

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
  2. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
  3. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
  4. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
  5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  6. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  7. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  8. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
  9. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
  10. Gq1rf7's Vampires, $4.38, 2nd place on Event 188

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


THE UNHALLOWED
by m4vis

 

 Alright, I made this Horror deck mostly because of the way it is set up to be consistent. I didn't do too well, largely because there is a glitch in the way MTGO works setting up the stack where I can't tell which triggered ability targets which player. It is a fun deck but it has a problem like many combo tribal decks where there aren't enough free slots to have a consistent combo as well as consistent protection of the combo and removal. One thing I like about this deck is that it makes good use of Dark Ritual, which has always had a problem with being a dead draw late game. Anyways, enjoy!


SHOW AND TELL

 

 Here's two different combo decks at work, both coincidentally against my little Beast build (just a Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth thing, except I always had both cards in hand, and a few times even my Behemoth replacement – since I only own one – the surprisingly reassuring Kalonian Behemoth. On occasion, Xenagos, the Reveler helped a bit with hardcasting the green monstrosities).

 First, let's behold the undefeated Bazaar of Baghdad's Aluren.dek in action. As you can see, it can be a very neat, very inescapable affair.

 And this is m4vis's Eggs build with Artificers. I won both games, but my deck was really in the mood for performing this time. Game 1 showcases the raw power of Sudden Demise, and a very underrated Beast, Hunting Moa, which I really wish they reprinted in Modern border. Game 2 demonstrates that my fears about including a full set of Vines of Vastwood (mostly for protection) were unjustified.


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 third quarter of 2015. The quarter will end September 26. By that date, the player or players who registered the greatest number of different tribes will get a 5-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. Congratulations to last quarter's winner, Generalissimo!

 The Achievements (sponsored by AJ_Impy and vantar6697): Unlock the greatest number of Achievements from this list and AJ and vantar will grant you 10 tix per quarter! The current quarter will end September 26. Players with the same number of achievements will split the prize. 10 more tix will be given at the end of the year to that whole season's Achievement Master. Good luck and congratulations to last quarter's Achievement Master, ScionOfJustice!

 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):

  • 5.29 (Week 238 BE), on July 25: Pure
  • 5.30 (Week 239 BE), on August 1: Underdog
  • 5.31 (Week 240 BE), on August 8: Regular
  • 5.32 (Week 241 BE), on August 15: Singleton

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2015!

Vote for your favorite ETB Creature on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

3 Comments

Hah, Aluren wasn't in by Bazaar of Baghdad at Mon, 07/27/2015 - 15:12
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture
5

Hah, Aluren wasn't in Gatherling search results for Tribal Apocalypse, so I erroneously thought I was the first. Glad to get the history straight. By the way, is it just me, or do the videos not play?

Damn, YouTube fixed the by Tribal Apocalypse at Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:48
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

Damn, YouTube fixed the problem of videos stuck at 95% processing, but still playable, and as a consequence all those videos are now broken! (Some in past installments, too). I'll see what I can do to fix them without changing the address.

Humans? I count a Viashino, by AJ_Impy at Mon, 07/27/2015 - 20:03
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Humans? I count a Viashino, an Ogre, a Vampire, a cat and a bird, but I'm not seeing any Homo sapiens in that deck. That said, Obsidian Battle Axe and double striking warriors is way too much fun.