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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Aug 26 2016 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. Announcement Time!
  4. What's Next

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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 It seems my announced articles (the Eldritch Moon Evaluation and the update of Angelpedia with all the new Angel cards – almost 20 since the last time!) are lost in some editorial limbo. I swear it's not my fault, this time! And I'm confident they'll be up soon.

 Speaking of Angels, last week they won their 3rd event ever! It feels amazing that they never did better in almost 6 years, doesn't it? Their first victory goes all the way back to Season 1, with AJ_Impy winning in Event 36, September 10, 2011 – an event with only 12 players (AJ will also win the Angel/Demon event in Season 2, which of course doesn't really count). Then in Season 4, Gonzzy wins a Tribal Commander event with them. And now Gq1rf7 does it again, bringing the winged girls to the top place of their largest event so far. It was a Pure event, so that might have helped. By the way, despite Angel being Major League, a Purification of anything from that list seemed ludicrous to me, so they got a pass.

 In other news, pay attention to the Ishkanah Prize if you like to win 2 tix. I know Ishkanah is overpriced right now, but she's coming down to decent prices, and she's waiting for you!


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 6.33, Week 294 BE
  • Date: August 20
  • Attendance: 18
  • Rounds: 4
  • Subformat: Pure
  • Winner: Gq1rf7 (Angel)
  • 1 Loss: ML_Berlin (Human), Michelle_Wong (Kor), Socanelas (Warrior), mihahitlor (Shaman), ScionOfJustice (Vampire)
  • Underdog Prize: Generalissimo (Fish)
  • Tribes: Angel, Fish, Goblin, Human (x6), Kor, Shaman (x2), Sliver, Vampire (x2), Warrior, Wolf, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 So, here's Gq1rf7's Angel deck that just made Tribal history. It's a powered version of the one he already did well with the previous week, but it's still amazingly budget-friendly. I wonder if replacing these Angels with more expensive versions (like Archangel of Thune) at the same spots in the curve could lead to a Regular event winner. (Of course then there's the Angel reanimator way, but it never won an event and then was made obsolete by the Archon cousins.)

 

 Michelle_Wong grabbed a Top 4 placement with a prison Kor deck (Winter Orb, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale ) so she deserves a mention, too. Not sure why Kor was the chosen tribe here, though. Why not... Angels?

 

 And, for the Weird Tribe corner ("weird but not just Weird"), we can't miss Generalissimo's new weird attempt at the Underdog Prize, this time with Fish. And it's a Splinter Twin deck using Bounding Krasis and Breaching Hippocamp as enablers. What I was saying about weirdness?


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 August 26, 2016):

  • Gq1rf7's Angels: $7.36
  • Michelle_Wong's Kors: $142.06
  • Generalissimo's Fishes: $4.88

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
  2. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
  3. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
  4. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
  5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
  6. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
  7. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  8. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  9. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  10. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147

 NOTE: not adjusted to current prices; data collected since Event 85. A separate non-Goblin Top 10 is in preparation.


ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Just to remind you of a few things:

 The Ishkanah Prize: The first player to win a match with a Spider deck by activating Ishkanah's lifedraining ability for a lethal strike of at least 4 damage, will get a 2-tix credit certificate from MTGO Traders. Spider lovers, or simply ticket lovers, start building!

 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 certificate from MTGO Traders. 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 2016. The quarter will end September 24. By that date, the player or players who registered the greatest number of different tribes (except Human, Elf and Goblin) will get a 5-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. Congratulations to last quarter's winner, Generalissimo!

 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.

 Wanna test your deck? Tell us when you're online, and look who else is there and when! All of this here!


 WHAT'S NEXT

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

  • 6.34 (Week 295 BE), on August 27: Regular
  • 6.35 (Week 296 BE), on September 3: Underdog
  • 6.36 (Week 297 BE), on September 10: Regular
  • 6.37 (Week 298 BE), on September 17: Pure

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2016!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

11 Comments

Hey now, the Angels vs Demons by AJ_Impy at Fri, 08/26/2016 - 20:38
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Hey now, the Angels vs Demons does too count! :Pout:

Had Angel failed to win an by Tribal Apocalypse at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 12:52
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

Had Angel failed to win an event where everybody was playing Angel, they should be really in dire straits. :)

:comforting shoulder pat: by Elbinac at Fri, 08/26/2016 - 21:11
Elbinac's picture

:comforting shoulder pat:

Huh, forgot I designed by AJ_Impy at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 05:29
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Huh, forgot I designed Gonzzy's Angel Commander deck. This is the first time in the entire Blippian era that Angels have won without any sort of involvement from me. Kudos, Gq!

Honestly, I was pretty by Generalissimo at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 07:05
Generalissimo's picture

Honestly, I was pretty surprised when I searched on Gatherling and discovered that no-one had tried Fish Twin before; it seemed like such an obvious choice to me. I guess I'm just so weird that I don't even realise that what I'm doing would be considered weird.

Oh, I meant to ask this last by Generalissimo at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 09:40
Generalissimo's picture

Oh, I meant to ask this last week but forgot: is the "Tribal 9" ban-list for Pure events a static list or can it change? Because Punishing Fire seemed strangely out of place as something I'd personally never actually seen played in the format before, so I checked Gatherling and it's only been used once this year and only 4 times in 2015, none of them to any great success.

Punishing Fire/Grove of the by mihahitlor at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 11:08
mihahitlor's picture

Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows combo was relatively dominant and hated at one point, that's why the card was added to the list, I suppose.

I agree that it is out of place now.

Well, no reason to unban it by Tribal Apocalypse at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 12:50
Tribal Apocalypse's picture

Well, no reason to unban it only to see it rush back into the format one second later. It's infinite removal. It's just a no-brainer, why shouldn't you play it if you could? (Except for budget reasons, of course).

I don't think it would get by mihahitlor at Sat, 08/27/2016 - 13:07
mihahitlor's picture

I don't think it would get played a lot (partly due to mentioned budget constrains and partly due to evolved meta) - after all, it doesn't get played in regular and underdog.

But it is a powerful combo in a vacuum, so that somewhat warrants it's continued ban.

I tried Punishing Fire once, by Bazaar of Baghdad at Mon, 08/29/2016 - 09:30
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture

I tried Punishing Fire once, and, even besides my natural slowness, the card has inherent time issues if used as a dedicated win con.

By the way, the Angels deck has a bug that very likely cost me a game. Angel of Jubilation prevented Wasteland from destroying his lands (he was stuck on four mana and stayed stuck on 4 mana for several turns), but kept pumping out 4cc angels, and eventually won when he should have been Wasteland-locked earlier. And if anyone wants the extra data point for future worthiness determination, I also timed out g.2 in a favorable board state.

I dislike the idea of a by AJ_Impy at Tue, 08/30/2016 - 20:58
AJ_Impy's picture

I dislike the idea of a timeout under favourable conditions being thought of as a good thing or positive indicator. Clock management is vital in the online game.