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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Jan 13 2017 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. Announcement Time!
  4. What's Next

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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 Pure Revolt! As you may know if you read last week's article, a new season of Tribal Apocalypse has started, and there's a few new rules (concerning the Hamtastic Award and the split of the undefeated pool, for instance). We're also revising Pure Tribal entirely, so when it will be back on February 18, it'll have a fixed ban list in replacement of the old ones (both the generic one and the bans resulting from the Purification Process), created this way: every tribe who won at least 5 events will contribute one ban each 5 events won, rounded down. For instance, Knight (9 wins) will contribute one ban, Shaman (10 wins) will contribute two. Once Knights wins their 10th event, the overall ban list will grow of one further card.

 Now these contributions aren't random; each tribe's quota will consist of cards that that tribe is particularly fond of. Other tribes won't be allowed to use those cards either (the ban list is only one, not one per tribe), but the tribe that contributes it will be hurt more by those bans, to reflect the fact that it caused them by being too successful.

 The always solicitous Bazaar of Baghdad made a first draft of bans, for which I thank him kindly. You can see it here. Most of the old banned cards, like the T9 (a somehow silly concept we can happily put to rest), are included in BoB's list. I'll start to work on it in the weekend, but since there's no hurry, as the first event to use the bans is still more than one month away, I'd like to see other opinions about it. Keep in mind this will be the only ban list for Pure, nothing else will be initially banned if it's not on the list. Every once in a while we'll add to the list when a tribe reaches a number of wins that's a multiple of 5 (there's a few of them that are already on the brink of it), and of course emergency bans are still possible. Also, everything banned in Regular events is banned in Pure too, and the other rules of the format (no off-tribe creatures, auxiliaries) still apply.

 My first notes on BoB's list. I think it mostly works, but:

  1. Keep Underdog out of this. We're not discussing new bans for Underdog at this time.
  2. There's no banning Natural Order, especially in Pure, where Plant and Wall can't use it to do anything but tutoring up other Plants and Walls (or Nylea at best). In Pure, Natural Order helps tribes like Insect to try and be competitive (which still doesn't happen much). Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you look at the statistics from Gatherling, in the past 4 months Natural Order was featured in Pure 4 times, always in Shaman decks, with the following scores: 3-1, 2-2, 0-2, 2-2. Hardly an issue.
  3. I'm okay with leaving all the leftovers alone for now.
  4. I'm not particularly eager nor opposed to banning Enlightened Tutor, but again, looking at the statistics, since May it's been played in Pure 11 times, with the following results: 0-1, 1-2, 3-1, 0-4, 1-3, 1-2-1, 3-1, 2-2, 2-2, 2-2, 3-1. I'd like to ban based on real situations rather than abstractions.
  5. The Swords of X and Y being an aside is not very elegant, but I guess there's no way to work them into the tribal quotas of the bans.

 

Pictured: left, NO; right, maybe?


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 7.01, Week 313 BE
  • Date: January 7
  • Attendance: 15
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Underdog
  • Winner: Golden_Lin (Archon)
  • Other undefeated: Bazaar of Baghdad (Berserker)
  • 1 Loss: Deonmag Scarecrow, TLR (Kor), Armont (Kobold), Michelle_Wong (Sphinx), Generalissimo (Turtle), AJ_Impy (Gremlin)
  • Underdog Prize: Generalissimo (Turtle), AJ_Impy (Gremlin)
  • Tribes: Archon, Berserker (x2), Devil, Giant, Gremlin, Hound, Kobold, Kor, Rebel, Scarecrow, Scout, Specter, Sphinx, Turtle
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Congratulations to the first winner of 2017, Golden_Lin! Thanks to this Archon build.

 

 Bazaar of Baghdad himself was the first player to end as a runner-up so getting less than the winner (the split between them is now 60-40). In the end, his Berserkers couldn't stop the pseudo-Angels from coming back from the grave.

 

 In the meantime, AJ_Impy tried and failed to give Gremlin their first match win (see below). All while ending in the money, though. Leave it to mischievous Gremlins to score a 2-1 through a BYE and a no-show.


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 January 13, 2016):

 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 3-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 New Kids on the Block Award: When a new tribe is introduced in the game, or reaches enough members to be played as a proper tribe (i.e. at least 3 members, so you can build a deck that features 4 copies of each plus 8 Changeling creatures), the first player to score a match win with it will get a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. You'll need a hard win, not a BYE or a win by no-show of your opponent. Three tribes are currently eligible for the award: Assembly-Worker (upon the release of Aether Revolt), Gremlin, Monkey.

 The Hamtastic Award: The Biodiversity Prize dedicated to the memory of Erik Friborg rewards each player who registers 10 different tribes (except Human, Elf and Goblin) during the year with a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. You can go on and win the prize multiple times in the year, but you need to keep playing different tribes! (So if you manage to register 50 different tribes in one season, you can get up to 15 tix!)

 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):

  • 7.02 (Week 314 BE), on January 14: Regular
  • Special (Week 315 BE), on January 21: Invitational
  • 7.03 (Week 316 BE), on January 28: Regular
  • 7.04 (Week 317 BE), on February 4: Underdog

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2016!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

2 Comments

I'm planning to be there on by Bazaar of Baghdad at Wed, 01/18/2017 - 23:55
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture

I'm planning to be there on Saturday. Just wondering why the event table already shows AJ as winning third place, though. Something rigged? :)

Probably a copy-paste by AJ_Impy at Thu, 01/19/2017 - 22:55
AJ_Impy's picture

Probably a copy-paste error.

Should be first, obv. ;)