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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Apr 06 2018 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

 Dominaria is closer and closer, and PureMTGO just got its very own preview card, excellently discussed by S'Tsung, in the form of Damping Sphere.

 S'Tsung's appraisal of the card's impact on Vintage, Legacy and Modern is pretty exhaustive. But what about Tribal Wars? It usually hard to play hate cards in our format, because we've got no sideboard. We've started to see Grafdigger's Cage being played (and to a lesser extent Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, especially if supported by some combo) to fight the very popular reanimator strategies. Can Damping Sphere have a similar purpose? What does it hate in the format? Well, it appears it could very well be worth the inclusion, because it causes severe headache to two overwhelmingly played and extremely successful archetypes: 12/16-post and Elves.

 

 The application against Cloudpost decks is the strongest, because those decks are slow-moving in the early game, and all their typical answers (All Is Dust, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon aren't able to deal with a colorless card (the Scarecrow variant has Reaper King, but good luck casting him with Crystal Quarry and Cascading Cataracts brought down to one colorless mana). Also, there's a good chance to meet one of those decks in any given event, even in Underdog.

 Against Elves the effect is also punishing early on, but recoverable later, when the Elves start to generate such large amounts of mana that pay for the tax becomes an afterthought. Basically, it only guarantees to slow them down a bit, which could however means we can survive the first few turns and catch up with them with our own mid-game. To a lesser degree, it affects Goblins the same way too, especially if we manage to cast the Sphere on turn 2 while on the play. Against other linear aggro like HumanMerfolk and Sliver it shouldn't matter much, since those deck are likely fine with playing one anthem effect per turn and go to town with it, and you can easily play two even under Sphere starting from turn 3-4 on.

 Of course we're still talking Tribal Wars, which means bringing the Sphere along for the ride in your maindeck and never been able to get rid of it during the matchups where it proves to be a completely dead draw. So it's hard to envision a large amount of play. Maybe its best home is a midrange deck with no fast mana via lands, and that isn't likely to ever manage to play more than one spell per turn anyway, and has no many meaningful turn-2 plays. Something like non-combo Beast, Angel or Demon? What do you think?


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 8.12, Week 377 BE
  • Date: March 31
  • Attendance: 7
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Singleton
  • Winner: Nagarjuna (Angel)
  • 1 Loss: Gq1rf7 (Elf), Yokai_ (Goblin), AJ_Impy (Cleric)
  • Underdog Prize: lovetapsmtg (Crocodile)
  • Tribes: Angel, Cleric, Crocodile, Elf, Goblin, Vampire, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Speaking of Angel, and Reanimator, here's Nagarjuna's Angel Reanimator deck with one third white cards and zero white sources. King of our Singleton week thanks to at least one very lucky play, we must say.

 

 It's been a while since we see this, but AJ_Impy's Cleric Singleton deck with only one Cleric is always amusing to me, and it's worth remembering that it's perfectly legal, since Shadowborn Apostle overrules every format, not just formats where the construction rules say "4 copies". It's legal in Commander, too (that "It doesn't let you ignore format legality" note on Gatherer means it doesn't let you play with less than 60 cards in Legacy or any number other than 99 in Commander, for instance).

 

 Also, this is what a Singleton Crocodile list looks like, courtesy of underdog activist lovetapsmtg. There's even a combo in it. Or just a cauldron theme? I don't know, but there's all the cauldrons in there!


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 April 6, 2018):

 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. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
  6. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
  7. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
  8. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  9. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  10. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141

 The Top 5 Cheapest Non-Goblin 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. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
  4. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
  5. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201

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


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 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. The tribes currently eligible for the award are Camel, Hippo, Hyena, Monkey.

 The Repopulation Award: Some tribes get played only once (to get the New Kids on the Block Award) and then forgotten. Never again! Register one of the following tribes three times in different events, then play all rounds of those events with them, and you'll get a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. The list of these tribes, established May 5, 2017, is as follows: Antelope, Atog, Crocodile, Goat, Homarid, Incarnation, Leech, Licid, Monger, Nightstalker, Orgg, Ouphe, Rabbit, Salamander, Slith. Already cleared: Jackal, Manticore, Metathran, Moonfolk, Octopus, Ox, Processor, Siren.

 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):

  • 8.15 (Week 378 BE), on April 7: Underdog
  • 8.16 (Week 379 BE), on April 14: Regular
  • 8.17 (Week 380 BE), on April 21: Pure
  • 8.18 (Week 381 BE), on April 28: Regular

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2018!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

1 Comments

Crocpot. That's terrible. by AJ_Impy at Fri, 04/06/2018 - 16:05
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Crocpot. That's terrible. Bravo, sir.