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 Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse, the PRE where it's the calm after the storm. Or not.

   Table of Contents 

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

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

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THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST: GIANT EDITION

by Kumagoro

 So, Legacy Tribal Wars was gone, then back again. It all happened so fast that I bet some of you didn't even realize what was happening. The thread in the WotC forum that contains everything you need to know is here (and yeah, the mothership published a tribal article this week, ironically). Bottom line: the Tribal Wars filter is still out of the client, but it'll be back, hopefully soon. Let's keep that thread alive to remind them that we need it asap. In the meantime, we'll play Tribal Apocalypse as always, just making tables under the Legacy moniker. So nothing changes for us. Except for the things that do.

 In fact, it's renovation time in Tribal Apocalypse! (That's what I  was going to say last week, before that little "Tribal Wars is dead!" incident exploded in my face). I recently looked at the current system of sub-events and rulings, and while the core of it is good (the monthly rotation is what sets us apart and keeps the tournament always fresh), I realized there's a few things that don't sit well with me anymore and gave me pause. A couple occurrences in particular made me want to tweak a little the way things are structured.

 One of these occurrences was the ban of Sylvan Primordial in Commander. That to me was the proof of how subjective a ban can be, how we always run the risk to generalize a threat that only exists within a specific meta; on the other hand, we might only look at some card's dangers in a vacuum, when in practice they don't create much fuss, if at all. As a host, I'm trying to avoid these mistakes as much as possible, which is the reason I'm using an "innocent until proven guilty" approach to everything. That's why I unbanned all those power cards last year, and I consider that a big victory, because none of them (I'm talking of the ones from the Watch List) had any impact whatsoever on the tournament, except possibly one (more on that below). One of those never even showed up at all in the 85 events since the unban, and a few others just had a couple showings.

The most irrelevant of all bogeymen.

 Another recent, interesting fact: the answers to the survey about the Swords (with Batterskull as their designated partner in crime). I was surprised to learn that 67% of the 36 players who took the poll want the Swords gone, with a 50% asking for them to be banned EVERYWHERE. I'll put the decision up to scrutiny (more on that later), but it seems like we might end to a place where we'll get rid of the Swords. For as much as I'm saying that I want as few bans as possible, I feel legitimated banning the Swords on account of them being the next best tool after Umezawa's Jitte in a creature-based format. Tribal Wars might not be the same thing to everyone, but one thing we can objectively say is that it definitely is a creature-based format, regardless of the way you play it. As such, bans like Umezawa's Jitte or Glimpse of Nature are hard to object to. The Sword hate stems from the same kind of concern. (As a side note, I also agree on the reasoning that some Legacy cards invite "metagaming", to adopt the expression used by Aaron Forsythe in that excerpt AJ quoted last week. That's why stuff like Doomsday, Helm of Obedience, or Goblin Charbelcher, that don't even use creatures as combo pieces, will go away if abused – so far so good, as they haven't been yet.)

 The Sword ban, if finalized, will generate a ripple effect. For one, Stoneforge Mystic will be free to be back in non-Kor and non-Artificer decks, while Kor and Artificer decks themselves would lose a good amount of their power. This brings us to the main topic of this overly long section (there's a recap below if you want to skip all the theorizing): the reorganization of the tribe groups.

 I'm getting complaints about Underdog and Pure becoming essentially the same event. Despite my attempt at negating it, I have to be honest: It's sort of true. And it wasn't meant that way. Originally, Pure took the place of a second Regular event in the monthly rotation. It was just meant as a Regular event where you couldn't play off-tribe creatures. Then we added the ban of the Tribal 9 (honestly, I can't remember the reasoning behind that move, it was probably just because we established the more abused noncreature nonland cards via Vantar statistics, and it felt cool to use them as a restriction). Then we said, "Let's not play the usual stuff here, like Human, Goblin, and Elf". So I created the Big Shots, defined as the tribes who won 5 events or more, because at the time it was a good shortcut for the intended goal. That, in hindsight, was a mistake. It got out of hand. Now we have 12 tribes that can't be played in Pure, including some strong but fair and diverse ones like Shaman. You can play those tribe only in Regular events, turning Regular events more and more in a bloodbath, where honest decks with one of the Big Shot tribes would just get annihilated into oblivion. Just because some deck was being successful, we blamed and punished an entire tribe, essentially pushing some of them out of the meta. And creating a vicious circle where more and more fair tribes are winning events because the cutthroat tribes aren't there. At some point, we would have to reset the 5-win limit for Big Shots, which makes the whole thing feel contrived, unnecessarily complicated, and ultimately pointless.

 The same is true of Underdog. We have 3 year's worth of data now. We can safely say that we know which tribes are "Underdog". Even if one of them will win an event (which is, again, inevitable and self-defeating, considering only the Underdog tribes can win Underdog events), or if a 51st member will be printed, or if they'll get played one time too many (and seriously, tribes played 5 times in 3 years aren't more popular of tribes played 3 times!), their power level won't change: They are and will remain Underdog. So, this is it: Tribal Apocalypse Season 4, time for the Underdog list to be frozen. From now on, these will be the Underdog tribes, forever – or unless the meta for one of them changes in a dramatic way, of course. When a new tribe is created (like it recently happened with God and Nymph, or with the recent boost of Satyr, Octopus, Siren, and Badger), they will enter the Underdog list, then will be properly evaluated over a sufficient number of events. We won't have the three separate categories anymore, but the Underdog Prize will still look at size, popularity, and success to award the prize (I have an automatized thingamagoogle for that).

  

 I took the occasion to re-evaluate the Underdog lineup, bringing back Giant, Scout and Horror (with a ban caveat: see below), and if the Swords interdiction will be ratified, Artificer and Kor. Artificer was originally banned because of Thopter Foundry, which is long gone, then stayed banned because of Stoneforge Mystic's interaction with the Swords (and Batterskull). If we take them out, Artificer isn't beyond the power level of other tribes in the Underdog planet. Kor is a bit trickier, but it's another case where it's nothing but a couple cards to keep the tribe out. The Kor become too nasty if they're allowed to build themselves as Cephalid Breakfast or, to a lesser extent, Quest combo. So, that's easily dealt with: Underdog events will ban Cephalid Illusionist and Quest for the Holy Relic. Done and done. Now we can have a strong but honest Kor equipment deck with Stoneforge Mystic fetching, I don't know, Loxodon Warhammer, and Kor Outfitter trying to equip it. I feel confident this won't be too dangerous. Keep in mind that we aren't trying to play with weak decks here (it would be absurd), we're just trying to avoid the same power combos every single time, and that's what the Swords would do to any attempt at an equipment deck, which is what the Kor should be the best at.

 

 As for the other tribes reinstated, Giant is a large tribe, but it was played only 8 times in 3 years and had the misfortune to have won 1 event. Guess which event was that? The Fattie Week! See how self-defeating these rules were? Same goes for Scout (and I was actually the one who won with them once!). While the Horrors, well, they became scary only because they're the go-to tribe for dredge builds (due to Ichorid). Since I'm quite happy to remove dredge builds altogether from Underdog events, let's add two tribe-related bans more with Bridge from Below and Dread Return, so the dorky Horrors can be back where they belong.

 In general, I want to borrow a page from the Modern management: reset the meta and collect fresh data on elements that were kept away for enough time that we can't really tell how they're going to play in the current environment. I'd like to collect new data on the Werewolves, too, but that's tricky. On one hand, they were banned mainly because they were winning too many Underdog events (especially at the hands of one particular player, and I can't really ask him to stop playing them, even if I know he would comply); yet banning them in Underdog caused them to disappear almost entirely from the tournament, which is a shame. Their power level is high but not excessive, and comparable to one of similar tribes like Kavu or even Hound. But they're popular, so they'd probably push those other tribes out of the competition. So for now, they'll stay out. Also out with no regrets: Ally, which is too explosively linear for Underdog; Assassin, which is built-in creature removal in a creature-based environment; Eldrazi, which would inevitably take the spot of Leviathan, Wurm and alike as the go-to fattie tribe; and Imp, which encourages an easy and too consistent reanimator build.

   

 Looking at the 36 Major League tribes, I notice that Demon was actually Underdog until Innistrad pushed their number beyond 50. Their power level didn't change much these days (by the way, it's Heaven & Hell Week! Check the Demonpedia!), but it seems more or less fair for them to be considered Major League. I'd say the weakest of them is probably Cleric, which could be Underdog material, especially considering they're not played much; but a 250-member tribe would just feel wrong within the Underdog ranks.

 As for Pure events, I think the way they're conceived right now is a bad design, and needs fixing. Going back to the confusion I mentioned, I want to clearly establish an intuitive difference between Underdog and Pure. I'm thinking of this: the tribal decks have two main components, tribal base and support, okay? Underdog is the event where the tribal base is affected: you can only play with certain tribes. Pure is the event where the support is affected: you can't have creatures as support. The T9 restriction fits this description, so it'll stay. But the Big Shots are another subset of tribes we don't need. So those are going away. But don't panic, there will be a few exceptions (I used a Rule of Four: 4 cards banned in Underdog, 4 tribes banned in Pure), determined in a way I find particularly interesting because it connects with the Invitational. In fact, there's another thing that's born from this reform: I hereby create the TRIBAL COUNCIL. The Council is made up of the 4 finalists of the latest Invitational event (which this way will get one prize more), the Four Riders of the Apocalypse. Therefore, the current members are: AJ_Impy, slug360, mihahitlor, and pk23. They're your councilmen (not elected: they conquered their position through battle, like it should be!). And they will be called to decide on several matters. As the Ultimate Champion, AJ is the president and gets two votes, so his decisions can only be countered if all the other three members disagree with him. I'll call for the Council to decide on some matters, like the bans. They'll also determine which tribes will have access to each Pure event, as explained in the following recap, and will seal the fate of the Singleton events, a process which is also detailed below.

 And here's the first call for voting for the Council: considering the majority of the players that made their voices heard asked for a ban, do you sanction the Swords of X and Y and/or Batterskull to be banned from all Tribal Apocalypse events (except Singleton, which doesn't use a ban list)? Or just for non-Regular events? Or just for Underdog? Councilmen, deliberate.

 To recap, this is what will happen now, effective as you read it:

 Underdog

• Underdog is defined as the format where the tribal base is restricted, the support cards aren't.
• In Underdog events, you can only play tribes for the Underdog list.
• The Underdog list is established once and for all (for reference, the old list is here). It won't change again if not via banning.
• The Underdog Tribes are the ones that have access to Underdog, the Major League tribes are the ones that don't; as far as Tribal Apocalypse is concerned, there's no further classification other than this one.
• When a new tribe is created/made legal by WotC, it will enter the Underdog list, pending evaluation.
• Only 4 Changelings are allowed in Underdog decks except in tribes with 3 available members (that can have up to 8) and in Shapeshifter decks (that can have any number).
• The following cards are banned in Underdog events: (Cephalid Breakfast), Quest for the Holy Relic, Bridge from Below, Dread Return.

 Pure Tribal

• Pure Tribal is defined as the format where the support cards are restricted, the tribal base isn't.
• In Pure events, off-tribe creatures are not allowed. All the creatures in your deck must share at least one type.
• The T10 cards (the old T9 with the addition of Aether Vial) are banned in Pure Events. (The Swords and Batterskull will be probably banned too, if they're not banned everywhere already).
• Human is never allowed as a tribe.
• The tribe that won the most recent Pure event is not allowed in the following event.
• Two more rotating tribes, one chosen by the reigning Ultimate Champion, one by the other members of the Council, are not allowed. Tribes that were banned in the most recent Pure event can't be nominated.

 This way, we'll have Pure events that play like restricted Regulars, giving players an additional outlet to play their favorite tribes, but without the risk of seeing too many Elf or Merfolk (which are deprived of Aether Vial for the occasion) winning, or even playing, in a row. The Council has some degree of power over the proceedings, but their next choice has to be different from their previous choice, so a tribe can't be shut down entirely. I thought to ban only Human decks permanently because the huge range of the tribe, that encompasses many different secondary types, gets around the rule of not having access to external creature support, thus trumping the very Pure concept.

 The first Pure event of the new deal is Saturday, and in addition to Human, the tribe banned for being the latest winner in this case is Berserker. I'll need to get the Council bans before 9 AM GMT (8 hours before the event, when I'll send the weekly newsletter announcing them), otherwise they won't be sanctioned for this first event.

 Singleton: a challenge! 

 All good but, hey, we also have a Singleton problem, don't we? Something else we need to fix. What happens is that, according to the previous poll, a group of players really loves Singleton, while another group of players, of roughly the same size, really hates it. A serious pickle for me, because I can't make one group happy without making the other unhappy, and I can understand the position of both of them: Singleton is cool, but it's also a very different format that plays in an almost extraneous way, and may be a stretch to have it in calendar 11 times per year. And guess what, the reigning Ultimate Champion, AJ_Impy, is one of the most vocal elements of the hate group, while the two highest-ranked Riders, slug360 and mihahitlor, are both Singleton enthusiasts (I'm not sure where the fourth Rider, pk23, stands on the issue. Let's say he's neutral). So, here's what we'll do: we'll involve the Council once again, but we'll have some fun with the whole situation. 

 So, Singleton events remain in calendar by default. But AJ and his party will have a chance to turn half of them into Regular events. After any Singleton event, AJ can challenge slug and/or miha to a single game of Tribal Emperor, where AJ and the challenged player will be the emperors. If AJ's team wins, the next scheduled Singleton event will be replaced by a Regular event. Otherwise, or if the challenge isn't issued, the calendar will stay the same. Both parties need to be able to form a 3-player team to play Emperor, which is a multiplayer team format. If AJ's party fails at that, the challenge will be considered lost. Whereas if AJ's party manages to assemble a team, but the other party doesn't (for instance because neither slug nor miha are there to respond), the challenge will be won. The Singleton team has two captains, so that's an advantage in that regard: more chances that one of them will be there. As a host, I'm neutral, so I can be asked to join any team, but only as a 6th player, i.e. after one team is complete while the other misses a player. In that case, I'll join the team which is at a disadvantage. Also, the anti-Singleton team plays with regular tribal decks, the pro-Singleton team plays, of course, with Singleton decks.

 This isn't strictly necessary, mind you. But it's an alternative to just leave the Singleton events in calendar. Plus, it's a fun side event with some stakes. I'm sure AJ will be glad to do it, because he loves challenges. And hates Singleton!

 Finally (God, you're still reading this?!), the poll also established that for the special event we have scheduled for March 22 (March being a month with 5 Saturdays), the vast majority voted for "Something we never did before". So, in homage to one of the recently killed formats, I give you...

TRIBAL KALEIDOSCOPE!

Which I don't even know how many tribes support, but we'll find out. Only bans: Human, just because I don't want everybody to go there without thinking of anything else (that's what Human does to the format. I keep saying it's not even a type anymore, it's a supertype). And Anathemancer, which was in the Kaleidoscope ban list (there was also Glittering Wish, but I think we can safely say that it won't create any problem in Tribal Wars.)

 

 We made it to the end of this section! Woot! I hope you'll understand and appreciate the changes. I'm particularly excited to put the Council at work. Remember you can choose one of them as your representative and ask them to lobby on your behalf. It's like Washington DC, now!

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE... 

• Event Number: 4.06, Week 163 BE
• Date: February 15
• Attendance: 16
• Rounds: 4
• Special Rules: Tribal Singleton (only one copy of each card except for basic lands)
• Winner: fliebana (Elf)
• 1 Loss: mihahitlor (Human), romellos (Knight), Heureka (Vampire), Bazaar of Baghdad (Human)
• Tribes: Eldrazi, Elf (x2), Faerie, Goblin (x2), Human (x3), Knight, Merfolk, Shaman, Soldier, Vampire (x3)
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Believe it or not, this is fliebana's first win in Tribal Apocalypse! Our Spanish friend has been around for so long, and always playing at the top, which I was kind of sure there was a 1st place under his belt already. It was in the making, though, if the missed final of two weeks ago is any indication (the final was actually re-played one week later, with mihahitlor's victory confirmed on the field). At this point, an upcoming session of Who/What/When/Where/Why starring fliebana becomes necessary. The long-awaited win came through Singleton Elves, of all formats and tribes, also marking the first Elf victory in 60 events, since the last one (incidentally, by mihahitlor himself) was in the Christmas event of December 2012 (incidentally, a time when I was defining the monthly rotation for the first time. It's all cyclic, see?)

 

 As fliebana was the only undefeated, we can look around for decks that weren't Vampire nor Human or a subset thereof. Which, eh, only leaves us with AJ_Impy's 5-color Eldrazi...

 

 ...and ellmaris' mono-blue Faeries...

 

 I wanted to mention ellmaris, though, because it gives me the chance to support the efforts of a fellow PRE host: ellmaris has recently launched an awesome Modern league in Gatherling, and it's a lot of fun. It's called Modern Ascension League and can read everything about it here. I'm playing it and it's a budget-friendly and creative environment. Give it a try.

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THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 As always, doing the price math for Singleton decks doesn't really make sense, so see you next week for that!

 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. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
4. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
5. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
6. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
7. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111
8. Coolcat1678's Elves, $5.13, 2nd place on Event 149
9. ellmaris's Goblins, $6.52, 2nd place on Event 103
10. Heureka's Weirds, $6.53, 3rd place on Event 140

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

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SMAWATTS' WAR REPORT

 Hello again all! Smawatts here, back with another tournament report.
 [It's from Event 162, but smawatts skipped last week's event, so next time we'll catch up – Editor's note]

 My second TribAp event was a Regular event and having played a lot of Death and Taxes builds I decided to play a Human white weenie deck. Round 1 I play against Bazaar of Baghdad, who beyond being a very good player is playing a Dark Depths Shaman deck which I just had no game against at all.

 Round 2: our opponent ellmaris is running kaleidoscopic Goblins for an achievement, which makes our protection guys just sort of unstoppable.

 In Round 3 we get to play against Kumagoro, the host of this fine event, and his green Elementals. Our Humans work the best they did all day in this match-up, while he gets sluggish starts both games. [Yeah, those games were terrible for me. And sorry for the delay at the beginning, something probably came up with a player not being there or such. – Kuma's note]

 Round 4: my opponent Gq1rf7 is on mono-red Goblins, which to be honest is probably my personally favorite tribe because nothing is more punishing to even the smallest stumble. Though being on the other side of the table from them makes the little green guys less endearing.

 Final thoughts: Again 4 very different decks, as even the two decks that shared a tribe felt very different, and I do love the feeling of not knowing what
deck my opponent is playing from their first land drop!

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SHOW AND TELL

 

 Due to an unfortunate incident in content deletion, the scheduled RexDart's Born of the Gods evaluation was lost in the Blind Eternities. We're only left with his challenge. (But you can always check Kumagoro's evaluation, if you like.)

 Here are the rules for the Robin and the Nine Hoods Deckbuilding Challenge:

1. Your tribe must be Archer.
2. Your deck must include one copy of at least 9 different Archery Theme cards from this list: Bow of Nylea, Nylea, God of the Hunt, Crossbow Ambush, Slingbow Trap, Viridian Longbow, Arrow Volley Trap, Arrows of Justice, Avenging Arrow, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Hail of Arrows, Infused Arrows, Serrated Arrows, Archery Training, Hankyu, Heavy Arbalest, Viridian Longbow, Wolfhunter's Quiver.
3. You must include at least 3 copies of one Legendary Archer to play the role of Robin Hood and lead your upstart band of rebels to victory. (In Singleton events, this requirement becomes a single copy of 3 different Legendary Archers).
4. You must enter Tribal Apocalypse with the deck and achieve at least 2 match victories, not including byes or forfeits. 

 Only one prize is available and it is handled and assigned by RexDart (so not Kumagoro nor MTGO Traders). If two or more players both achieve the challenge in a single week, the player with the most match wins will take the prize. If the players are still tied, the player with the most unique number of cards from the Archery Theme card list will take the prize.

 The prize will be one Mercadian Masques non-foil copy of Bribery, so that you can rob the rich of their best creature and give it to the poor... or just give your opponent a nice face-smashing!

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ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Just to remind you of a few things: 

 The New Kids on the Block Award is active again: Remember that Born of the Gods boosted two tribes into legality, Badger (now with 3 members online) and Siren (which passed from 2 to 5 members, so directly past the special Changeling treatment in Underdog.) First player to win a match with those will get 1 tix.

 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 first quarter of 2014. The quarter will end March 29. 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 3 matches 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. And the first chosen card is... Sunforger! 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 6 easy steps and start saving your tribal feats for posterity!

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 WHAT'S NEXT

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

• 4.07 (Week 164 BE), on February 22: Pure Tribal (no off-tribe creatures, check the complete rules)
• 4.08 (Week 165 BE), on March 1st: Tribal Underdog (only Underdog Tribes allowed)
• 4.09 (Week 166 BE), on March 8: Regular Tribal (just plain old Legacy Tribal Wars)
• 4.10 (Week 167 BE), on March 15: Tribal Singleton (only one copy of each card except for basic lands)

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2014!

Take the survey about the Swords and the next Special Event!

Vote for your favorite Titan on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!