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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Oct 23 2014 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

 Not a lot to say this time around, except to note that the Commander 2014 decks (that will influence Tribal Wars quite a bit, probably just a little less than they do Commander) are due online next month, November 21, but two weeks earlier in the paper world, November 7, which is mere two weeks from now, and yet we're still stuck with only three meager spoiled cards. Like, what the is taking so long? Are they going to spoil everything just one week earlier?

 Anyway, before we'll be able to put our hands on all those new creatures and planeswalkers, we'll have our Vintage Halloween Special, October 30. And Halloween has to be Gisa's favorite holiday.

She also makes for a great Halloween costume.

 The event will be played, like any Halloween event, using only the certified Spooky Tribes, which represent the creature types more likely to turn into a Halloween costume (that's why Pirate has been included, by popular request). All creatures in your deck must belong at least partially to one of the Spooky Types, even when included off-tribe, except in the case of a card that references one of the Spooky Tribes (same rule as per Pure event's Auxiliary cards, essentially.) This means, for instance, an Imp deck can include a Demon, but not an Angel; no deck can use Mirri, Cat Warrior, but all decks can use the vampirized Mirri the Cursed; and every deck can include Chainer, Dementia Master, because Nightmares are Spooky.

 

Pictured: Good for Halloween.

 I've been asked if there will be a special banned list due to the one-time-only Vintage format we'll use this year (to celebrate the 200th Tribal Apocalypse event in the Blippian Era). But it seems self-defeating to me. What's the point in playing Vintage if then you go and ban the super-broken cards that set Vintage apart from Legacy? None of those is particularly related to the Tribal format, anyway. Of course, the event will be played with the Vintage filter on MTGO, and that means all the usual Vintage restrictions apply.

So no, you can't play 4 Black Lotuses.

 The only banned cards are those that concern the Spooky meta, i.e. those that directly hose black: Cleanse, LIght of Day, Karma, Kormus Bell, and Elephant Grass, plus all the Changeling creatures, even if with the current bug that makes them useless, it's kind of a moot point.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 4.41, Week 198 BE
  • Date: October 18
  • Attendance: 14
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Singleton
  • Winner: mihahitlor (Human)
  • 1 Loss: Gonzzy (Goblin), pfirpfel (Knight), fliebana (Elf), ML_Berlin (Human), Ranth (Angel), ScionOfJustice (Elf), romellos (Knight)
  • Underdog Prize: 
  • Tribes: Angel (x2), Elf (x4), Goblin (x2), Human (x2), Knight (x2), Soldier, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 This was our last Singleton event of 2014, and it appropriately went to mihahitlor, one of the major supporters of the format (and who, by scoring two 1st places in a row, is now sort of back in the 3-man run for Player of the Year; romellos and MisterMojoRising, take notice). Here's the Human build that made the trick as the only undefeated deck.

 

 Not a lot of interesting tribal choices among the rest, with more than half the submitted decks being from the usual trifecta of Elf, Goblin and Human. Only one out of the four Elf decks ended with a positive score, though, and it was piloted by the returning Tribal Apocalypse champion, fliebana.

 

 What passed for original tribe this time was Angel. I played it myself, doing an encore from the previous week, which is extremely rare for me, but I wanted to play the Angels that I didn't play then. I ended up not going as well as the week where I didn't have to use only one Baneslayer Angel. Tribal legend Ranth's build managed to do better. Midrange is hard to pull off sometimes, when the meta is so aggro-oriented. An Hypergenesis shell helps getting there. This is one of the rare decks that actually take advantage of Tribal Singleton not banning Hypergenesis and allowing free use of Emrakul.

 


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (wait for more in the following weeks, pending technical developments), courtesy of the amazing Deck Pricer from mtgGoldfish (MTGO Traders prices as of October 23, 2014):

 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, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
  4. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
  5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
  6. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
  7. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
  8. Gq1rf7's Vampires, $4.38, 2nd place on Event 188
  9. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111
  10. Coolcat1678's Elves, $5.13, 2nd place on Event 149

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


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 fourth quarter of 2014. The quarter will end December 27. 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 at least 1 match and at least a total of 3 games 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. The current card is... Kusari-Gama! 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 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):

  • 4.42 (Week 199 BE), on October 25: Pure
  • 4.43 (Week 200 BE), on November 1st: Vintage Halloween Special!
  • 4.44 (Week 201 BE), on November 8: Underdog
  • 4.45 (Week 202 BE), on November 15: Regular

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2014!

Vote for your favorite Elf on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

5 Comments

Can anyone loan me a set of by MisterMojoRising at Thu, 10/23/2014 - 16:24
MisterMojoRising's picture

Can anyone loan me a set of Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchards for the Halloween event?

Only one out of the four Elf by ScionOfJustice at Thu, 10/23/2014 - 16:38
ScionOfJustice's picture

Only one out of the four Elf decks ended with a positive score, though, and it was piloted by the returning Tribal Apocalypse champion, fliebana.

I played Elves and went 2-1.

You're right, I missed that! by Kumagoro42 at Thu, 10/23/2014 - 17:27
Kumagoro42's picture

You're right, I missed that! (I got mixed up with Goblin, I guess.)

Also, the Halloween Event is November 1, of course, not October 30.

Righto. So, spooky meta cards by AJ_Impy at Fri, 10/24/2014 - 13:28
AJ_Impy's picture

Righto. So, spooky meta cards are out, everything else is legal?

I'm considering running a Spirit deck which just happens to be Angels: Karmic Guide, Melesse Spirit, Guiding Spirit, Angelic Page and Angelic Curator, with Baneslayer Angel (mentions demons), Angel of Glory's Rise (mentions zombies) and Angel of Flight Alabaster (mentions Spirits) as auxiliaries.

Failing that, abusing cards that are in the vintage pool but not in the tribal legacy pool.

Addendum: Won't be there Saturday, visiting some old friends.

Kusari-Gama / Tower Above (or by Rerepete at Fri, 10/24/2014 - 12:10
Rerepete's picture

Kusari-Gama / Tower Above (or Avalanche Tusker)?