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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. Show and Tell
4. Announcement Time!
5. What's Next

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

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THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 So, this week, get ready for Tribal Commander! Last time we played the subformat (this is the third time) was March 2013, Event 116, when endless_nameless won with his Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Dragon tribal deck.

 Remember the rules as posted last week, and that you can also find here, in the official Tribal Commander rules page. As stated in last week's addenda, the event will use the regular DCI Commander ban list, plus the SUNCOM ban list, plus only three cards to account of the tribal element: Engineered Plague, Extinction, and Tsabo's Decree. All the other usually banned cards from Legacy Tribal Wars and the Tribal Apocalypse events are legal. The Gatherling filter is up to date, but the new cards from C14 are still not recognized (hopefully they will by Saturday). In case you want to use them, you'll have to put placeholders and notes, as per usual.

I'll surely play this bad girl.

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: 4.45, Week 202 BE
• Date: November 15
• Attendance: 16
• Rounds: 4
• Subformat: Regular
• Winner: mihahitlor (Soldier)
• 1 Loss: RexDart (Human), MisterMojoRising (Elemental), romellos (Merfolk), ScionOfJustice (Goblin)
• Underdog Prize: InfiniteCubed (Minotaur)
• Tribes: Elemental (x2), Elf, Goblin (x3), Horror, Human (x2), Merfolk, Minotaur, Shaman, Soldier, Vampire, Wizard, Zombie
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Could you believe this was just the third victory for Soldier in 4 years? Appropriately, it comes by white weenie specialist mihahitlor's hand, putting him back ahead of romellos as number of overall victories in the history of the event, 23 to 22. These two have really been the most consistent winners in TribAp.

 

 First of the non-undefeated, our friend RexDart came back from his marital bliss to run these seriously cutthroat Humans (not to mention, not really budget-friendly. Check this week's price section, it's hilarious, you could build thirty-two 1st place decks out of the 2nd place deck). Nice to see Anafenza joining the team.

 

 Regular is rarely a place where you find Underdog tribes (after all, they have their own event), so it's always nice to find one, like this Minotaur deck by newcomer InfiniteCubed. Welcome aboard!

 

 And I played a new iteration of my beloved green Elemental deck, now with 100% more Titania, Protector of Argoth. More on this, including several games, in the Show and Tell section.

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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 November 20, 2014):

• mihahitlor's Soldiers: $25.02
• RexDart's Humans: $804.98
• InfiniteCubed's Minotaurs: $8.90
• _Kumagoro_'s Elementals: $138.70

 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. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
4. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
5. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
6. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
7. Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
8. Trickerie's Golems, $4.31, 1st place on Event 138
9. Gq1rf7's Vampires, $4.38, 2nd place on Event 188
10. arcbounddaylabor's Goblins, $4.46, 1st place on Event 111

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

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SHOW AND TELL

 

 So, I revisited my green Elemental deck (with a red splash for two powerhouses such as Sudden Demise and Generator Servant) mostly as a test for more congenial Pure events, and just because I really, really wanted to play with my newly acquired almost-set of Titanias.

 The new Green & Mean team (mind the placeholders for the C14 cards on that list) is thusly composed: Generator Servant and Omnath, Locus of Mana to ramp and, eventually, swing; Vengevine to apply pressure as soon as possible; Forgotten Ancient to play the long game (even if it doesn't take long before it grows to worrying proportions); and Titania, helped by cards like Harrow, Ghost Quarter, the new Myriad Landscape and the obscure Constant Mists, to provide her own form of inevitability. And since I don't own 4 Titanias, which would be a wrong number anyway due to her being a 5-CMC legend, Creeperhulk seemed like a good fit for the last slot (I never drew into it, so I can't tell if it actually passes the play test). To complete the ranks, the always relevant Nylea, God of the Hunt, who should never be left out of green midrange decks, and Wall of Roots, stopping early threats while interacting nicely with Omnath. Unfortunately, the Walls won't be legal in Pure versions of the decks, where I'll probably use Nature's Lore instead.

 Round 1, against ScionOfJustice's Goblins, and Round 2, against RexDart's Humans, I didn't really stand a chance. I also had some very bad luck with the draws, but mostly, those decks were too fast and powerful for my experimental build. Luckily, I had a satisfying second half of the tournament. Round 3, against AJ_Impy's Vampires, I could finally see my battle plan come to fruition. In game 1, despite all the control cards that AJ threw at me, I would always manage to come back, to some extent thanks to Freyalise. She might not look as flashy as, say, Nissa, Worldwaker, but she gets everything right with all her abilities. Then in game 2, Titania delivered big time.

 I had a great match in Round 4, against pfirpfel's Shamans, featuring a favorite strategy of mine: Recurring Nightmare. In game 1, it was the Shaman Show, but in game 2, it was the Titania Show, instead. Then in a very tense game 3, Nylea proved crucial, and in the end Titania managed to create 4 tokens at once even while leaving the battlefield. Good times.

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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!

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 WHAT'S NEXT

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

• 4.46 (Week 203 BE), on November 22: Tribal Commander
• 4.47 (Week 204 BE), on November 29: Pure
• 4.48 (Week 205 BE), on December 6: Underdog
• 4.49 (Week 206 BE), on December 13: 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!