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By: Tribal Apocalypse, Tribal Apocalypse
Dec 12 2014 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. Show and Tell
  4. Announcement Time!
  5. What's Next

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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 The 2014 season is coming to an end! With only 3 events left, there's a maximum of 54 points available (18 being the points awarded for a victory in a 4-round event, see below), which means we already know who's the Player of the Year this time, but I'll wait and announce it at the proper time. The second place is still very open, and so it's the Top 8 placement. I remind you all the Top 16 are qualified for the Invitational, which will be held in the 3rd week of January replacing a normal event, but the Top 8 will not be paired against each other in the first round, so that's where you want to be.

 I've been asked about the point system, so here it is in full (in short is: 2 points per Swiss match win, +10 for 1st place, +5 for 2nd place, +3 for Top 4, all bonuses require being undefeated at the end of the Swiss rounds):

  • win one match in the Swiss rounds: 2 points
  • win two matches in the Swiss rounds: 4 points
  • win three matches in the Swiss rounds: 6 points
  • win four matches in the Swiss rounds: 8 points
  • undefeated in 3-round event, lose the final playoff: 11 points (with multiple undefeated, lose round 1 of the playoff: 9 points)
  • undefeated in 4-round event, lose the final playoff: 13 points (with multiple undefeated, lose round 1 of the playoff: 11 points)
  • winner of 3-round event: 16 points
  • winner of 4-round event: 18 points

 I'll do a cleanup before the end of the year, because when there's only one undefeated, the Gatherling system automatically awards medals to the other Top 4 players, and medals cause point bonuses that shouldn't be there; I usually clean this up at the end of the event, but I might have forgot a couple times, resulting in phantom bonuses that will be removed, hopefully with no serious consequences on the leaderboard. If you see anomalies, please let me know.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 4.48, Week 205 BE
  • Date: December 6
  • Attendance: 12
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Underdog
  • Winner: AJ_Impy (Gargoyle)
  • 1 Loss: MisterMojoRising (Horror), Elizabeth_Lah (Pegasus), _Kumagoro_ (Horror), Gq1rf7 (Kor), m4vis (Hydra)
  • Underdog Prize: Elizabeth_Lah (Pegasus), m4vis (Hydra)
  • Tribes: Berserker, Gargoyle, Horror (x2), Hydra, Kor, Monk, Myr, Pegasus, Soltari, Specter, Sphinx
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Better late than never! Our reigning Ultimate Champion AJ_Impy finally scored his first win of the year with his classic, overwhelming Gargoyle Cloudpost deck:

 

 As AJ himself noted in this week's Freed from the Real: "Meta has moved away from Wastelands thus re-enabling my Cloudpost-based decks, though I needed to fight through cascade Restore Balance, Ravages of War and Armageddon to take the prize. Favourite moment, opponent sacrificing everything for a Greater Gargadon with two Restore Balance almost ready to unsuspend only to see it eat a Swords to Plowshares, followed by, the turn before the first Balance unsuspended, Nullstone Gargoyle."

 And the guy with the Gargadon and the Restore Balance was no other than MisterMojoRising, who moved his beloved cascade combo build of late to the particularly fitting Horror tribe.

 

 And hooray for the first money placement of our resident lady Elizabeth_Lah, who was actually going to win against AJ in round 3, which would have given Pegasus its first victory ever. Too bad she realized too late that two Loyal Pegasi can actually attack in the company of each other.

 

 Finally, the other Horror deck of the week, played by yours truly, and amazingly not sharing a single card (except Swamp) with MisterMojoRising's mirror (?) build. Horror flexibility!

 

 This is actually a one-trick deck because it makes everything about dropping Phyrexian Obliterator on the battlefield. Granted, facing an Obliterator is a scary proposition, especially when his pal Spellskite is also around, but this list doesn't really offer anything else of substance, since the rest of the tribe is (the very obscure) Fleshwrither to fetch the Obliterator, the semi-harmless Phyrexian Rager to draw into the Obliterator, and Mesmeric Fiend to take anti-Obliterator removal out of the opponent's hand long enough for Obliterator to kill them. Plus some ways to accelerate the casting of the Obliterator or to combo with the Obliterator's ability by forcing a very destructive fight.

Obliterator Obliterator Obliterator? Obliterator Obliterator!

 I have a few saved replays for this deck, you can see them below on this week's Show and Tell. Speaking of which: how come that people keep asking how to record games, then nobody ever send me anything? C'mon, guys, show us your stuff!


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 December 12, 2014):

 So my deck was actually the more expensive of the Top 4 (especially compared to the other Horror deck), due to the Obliterator being 8.5 tix apiece and especially Spellskite being almost 17 tix. The Pegasgeddon deck was unsurprisingly the cheapest, and with Armageddon being just a few cents now, thanks to Vintage Masters, it only leaves Ravages of War and Ghostly Prison to drive most of the deck's value.

 All in all, the sum of all the Top 4 amounting to little more than 300 tix is a good sign, isn't it?

 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.


SHOW AND TELL
by Kumagoro

 

 So, here's the Obliterator deck in action. First against the feared Monks by romellos.

 Then facing ML_Berlin's Berserkers, which had the considerable problem of relying on damage-dealing spells for removal, which doesn't work so well against Obli. In the first recorded game (which is game 2; game 1 was a quick win for the Berserkers due to my still being bad at mulligan), you can see what happens when you drop an Obliterator turn 2, immediately followed up by Spellskite. The second game is more balanced, by in the end the sheer mass of the Obliterators proves to be unstoppable.

 As you saw, I also had a chance (which I didn't take) to play Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, who was in the deck only because I own a copy and wanted to see him in action, but didn't actually have any particular reason to be included in this list; then again he doesn't in general: he's just a 5-mana beater, and the more flavorfully fitting Demon decks actually have enough 5-mana beaters of their own already to care about him.

Does Old Man Nixilis have a home, anywhere?


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):

  • 4.49 (Week 206 BE), on December 13: Regular
  • 4.50 (Week 207 BE), on December 20: Regular: No Elves & Goblins (types banned, not just tribes)
  • 4.51 (Week 208 BE), on December 27: Pure

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2014!

Vote for your favorite Goblin on the Topdeck Awards!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!