Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse!
Table of Contents
- Last Week on Tribal Apocalypse...
- The High Price of Winning
- Announcement Time!
- What's Next
Check the full archive for the "Diaries of the Apocalypse" series
THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro
6 events left in the year, and we're only 110 registrations shy from our best annual attendance ever, 1014 in 2013. Tribal Wars is definitely in good health.
And indeed the first event (forcedly) using the Legacy filter has gone down smoothly enough. And it's time to officially clean up the old DCI ban list for the late Legacy Tribal Wars format, namely by unbanning all the (apparently) harmless stuff. So hear hear, effective next event, the following cards are LEGAL in all Tribal Apocalypse events: Circle of Solace, Peer Pressure, Tsabo's Decree. As shown here.
Playable at last!
Also, the first player to successfully cast Peer Pressure in a TribAp event will get 1 tix as a special one-time award. Make it count!
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: 5.45, Week 254 BE
- Date: November 14
- Attendance: 21
- Rounds: 4
- Subformat: Regular
- Winner: Socanelas (Scout)
- Other undefeated: Robin88 (Wizard)
- 1 Loss: romellos (Merfolk), mihahitlor (Zombie), Gq1rf7 (Cat), ML_Berlin (Human), LordPipas (Human), ScionOfJustice (Elf)
- Underdog Prize: Generalissimo (Orc)
- Tribes: Cat, Elf, Goblin, Golem, Human (x2), Kithkin, Merfolk, Orc, Rhino, Scout, Shaman, Sliver, Snake, Soldier, Wizard, Wolf, Zombie (x4)
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
We have a first time winner! Congrats to Socanelas for... putting romellos's experience with Scout to good use... against romellos himself! Irony, irony. Let's have a look at the fearsome Valakut deck once again. Scouts won twice in a row, and they're a menace not just in Underdog now! (I'd like to see the new Nissa in there, though).
Jumping past Robin's well-known Wizards (plagued by bad luck in the play-off, reportedly) and the defeated Merfolks by romellos, we find a new breed of Zombies, courtesy of mihahitlor, for once in the role of the Johnny player. This is a great next-level Recurring Nightmare build, thanks to the addition of recent cards like Sultai Emissary and Sidisi, Undead Vizier, that just beg to be recurred, or at least sacrificed to Goblin Bombardment, perhaps with a Grave Pact on the board to make it nastier.
Zombies are definitely evolving these days, as we see NemesisParadigm also attempting (with less luck) the combo brew, going stronger on the recursion. Lots of possibilities here. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous.
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, 2015):
- Socanelas's Scouts: $208.84
- mihahitlor's Zombies: $31.46
- NemesisParadigm's Zombies: $26.78
The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated
- mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
- morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
- JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
- Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
- MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
- Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
- Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
- Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141
- Gq1rf7's Assassins, $4.18, 1st place on Event 147
- mihahitlor's Goblins, $4.22, 1st place on Event 240
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.
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 2015. The quarter will end December 26. By that date, the player or players who registered the greatest number of different tribes will get a 5-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. Congratulations to last quarter's winner, Generalissimo!
The Achievements (sponsored by AJ_Impy and vantar6697): Unlock the greatest number of Achievements from this list and AJ and vantar will grant you 10 tix per quarter! The current quarter will end December 26. Players with the same number of achievements will split the prize. 10 more tix will be given at the end of the year to that whole season's Achievement Master. Good luck and congratulations to last quarter's Achievement Master, Generalissimo!
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!
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):
- 5.46 (Week 255 BE), on November 21: Regular
- 5.47 (Week 256 BE), on November 28: Pure
- 5.48 (Week 257 BE), on December 5: Underdog
- 5.49 (Week 258 BE), on December 12: Regular
Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!
Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2015!
Vote for your favorite Board Sweeper on the Topdeck Awards!
SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!
24 Comments
Are you going to do a review about Legendary Cube prize pool? It seems there are lots of good cards there for the tribal format. And they can improve many different deck types.
The fun part at my game against Socanelas' Scouts was to see the actual Darksteel Citadel in play, which I was using it as a placeholder for Cinder Glade.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer would be also a great addition to scouts deck, if she could search for any forest card. Maybe a few copies can worth the risk.
Next time, use Sorrow's Path as the placeholder. ;)
I was wondering why the darksteel citadels were in the deck.
I looked at that list was thought to myself, he didn't put in the comments what it's a placeholder for. Seems exploitable. Didn't realize he was actually running Citadel!
Any thought to making sideboards ONLY cards that "deck check" your opponent? Acquire, Bribery, Earwig Squad, Hide/Seek, Thada Adel.
The 1/3 tribe requirement would still be required after sideboard.
If you want them, maindeck them.
Well the cards aren't good. I suggested them for SB for when game one it looks liked there's no way your opponent had 20 of the same tribe.
Bribery and Acquire no good? I beg to differ with all the various swords and midrange creatures around.
I've read every DotA this year and I don't recall seeing a single Bribery or Acquire in Kuma's champion spotlight.
If you're not careful I'll accept that as a challenge.
They are certainly not tier 1 killers but that has to with the kind of card they represent more than whether they are individually good or bad. 3UU means they belong mostly in a heavy blue deck along side heavy blue tribes. This in turn reduces the amount of decks they will be in that reach a top 8 position and to get into the top 100 of this event requires (usually) some repeat performances. Not seeing them there does not disqualify them from being awesome in UU tribes. The problem is those tribes generally suck or make the Bribery/Acquisition theme redundant. So maybe that is what you mean by them not being great.
You can also try Praetor's Grasp for black color side
I can say with confidence that Praetor's Grasp has never been in a DotA champion spotlight which is proving my point, these cards are not good enough to maindeck if you want to win the event.
Allowing them in sideboards, however, has little costs as a cheating deterrent.
Forget the sideboard. It is never going to fly.
The problem with those cards is that they are so random and unreliable. Most decks don't even play artifacts, and if your goal is to snatch a Sword, then you are much better of playing it yourself rather than pay 5 mana and hope that your opponent has it in the deck. Even if you knew each of your opponent is playing Swords, the card would be bad.
Acquire is completely unplayable in Tribal IMO.
Bribery is of course better, but it is still too unreliable. The last thing you want to do on turn 5 vs elves or goblins is to cast a 5 mana spell that puts a 2/2 into play. And ironically, the type of deck with the most broken creatures is reanimator, which is too fast for Bribery. Maybe it could be OK versus some slower control decks, but even then, you wouldnt be much worse of by just playing expensive creature yourself. Overall there are lots of decks against which Bribery would be bad, some where it would be OK (but not better than just playing 5cc creature yourself) and very few where it would be actually very good.
(BTW, as for allowing them in sideboards, I just don't see a good reason)
Let's say there's 18 players I trust are playing by the rules and 1 player I do not trust.
I'm not going to maindeck Bribery (which you've argued quite well isn't that great) in order to catch 1/19 players of cheating. If it was allowed in SB then I can bring it in versus someone I'm suspicious of. If I catch him cheating, then we've cleaned up the event. If I don't, at least I get something of value even though it may or may not be a great use of 5 mana.
Yeah, but I just don't think that this potential suspicion one might have is a good enough reason to complicate the event rules. And most importantly, it would give your deck an advantage vs certain types of decks (you can sideboard in Bribery or Acquire vs the deck where it's actually good, whereas that deck maybe can't sideboard in hate cards against you.) Same would be true with other "look at the opponent's library" cards if they were allowed. Praetor's Grasp, for example, is an excellent card against some combo decks, which again, gives you an actual sideboard advantage over those decks. To circumvent that advantage while still giving you the option to check whether your opponent is cheating, there could be a rule that you can only sideboard those cards to look at the opponents' libraries and then fail to choose any card, but again, I think this is too "un-elegant" of a rule, and I don't think current Tribal situation warrants such measures, especially because cheaters are always at a certain risk of being caught anyway. But I wouldn't really protest that fail-to-choose option if it was implemented. It could deterr some potential cheaters just knowing that their opp can check their library after sideboarding.
With Scouts up to something like 17-1 in recent weeks, including two regular events, would it be prudent to either move them out of Underdog or ban Valakut or Scapeshift in that sub-format?
Scapeshift to me would be the logical ban, Valakut sees some play elsewhere as a value land.
I strongly agree with banning Scapeshift (everywhere, not just in sub-formats). The deck is unfair and just too tough to prepare for in a 20-creature format without sideboards.
It certainly dances around most metagame answers, but it would seem to have weaknesses too: faster combo, Emrakul, Scepter/Chant, the white name-a-card enchantment, counterspells, etc.
Actuall Scouts deck is quite good against aggro decks with suicidal scouts, board sweepers and fog effects. And now, there is even a much better "fog" option around to replace Moment's Peace in this deck to increase its power level in a different way.
I also support the notion to ban or restrict Scapeshift.
Why can't the metagame go away from Aggro then? I can see Underdog having a tougher time with controlling options, but Regular has tools.
I was just talking about how this scout deck has many advantages in the underdog or even in the pure or regular formats. And combining these elements with Scapeshift gives it a non-interactive playing style. Nothing more, nothing less.
I fully support a ban decision about Scapeshift to prevent this kind of non-interactive win condition for the health of the tribal format.