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
Are you happy with how Eternal Masters is shaping up? Access to cheaper Wasteland, Force of Will, Enlightened Tutor, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Emperor Crocodile have to make an impact on our little games, too. (I might have been joking somewhere in that list).
And there's new art for cards that we see often around here, like Entomb, Price of Progress and Wirewood Symbiote.
And look, little old Nimble Mongoose is in the set, also with new art. Will that convince you that it is, in fact, an eternal card, despite the fact you never play it? That's some sweet revenge.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: 6.20, Week 281 BE
- Date: May 21
- Attendance: 14
- Rounds: 3
- Subformat: Pure
- Winner: TLR (Human)
- Other undefeated: Yokai_ (Warrior)
- 1 Loss: AJ_Impy (Soldier), ML_Berlin (Goblin), mihahitlor (Shaman), Socanelas (Warrior), Dakmor92 (Ally)
- Underdog Prize: Generalissimo (Orc)
- Tribes: Ally, Angel, Eldrazi, Goblin, Human, Orc, Shaman (x2), Soldier (x2), Warrior (x2), Zombie (x2)
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
So now Yokai_ gave up on playing the playoff round with his Warriors two times in a row, this time in favor of TLR's monored Humans. He must really not care about winning events. But hey, this means TLR got his first Tribal Apocalypse win! Congrats!
Even AJ_Impy wasn't immune to the allure of the new linear Soldiers (and Humans) from Shadows over Innistrad, the likes of Thalia's Lieutenant and Hanweir Militia Captain. However, his deck was all about enchantments to trigger Ajani's Chosen. Nice to see Starfield of Nyx put to use. I love that art.
Speaking of Soldiers, did you even see Splinter Twin comboing with Midnight Guard rather than the usual blue stuff? Too bad Bazaar of Baghdad dropped after losing the first round. I hope to see this deck again in the future. And you know what these three decks had in common? They could have easily been the same, powerful, monowhite linear Human Soldier build. But none of them are, and in fact they don't even share a single creature. Amazing, uh?
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 May 27, 2016):
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:
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 second quarter of 2016. The quarter will end June 25. By that date, the player or players who registered the greatest number of different tribes (except Human, Elf and Goblin) will get a 5-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. Congratulations to last quarter's winner, 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.
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):
- 6.21 (Week 282 BE), on May 28: Regular
- 6.22 (Week 283 BE), on June 4: Underdog
- 6.23 (Week 284 BE), on June 11: Regular
- 6.24 (Week 285 BE), on June 18: Pure
Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!
Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2016!
SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!
12 Comments
Don't miss the S100 birthday event tomorrow! We have triple the usual prizes and distribute until place 8. + doorprize
Checkout http://tinyurl.com/Chainsaw-S100 for all the details.
I was curious about Human dominance recently. Here is a list of the number of humans for each of the winning Regular events in 2016:
0 – {Goblins}
21 – Mono-White Aggro
20 – Mono-White Combo Control {Clerics}
13 – Green-red-black Control {Shamans}
20 – Blue-white Combo Control
20 – Mono-Red Aggro
20 – Mono-White Aggro Control
15 – Blue-white Combo Control {Wizards}
27 – Mono-White Aggro
20 – Blue Green red Combo Ramp Control
Brackets indicate the non-human tribes involved, if any. Colors are listed with main colors capitalized. There are several different styles there. I'm not sure if that is a call to arms, but I will at least ask if there is something we should be doing...
Here is the creature breakdown:
12 Mother of Runes
8 Laboratory Maniac
8 Architects of Will
8 Champion of the Parish
7 Student of Warfare
7 Meddling Mage
5 Containment Priest
5 Deftblade Elite
5 Auriok Champion
4 Boros Elite
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Alchemist’s Apprentice
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Lightning Berserker
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Stormscape Apprentice
4 Precinct Captain
4 Riders of Gavony
4 Thalia’s Lieutenant
4 Dragon’s Eye Savants
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sage of Epityr
3 Mardu Woe-Reaper
3 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Benevolent Bodyguard
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Keldon Marauders
2 Eternal Witness
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Crimson Acolyte
1 Hanweir Militia Captain
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
1 Omenspeaker
1 Voidmage Prodigy
Tasigur is the only Black-hearted human of note it seems. :)
Imho and it really is just a lowly opinion of a non-participant at this point, there isn't anything to be done that isn't already being done. There was a long stretch of time where other types dominated but Humans collectively tend to be good because there are so many of them. (The bad ones don't stand out but the good ones do.)
I expect, Mom to eventually be hated out by the lockout rule. At least temporarily. The rest? meh.
I'm not recommending this, but to put an idea out there for diversity's sake (other than an outright ban), we could have a rule where Red, White, or Blue humans cannot constitute more than half one's tribe (even if officially playing Wizards, Clerics, Soldiers, etc.) in Regular events. As MaRo says, restraints breed creativity. If helpful, Kuma need not police the rule with new entrants or those who haven't won an event in a while.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's "fine" as is, just wondering if it might be even better to change to this or some other restriction.
We have the top 8 lockout, we could expand on its use. If, say, a top 8 player moneys with humans or human derivatives, they could get a 2-week lock in humans and that tribe. (Which would cover the next regular event). A smaller penalty for only going x-1, but it could really shake things up.
Can do. But just for X-0. We don't want to alienate top players further.
We can just add Human as lockout whenever the tribe is Human-relevant.
I think the idea should be that when a winning deck is defined by a derivative tribe like Wizards, Clerics, Soldiers, etc. that has 50%+ humans in its tribal base, Humans are prohibited from being 50%+ of any other tribe for that player during the lockout period. I hope that makes sense. If not, I can try to parse it out a bit more.
If it were for me, Human wouldn't even be considered a tribe anymore. As already discussed (and sort of alluded to each time I do a tribal evaluation), their number is greater not merely than all other subtypes, but than most card types too.
We have (counting Un-sets and double-sided cards too):
Creature: 8379
Enchantment: 2089
Instant: 2022
Human: 1820
Sorcery: 1739
Artifact: 1618
We're almost at the point where one creature out of four is a Human.
In fact, we probably are already there, because if you take out the Un-sets and other fake results, Human drops to 1789, but the Creature total probably drops under 8,000.
Maybe have 'Inhumanity' as a fifth-week format? No humans allowed.
No comment about the idea, but catchy name.
I won't be able to provide a justification, but my preference is that the regular stays as it is (ie. not mess with tribes as a whole, just with individual cards if some are too broken).