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
Good news, everyone! Eldritch Moon is finally on Gatherling. This means no more placeholders to simulate EMN cards! Sorry again for the inconvenience, and let's just hope Kaladesh will be included on schedule. In the meantime, we're seeing all kinds of juicy spoilers for that new aether-infused, India-inspired set. And it looks like we're going to get new tribes, like Aetherborn and Pilot.
But there will also be a revival of old, semi-forgotten types, like Dwarf and, whoa, Gremlin! Who would have thought that seemingly random one-off from Legends (Phyrexian Gremlins, which isn't even online) was going to come back! Although, well, Mirrodin Besieged had one (Flensermite
), and New Phyrexia had Gremlin Mine
, but that was still 2011, so 5 years later, there wasn't much hope to see them ever again. And yet here they are! And they've also changed color, which only feels right.
Kaladesh will also feature the very interesting Vehicle concept (they don't have "creature" on their type line, unfortunately), two different new Chandras and Nissas, and lots of wonders. October 7 seems too far away.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: 6.35, Week 296 BE
- Date: September 3
- Attendance: 18
- Rounds: 4
- Subformat: Underdog
- Winner: mihahitlor (Plant)
- 1 Loss: BrunoDogma (Rat), TLR (Kor), Yokai_ (Plant), Golden_Lin (Archon)
- True Underdog Prize: Generalissimo (Turtle)
- Tribes: Archon (x2), Berserker, Centaur, Devil (x2), Drone, Horror, Kor, Kraken, Plant (x3), Rat, Scout, Soltari (x2), Turtle
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
Ah, Plant. The Underdog's Wall. They are certainly a powerful player in this subformat, and yet they didn't win too many events. In fact, if we exclude the Plant vs. Zombie special event (where everyone was running Plant), this is their first win since NemesisParadigm used to run the vegetables as a replacement for Walldrazi in Season 1. This deck by mihahitlor (who already earned a second place to the tribe in Event 165 two years ago) is no Plantdrazi, though.
Yokai_ did well too with a mirror list, which was however missing this combo.
And while I didn't catch anybody directly complaining about this, I realize now it's something I don't like much. Not because it's overpowered (you already know that's not a concern, as long as it doesn't show up too much), but because it's very very easy. In a deck like Plant or Wall, that should encourage a number of different endgames, this becomes the obvious, safe one. Plus, I think it's time for Dark Depths
to go sleep with the fish, what do you think? That one is indeed showing up a little too frequently, and its ratio appearances/good-games is pretty high.
Moving on, this Rat deck by BrunoDogma also went well. Speaking of unsuspecting Underdog's underdogs, can you believe that Rat only won one event in 6 years? (Event 184, the last played with the V3 client).
And now, welcome to the "what obscure tribe did Generalissimo run last week?" corner. Last week Generalissimo ran... Turtle. They also make for good pets.
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 September 9, 2016):
- mihahitlor's Plants: $147.36
- BrunoDogma's Rats: $29.80
- Generalissimo's Turtles: $17.11
The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated
- mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
- morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
- 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
NOTE: not adjusted to current prices; data collected since Event 85. A separate non-Goblin Top 10 is in preparation.
ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!
Just to remind you of a few things:
The Ishkanah Prize: The first player to win a match with a Spider deck by activating Ishkanah's lifedraining ability for a lethal strike of at least 4 damage, will get a 2-tix credit certificate from MTGO Traders. Spider lovers, or simply ticket lovers, start building!
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 certificate from MTGO Traders. 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 third quarter of 2016. The quarter will end September 24. 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):
- 6.36 (Week 297 BE), on September 10: Regular
- 6.37 (Week 298 BE), on September 17: Pure
- 6.38 (Week 299 BE), on September 24: Regular
- 6.39 (Week 300 BE), on October 1: Underdog
Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!
Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2016!
SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!
