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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. Announcement Time!
4. 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

 Congratulations to the 2017 Player of the Year, Golden_Lin!

 Here's the final positions on the leaderboard for Season 7. Very close race this year!

1. Golden_Lin, 233 pts.
2. Socanelas, 228 pts.
3. AJ_Impy, 215 pts.
4. BoozeMongoose, 175 pts.
5. Deonmag, 165 pts.
6. TLR, 145 pts.
7. ML_Berlin, 140 pts.
8. Generalissimo, 126 pts.
9. Yokai_, 116 pts.
10. mathguy31415, 103 pts.
11. Bandit Keith, 90 pts.
12. Armont, 89 pts.
13. AEFabricio, 86 pts.
14. Nagarjuna, 68 pts.
15. MisterMojoRising, 66 pts.
16. littlefield, 61 pts.

 All the abovementioned are qualified for the 2017 Invitational, which will happen in two weeks on January 20 (official invitations will be sent tomorrow). You can check the calendar for 2018 here.

 Taiwan's Golden_Lin joins Tribal legends NemesisParadigm, mihahitlor, Robin88 and romellos as Tribal Player of the Year, and does so through exceptional consistency, scoring only 3 first places throughout the season, whereas the most consistent winner last year was Socanelas with 7 wins, followed by AJ_Impy and BoozeMongoose with 6 and TLR with 4, while also mathguy31415, Nagarjuna and Yokai_ ended the year with 3 first places.

 We'll have the opportunity to know Golden_Lin better through his interview next month, and to muse over this past season, the 2018 calendar and potential changes in the next installments of Diaries of the Apocalypse. For now, happy new year to all, and let's keep Tribal Wars alive!

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: 7.51, Week 364 BE
• Date: December 30
• Attendance: 10
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Kamigawa Special
• Winner: Nagarjuna (Spirit)
• 1 Loss: Socanelas (Zubera), morpphling (Rat), Generalissimo (Rat), Gq1rf7 (Spirit)
• Kamigawa Prize: AJ_Impy (Spirit), Generalissimo (Rat), Gq1rf7 (Spirit), Osmurtz97 (Spirit)
• O-Kagachi Award: Nagarjuna (Spirit)
• Repopulation Award: lovetapsmtg (Moonfolk)
• Tribes: Moonfolk, Rat (x4), Spirit (x4), Zubera
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 The Kamigawa Special weirdly turned into a Spirit vs. Rat duel event, but it wasn't bad. Nagarjuna once again confirmed his passion for cheating big guys into play, and thus doing gave the kami god O-Kagachi his revenge against those pesky... rats? Anyway, here he is, dominating the board, in spite of the presence of another divine being that shouldn't have been there but somehow stowed away.

 And here's the little Spirit list that could! I like that along with some of the biggest, baddest Spirits (hey, Iname As One and the Myojins work with Omniscience!), there's that random trio of Lantern Kami just to have the occasional 1-drop.

 

 #2 Player of the Year, the mighty Socanelas, chose to take the Zubera route instead. Turns out Zubera is still one of the most viable tribes from Kamigawa.

 

 Can't really be Kamigawa without Moonfolk (I guess), and for the occasion the strange rabbit-like folk achieved the Repopulation Award thanks to lovetapsmtg's steadfastness (which is a very Kamigawa word).

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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 January 5, 2018):

• Nagarjuna's Spirits: $310.42
• Socanelas's Zuberas: $181.60
• lovetapsmtg's Moonfolk: $2.92

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

1. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
2. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
3. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
4. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
5. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
6. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
7. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
8. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169
9. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.70, 1st place on Event 145
10. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $4.12, 2nd place on Event 141

 The Top 5 Cheapest Non-Goblin Decks that Went Undefeated

1. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
2. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
3. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
4. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
5. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201

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

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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 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 New Kids on the Block Award: When a new tribe is introduced in the game, or reaches enough members to be played as a proper tribe (i.e. at least 3 members, so you can build a deck that features 4 copies of each plus 8 Changeling creatures), the first player to score a match win with it will get a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. You'll need a hard win, not a BYE or a win by no-show of your opponent. The tribes currently eligible for the award are Camel, Hippo, Hyena, Monkey.

 The Repopulation Award: Some tribes get played only once (to get the New Kids on the Block Award) and then forgotten. Never again! Register one of the following tribes three times in different events, then play all rounds of those events with them, and you'll get a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. The list of these tribes, established May 5, 2017, is as follows: Antelope, Atog, Crocodile, Goat, Homarid, Incarnation, Leech, Licid, Metathran, Monger, Nightstalker, Octopus, Orgg, Ouphe, Processor, Rabbit, Salamander, Slith. Already cleared: Jackal, Manticore, Moonfolk, Ox, Siren.

 The Hamtastic Award: The Biodiversity Prize dedicated to the memory of Erik Friborg rewards each player who registers 10 different tribes (except Human, Elf and Goblin) during the year with a 3-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. You can go on and win the prize multiple times in the year, but you need to keep playing different tribes! (So if you manage to register 50 different tribes in one season, you can get up to 15 tix!)

 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!

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 WHAT'S NEXT

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

• 8.01 (Week 365 BE), on January 6: Underdog
• 8.02 (Week 366 BE), on January 13: Regular
• 8.03 (Week 367 BE), on January 20: Invitational
• 8.04 (Week 368 BE), on January 27: Regular

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2018!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!