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
Happy New Tribal Year! Well, again. But the first event of the new season, which is the eighth of the Blippian Era (how time flies!), is a good occasion to take stock of where things stand with Tribal Apocalypse right now. And we had a very bad year in 2017, you guys. Here's the sad data.
| Year |
Total Attendance |
| 2011 |
910 |
| 2012 |
889 |
| 2013 |
1014 |
| 2014 |
866 |
| 2015 |
1031 |
| 2016 |
884 |
| 2017 |
729 |
We always had an up and down evolution, but between 2015 and 2017 we hemorrhaged 29% of our annual attendance. That's huge. What's happening? Hard to tell, I see other PREs experiencing the same kind of decrease (or worse). Is there a growing disaffection toward PREs? Old generation players are not in the game anymore (2017 was the year we felt the absence of both romellos and mihahitlor, two former bannermen of the format), and there's not enough replacement? I openly invite suggestions as to how to invert this troubling trend, before it's too late. We're the last that remains of Tribal Wars. If we disappear, the format essentially disappears.
In other news, I'm going to simplify Pure Tribal this year. Let's drop the byzantine rulings, and let's just it be the format where you can't use off-tribe creatures (with the known exceptions), and some cards are banned. I still have to decide what to leave in the Pure banned list, but the first Pure event is due February 17, so there's time for that. It would be nice to eliminate everything that creates stuff that's off-tribe, like Dark Depths
. I don't think it really makes sense for the subformat not to have the best removal, though. What would be the rationale for that?
As for Singleton, for now the three annual events are still in the calendar. Yes, one of the Singleton events had only 9 players last year. But then the next month, a Regular event also had 9 players, and then another Regular event had 8, and then Pure event had 5. While the final Singleton event had 13. So that's hardly a Singleton problem. Besides, there's a devoted fan base for the subformat, and we need not to alienate anybody at this point. Sorry, AJ.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: 8.01, Week 365 BE
- Date: January 6
- Attendance: 10
- Rounds: 3
- Subformat: Underdog
- Winner: Deonmag ( Scarecrow)
- 1 Loss: Nagarjuna (Wurm), Yokai_ (Praetor), jackslagel (Minotaur), TLR (Serpent), AJ_Impy (Praetor)
- Underdog Prize: TLR (Serpent)
- Tribes: Kobold, Kraken, Minotaur, Praetor (x2), Rat, Scarecrow, Serpent, Sphinx, Wurm
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
Hooray! At last, Deonmag broke his curse and managed to win an event! He had ended undefeated many times, including three other times with this very Scarecrow deck (or one of its ancestors), but always found an unbeatable enemy in the playoff round. Not this time. (Mostly because there was no playoff round, so that particular curse is still not broken).
This was Praetor week for some reason (Iconic Masters inspired?), with the powerful Phyrexians being the only duplicated tribe. Yokai_ interpreted them this way...
...and lately, I'm thinking if it's not time to get rid of Entomb, just because it's really too easy to do reanimator that way (it certainly won't be a part of the reworked Pure; it makes sense to limit everything that helps ignoring a tribe's specificity). But then, here's another, non-reanimator way to go big with Preator, in opposite colors, courtesy of AJ_Impy.
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 12, 2018):
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
- kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
- 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
The Top 5 Cheapest Non-Goblin Decks that Went Undefeated
- mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
- morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
- JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
- kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
- MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
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 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!
WHAT'S NEXT
The upcoming Tribal Apocalypse events of the Blippian Era (every Saturday at 17:00 GMT):
- 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
- 8.05 (Week 369 BE), on February 3: Underdog
Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!
Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2018!
SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!
