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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

 The reform of Pure Tribal is upcoming, in time for next week (February 17)'s debut of the reworked subformat with the first Pure event of the year. It'll have two lists:

• Banned cards (mostly based on power combos that don't fit the spirit of the Pure subformat, working the same way regardless of the tribal shell)
• Allowed cards (the off-tribe tribal lords and helpers, which will be established specifically, card by card, rather than with the generic "whatever references the tribe's name in the rule text")

 Any suggestion about the composition of these lists is welcome. My current approach is to scratch the current banned lists and focus on nontribal power combos only (of course the cards banned in Regular will still be banned); this means Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile will be back in the subformat. I don't see a reason why Pure should be Legacy Light. Do you? (We can occasionally do Pure Modern Tribal Wars, though).

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: 8.04, Week 369 BE
• Date: February 3
• Attendance: 9
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Underdog
• Winner: BoozeMongoose (Plant)
• 1 Loss: Golden_Lin (Rat), Socanelas (Rebel), AJ_Impy (God)
• Underdog Prize: lovetapsmtg (Processor), Nagarjuna (Elder)
• Tribes: Centaur, Elder, God, Minotaur, Plant, Processor, Rat (x2), Rebel
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Plant has always been a minor terror in Underdog, since when NemesisParadigm used it as a surrogate for Wall-Drazi, but it's been a year since its last win. It's one of those tribes that wouldn't survive a transfer into the Major League, because then you would just play Wall. The latest success by BoozeMongoose is an Opposition deck with a Natural Order package as finisher, and Assault Formation as plan B.  The NO targets are Dragonlord Atarka, Avenger of Zendikar and Hornet Queen. I wonder if this kind of build would fall out of favor if Dragonlord Atarka were to be restricted to Dragon deck only, which is something I always plan to do. Maybe we would see Dragonlord Dromoka instead?

 

 This is basically one of the Rat decks from the Invitational. I didn't feature any of those there, so I do it now, as piloted by 2017 Player of the Year, Golden_Lin.

 

 Another monoblack deck, soon-to-be-repopulated Processor by lovetapsmtg. Was there even a particular, functional reason for the Processor tribe to be formally created, rather than being introduced as a virtual, non-mechanical subtribe? Because I don't think there was. There's nothing in the game that references the Processor subtype, and it's a subtype only Eldrazi could have. Anyway, they nicely combo with the Mesmeric Fiend brand of temporary exilers, turning them into proper hand-disruptors; and they appreciate to always have stuff from exile to tap into, which is where the mass graveyard exilers come in.

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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 February 9, 2018):

• BoozeMongoose's Plants: $132.53
• Golden_Lin's Rats: $29.42
• lovetapsmtg's Processors: $1.79

 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):

• 8.05 (Week 370 BE), on February 10: Regular
• 8.06 (Week 371 BE), on February 17: Pure
• 8.07 (Week 372 BE), on February 24: Regular
• 8.08 (Week 373 BE), on March 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!