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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Feb 23 2018 1:00pm
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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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 We need to talk about reanimator. In my naive expectations, I thought banning Entomb and Animate Dead in Pure would be enough to dial down reanimator strategies. Master necromancer Nagarjuna quickly showed me how that was totally not the case. After all, Entomb is not even the best way to dump your reanimation targets into the graveyard: Careful Study, Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion do that while also finding your reanimation spells.

  

 So if the goal is to make Pure into a format akin to Modern, where turn-3 or faster kills aren't allowed, then we have to ban all of the above, plus all of the fast reanimators, namely Reanimate, Exhume, Dance of the Dead and Necromancy as well. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff, that I didn't want to remove from the subformat for fear of overdoing it. But the moment most of the fast combo kills are banned, we're leaving the subformat easy prey to reanimator, and that was not the intention. So all of this stuff needs go away. We'll still have graveyard strategies, of course; we have Recurring Nightmare, Living Death, Living End, Buried Alive, Gifts Ungiven and Unburial Rites. They're slower strategies, though, leaving the opponent the chance to find an answer or build their own battleplan.

 In other news, with the current pool split rules at 40/60, sometimes an unfair prize share materializes between undefeated players (getting the 40% of the pool) and 1-loss players (with the 60%). It's a rare occurrence, but it might happens, and in fact it just happened, with the runner-up player going home with just a few cents more than the 1-loss. We already had a rule (marked as d4) stating that undefeated players can't get the same prize pool amount as 1-loss players, in that case the split becoming 50/50 or even 60/40. Now I updated the rule extending it to the cases when the split is only marginally in favor of the undefeated players.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 8.06, Week 371 BE
  • Date: February 17
  • Attendance: 11
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Pure
  • Winner: Nagarjuna (Praetor)
  • Runner-up: Yokai_ (Eldrazi)
  • 1 Loss: BoozeMongoose (Construct), jackslagel (Devil), Socanelas (Merfolk)
  • Underdog Prize: lovetapsmtg (Metathran)
  • Tribes: Construct, Devil, Eldrazi, Elemental, Faerie, God, Golem, Kobold, Merfolk, Metathran, Praetor
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 So, here's Nagarjuna's unstoppable reanimator decks, with Praetors.

 

 A powerful deck, belonging to a family of powerful decks, that I don't think needs nerfing in Pure is Cloudpost Constructs, as piloted here by BoozeMongoose. Agree?

 

 Meanwhile, lovetapsmtg continues with his repopulation policy, and Metathrans are now one step closer to the goal. This use of Web of Inertia, paired with one-time removals like Relic of Progenitus and Sentinel Totem seems fair. But what about the hard lock with Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void (and Energy Field to double down on it)? Should that be disallowed in Pure? Discuss.


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 23, 2018):

 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.


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):

  • 8.07 (Week 372 BE), on February 24: Regular
  • 8.08 (Week 373 BE), on March 3: Underdog
  • 8.09 (Week 374 BE), on March 10: Regular
  • 8.10 (Week 375 BE), on March 17: Modern

Check out all the rules for the sub-formats!

Check out the full Tribal Calendar for 2018!

SEE YOU ALL IN THE TRIBAL ROOM!

4 Comments

Pure Bannings by Nagarjuna at Fri, 02/23/2018 - 13:35
Nagarjuna's picture
5

Personally, I would ban the cheap reanimation spells (Reanimate, Exhume and Dance of the Dead) and not the looting effects, as they could be played in other decks as well and there are many more (Chart a Course, Tormenting Voice...). But I'm good either way!

To make the subformat feel different from regular events, i would go after two card hard lock combos as well.

I thought about leaving the by Kumagoro42 at Sat, 02/24/2018 - 01:00
Kumagoro42's picture

I thought about leaving the fast looters in, but they mostly help storm strategies, and those should also be kept away from Pure. The ones left aren't as good and as tribal-irrelevant (Chart a Course requires a creature, for instance).

Greetings from Paris! Sadly I by AJ_Impy at Sat, 02/24/2018 - 13:30
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Greetings from Paris! Sadly I will be absent this week and next week. Have fun, everyone.

Have a nice vacation! by Kumagoro42 at Sat, 02/24/2018 - 14:40
Kumagoro42's picture

Have a nice vacation!