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
Even after all these years, I still think the basic Tribal Wars format needs some tweaking. Not much, but some. I can't help but wonder what the DCI would have done with it had it remained an officially supported format. Part of me is pretty sure it would have gotten the Modern treatment of encouraging longer games by preventing wins in the first few turns. Otherwise it's just Legacy with a handicap. Which is why I'm seriously thinking of banning all reanimator spells with CMC lower than 3 in all Tribal Apocalypse events (discard/fetching into graveyard spells are fine, they could be needed for different, slower archetypes). It's just too easy to build those decks, it's basically the same shell over and over again with 20 random tribal fatties. There's no real skill in deckbuilding, and little decision-making in the games, I think, at least compared to most other archetypes. What do you think?
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: 8.17, Week 382 BE
- Date: May 5
- Attendance: 9
- Rounds: 3
- Subformat: Underdog
- Winner: Deonmag ( Scarecrow)
- 1 Loss: Yokai_ (Praetor), Socanelas (Rebel), Nagarjuna (Monkey), Bandit Keith (Rat)
- Underdog Prize: Nagarjuna (Monkey)
- New Kids on the Block Award: Nagarjuna (Monkey)
- Tribes: Assembly-Worker, Chimera, Monkey, Praetor, Rat (x2), Rebel, Scarecrow, Scout
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
Case in point: even if Deonmag's Cloudpost
Scarecrows ended up on top, Yokai_'s Praetor Reanimator was right there, and with good reason: those five dudes and dudettes from New Phyrexia are nasty customers for a number of reasons. The shell is always the same, although I appreciate the singleton Archetype of Endurance
to protect the team. I wonder if that was the first one to get fetched and resurrected, though, 'cause it's not a very aggressive start of the reanimation process.
We hadn't seen Rebels on top in a while, Socanelas showed us they're still a strong, flexible tribe if you play it right. Once Lin Sivvi gets on the Rebel phone, and her compadres start to flock in, the whole thing becomes hard to stop. Especially once the strongest Rebel arrives: Mirror Entity
.
Nagarjuna keeps going with his Ridiculously Fair Tribes project, this time with Monkey, which gets their first match win ever, leaving only Camel, Hippo and Hyena as eligible tribes for the New Kids on the Block Award. Of course, land destruction (suggested by Ravenous Baboons
) is not particularly fair, but Monkeys more than balance that aspect.
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 May 11, 2018):
- Yokai's Praetors: $212.84
- Socanelas's Rebels: $208.58
- Nagarjuna's Monkeys: $199.36
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.
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, Goat, Homarid, Incarnation, Licid, Monger, Nightstalker, Orgg, Ouphe, Rabbit, Salamander, Slith. Already cleared: Crocodile, Jackal, Leech, Manticore, Metathran, Moonfolk, Octopus, Ox, Processor, 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):
- 8.18 (Week 383 BE), on May 12: Regular
- 8.19 (Week 384 BE), on May 19: Modern
- 8.20 (Week 385 BE), on May 26: Regular
- 8.21 (Week 386 BE), on June 2: 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!
