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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Mar 01 2019 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. Show and Tell
  4. Announcements
  5. What's Next

Check the full archive for the "Diaries of the Apocalypse" series


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 March is here so March: Off the Machines is... on. Remember Cloudpost will be taboo all month, which means in tomorrow's Underdog event for starters (in Standard and Modern is not a factor, of course).

 March is also a month with five Saturdays, so we have to decide what to play on the 30th. How do you feel about reviving Kaleidoscope for a night? Otherwise, it could be a Block Constructed Tribal event. To me the most alluring option for one of those is Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block, just because the pool is larger (I just realized that's also going to have a bit of a Kaleidoscope feel. Must be the season).


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 9.07, Week 424 BE
  • Date: February 23
  • Attendance: 8
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Legacy
  • Winner: Bandit Keith with Human
  • 1 Loss: sheaj31 with Faerie, ThyShuffler with Human, Nagarjuna with Eldrazi
  • Underdog Prize: lovetapsmtg with Rabbit
  • Tribes: Eldrazi (x2), Faerie, Golem, Human (x2), Ooze, Rabbit
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 So, it's a hat-trick for Bandit Keith: three wins in a row. It happened only a handful of times in the past: with Ranth in season 2, slug360 in season 3, romellos in season 4 (twice!), Socanelas in season 6, and BoozeMongoose in season 7. That's some exclusive club right there, including several hall of famers and contenders for the seasonal champion title. Is this an omen for Keith? Too early to tell; in the meantime, here's the little Human deck that could.

 

 Speaking of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, a Faerie list was successful last week, courtesy of sheaj31. It's been a while since Faerie showed up at the top, and this is a particularly efficient, very fast build partially inspired to Standard's Monoblue Tempo, but still packs 24 lands.

 

 The other face of Human Aggro: from monowhite to monored. They're both abused classics that highly contributed to Human's whopping 55 wins in Tribal Apocalypse history (more than 13% of the total). This one is by ThyShuffler.

 

 Ultra-Underdog deck of the week: Rabbit by lovetapsmtg. Which is, would you believe it, a Cloudpost deck. Those fearsome Vizzerdrix won't cast themselves.


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 March 1, 2019):

  • Bandit Keith's Humans: $92.00
  • sheaj31's Faeries: $42.27
  • ThyShuffler's Humans: $48.44
  • lovetapsmtg's Rabbits: $23.92
  • Kumagoro's Oozes: $158.32

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. SirFalcon2008's Goblins, $1.54, 1st place on Event 289
  2. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
  3. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
  4. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
  5. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
  6. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
  7. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
  8. Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422
  9. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
  10. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.58, 1st place on Event 169

 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. Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422

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


SHOW AND TELL

 The final entry in the Prime Speaker Vannifar month was the least successful. In fact, it went in a dreadful way: three losses, only one game won.

 

 The idea was to combo with Necrotic Ooze this time, exploiting Vannifar to tutor it up. It never happened. In the past, I had managed to win some matches with Necrotic, but the current scene might have become too competitive for this strategy to pay off.

 

 In particular, relying on Buried Alive is not a good plan anymore; it's too slow a spell, eating away your entire turn 3 to set up the combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Anger and Devoted Druid. It doesn't even solve the issue of ending up with Kiki-Jiki in hand, so I had to include Faithless Looting; at that point, I should have gone with Entomb (and maybe Chord of Calling), banking on the Druid's ability to land in the graveyard on her own. And at the very least I should have included a Vizier of Remedies plan B, to go infinite with the Druid and generate an endless slimy army via Biogenic Ooze.

  

 I admit I played badly at times, and I certainly built in a less than ideal way, including cards like Summoner's Pact without realizing it can't fetch the Necrotic. Since then I've also studied Vannifar's interactions more thoroughly, and the loop allowing a Vannifar endgame by just untapping with her on the board doesn't actually require too many moving pieces; the trick is getting Bounding Krasis (or Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite) AND another three-drop on the board, so it's the latter you sacrifice to get Breaching Hippocamp or Restoration Angel (targeting the Krasis), and finally Kiki-Jiki (also targeting the Krasis – that Krasis must remain untouched all the way through). There's also a way to start from any CMC 1, fetch Scryb Ranger, untap Vannifar, sac the Ranger to Renegade Rallier, take the Ranger back, untap Vannifar again, and proceed toward the win. Vannifar is dizzingly great. You just have to negotiate room for her shenanigans within a Tribal build and not be afraid to splash up to three additional colors from the green base.

   


ANNOUNCEMENTS

 Just to remind you of a few things:

 The Underdog Prize: During any event of the regular rotation (but not necessarily 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.

 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. There's currently no eligible tribes for the award.

 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, Goat, Incarnation, Nightstalker, Ouphe, Rabbit, Salamander. Already cleared: Atog, Crocodile, Homarid, Jackal, Leech, Licid, Manticore, Metathran, Monger, Moonfolk, Octopus, Orgg, Ox, Processor, Siren, Slith.

 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.

 We're on Discord! Join us from here, chat about tribal things with other tribal players and arrange tribal games on MTGO all week long! (Or your can just keep using our Google Sheets bulletin board).


 WHAT'S NEXT

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

  • 9.08 (Week 425 BE), on March 2: Underdog
  • 9.09 (Week 426 BE), on March 9: Standard
  • 9.10 (Week 427 BE), on March 16: Modern
  • 9.11 (Week 428 BE), on March 23: Legacy

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar
SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!

Art disclaimers. Revel in Riches art by Eric Deschamps; Show and Tell art by Jeff Laubenstein; Herald of Anafenza art by Aaron Miller.

2 Comments

Kaleidoscope sounds good! by Nagarjuna at Sun, 03/03/2019 - 14:42
Nagarjuna's picture
5

Kaleidoscope sounds good to me! Haven't played it in years!!!

Sure, Kaleidoscope just got by AJ_Impy at Mon, 03/04/2019 - 05:27
AJ_Impy's picture
5

Sure, Kaleidoscope just got some fresh new tools.