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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Oct 04 2019 12:47pm
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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. Announcements
  4. What's Next

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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 Hear ye, hear ye! Again! The Tribal Council, whose foundation was announced last week, has already started to operate according to rules! Its five member, AJ_Impy, Bandit Keith, Deonmag, Nagarjuna and ThyShuffler, have examined the current Watch List and took a vote on each card, with the following results, as per communication of elected council president AJ_Impy:

  

 Therefore, Ad Nauseam, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Natural Order are banned from all formats, effective immediately. Here's the Council's explanations for each ban:

 Ad Nauseam: The card bypasses the nature of the format and the majority of the contents of the deck. It only cares that the creatures of the tribe have no or low casting costs, and then only if not running alongside an Angel's Grace effect. It is uninteractive, disheartening to sit through, and flies in the face of the concept of the event. It has provoked members of our small community to consider quitting.

 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis: Too strong, as we have seen in the normal Magic community, but also it uses the graveyard, and historically tribal decks contain little to no way to interact with the graveyard, which is also why Reanimator was taken away mostly.

 Natural Order: The direct cause of most of the green restricted-to-tribe restrictions. We will be taking a long look at those over the next quarter, as well as the prevalence of cards like Green Sun's Zenith. "Onto the battlefield from the library" deserves as much scrutiny as "onto the battlefield from the graveyard".

 The Council has spoken!

 A note about the Watch List. As long as a card is in there, the Council is forced to discuss and take a vote on it during the next quarter. So the rule that establishes that if three different players submit the same watch request, such request is automatically added to the Watch List, means that those players will be able to force the Council to take a vote on the matter.

 Next Tribal Council deliberation: December 27.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: 9.38, Week 455 BE
  • Date: September 28
  • Attendance: 10
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Legacy
  • Winner: Generalissimo with Sliver
  • 1 Loss: Nagarjuna with Elemental, Nydethess with Vampire, -DiamondDust- with Demon, CruelHellraiser with Golem
  • Underdog Prize: AJ_Impy with Noble
  • New Kids on the Block Award: AJ_Impy with Noble
  • Tribes: Demon, Elemental (x2), Goblin, Golem, Human, Knight, Noble, Sliver, Vampire
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Generalissimo has been absent for long stretches of this season, but when he's back, he's being at his most effective, this time with this list from the most prominent of all linear tribes, Sliver.

 

 Down in the zone of the non-undefeated entries, Ball Lightning-like Elementals have recently gained enough traction to reassert themselves in the meta, thanks to cards like Lightning Skelemental and especially Thunderkin Awakener, which combos surprisingly well with obscure evoke dorks like Glarewielder and Spitebellows. Nagarjuna made good use of this new tech.

 

 This one by -DiamondDust- is instead a very streamlined monoblack build with (relatively) cheap Demons. It also marks the debut in Tribal Apocalypse of yet another powerful card from Modern Horizons: the very flavorful Dead of Winter. While the underplayed Rite of Consumption (which appears here for the second time ever) is a great way to get rid of Abyssal Persecutor for the win.

 

 And this is AJ_Impy taking the newly established (and partially retconnedNoble tribe for their first spin, achieving their first match win. Quite appropriately, they're also the most expensive deck of the week.


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks, courtesy of the Deck Pricer from mtgGoldfish (MTGO Traders prices as of October 4 2019):

  • Generalissimo's Slivers: $23.30
  • Nagarjuna's Elementals: $55.16
  • DiamondDust's Demons: $4.91
  • AJ_Impy's Nobles: $245.76

 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.


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. The currently eligible tribes for the award are: Peasant and Warlock.

 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. Still to clear: Antelope, Goat. Already cleared: Atog, Crocodile, Homarid, Incarnation, Jackal, Leech, Licid, Manticore, Metathran, Monger, Moonfolk, Nightstalker, Octopus, Orgg, Ouphe, Ox, Processor, Rabbit, Salamander, 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):

  • 9.39 (Week 456 BE), on October 5: Underdog
  • 9.40 (Week 457 BE), on October 12: Standard
  • 9.41 (Week 458 BE), on October 19: Modern
  • 9.42 (Week 459 BE), on October 26: Legacy

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: December 27.
Current watch list:
 Aether Vial, Gaea's Cradle.

SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!

 

Art disclaimers. Revel in Riches art by Eric Deschamps; Herald of Anafenza art by Aaron Miller.