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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Feb 14 2020 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

 News from the Tribal Council. The Council needed a fresh perspective, so its ranks have extended to two more councilmen, namely Ultimate Champion Generalissimo and reservist CruelHellraiser (after lovetapsmtg forfeited his position). Welcome to the Council, gentlemen!

 Also, the reevaluation of the number of non-Underdog Legacy events within the monthly rotation is frozen for the time being, pending more inputs from the player base. Despite being more and more a dead format that doesn't represent what's going in with Magic as a whole anymore, its historic importance in Tribal Wars made it a mainstay. Legacy fans, rejoice.

 And we need to choose the Special Event for February 29. I'm leaning Commander 1v1 because 2020 is the Commander year, but there might also be reason to wait for the actual Commander products to get online. Given the date, maybe something referencing the Leap Year? The Tribal Council can vote on that.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: Week 474 BE
  • Date: February 8
  • Attendance: 11
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Standard
  • Winner: Yokai_with Knight
  • Runner-up: Nagarjuna with Knight
  • 1-loss: Nydethess with Knight, pfirpfel with Zombie, _Kumagoro_ with Warrior, Generalissimo with Giant
  • Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Cyclops
  • Tribes: Cyclops, Giant, God, Knight (x4), Troll, Vampire, Warrior, Zombie
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 All right, Knights are predictably the tribal powerhouse in Standard, but there are various flavors of them. Event winner Yokai_ was using a Boros budget build featuring Worthy Knight, Inspiring Veteran, Skyknight Vanguard and The Circle of Loyalty, but no Embercleave.

 

 The runner-up Nagarjuna was instead on Embercleave-wielding Rakdos Knights, but despite the two top decks being the same tribe, they only had one creature in common, which was Fervent Champion, aka Javier Domínguez himself (hey, World Championship XXVI is this weekend. Did you choose your champion?).

 

 And then we have Nydethess, with yet another different build of Knights, this time based on devotion and the tribal payoff of Smitten Swordmaster.

 

 Changing gear, but not entirely, Zombies also naturally lend themselves to devotion decks, since Gray Merchant of Asphodel is in-tribe. They can also count on the newly returned Polukranos, Unchained. Returning player pfirpfel obliged.

 

 And here's Generalissimo testing out the new Giant options (see this week's Show and Tell if you want to witness the whole thing with your own eyes). Theros Beyond Death mainly added Tectonic Giant to the previous Naya build originated from Throne of Eldraine, as the two Titans and Thryx, the Sudden Storm would fatally complicate the mana base (plus, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is insanely expensive on MTGO). This only partially improved the lineup, because Rumbling Sentry and Grasping Giant aren't particularly better than Rampart Smasher. Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths better provide some good white, red or green creature with Giant in the type line.

 

 The Giants' country cousins, the Cyclops, also showed up, courtesy of lovetapsmtg. They're not good, of course, although Erratic Cyclops can occasionally be scary.

 

 And can you believe CruelHellraiser played Troll back to back from a Legacy event to a Standard event? Indeed he did!


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 February 14, 2020):

  • Yokai_'s Knights: $4.22
  • Nagarjuna's Knights: $65.66
  • Nydethess's Knights: $47.92
  • pfirpfel's Zombies: $62.98
  • Generalissimo's Giants: $45.84
  • lovetapsmtg's Cyclops: $2.84
  • CruelHellraiser's Trolls: $9.04

 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

 Fee-fi-fo-fideo! If you needed more insight into everything Giant, here's a one-hour-twenty footage of them fighting their Standard battles with Generalissimo at the helm.


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 currently is one eligible tribe for the award: Demigod.

 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. Already cleared: Atog, Crocodile, Goat, 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):

  • 10.06 (Week 475 BE), on February 15: Pioneer
  • 10.07 (Week 476 BE), on February 22: Modern
  • 10.08 (Week 477 BE), on February 29: Special (TBD)
  • 10.09 (Week 478 BE), on March 7: Underdog
  • 10.10 (Week 479 BE), on March 14: Standard
  • 10.11 (Week 480 BE), on March 21: Pioneer
  • 10.12 (Week 481 BE), on March 28: Legacy

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

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.