Ikoria is almost here, and boy, is it filled with all manners of unusual tribes. The second Brushwagg ever! The second Pangolin ever! The third Squirrel ever! (The latter is a bit more relevant for us, since now Squirrel is a playable tribe, you guys!)
And more: a legendary Elk! And down in the associated Commander 2020section, a rare Badger and a rare Trilobite!
It all looks like a lot of fun. In the meantime, the two remaining special events of the season yet to be assigned have now been assigned: on May 30 we'll do a Pauper event in collaboration with the good folks at Tropical Pauper Saturday (Bnoru is our liaison), and on August 29 we'll do the Companion event, which will be a Legacy event where you need a card with the companion mechanic. We have time to establish if some of the available ones need banning; I'm looking in particular at Lurrus, which basically "forces" you to have a creature curve that stops at 2, which seems to encourage too much the use of major tribes like Goblins. Also, Kaheera merely asks for one of those four tribes, but they're not the most popular tribes, so maybe it's okay – although you can elect Kaheera as your companion and then ignore it and play monored Elementals. Maybe for the special event we should link the companion's deck to its color identity too, Commander-style.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
Event Number: Week 482 BE
Date: April 4
Attendance: 12
Rounds: 3
Subformat: Underdog
Winner: Generalissimo with Naga
Runner-up: ThyShuffler with Scout
1-loss: Nydethess with Pirate, Bandit Keith with Dinosaur, Nagarjuna with Pegasus, Bnoru with Rat
Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
Reigning Ultimate Champion Generalissimo got a taste for winning, and now there's no stopping him. This time he was playing Naga, so in this week's Show and Tell we'll hear about... the Shamans from the week before! He can do whatever he wants!
The Nagas were a high-synergy deck, but in the finals they defeated a bona fide combo deck, the Melira/Saffi/Altar of Dementia endgame by ThyShuffler. Melira and Saffi are both Scouts, which helps.
Shout-out to two tribes that just returned to the Underdog field by Council's decree. AJ_Impy took Archon for a new spin. The tribe had been deemed too dangerous for Underdog back when Entomb/Exhume was still a thing. Now the next best methods to reanimate the big guys are Recurring Nightmare, Living Death, Unburial Rites and the also recently unbanned Necromancy. The deck is functional, but the only win it produced was against the other returning tribe of the week...
...and that was me, with Snake. Listen, these reptiles have had a ton of new great additions lately, and yet I can't manage to have them perform as expected. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the ridiculously unfortunate matchups. Like, I once had Hexdrinker stolen by Archmage's Charm, what are the odds of that? Anyway, I'm giving up on them – considering how much value these cards now have, I'm going to liquidate my Snake assets.
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
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
Birthing Pod and Shamans, together again.
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 fromhere, 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):