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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

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THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 Hear ye, hear ye! Saturday, August 8, 2020, Tribal Apocalypse will celebrate its 500th event of the Blippian Era! Woot! Let's have a few lines of silence to remember my illustrious predecessor Herr Volker Kirstein, better known as BlippyTheSlug. Here's to you wherever you are, Blippy. We miss you, man.

 (He's not dead. He's in Frankfurt. Looking more and more like Jeff Bridges)

 To properly memorialize this once-in-a-lifetime milestone, we'll do a Very Special Event, which I hereby call The Battle of All Battles (I've called in several other ways in the past two hours alone, so I'll probably call it something else before it's over. Just know it's the 500th Event Special). The rules and features of this one-and-done format are:

• The pool is Classic. Remember Classic? Back when MTGO didn't support Vintage? That one, which also happens to be the format Tribal Wars started with.
• The only allowed tribes are the Top 10 most successful tribes in Tribal Apocalypse history. These are: Human, Elf, Goblin, Eldrazi, Vampire, Knight, Wizard, Merfolk, Spirit, and Shaman. They are the tribes that ruled the event for a decade. Let's see which of them is the best of the best (all right we already know which one is that. It's Human. Human won one quarter of all the events the combined Top 10 tribes won).
• Players can't choose tribes with which they won an event in the past. If there's a player who won an event with each of the 10 tribes, which I don't think there is (but I'm currently too lazy to check), they'll be allowed to choose the next tribe in the list of winners they haven't won an event with.
• The prizes are doubled!
• There will be a special 6-tix prize awarded by AJ_Impy (to anybody other than himself and the host). As the savviest of all Tribal Players, he'll pick one list he liked the most, for a reason he'll have to motivate, either because it's done something unexpected with the tribe, or avoided the most clichéd builds, or something along those lines. So if you want to get this prize, you must impress AJ.

 As for the nuts and bolts of the resurrected Classic format, I'm giving the Tribal Council one week to establish the banned and restricted list. Operationally, we start from the old Classic restricted list. It could also all boil down to just Powerless Vintage (Vintage without the Power Nine), but the Council could still decide to ban combo pieces that feel inherently non-tribal (e.g. Grindstone, Helm of Obedience, Tinker, etc). The restriction to tribe of certain creatures might also remain in place.

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 498 BE
• Date: July 25
• Attendance: 13
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Legacy
• Winner: Bandit Keith with Eldrazi
• Runner-up: Nagarjuna with Beast
• 1-loss: -DiamondDust- with Zombie, Yokai_ with Warrior, ThyShuffler with Wizard, Nydethess with Elf
• Dark Horse Prize: AJ_Impy with Otter, lovetapsmtg with Pangolin
• Tribes: Beast, Eldrazi, Elf, Otter, Pangolin, Pirate, Rogue, Scarecrow, Vampire (x2), Warrior, Wizard, Zombie
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Do we have an Eldrazi problem? Well, Magic: The Gathering has had an Eldrazi problem since Battle for Zendikar block (ironically, the moment they got defeated in the story, they became stronger than ever in the game). The Tribal Council is currently studying solutions to fix the Eldrazi in Tribal Wars, because decks like this one from Bandit Keith are having too easy a time conquering events, and it's not just because of the Cloudpost shell, they're strong in Modern too, so the UrzaTron shell makes for an adequate replacement.

 

 Gotta say, the Living End decks are having a blast too, lately, especially with new powerful self-discarding Beasts like Titanoth Rex. Nagarjuna failed to beat the Eldrazi with it, but the archetype feels like the last tier-1 combo deck still allowed in Tribal Wars, and the tribal component is not very crucial, considering two off-tribe creatures are run in every Living End list, Simian Spirit Guide to accelerate the casting of a three-mana cascade enabler and Street Wraith to virtually decreases the deck's size to 56 cards.

 

 Here's a deck ThyShuffler has been cultivating since a while: Izzet Miracles. It's based on the well-known Legacy Delver archetype of the same name, but it has strong tribal elements thanks to Adeliz, the Cinder Wind caring for Wizards.

 

 And speaking of Cloudpost, the Scarecrows are the true Underdog story of the 12-Post family. They started as a tribe mostly relegated to Underdog events, now they're probably the second best Cloudpost tribal deck after Eldrazi, and Underdog events couldn't handle them anymore. Deonmag has been loyal to the old rural mannequins all the way through. They even still get new useful members occasionally, like Scaretiller from last year's Commander product – that guy is just perfect for a ramp build, as it both accelerates the land drops and protects against land destruction.

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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 July 31, 2020):

• Bandit Keith's Eldrazi: $179.06
• Nagarjuna's Beasts: $101.75
• ThyShuffler's Wizards: $143.27
• Deonmag's Scarecrows: $22.70

 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. MisterMojoRising's Beasts, $.3.01, 1st place on Event 484
8. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
9. Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422
10. MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201

 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. MisterMojoRising's Beasts, $3.01, 1st place on Event 484

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

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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. Tribes currently eligible for the award: Demigod, Otter, Pangolin, Squirrel.

 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).

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 WHAT'S NEXT

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

• 10.30 (Week 499 BE), on August 1: Underdog
• 10.31 (Week 500 BE), on August 8: 500th Event Special
• 10.32 (Week 501 BE), on August 15: Standard
• 10.33 (Week 502 BE), on August 22: Pioneer
• 10.34 (Week 503 BE), on August 29: Modern

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: September 25.
Current watch list: Aether Vial, Batterskull, Cloudpost, Hymn to Tourach,
Necromancy, Shrieking Affliction, Sinkhole, Witch's Vengeance.

SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!

 

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