We did it! After the 520th Tribal Apocalypse event was held last Saturday, we're now officially ten full years into the Blippian Era! Let's take a minute to remember the one and only BlippyTheSlug, the trailblazer host whose name the era is named for. We still love you, man, wherever you are (probably in some pub in Europe).
In other news, with the last event of the 2020 season, the first phase of the Repopulation Award comes to an end. The award was established on May 2017 to increase the appearance count of the least popular tribes. Over the course of almost three years, Antelope, Atog, Crocodile, Goat, Homarid, Incarnation, Jackal, Leech, Licid, Manticore, Metathran, Monger, Moonfolk, Nightstalker, Octopus, Orgg, Ouphe, Ox, Processor, Rabbit, Salamander, Siren, and Slith have been brought past three registrations. Now we'll kick off a new and simpler form of the Award: play all rounds of a Tribal Apocalypse event with a tribe that has three appearances or fewer and you'll get 1 tix. The current list is as follows:
Three appearances: Carrier, Cockatrice, Gnome, Hippogriff, Kirin, Minion, Thalakos, Warlock, Yeti.
Two appearances: Camel, Cephalid, Hag, Harpy, Mercenary, Surrakar.
One appearance: Egg, Hippo, Hyena, Monkey, Otter, Sheep, Squirrel, Trilobite.
This means you can mill any of the one-appearance tribes for up to three tix, the two-appearance tribes for two tix, but of course once someone will get one of the three-appearance tribe to four, they won't be eligible anymore. It's worth noting Otter is also currently the only tribe still waiting for its first match win.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
Event Number: Week 520 BE
Date: December 26
Attendance: 11
Rounds: 3
Subformat: Legacy All Creatures
Winner: Nagarjuna with Sliver
Runner-up: ThyShuffler with Vampire
1-loss: Generalissimo with Sliver, -DiamondDust- with Advisor, Yokai_ with Vampire, Deonmag with Zombie
Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
The special event where only creatures and lands were allowed was well-received. The Big Four tribes, namely Human, Elf, Goblin, and Eldrazi, were banned; on second thought, maybe Sliver should have been prevented from attending, too. It's just too easy for this kind of super-linear tribe to fill the deck with tribal members without feeling the restriction of the format at all. It's what Nagarjuna did, achieving a first place for his troubles.
Vampire is also in a good place in an environment where noncreature spells are forbidden, because the tribe packs a ton of removal on legs, as ThyShuffler proved. Not enough to beat the Sliver horde, but enough for a second place, and at a very budget price.
Here's what Nagarjuna has to say about his choices: «I considered Allies and Slivers for this event because of their great synergies, but Allies would have needed some weak fillers to get to 40 creatures. Five-color Slivers are close to their regular Legacy Tribal Wars form, requiring only some tweaks, like replacing Aether Vial and Force of Will. The 12 lords (Muscle Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Sinew Sliver) and Galerider Sliver are the main core of the deck for me. As one-drops, first strike (Striking Sliver) and flanking (Sidewinder Sliver) really help getting in early damage, while Plated Sliver is too defensive for my taste. Cloudshredder Sliver guarantees your Slivers will have evasion even if Galerider Sliver dies – and it gives them haste, to boot. I find Metallic Mimic too slow, as you always have a lord to cast on turn two; while Leeching Sliver improves the whole team's damage output, and I think won me the mirror match. And even with removal spells not being legal in the format, Crystalline Sliver is still relevant when facing creatures like Guul Draz Assassin and Captivating Vampire, for example. I included Syphon Sliver only to counteract the life loss from Hibernation Sliver, but it was never actually relevant; I would replace it with a second Manaweft Sliver or a third Leeching Sliver.»
Generalissimo's take: «I chose Slivers because I didn't realise it was an all-creature event until the day-of and all I had to do with Slivers was replace 3x Swords to Plowshares from a pre-existing deck. It seems like the main difference between our decks is I prefer to have much more one-drops because I think that curving out as efficiently as possible is the most important quality for a Sliver deck. I find that draws that involve just playing out a single lord every turn often aren't good enough, so I want a good supply of one-cost Slivers to fill in the gaps. It probably didn't help me in the mirror, though, where the most important thing is drawing the most asymmetrical Slivers.»
Nagarjuna: «What do you think about Virulent Sliver? Feels like a trap to me.»
Generalissimo: «A one-drop Sliver with an ability that's sometimes relevant is good enough for me. It won me one of the games against Kuma.»
Moving on from Slivers, and look at that, Antelope managed to get repopulated at the last possible chance before the Repopulation Award. They shoul thanks lovetapsmtg's unwavering devotion to the cause – which was ultimately responsible for the vast majority of the repopulation process.
Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422
MisterMojoRising's Insects, $3.55, 2nd place on Event 201
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
MisterMojoRising's Beasts, $3.01, 1st place on Event 484
NOTE: not adjusted to current prices; data collected since Event 85.
THE MOMIR EXPERIENCE
"But what about Momir?", you may ask. As previously decreed by the 500th event winner (not to mention, seasonal leader and most successful player in the history of Tribal Apocalypse), Bandit Keith, a Momir Basic tournament was going to be held as the conclusive event of the year. And it was. Only, it turned out it was a very controversial choice, since most players didn't like the idea of skipping a week of tribal shenanigans in favor of what essentially amounts to a silly slot machine competition. In the end, the All-Creature event was created on the side, while the Momir event took place in the regular time slot. Bandit Keith himself ended up winning it, but he also distributed out of his own pocket five two-tix special prizes, claimed over the course of the event, to players who generated a Momir token that best suited the following categories:
The Spike Prize for the best constructed playable creature.
The Endangered Prize for the creature from the smallest tribe.
The Scary Prize for the biggest creature from aSpooky Tribe.
The Masoch Prize for the most self-harming creature.
The Christmas Prize for the creature with the largest amount of devotion to white, red, and/or green.
Perfectly late, Generalissimo shows us what his Snake deck did in the Pioneer event from two weeks ago.
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: Otter.
The New Repopulation Award: Play all rounds of a Tribal Apocalypse event with a tribe that's been played only three times or fewer, and you'll get a 1-tix certificate from MTGO Traders. The list of eligible tribes is here (the leftmost column, from the end).
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 five times before coming back to the undefeated one). This means a different tribe; in some cases, specific combo or archetype-defining cards will also be locked out. 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):
11.01 (Week 521 BE), on January 2: Underdog
11.02 (Week 522 BE), on January 9: Pioneer
Special (Week 523 BE), on January 16: 2020 Invitational
