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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

 Next week, get ready for the very first cross-over between Tribal Wars and Penny Dreadful! Find everything about the format where only cards worth one penny are legal, through this link. Excelsior!

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 540 BE
• Date: May 15
• Attendance: 10
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Modern
• Winner: ThyShuffler with Dragon
• Runner-up: Bandit Keith with Elf
• 1-loss: Takeoutree with Merfolk, AJ_Impy with Avatar, Generalissimo with Treefolk
• Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Harpy
• New Repopulation Award: GringoP with Monkey, lovetapsmtg with Harpy
• Tribes: Avatar, Dragon, Elf, Harpy, Merfolk, Monk, Monkey, Treefolk, Vampire, Wolf
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Three singularity events in a row! And all with 10 players or more! (This one actually had 11 at the offset, but one had to drop before the start). I remember when it was a struggle to even have one event where no tribe was duplicated. I can't tell what this is saying about Tribal Apocalypse, maybe just that the current active community is made up of a group players with very differ sensibilities. At any rate, Dragons won an event, first time in Modern and not a very common occurrence in general. The flying lizards won a Pioneer event last year, but before that, we have to go back all the way to the dawn of season 1 (there's a win in season 3, but it was a multiplayer Commander event). The feat was ThyShuffler's merit, with a list apparently fair but chock-full of little-seen Dragon synergies, like Draconic Roar and Foul-Tongue Invocation. (I'll admit I'm not sure why Yosei is there).

 

 The other finalist was Bandit Keith with a fairly conventional CoCo Elf build, yet worth mentioning just for the marvelous pun in the name. I can't believe nobody had thought about it before!

 

 Merfolk is one of those classic Eternal formats worthy tribes that should be at the top of our list of winners, but instead it's not played as much as you'd expect because of budget concerns. Now Takeoutree demonstrates you can also build Merfolk on the cheap and still be successful. Lord of Atlantis not being too expensive anymore sure helps.

 

 And as a green enthusiast, Treefolk is one of my all-time favorite tribes, though we don't see it at the high levels too often. Generalissimo made up for their scarcity with a solid Abzan list centered around the always efficient Doran, the Siege Tower.

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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 May 21, 2021):

• ThyShuffler's Dragons: $26.48
• Bandit Keith's Elves: $92.11
• Takeoutree's Merfolk: $6.32
• Generalissimo's Treefolk: $60.35

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

1. -DiamondDust-'s Dinosaurs, $0.98, 2n place on Event 539
2. SirFalcon2008's Goblins, $1.54, 1st place on Event 389
3. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
4. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
5. morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
6. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
7. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354
8. MisterMojoRising's Beasts, $.3.01, 1st place on Event 484
9. Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
10. Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422

 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: 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 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):

• 11.20 (Week 541 BE), on May 22: Legacy
• 11.21 (Week 542 BE), on May 29: Penny Dreadful

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: June 25.
Current watch list: Conspicuous Snoop, Crippling Fear Shrieking Affliction.

SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!

 

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