A Legacy event is coming up this week, and that's the only format pool where Beholder is a legal tribe, since half of their four members comes from the Forgotten RealmsCommander decks. And well, this might not even be the right week yet, because the cards from those precon decks aren't in the client yet (I guess we'll have to wait for the next Treasure Chests update). But once they're online, this is gonna be the Beholder lineup – give or take a second changeling as replacement for the weakest one, which is probably the only common, Baleful Beholder.
So, we're in Grixis, and extremely top-heavy. Death Tyrant makes Zombie tokens and self-reanimates, which is okay. Karazikar taps and goads a creature whenever we attack, so it's both a way to clear the path for our creatures to connect, and a very roundabout way to achieve removal (unfortunately the second paragraph of its rule text does nothing in 1v1). Xanathar is theoretically the most powerful of the lot, but it's not without its caveats, because if we use him to fateseal the opponent, then we might not be doing enough to improve our board. They seem like a difficult tribe to break. But we're gonna keep... an eye on them. (Insert comedy rimshot here).
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
Event Number: Week 549 BE
Date: July 17
Attendance: 12
Rounds: 3
Subformat: Pioneer
Winner: Bandit Keith with Spirit
Runner-up: _Kumagoro_ with Beast
1-loss: Supergirl-Type0 with Knight, Nagarjuna with Vampire, AJ_Impy with Warrior
Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Squirrel, ThyShuffler with Halfling
New Repopulation Award: lovetapsmtg with Squirrel
New Kids on the Block Award: ThyShuffler with Halfling
Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
"Singularity" event last week (meaning no duplicate tribes), which is always nice to see happen. It's been more and more frequent lately, for reasons I don't completely fathom (most likely, it's a combination of the special prizes rewarding changing tribe week after week, along with the fact that several members of the current player base are really into mixing it up). No surprise at the top, where Spirit claimed another first place in Pioneer. And seasonal leader Bandit Keith doesn't need an engraved invitation to run the powerful linear tribe of evasive tempo-lords.
I haven't been playing much this year, and hadn't planned to do it this time either, I just found myself running this Beast list to even out the number of players in round 1. And then I had fun winning round after round with these beefy green monsters – until the final round, that is, when I can't say I really enjoyed being thoroughly destroyed by Keith. But no big deal, unfavorable matchups are just part of the game. This build was also thrown together without much thought, adding the now affordable Elder Gargaroth to the mix at the last minute. Its sore lack of turn-two plays should be certainly corrected.
Another of the New Kids achieved its first match win! This time it was Halfling, designed and piloted by ThyShuffler. In this Sultai list, the three Halflings plus two changelings are accompanied by a wide selection of removal spells and, for some reason, several Vraskas.
Bandit Keith's Soldiers, $3.48, 1st place on Event 422
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.
SHOW AND TELL
Generalissimo brings us back to the latest Modern event from last June, to show us how bad his Vampires went. (Spoiler: pretty bad).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Just to remind you of a few things:
The Dark Horse 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: Beholder, Starfish, Tiefling.
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). Tribes that didn't exist before this season aren't eligible.
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):
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