Welcome back to Tribal Apocalypse!
Table of Contents
- Last Week on Tribal Apocalypse...
- The High Price of Winning
- Announcements
- What's Next
Check the full archive for the "Diaries of the Apocalypse" series
THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro
It feels like Innistrad: Midnight Hunt was just added to the game, and yet its follow-up Innistrad: Crimson Vow is already here. Magic's permanent hype machine is marching on at full speed! The vampire wedding set was released yesterday on the digital platforms, and singles are already available on MTGO Traders. The three most expensive cards, at least in this first phase, are all red: Manaform Hellkite
, yet another powerful midrange Dragon; the sincerely underwhelming Chandra, Dressed to Kill
(it must be the dress, although the really killer one is the one from the showcase art); and the red member of the Cemetery cycle, Cemetery Gatekeeper
.
Tribal-wise, while my full evaluation will take a while as usual, we can see the expected new flock of Vampires and Werewolves. The two tribes were marketed as having a specific focus in one or the other of the two Innistrad sets of 2021. It was especially true of Vampire, which got 14 new members in Midnight Hunt and a whopping 30 in Crimson Vow. On the contrary, Werewolves were more equally distributed, with 19 new additions in the first set and 14 in the second. The requirement of a double-faced card might have influenced this, and we can also note how six of them were rare or mythic in Midnight Hunt and 4 in Crimson Vow, including the real nightmare of the Limited environment, the nearly unbeatable Avabruck Caretaker
. I wonder if this Victorian lady will have a role as a curve-topper in Constructed. Hexproof is usually a well-received keyword there.
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: Week 565 BE
- Date: November 6
- Attendance: 10
- Rounds: 3
- Subformat: Underdog
- Winner: Bandit Keith with Fish
- 1-loss: Takeoutree with Kavu, ThyShuffler with Kirin, Generalissimo with Fish, lovetapsmtg with Cephalid
- Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Cephalid, ThyShuffler with Kirin
- New Repopulation Award: lovetapsmtg with Cephalid
- Tribes: Archer, Cephalid, Efreet, Fish (x2), Fungus, Kavu, Kirin, Rat, Scorpion
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
The Fish tribe has been the ideal tribal shell for Splinter Twin
builds since Breaching Hippocamp
was printed in Theros. The addition of Bounding Krasis
in Magic Origins cemented it, causing the marine subtype to win four events in the past five years. Which doesn't seem much, but we're talking of a still Endangered tribe with just 8 rares and no mythic to its name, including utterly unplayable stuff like Island Fish Jasconius (which isn't even online, anyway). Bandit Keith is the latest player riding their tails in Underdog.
Close to the top last week were the Kavu, piloted by Takeoutree. They're also a fairly small tribe, rarely getting much attention these days, though they were recently revitalized by the printing of Flametongue Yearling
in Modern Horizons 2. It's not exactly a great card per se, but within a tribal context, it gives the deck a miniature Flametongue Kavu
to drop on turn two. It's not nothing.
Also starting with K, also not a major tribe, also unexpectedly successful: the Kirin. They certainly interact well with Moat
. As for the Energy Field
/Rest in Peace
prison combo, ThyShuffler seems to be really taken with it. And why shouldn't he? It certainly works. It's boring and obvious for sure, but it'll get you a non-zero number of incidental match wins, regardless of the tribe you're playing.
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 November 12, 2021):
- Bandit Keith's Fish: $196.49
- Takeoutree's Kavu: $6.49
- ThyShuffler's Kirin: $90.78
The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated
- -DiamondDust-'s Dinosaurs, $0.98, 2nd place on Event 539
- SirFalcon2008's Goblins, $1.54, 1st place on Event 389
- mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
- morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
- morpphling's Goblins, $2.35, 2nd place on Event 102
- 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
- Gq1rf7's Goblins, $3.32, 1st place on Event 154
- 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.
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.
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 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).
WHAT'S NEXT
The upcoming Tribal Apocalypse events of the Blippian Era (every Saturday at 17:00 GMT):
- 11.45 (Week 566 BE), on November 13: Standard
- 11.46 (Week 567 BE), on November 20: Pioneer
- 11.47 (Week 568 BE), on November 27: Legacy
Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: January 7.
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.
