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
Welcome back to another season of Tribal Apocalypse! This will be our 12th Season of the Blippian Era (a definition that most people don't even remember what it means anymore), and it might actually be the last one called "Tribal Apocalypse", since I've been planning to change it to the more cheerful "Tribal Festival" next year, while taking a different approach to the proceedings. But we'll see what suggestions everyone involved will send to me. We have a full year to come up with a formula that doesn't emphasize winning at all costs so much.
Speaking of which, I started by retouching the seasonal point system a little this year, reducing the gap between the event winner and everyone else. Formerly, a first place would award 10 bonus points, a second place would give 5, and a (very rare) top 4 placement after the Swiss portion would be worth 3 bonus points. This in addition to the 2 points received for each match win. It meant that very soon into the season the race would be already decided, making the seasonal board pretty much moot. Those numbers are now been decreased to 5, 3 and 1 respectively, while any match win is now rewarded with 3 seasonal points (and a bye still gets you one point). For comparison, a lone 3-0 undefeated result, like we had last week, is now worth 14 points (3 for each match plus the bonus 5), whereas with the old system will result in 16 points assigned. It's seemingly not a huge difference, but any 2-1 score has now increased the output by 50%, from 4 points to 6. I think it's more balanced, and we should have probably made the change years ago.
In related news, here's the calendar for 2022. We'll hold the 2021 Invitational on January 29 (same rules as last year, except the last round this time is Underdog rather than plain Legacy). We have two special events to assign on April 30 and July 30. The season will end with a special (but still undetermined) Christmas event on December 17. Happy tribal year!
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: Week 572 BE
- Date: January 8
- Attendance: 7
- Rounds: 3
- Subformat: Underdog
- Winner: Bandit Keith with Fish
- 1-loss: Deonmag with Archer, lovetapsmtg with Bard, GringoP with Fungus
- Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Bard
- New Repopulation Award: lovetapsmtg with Bard, ThyShuffler with Tiefling
- Tribes: Archer, Archon, Azra, Bard, Fish, Fungus, Tiefling
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
Last season leader Bandit Keith got immediately back to business with the first win of the new year. Maybe Splinter Twin
being legal in Underdog gives Fish too much of an advantage? Just wondering.
The bow and arrow of the Archers couldn't stop the aquatic menace, but Deonmag's Stompy list still performed decently, even if it was helped by a bye. It's a tribe that's always on the brink of being very good.
Still in green, if with a shade of black, come the Fungi, which GringoP built with a counter/proliferate theme. In fact, the black is primarily there for Winding Constrictor
, though Deathspore Thallid
is still one of the best Saproling-generators.
Unlike Bandit Keith, last season's runner-up in the leaderboard, ThyShuffler, felt like bringing something quirky to start the new year. This is only the second time the Forgotten Realms tribe Tiefling takes part in one of our events. Considering it only exists in the D&D universe and not in the regular Magic universe, chances of it being reinforced anytime soon are not high.
THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING
Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of January 14, 2022):
- Bandit Keith's Fish: $237.97
- Deonmag's Archers: $30.71
- GringoP's Fungi: $8.73
- ThyShuffler's Tieflings: $137.51
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):
- 12.02 (Week 573 BE), on January 15: Modern
- 12.03 (Week 574 BE), on January 22: Legacy
- Special (Week 575 BE), on January 29: 2021 Invitational
Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: TBD.
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.
