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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Mar 04 2022 1:03pm
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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


THOUGHTS OF A TRIBAL HOST
by Kumagoro

 One important note on Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty creatures. The five Go-Shintai (plus the one from the Commander annex that's already available online) have the subtype Shrine, but they don't have any creature subtype. Shrine is an enchantment subtype that's only possible to see on a creature when such creature also bears the enchantment type. It's just like Food or Clue for artifacts: some creatures, like Gingerbrute and Parcel Myr, can have those subtype, but only because they're also artifacts. Their creature types are Golem and Myr, respectively.

  

 The six "living" Shrines are the first instances of a creature without a creature type since Nameless Race from The Dark. They're not a tribe, because a noncreature subtype can't be a tribe, and because the absence of a tribe is not a tribe, just like shoeless is not a type of shoe (and colorless is not a color). If you don't believe me, or the comprehensive rules, Mark Rosewater spelled it out for you.

 Bottom line: there's no such thing as a Shrine tribe. Unfortunately, Gatherling doesn't know that (for now), so you have to make sure not to trick it into registering your Shrine deck as tribal.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: Week 579 BE
  • Date: February 26
  • Attendance: 9
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Modern
  • Winner: Bandit Keith with Elf
  • Runner-up: Generalissimo with Ninja
  • 1-loss: ThyShuffler with Dragon, Takeoutree with Eldrazi
  • Dark Horse Prize: AJ_Impy with Incarnation
  • Tribes: Dragon, Eldrazi, Elf, Incarnation, Ninja, Shaman, Sliver, Vampire
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Right after the tribe's impressive return in Neon Dynasty, which more than doubled its ranks, Ninja already came close to winning a Modern event. There's a few of the new ones in this list, including linear lord Silver-Fur Master (aka Splinter), but the Modern Horizons cards are still an important part of the lineup. Especially the best one-drop "Ninja", Changeling Outcast – a perfect "in-tribe" way to enable ninjutsu. To Generalissimo's credit, the deck still runs almost 20 Ninjas that aren't changelings.

 

 It's been a while since we checked on the most iconic of iconic tribes, Dragon. This is a way to play them in the Modern pool, according to ThyShuffler. They're still mostly midrange, but lately they achieved some better early presence thanks to the solid Ikoria two-drop Sprite Dragon.

 

 We also had a rare sighting of Incarnation (the fifth overall in Tribal Apocalypse history). This extremely expensive four-color build by AJ_Impy has a mix of old and new members of the tribe (the graveyard-friendly ones from Judgement and the evoke ones from Modern Horizons 2), Omnath, Locus of Creation as a centerpiece, and Winds of Abandon as a signature spell.


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of March 4, 2022):

  • Generalissimo's Ninjas: $77.46
  • ThyShuffler's Dragons: $31.19
  • AJ_Impy's Incarnations: $543.82

 The Top 10 Cheapest Decks that Went Undefeated

  1. -DiamondDust-'s Dinosaurs, $0.98, 2nd 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.


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):

  • 12.08 (Week 580 BE), on March 5: Underdog
  • 12.09 (Week 581 BE), on March 12: Standard
  • 12.10 (Week 582 BE), on March 19: Pioneer
  • 12.11 (Week 583 BE), on March 26: Legacy

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Next banned and restricted announcement: TBD.
Current watch list:
 Conspicuous SnoopCrippling 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.