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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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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 588 BE
• Date: April 30
• Attendance: 
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Spring Festival
• Winner: Yokai_ with Druid
• 1-loss: Generalissimo with Nymph, Nydethess with Druid, ThyShuffler with Druid
• Dark Horse Prize: csrrcr with Squirrel
• Tribes: Avatar, Beast, Druid (x4), Nymph, Squirrel (x2)
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 So the first Spring event has been held, and sadly Druid dominated the field. I was kind of afraid that would happen, because, unlike Halloween, there's just a few of the Vernal Tribes that stand out above the rest (another one is Bird, which fortunately wasn't chosen by anyone during this debut event). Druid runs the risk of just being Elf by another name, which is why Elvish Archdruid was preemptively banned. But they still lend themselves well to an enchantress build, and that's what Yokai_ went for. After all, Argothian Enchantress and Satyr Enchanter are in-tribe, and they're not even Elves!

 

 I didn't think of banning all snow permanents. Maybe it was the correct flavor. Although, could it be interpreted as the ice melting come spring?

 Anyway, as Nydethess demonstrated, the Druids are still fully capable of an Elfball build even without the help of Elvish Archdruid and with Heritage Druid losing the partnership with Nettle Sentinel. They even have an in-tribe mana sink in Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. Next year, something definitely must be done to make these guys less appealing.

 

 More whimsical choices. Generalissimo built a Nymph list, which is another flavor of "enchantments matter", with Sythis, Harvest's Hand as the centerpiece. The awkwardness of having to run Sanctum Weaver off-tribe in a Nymph deck gives us a good occasion to reiterate that all Dryads in the game should be Nymphs, because it's what the mythological dryads are, forest nymphs. Major flavor fail here, with mechanical consequences that negatively affect tribal deckbuilding.

 

 Spring is also the season when little woodland creatures come out of their den again. Like, you know, Squirrels! That's what csrrcr also thought to celebrate. We should have more players that actively try and attune to the spirit of the special events rather than just finding ways to beat them.

 

 This list also represents a failure to understand the rules that shows up in a few instances. This surprised me, because they were the very same rules of the long-established Halloween events. Take Creakwood Liege. To know if it's legal to play, you just had to look at the list of the Vernal Tribes. The Liege is a Horror. Is Horror one of the Vernal Tribes? Nope. But wait, there are exceptions! Maybe the Liege references a Vernal Tribe in its rules text? It references Worm. Is Worm one of the Vernal Tribes? Nope.

 

 Even harder to comprehend is the presence of Bloodspore Thrinax. That's just a Lizard, period. Which, again, is not one of the Vernal Tribes. There's no element of the card whatsoever that would make you think it's legal for the event. It might well be a Dragon. In this case, the illegality of the list was discovered after the fact, and the deck didn't place in the money, so we let it slide. Plus, it was running a whopping three copies of Vernal Equinox. In case you're wondering why that obscure, terribly inefficient enchantment is suddenly so popular, it's just because there was a special prize for resolving it during the tournament. You can go back to sleep now, Vernal Equinox. See you same time next year.

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THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of May 6, 2022):

• Yokai_'s Druids: $108.94
• Nydethess's Druids: $57.32
• Generalissimo's Nymphs: $123.71
• csrrcr's Squirrels: $4.41

 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.

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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).

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 WHAT'S NEXT

 The upcoming Tribal Apocalypse events of the Blippian Era (every Saturday at 17:00 GMT):

• 12.17 (Week 589 BE), on May 7: Underdog
• 12.18 (Week 590 BE), on May 14: Pioneer
• 12.19 (Week 591 BE), on May 21: Modern
• 12.20 (Week 592 BE), on May 28: Legacy

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.