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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
May 27 2022 11:17am
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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

 

 Hear ye, hear ye! I finally got around to reform how we collectively decide the bans in Tribal Apocalypse. The new system is less oligarchic, more democratic: everybody can ask for a ban on the main room (General Tribal Chat) of our Discord channel. Any proposed card should be accompanied by a rationale for its banning, which will be discussed openly in the room. Ultimately, I'll decide if it makes sense to turn the proposal in for the voting process. As a general rule of thumb, a card must have been played at least once in a deck that was successful during an event. I'm also going to filter irrational proposals like banning Island, or basic one-for-one removal spells, or janky cards that were never successful. The sub-format of consideration must also be determined, though it's possible to ask for a universal ban in all formats. Restriction to tribe is treated as a light form of ban, so it's included in the same process.

 Once the proposal is accepted, it'll be put to a vote for about a week – I'll launch all the votes every Friday afternoon and they'll be active until the next Friday at noon UTC. If a proposal gets at least five votes, expressed through a specific reaction on Discord, then the ban is approved, effective immediately. It doesn't matter who's casting the vote, new players and old players have the same rights, so everyone can feel engaged with the community right away. I'll just exclude myself from voting, but host Takeoutree will be able to.

 Unbanning is done in the same way, but bringing back a banned card is harder, as it'll require eight votes.

 As soon as this article is published, I'll start this week's votes with one that's been asked for recently: Morophon, the Boundless to be restricted to its written tribe Shapeshifter in every format. There'll be time to approve this proposal until next Friday (June 3) at noon UTC. New proposals that might have emerged during the week will be put to vote that same day, to be resolved Friday June 10, and so on.

 As for the old Tribal Council, the Discord room will still exist but it will be used to help me reform the tournament for next year. I'll pick players who have historically or recently shown to be interested in the event's well-being, and they'll be my advisors.


LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

  • Event Number: Week 591 BE
  • Date: May 21
  • Attendance: 10
  • Rounds: 3
  • Subformat: Modern
  • Winner: ThyShuffler with Assassin
  • 1-loss: Bandit Keith with Rogue, Deonmag with Vampire, csrrcr with Sliver, AJ_Impy with Insect, GringoP with Faerie
  • Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Minion
  • Tribes: Assassin, Dog, Faerie, Insect, Minion, Pilot, Rogue, Sliver, Vampire, Wizard
  • Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Back in the early years of the tournament, Assassin used to be a respected contender for the top prize. It was one of mihahitlor's favorite tribes, and worked well around the fact that many of its members double as creature removal on legs. Still, to find a regular event where Assassin ended on top, we have to go back to 2013. Although, ThyShuffler piloted an Assassin deck to first place during the Dog-Eat-Underdog special event of two years ago, the fight between the most successful Underdog tribes and the least successful Major League tribes. Yeah, it was one silly premise.

 

 Here's the reason Morophon is called to a restriction to tribe: its combo potential with Slivers – The First Sliver in particular. Honestly, csrrcr is the only player who ever brought the combo to Tribal Apocalypse, and still never went better than 2-1 with it, so keep that in mind when voting on that proposal.

 

 Something that was brought to my attention and it's solved without the need for voting: Grist, the Hunger Tide counts as an Insect for tribal deckbuilding purposes. It works the same way as a creature with changeling, in that we look at what the ability does even during deckbuilding (the wording of Grist's static ability actually supports this line of thinking even more than changeling does). AJ_Impy is the one who asked me about this unique interaction, but he ultimately went with 20 non-Grist Insects anyway. Still, he could have used his 2 Grists to fulfill the tribal requirement.

 


THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of May 27, 2022):

  • ThyShuffler's Assassins: $28.88
  • csrrcr's Slivers: $54.61
  • AJ_Impy's Insects: $108.83

 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):

  • 12.20 (Week 592 BE), on May 28: Legacy

Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
Current votes on Discord: Morophon, the Boundless to be restricted to Shapeshifter tribes only.

SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!

 

Art disclaimers. Revel in Riches art by Eric Deschamps; Herald of Anafenza art by Aaron Miller.