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
LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...
- Event Number: Week 601 BE
- Date: July 30
- Attendance:
- Rounds: 4
- Subformat: Summer Festival
- Winner: csrrcr with Angel
- Runner-up: -DiamondDust- with Zombie
- 1-loss: Bandit Keith with Spirit
- Dark Horse Prize: AJ_Impy with Praetor
- Tribes: Ally, Angel, Cleric, Spirit, Praetor, Snake, Vampire, Zombie
- Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is
The Summer Festival event went down, and it's been reportedly very appreciated by most of its participants. The gimmick was simple: play four rounds (which is one more that we usually do these days), with the same tribe declined across four different deck lists, changing format in order of magnitude from Standard to Legacy. This novel approach also gives us an excuse to do something we never did on these pages, which is looking at one tribe and see how its lineup changes when the available pool increases.
Of course if I'm gonna try something like that, I'll have to focus on the less conventional subtype at hand. So while the event was dominated by the likes of Angels, Zombies and Spirits, let's see what the Praetors were up to, as envisioned by AJ_Impy throughout his four builds. What made it possible in the first place was the fact that they happen to have a Standard presence in preparation for an upcoming return to New Phyrexia of some sort.
The Standard list aims to buy time for the big guys to drop. It tries to control the board somehow, though it looks a bit clunky at that. It uses The World Tree
for color fixing and, admirably, Mirror Box
to mitigate the impact of the legendary rule on the lineup.
With the move to Pioneer, the deck remains essentially the same. The Praetor lineup doesn't open up to new members outside the Standard-legal ones, and the only improvements AJ adopts are the rotated triomes from Ikoria, and Growth Spiral
for ramp. Another indication that Pioneer has yet to mature into a radically different format that doesn't just feel like yesterday's Standard.
The decisive step forward comes with the passage to Modern, which unlocks the five original Phyrexian Praetors from New Phyrexia, as well as a plethora of more elaborate strategies. The deck's engine is now cascading into Glimpse of Tomorrow
. Notably, the core colors of the build remain the Temur ones, just like for the previous ones, despite the full Praetor lineup encompassing all five colors. In a pinch, though, the various WUBRG lands allow the hardcasting of any of them.
Finally, the Legacy version. Which surprisingly ranks as the cheapest, money-wise. This is a bona fide reanimator build, making full use of what remains of the strategy's best tools in accordance to our ban list. Interestingly, the main colors here are white and black, thus complementing the blue-red-green choices of the previous builds. Even more interestingly, albeit not surprisingly, the lineup now entirely dispenses with any version of eternally underpowered Urabrask, and instead runs the new Jin-Gitaxias alongside the other old Praetors.
THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING
Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of August 5, 2022):
- AJ_Impy's Praetors (Standard): $198.15
- AJ_Impy's Praetors (Pioneer): $206.00
- AJ_Impy's Praetors (Modern): $218.02
- AJ_Impy's Praetors (Legacy): $85.40
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):
- 12.30 (Week 602 BE), on August 6: Underdog
- 12.31 (Week 603 BE), on August 13: Standard or Pioneer
- 12.32 (Week 604 BE), on August 20: Modern
- 12.33 (Week 605 BE), on August 27: Legacy
Check out the ban lists and the event calendar.
SEE YOU ALL IN THE #TRIBAL ROOM!
Art disclaimers. Revel in Riches art by Eric Deschamps; Herald of Anafenza art by Aaron Miller.
