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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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TRIBAL DEMOCRACY AT WORK

 Out of the various things we must decide on, let's tackle the most urgent of them all: what to do for Christmas (i.e. the December 24 event). It's a multiple-option vote, so the chosen option will be the one with most votes, among the following:

1. Classic Christmas: No black cards, no blue cards, Legacy pool.
2. Budget Christmas: Penny Dreadful (only cards worth 0.02 tix or less).
3. Rustic Christmas: Peasant (no rares, up to 5 uncommons).
4. Wealthy Christmas: A different tribe every round, Unified Constructed rules (no cards shared by the decks except for basic lands), Legacy pool.

 As usual, vote on Discord

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 619 BE
• Date: December 3
• Attendance: 8
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Underdog
• Winner: GringoP with Phyrexian
• 1-loss: Deonmag with Archer, Yokai_ with Advisor, ThyShuffler with Phoenix
• Dark Horse Prize: ThyShuffler with Phoenix
• Tribes: Advisor, Archer, Citizen, Dryad, Phoenix, Phyrexian, Rat, Wurm
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Congratulations to GringoP for their first win! Which makes it five different winners in six weeks, both player- and tribe-wise. The only tribe that doubled down is Phyrexian. It might be time to move the biotechnical monstrosities out of the Underdog pool. A matter for another vote, perhaps.

 

 Less obvious tribe of the week is Phoenix, piloted by seasonal leader ThyShuffler. It's kind of a classic tribe (dating back to Legends, therefore close to 30 years old as the game itself), but it was played only 17 times in 12 years of Tribal Apocalyse. The newly printed one-drop Phoenix Chick might help their stock. As does including the notorious and still effective Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows combo.

 

 We mentioned the Phyrexians, and their ranks are large enough by now to allow for novelty sub-sections like these compleated Wurms by AJ_Impy. There aren't five of them yet, but one changeling is all the list needs to reach legality.

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THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of December 9, 2022):

• GringoP's Phyrexians: $16.23
• ThyShuffler's Phoenices: $25.37
• AJ_Impy's Wurms: $150.13

 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):

• 12.48 (Week 620 BE), on December 10: Standard
• 12.49 (Week 621 BE), on December 17: Modern
• 12.50 (Week 622 BE), on December 24: Christmas Special

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.