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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

 Classic Christmas was chosen as the format for the December 24 event. It means the rules are as follows:

• No cards with blue identity can be used in the deck (this includes hybrid mana and any blue symbol in the rule text)
• No cards with black identity can be used in the deck (same as above)
• The pool is Legacy
• The ban list and restricted to tribe list for Legacy apply

 Next week, I'll launch the vote for the composition of the 2023 calendar.

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 620 BE
• Date: December 10
• Attendance: 10
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Standard
• Winner: Yokai_ with Cleric
• Runner-up: ThyShuffler with Cleric
• 1-loss: csrrcr with Angel, Takeoutree with Viashino, KMDBroken with Angel
• Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Rhino
• Tribes: Angel (x2), Cleric (x2), Rhino, Samurai, Vampire (x2), Viashino, Wurm
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Double Orzhov Clerics at the top! The tribe has a great lineup for Standard right now, since the two lists made a few different choices in the tribal compartment. Yokai_'s clergy was ultimately the victor, so that's the one we feature. Sorry, ThyShuffler. Perhaps the help of two very thematic Angels and two less thematic Horrors proved crucial in the end. By the way, in case you're wondering, the name of the deck is a Brazilian meme based on this guy.

 

 Not as expected is the good result of Takeoutree with Viashinos. The pseudo-draconics aren't guaranteed to be able to field a deck in any given Standard pool, but right now they can count on the new members from Streets of New Capenna and, to a lesser extent, Dominaria United. It also seems like no deck running black in Standard is currently able to avoid running Liliana of the Veil, regardless of synergies.

 

 The Rhinos are more or less in the same spot as the Viashinos. They're also a tribe that only occasionally appears in set, as well as one that Streets of New Capenna made abundant use of, in the same Jund colors. In fact, every Rhino in lovetapsmtg's list comes from the film-noir set, with Workshop Warchief as the highlight. And even off-tribe helpers like Jewel Thief and Titan of Industry bear the same affiliation to those mean streets.

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THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of December 16, 2022):

• Yokai_'s Clerics: $54.68
• Takeoutree's Viashinos: $22.59
• lovetapsmtg's Rhinos: $21.21

 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):

• 12.49 (Week 621 BE), on December 17: Modern
• 12.50 (Week 622 BE), on December 24: Classic Christmas (no blue, no black, Legacy pool)

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.