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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

 After two weeks of votes and some debate on Discord, the idea of testing the waters for a League event has been tentatively approved. We'll do one experiment with a special event and we'll see how it goes. The first available is the Spring Festival of April 29. We'll discuss the details of how exactly the whole thing is going to work once we're a bit closer to that date.

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LAST WEEK ON TRIBAL APOCALYPSE...

• Event Number: Week 628 BE
• Date: February 11
• Attendance: 6
• Rounds: 3
• Subformat: Modern
• Winner: csrrcr with Merfolk
• 1-loss: Deonmag with Vampire, AJ_Impy with Phyrexian
• Dark Horse Prize: lovetapsmtg with Surrakar
• Tribes: Bird, Fungus, Merfolk, Phyrexian, Surrakar, Vampire
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Thanks to csrrcr's building and piloting, Merfolk got its 15th win out of 166 participations, therefore its victory index is 11.06. Good but not great for such a prestigious tribe (remember the index indicates how many events the tribe needs to take part in before winning one. For Eldrazi is 6.00, for Elf is 9.80). But I think Merfolk has always suffered from budget issues, where a less than ideal build without the usually very expensive tempo plays like Force of Will or, in the case of Modern, Force of Negation, is not gonna cut it, as the tribe's play pattern is easily disrupted if we can't both progress the board and protect the key pieces from removal at the same time.

 

 Magic is smack in the middle of the New Phyrexian Invasion, but with no cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One , although some have already been sighted in Tribal Apocalypse – more on that later (in the meantime, you can check my evaluation of the legendaries here). AJ_Impy is preparing the terrain for many Phyrexian lists to come with this Glimpse of Tomorrow deck, which is, in fact, probably giving us a glimpse of what we're going to see exactly tomorrow.

 

 Last but not least, Fungi from Brazil! (Which I'm sure is a much lovelier place than Yuggoth). And, what do you know, it's the mushroom deck by Takeoutree the one incorporating the first tribal member from the new set, namely Cankerbloom – but also the cheap removal spells Drown in Ichor and Whisper of the Dross. It turns out proliferate is a keyword that Thallids appreciate a lot.

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THE HIGH PRICE OF WINNING

  

 Here's the prices of all the featured decks (MTGO Traders prices as of February 17, 2023):

• csrrcr's Merfolk: $87.75
• AJ_Impy's Phyrexians: $148.62
• Takeoutree's Fungi: $19.17

 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. -DiamondDust-'s Dinosaurs, $0.98, 2nd place on Event 539
2. mihahitlor's Warriors, $1.95, 1st place on Event 233
3. morpphling's Vampires, $2.25, 1st place on Event 285
4. JogandoPelado's Berserkers, $2.80, 1st place on Event 248
5. kokonade1000's Berserkers, $2.95, 2nd place on Event 354

 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 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 in a specific format, they will not be allowed to register the same tribe and deck in that format again for 3 events (i.e. they'll have to register a different deck three times before coming back to the undefeated one). 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):

• 13.07 (Week 629 BE), on February 18: Legacy
• 13.08 (Week 630 BE), on February 25: Penny Dreadful

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.