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*** Tribal Apocalypse: Week 64 BE ***
The enemy of my enemy is my teammate

 Welcome back to (click here ==>) Tribal Apocalypse, now with 50% less ranting and rambling. Or not, because this week we had...

 

"I'm ready, master." "I'm not ready!"

 So, the Springtime Two-Headed Giant Special finally happened, and as the proponent of the whole thing, I have to say it wasn't an entirely successful experiment to me. This is more of a consideration about the Two-Headed Giant format per se actually, something that had already hit me while playing in other PREs using the same multiplayer mode within different metas (usually Standard). The issue isn't as much the fact that there's no specific ban list for the format (we provided one that took care of the most blatant anomalies, after all), as it's the peculiar way in which 2HG tends to emphasize sheer luck. Which seems a strange thing to say since it would appear hard for two separate players to have very bad luck at the same time. But it's mainly due to the single-game aspect of the format: because of time constraints, you can't have 2HG tournament matches played over 3 games, so if you happen to be mana screwed in game 1, that's it, you're done. And, as it often turns out, you can't expect your teammate to be able to face two averagely lucky opponents alone. Granted, in a regular one-on-one match played over the best 2 out of 3 games, even if your deck is clearly superior to your opponent's, and you are definitely a better player, you can still lose a game due to a bad shuffler or an exceptional display of luck on the other side of the field. But the chances of this maddening scenario repeating itself twice in a row, albeit still real, aren't so high. It's a consideration that might look moot in general, but it's not when we're not dealing with casual games, but a proper tournament. Which, by the way, went down this way:

• Event Number: 12 (2012), 64 (all-time)
• Date: March 24
• Attendance: 16
• Rounds: 3
• Special Rules: Two-Headed Giant
• Top 4: Jeketerri (Goblin, undefeated, winning team) and VictorBike (Kithkin, undefeated, winning team); DirtyDuck (Human, 1 loss, runner-up team) and SBena (Zombie, 1 loss, runner-up team)
• Special Prizes: none
• Tribes: Artificer, Assassin, Carrier, Demon, Elder, Elemental, Goblin, Horror, Human, Kithkin, Metathran, Shapeshifter, Spirit, Wall, Wizard, Zombie
• Virgin Tribe: Metathran by GWN (highest-ranked); Carrier by vantar6697

 All in all, we didn't see the broken decks or sick choices I was fearing, like a team made of a couple of random tribes as a mere shell for two Hive Mind combo decks (which would have had the weird peculiarity of winning by killing your teammate too, if your combo went off before his or her turn). And not a single Elf deck was there, which is already an accomplishment in the field of non-annoying play (the most basic version of fair play). Another typical issue of the 2HG format, though, is the tendency to overcontrol the board, especially by one dedicated team member playing super-heavy permission. Like maybe Cattavorus with his counter-happy Wizards?

 Actually, while playing against this deck myself (and badly losing to it), I had the impression of a much higher level of permission, which brings us again to the issue of the randomness of the single game match: seeing Cattavorus playing in rapid sequence such exotic pieces of counter magic as Foil and Thwart, you might get the idea that he was running a 20-counterspell deck or something. Instead, it was just a case of having two singleton copies of those spells, yet both in hand at the same time in that one game I could see. It remains a strong control deck, of course, with several Wizards performing the function of additional counterspells. But it's not the killer build I had thought (there are only two copies of Patron Wizard, for instance), and it uses a lot of different legendary guys, which makes it cool. By the way, the deck was paired with acgabs playing blade Artificers.

 A side note for Cattavorus and everybody else who submits their decklists to Blippy not using the client function that saves the decks in text format: please do that. Pretty please? If you try and type the cards yourself, you'll end up with typos and abbreviations (and possible ambiguities: if you write down just "ertai", I won't know if it was supposed to be Ertai, Wizard Adept or Ertai, the Corrupted; or better, I might be able to deduce it from the mana sources, like in this case, but it's not always so easy). This will cause erroneous entries in the software that's counting the cards for vantar6697's academic project (more on this in future installments), and will drive me mad in the process of reconstructing the lists for these articles. So please, just save your deck as .txt, open it in notepad, then copy & paste to Blippy's PM. It'll be faster for you too. And while we're at it, I'd also like to ask you to regroup each basic land as a single entry if you can, because when your deck has, say, 20 different versions of Forest, the client will create 20 separate entries of 1 Forest. I will like you very very much if you'll just turn that into one, nice, single entry.

 But let's move on, as we have a  lot of interesting decklists to feature this time. And this already tells us that in the end my concern for excessive control strategies paralyzing the games was unfounded. If anything, the winning team was all aggro, all the time. Behold, people, the ultimate Boros alliance of Goblin and Kithkin!

 

 Jeketerri managed to make me override my own rule of "No Elf, no Goblin lists", by submitting a truly mid-range Goblin build. No annoying Goblin Guides here! But still a strong and successful concoction (this is actually the first Goblin win and just their second Hall of Fame result this year. They're a little behind schedule, apparently). I also like the female power theme here, with lots of aunties, matrons, and witches: the other half of the Goblin sky is even more badass. As are the Kithkin piloted by VictorBike, who came back after a very long time in order to claim the title of ultimate master of the little dudes: his Kithkin deck was the very first Blippian Apocalypse winner in January 8, 2011, and a 4th place holder 2 weeks later. And these are the only three occurrences where the Kithkin made Hall of Fame points at all!

 

 The team ending second place (the other one getting points: I awarded only the first two teams, whose players got each half the sum of the usual Hall of Fame points awarded to their respective placements: to clarify, each member of the winning team got half the sum of a 1st and 2nd placement; each member of the runner-up team shared half of the 3rd and 4th placement quota) wasn't control again, and especially odd. In fact, SBena submitted his Zombie deck as the only single player needing a teammate (another single player registered, then disappeared):

 

 It's a nice build featuring all the most recent, mythic additions to the Zombie family: Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Havengul Lich, and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, this latter enabling a non-Melira endgame combo with Murderous Redcap. SBena found a teammate at the very last minute (or even some minutes later!) in DirtyDuck, a.k.a. the Third Horseman of the Tribal Apocalypse, which for some reason decided to play Aluren combo (using Human as a shell):

 

 Aluren is a strong archetype which during the Blippian Era was played only once by Ayanam1 (in his first outing, and consequently again during the 2011 Invitational as one of his winning decks). So, in the end, we had both aggro and combo for the win, in perfect Tribal style? It appears so.

 It also appears that people are liking the whole Virgin tribes business, because here's another of the Unplayed Ones being finally played: Metathran.

 

 The oddness of these strange, bluish guys is met by the overall odd choice of running a monoblue tribe within a pentacolored shell, exploiting unusual cards like Collective Restraint and Collapsing Borders. GWN is an interesting, creative deckbuilder for sure. He was teamed up with TrevaWhateva, another new face in town, who was running... Wall-Drazi? Not so much.

 

 Of course the Wall tribe, due to its inherent nature, needs to be given something to do, and a win condition to meet. But despite the presence of Kozilek (yet not Ulamog, it's worth noting), TrevaWhateva's idea wasn't just a reimagining of NemesisParadigm's uber-famous, hyper-successful deck. This is a more intricate combo deck where Crystal Shard recurrs Mnemonic Wall, which in turn recurs Time Stretch, locking the opponent out of the game. A second infinite recursion is the modern classic Academy Ruins for Mindslaver. It's all still requiring a good deal of mana ramp, but it's also a very different way to give the Walls an endgame (and Mnemonic's ability is exploited directly).

 Going back to the Virgin tribes, there was another one this time, the very one I featured last week: Carrier, brought to the field by vantar6697.

 

 It's not a bad tribe after all, and it's easy to build: they're all black, and they have the clear purpose of being removals-on-a-stick, albeit of the very slow variety (Thousand-Year Elixir helps with that). And they frequently end in the graveyard, so you want to recur them with things like Sheoldred, Beacon of Unrest, or (even better) Mimic Vat. 

 The Virgin Carriers were paired with a recently de-Virginized tribe: Elder, formerly staged by GWN, this time by Discorde, going for the Careful Study/Faithless Looting into Goryo's Vengeance approach (with Lava Spike for the Vengeance to be spliced onto).

 

 Again, I was giving 1 tix as a prize for the player who could win a game with the Elders, and again, it didn't happen. It's impossible to score even a single win with the old clunkers, apparently. Yet the challenge goes on: play Elder, folks! The tix is here waiting for you! This is like a new form of sadism, I know. But I believe part of the reason people is willing to try and break the Elders is because of the fascination they bring along: they are the original super-fattie dragons! Unfortunately, that dates back when the creatures were the most poorly designed part of the game.

 Let's complete the picture: the mihahitlor/Bauchelain Assassin/Demon connection had no joy at all; a little better went for me and Ayanam1, who ended the tournament at 4th place with a teamup between these Spirits, lead by Kokusho (which is a force to be reckoned with in multiplayer)...

 

 ...and the Shapeshifters who tried to copy the legendary Dragon Spirit, in order to generate an overwhelming single-strike of 20 life loss for the bad guys and 20 life gained for the good guys.

 

 That only happened once. I had the strangest of games actually, only seeing a grand total of 1 Liliana (who got countered), 1 Buried Alive, and 1 Recurring Nightmare, these latters showing up in different games, therefore accomplishing nothing. The one time the whole Kokusho business paid off was when I hardcasted him (Phyrexian Tower on the returning Spirits was a good tech for that), and Ayanam1 cloned him afterwards. For the rest of the time, my deck played like a half-assed Spirit aggro deck, essentially. I also had just bought 2 copies of Pernicious Deed, looking forward to the interaction with Sun Titan, but they never showed up. Oh well.

 Speaking of expensive stuff, the Force of Will in Ayanam1's deck triggered some comments about money cards. Now, I'm the first to applaud budget decks beating the shit out of money builds, and I'm absolutely certain that winning a tournament isn't just (or at all) a matter of having a great collection, especially in Tribal: just look at this week's 1st place decks. And in general, one of the reasons Elves and Goblins are so popular is because they're budget-friendly. This said, it's absolutely, ABSOLUTELY unfair to point out a player because he owns expensive cards and, God forbid, dares to play with them. First of all, you never know how much a player paid for a card at the time he put it into his collection. The prices are extremely fleeting, and some players are in the system since the beginning. Secondly, why is this even relevant? What's this, Occupy Wall Street? If that's the case, maybe one should verify the income of a player first, because I highly doubt a playset of Force of Will is a serious wealth indicator (we're so entangled in the micro-economy of MTGO, made of bulk cards worth $0.006, that we often forget that there's not even real currency in the everyday life to represent that, and even a high-profile planeswalker is just worth one pizza and movie night in the real world). I'd hate for a player who slowly and painfully put together enough tix to buy himself his dream cards (and I totally relate with this because it's what I'm doing) to end up being bullied only because he's playing those cards, which are deemed disproportionate to the event by some arbitrary measure. It's a ridiculous concept to begin with, not to mention the fact that in this meta we see most players owning their fair share of expensive cards, especially since when Wasteland and big Jace dropped around 30 tix or below, and now they're everywhere. Moreso, as it has been theorized many times, FoW isn't even this great card in Tribal, where you rarely have broken win conditions to stop in the first few turns, so it quickly becomes a bad counterspell with severe card disadvantage embedded in it (when we built those decks, FoW came to mind as a mean to protect Kokusho from instant exilers, which is the same reason Chalice of the Void is there, the Shapeshifter deck not being able to play as a permission deck, because the shifters are mana intensive and need to be played to defend the board and to enable the endgame). End of rant.

 Let's wrap this chronicle by featuring two last (but not least) interesting decks from a team of veteran Tribal players. Winter.Wolf was playing this Elemental deck, based on the interaction between evoke and one of the coolest cards ever,  Sundial of the Infinite.

 

 It had a good complement (as far as coolness goes, anyway) in the Horror deck by AJ_Impy, where Geralf's Mindcrusher and  Nemesis of Reason do the milling, Sewer Nemesis and Guiltfeeder harvest the fruits of that, and Phyrexian Obliterator just scares the shit out of everyone.  

 

 Of course the coolest card here is Hunted Horror. It's usually hard to outlive the Centaur tokens for a black deck, but in 2HG, you can give the Centaurs to the opponent you're not facing! Great thought, so very AJ.

 And that's it for today. See you next time in the Tribal room!