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*** Tribal Apocalypse: Weeks 74-77 BE ***
Single White Angel

 Welcome back to the world of Tribal Apocalypse! All right, I have to acknowledge four-week worth of reports and a number of truly amazing changes that will shake up the entire event's apparatus from top to bottom (so you may want to just go there and have a look). Therefore, there's really no room for chit-chat: let's start the dance right away. With a slightly more compact system of week-by-week chronicles.

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• Event Number: 22 (2012), 74 (all-time)
• Date: June 2
• Attendance: 16
• Rounds: 3
• Special Rules: Tribal Singleton, no additional banned list
• Top 4: ChrisMH77 (Vampire, undefeated); mihahitlor (Vampire, undefeated); _Kumagoro_ (Beast, 1 loss); Nagarjuna (Goblin, 1 loss)
• Special Prizes: Endangered Prize to vantar6697 (Serpent)
• Tribes: Artificer, Beast, Faerie (x2), Goblin (x2), Human (x3), Serpent, Shaman, Sliver, Spirit, Vampire (x2), Zombie
• Virgin Tribes: Serpent by vantar6697
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 So, that was possibly the first Tribal Singleton ever, and certainly the first we attempted in Tribal Apocalypse, as part of the reworked sequence of Special Events on the first week of the month (which, I remind you, is now a rotation between Endangered, Singleton and Double Tribal, this latter scheduled to debut in July 7). I think the experiment was well-received and a success, with decent attendance, a good array of different tribes, and generally speaking, a lot of fun playing obscure cards and rarely seen tribal members. We had two Vampire decks as the only undefeated ones, but I don't know if that means anything, since there was an extreme balance elsewhere, with more than half the players ending in the prizes (including vantar6697, who managed to slip in the only Endangered/Virgin tribe of the event, Serpent). I'm also glad to note that this was the first win for longtime Apocalypse resident ChrisMH77, who became our 37th different player ending at 1st place, thanks to this deck:

 

 And this was the other Vamp deck, by mihahitlor:

 

 Admittedly, Vampires have a lot of strong members, which of course helps a singleton build to a great extent. However, we can see how ChrisMH77 and mihahitlor actually share only half of their tribal base. Of course, the two decks follow the same basic strategy, but the former is more direct, employing red to increase the overall efficiency. On the other hand, mihahitlor took inspiration from his award-winning Assassin deck, to the point of bringing a few off-tribe Assassins along (Nekrataal, Murderous Redcap, plus the Assassin-friendly Skinrender and Shriekmaw), but also some fun, Timmyish cards like Nirkana Revenant, Skeletal Vampire, and Enslave.

 This one is my Garruk-themed Beast deck instead, that placed 3rd: 

 

 I was one of the few players to exploit the absence of a banned list for the event, bringing Progenitus back after a very long while (we also had a Goblin Lackey in each of the two Goblin decks by Nagarjuna and victorBike, who ended 4th and 5th respectively, and a Thopter Foundry in DirtyDuck's Artificer deck, that didn't do too well). Proggie only helped me once, and I didn't even summon him through Natural Order, resorting to a pretty silly 11-mana Green Sun's Zenith instead. This confirms my idea that in Singleton the usual bogeymen don't do much, albeit on second thought we might still want to keep some cards out of the next events of this kind, notably Hypergenesis, since its combo deck doesn't strictly depend on the number of copies of a particular card, including the Hypergenesis itself.

 Let's have some videos now (more on this subject below). Here's ChrisMH77's Vampire deck beating my Beast deck (from my point of view):

 And here's my deck beating SBena's knightly Humans (ended 7th place after RexDart's Faeries). Game 1 is where Progenitus showed up, game 2 was all about my top-of-the-curve Beasts such as Craterhoof Behemoth and Spearbreaker Behemoth, plus Garruk himself.

  

 All in all, we had a good time with a very quiet and fun sub-format that I personally look forward to play again (the next Tribal Singleton is scheduled for September 1st). Moving on.

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• Event Number: 23 (2012), 75 (all-time)
• Date: June 9
• Attendance: 11
• Rounds: 3
• Special Rules: Duel Week: Angel vs. Demon, special banned list
• Top 4: AJ_Impy (double Demon, undefeated); romellos (double Angel, undefeated); Nagarjuna (double Demon, 1 loss); mihahitlor (double Angel, 1 loss)
• Special Prizes: none
• Tribes: Angel (x11), Demon (x11)
• Virgin Tribes: n/a
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 We did it last year with Goblin vs. Elf for the 50th Event of the Blippian Era. And we've done it again 25 events later, this time with a very topical Angel vs. Demon showdown. Like in the previous occasion, players needed to build both an Angel and a Demon deck, and were playing the former if paired first, the latter if paired second. This way, each game of each round was guaranteed to be an Angel vs. Demon ultimate fight. Angels won the 1st round 4-1, with Demons taking both the 2nd and 3rd rounds with a 3-2 result, which unfortunately wasn't enough for a comeback, so the winged beauties ended on top with a very close 8-7 final score (the same margin that gave the victory to Elves last year). But the real winner was this card:

How many years since the last time in which this one was relevant?

 I know, Nagarjuna warned us beforehand about it on the forum (also about Cleanse and Anarchy – and Drought, that, well, is actually not online – but one-time effects are less problematic than continuous ones). We didn't listen, and some players immediately jumped on the Gloom wagon (not to mention, Flashfires, another major oversight), making the event a bit more frustrating that it could have been. I will not hide that I don't like this approach: it's not a real meta reading (which would require the observation of an evolving meta, with an analysis of the current choices, the tier-1 decks and so on); it's more like a lawyer finding a loophole to play around the rules. Kind of a Grinch move, if you ask me. Oh well, it's our bad for not having properly prevented this from happening (in my case, it's because I don't read the forum too much these days). For the record, we had these special rules in place for the event:

1. BANNED CARDS: Entomb, Show and Tell, Light of Day, Absolute Grace, Karma, Righteous War
2. RESTRICTED CARDS: Baneslayer Angel, Halo Hunter
3. CREATURE TYPES: Angel decks may only contain Angel, Human, and Spirit creatures. Demon decks may only contain Demon, Human, Ogre, and Nightstalker creatures. Secondary type, such as Human Cleric or Ogre Shaman, are allowed.

 Anyway, three of the Top 4 players ran a Demon deck with Gloom (winner AJ_Impy also had nasty surprises for the Demons themselves: "There are two non-changeling Demons with less than 4 power, and one of those is the usually-bigger Ob Nixilis. So, for my Angel deck I ran a full set of Retribution of the Meek, and the combo of Kismet and Crackdown. Most of my Angels had power less than 4 to get under the Retribution".) Kudos to Nagarjuna, then, who while aware of the brokenness of Gloom within this particular context, chose not to play it, yet still grabbed the 3rd place with two badass twin builds both based on Eureka and Where Ancients Tread. Here's his Angel deck doing one of its fast victories against my Demon deck:

 I was playing a Recurring Nighmare-fueled Orzhov Angel deck and a Heartless Summoning-fueled Demon deck, which made me the only other 2-1 player in the end (but unfortunately, at 5th place). Here's my Angel build winning against RJF67: 

 But rather than featuring specific decklists (you can see them all here), let's see how the players dealt with the tribal base.

 ANGELS (over 11 decks)

 Serra Avenger: 20 copies
 Emeria Angel: 19 copies
 Emancipation Angel: 16 copies
 Sunblast Angel: 15 copies
 Angel of Jubilation: 12 copies
 Exalted Angel: 12 copies
 Seraph of Dawn: 9 copies
 Aegis Angel: 7 copies
 Angel of Despair: 7 copies
 Guardian Seraph: 7 copies
 Voice of All: 7 copies
 Battlegrace Angel: 6 copies
 Herald of War: 6 copies
 Baneslayer Angel: 5 copies
 Deathless Angel: 5 copies
 Restoration Angel: 5 copies
 Shattered Angel: 5 copies
 Akroma, Angel of Fury: 4 copies
 Angel of Flight Alabaster: 4 copies
 Angelic Curator: 4 copies
 Chancellor of the Annex: 4 copies
 Firemane Angel: 4 copies
 Karmic Guide: 4 copies
 Lightning Angel: 4 copies
 Melesse Spirit: 4 copies
 Razia, Boros Archangel: 4 copies
 Serra Angel: 4 copies
 Blinding Angel: 3 copies
 Lightkeeper of Emeria: 3 copies
 Shepherd of the Lost: 3 copies
 Akroma, Angel of Wrath: 2 copies
 Archangel: 2 copies
 Avacyn, Angel of Hope: 2 copies
 Indomitable Archangel: 2 copies
 Basandra, Battle Seraph: 1 copy
 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: 1 copy
 Malach of the Dawn: 1 copy
 Platinum Angel: 1 copy
 Requiem Angel: 1 copy
 Serra Advocate: 1 copy

• TOTAL DIFFERENT ANGELS: 40 (out of 95 available at the time; 42%)
• NOTABLE MISSING ANGELS: Linvala, Keeper of Silence (due to  lack of relevance in the meta); all the Bant Angels: Jenara, Asura of War, Stoic Angel, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Empyrial Archangel; Adarkar Valkyrie and Twilight Shepherd; Desolation Angel and all the black Angels (who would have been a good way around Gloom).

 

 DEMONS (over 10 decks, as one wasn't legal due to a misunderstanding)

 Bloodgift Demon: 32 copies
 Rune-Scarred Demon: 25 copies
 Grinning Demon: 18 copies
 Demonlord of Ashmouth: 13 copies
 Reiver Demon: 12 copies
 Reaper from the Abyss: 11 copies
 Havoc Demon: 10 copies
 Soulcage Fiend: 8 copies
 Extractor Demon: 7 copies
 Halo Hunter: 7 copies
 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen: 7 copies
 Yukora, the Prisoner: 7 copies
 Carnifex Demon: 6 copies
 Pestilence Demon: 6 copies
 Stronghold Overseer: 5 copies
 Demonic Taskmaster: 4 copies
 Harvester of Souls: 4 copies
 Kagemaro, First to Suffer: 4 copies
 Liege of the Pit: 4 copies
 Malfegor: 4 copies
 Treacherous Pit-Dweller: 4 copies
 Griselbrand: 3 copies
 Seizan, Perverter of Truth: 3 copies
 Woebringer Demon: 3 copies
 Pit Spawn: 2 copies
 Rakdos the Defiler: 2 copies
 Demon of Death's Gate: 1 copy
 Kuro, Pitlord: 1 copy
 Lord of the Pit: 1 copy 
 Painwracker Oni: 1 copy 
 Ravenous Demon: 1 copy

• TOTAL DIFFERENT DEMONS: 31 (out of 56 available at the time; 55%)
• NOTABLE MISSING DEMONS: essentially, just Abyssal Persecutor and Tombstalker. Possibly the classic Demonic Hordes and Spirit of the Night. But that's all: even with the new additions from Avacyn Restored, the Demon base has definitely a smaller amount of non-stinkers than the Angel base.

AND THE MOST POPULAR BOYS AND GIRLS ARE...

   

   

 ...which means a good result of popularity for new entries Emancipation Angel and Demonlord of Ashmouth, despite both having a downside you have to work around. All in all, I want to give kudos to those players who ran cards like Seraph Sanctuary, Angelic Benediction, Angelsong, Scroll of Griselbrand, or Demonic Rising just because they were flavorful (of course Wrath of God and Day of Judgment don't need any flavor consideration to be included). That's (part of) the spirit of these celebratory events. Also, check the Angelpedia for more info on all the best and worst of the Angels (you can do the same for the Demons in the foreseeable future, as soon as the Demonpedia will be finally completed). And again, let's move to the following week.

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• Event Number: 24 (2012), 76 (all-time)
• Date: June 16
• Attendance: 18
• Rounds: 3
• Special Rules: none
• Top 4: romellos (Human, undefeated); Nagarjuna (Cleric, undefeated); DirtyDuck (Kor, undefeated); Aleister (Human, 1 loss)
• Special Prizes: Endangered Prize to nightviper429 (Nephilim)
• Tribes: Angel (x2), Cleric, Cyclops, Elemental, Goblin, Human (x2), Incarnation, Kirin, Knight, Kor, Merfolk, Nephilim, Rebel, Shaman, Wizard, Zombie
• Virgin Tribes: Incarnation by AJ_Impy (highest-ranked); Cyclops by vantar66997; Nephilim by nightviper429; Kirin by Leys7
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is romellos. Seriously, I can only regard with wonder (and a bit of fear) a guy who comes and take an established event by storm like he did: in the last three months, since he first appeared, he won 5 events and ended Top 4 a record eight times. I hereby declare romellos "the NemesisParadigm of 2012". The guy is certainly a Spike (where most Nemesis's builds were a little more Johnny-ish), but he doesn't play the same winning deck over and over again; on the contrary, he never use the same deck twice (thus taking up Ayanam1's mantle too). In this particular case, he went undefeated with this blitzkrieg Human deck:

 

 Let's see how he defeated me, while I was playing the same Angel deck of the previous week. Things weren't even so dire for me, until Magus of the Moon entered the battlefield.

 I know, I made a huge mistake not tapping for a white mana to exile the Magus on the fly, but still. See, that's a great meta-call: people are using 90% of dual lands even in a mostly-white Angel deck? Let's punish them! Oh well, at least you can see here how good Guardian Seraph is at making you stay in the game. Of course, she can't do that forever (she's no Platinum Angel, after all).

 Also undefeated: Nagarjuna, who's currently the number 1 player of the 2012 ranking (I'm the second, romellos is the third, mihahitlor is the fourth) and the number 3 overall (behind NemesisParadigm and me, and ahead of mihahitlor, Ayanam1, raf.azevedo, DirtyDuck, and AJ_Impy). Here's Naga's Cleric deck, a classic Soul Sisters build (but once in a while even the true classics deserve to be fully featured).

 

 And ending with zero defeats as well, but hidden out of sight at third place was DirtyDuck with his "Ce-Korid Breakfast", hoping nobody would notice that that combo is awfully consistent and hard to deal with. The decklist was already published here. Two second places and a third place so far since Event 65: we're watching you, Dirty! (But yeah, that The Mimeoplasm/Murderous Redcap/Lord of Extinction endgame is great, even just to watch. It might get the same result of the trivial Splinter Twin combo, but it's way more elegant).

 Also noteworthy: the return of Aleister, whose last time on the Top 4 (and possibly in the tournament) was back in Week 5, on February 5, 2011 (when I was ending 1st and Nagarjuna 2nd. Good ol' times). Plus, that was a week where four Virgin tribes showed up, with Leys7 trying to fulfill my Kirin Challenge (and failing), and AJ_Impy ending on top with this pretty straightforward Incarnation build:

 

 AJ: "I had to fit a miracle card into an Incarnation Virgin tribe, if only for the religious overtones. Incarnations start slow but can finish very well, with protection from Glory or just swinging with hasty, first striking Purity and Hostility. The twelve 1-drop removals were there to clear the path. I went with the base red Valakut engine rather than base white Emeria because Emeria is counterproductive here."

 And just because I really like the build (part of the ongoing project "How many tribal base can Liliana fit in?"), here's my Angel decklist, slightly reworked from last week with more focus on Karmic Guide to interact with Liliana:

 

 And here's how it played against the fascinating Nephilim deck brought to the field by nightviper429:

 And that's it. Moving on once more.

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• Event Number: 25 (2012), 77 (all-time)
• Date: June 23
• Attendance: 18
• Rounds: 3
• Special Rules: none
• Top 4: Malum (Faerie, undefeated); mihahitlor (Assassin, undefeated); _Kumagoro_ (Gnome, 1 loss); Gq1rf7 (Elemental, 1 loss)
• Special Prizes: Endangered Prize to _Kumagoro_ (Gnome)
• Tribes: Ally, Assassin, Djinn, Elemental, Elf, Faerie, Fox, Gnome, Human (x2), Kor, Plant, Sliver (x2), Spellshaper, Spirit, Treefolk, Wall
• Virgin Tribes: Gnome by _Kumagoro_ (highest-ranked); Fox by Leys7; Spellshaper by AJ_Impy; Djinn by vantar6697
• Event link (with all players, pairings, standings, decks, and results): here it is

 Malum took his first victory here (becoming our 38th 1st place player) thanks to a Splinter Faeries build, and mihahitlor proved that Assassins are a force to be reckoned with in Tribal, and not just in Endangered Weeks (leading to them being banned from Endangered Prize), but I like to think to this one as The Gnome Week!

 

 It's a deck I built a long time ago, and I always wondered if the Gnomes were too silly a tribe to be really worth playing. It turns out that as far as colorless Cloudpost-based builds go, they are quite strong instead. They have a definite advantage over Golems, for instance: giving access to excellent chump blockers at the low side of the curve, so even when the Cloudpost engine is a bit jammed, you can survive long enough to start it up. Plus, Copper Gnomes is a valuable alternative to drop scary guys such as Blightsteel Colossus and the super-punishing Sundering Titan. In the following video they go up against romellos' Walldrazi build (with additional Splinter combo):

 And in this one they battle another Virgin tribe, Fox by Leys7 (who ended in the prizes as well):

 Finally, another Virgin showdown, with the abovementioned Foxes battling AJ_Impy's Spellshapers:

 And here's both the decklists of these interesting tribes who I'd really like to see played again:

 

 

 And now it's...

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 CHANGING TIME!

 Since June 30, Tribal Apocalypse has a new, additional prize support from Clan Leys. What's Clan Leys? Well, it's actually just three people who live in the same city (Genoa, Italy), started playing Magic in 1994 or so, and decided to switch to the non-paper version of the game at the same time. These three people are also Tribal Apocalypse players: SBena, Leys7, and myself. We run a bot (well, we run several, but the main one, ran by SBena and called SBena_Bot, is the oldest and most successful), which will be used from now on to pay for all the Special Prizes of Tribal Apocalypse. Meaning that from now on, the one-tix-per-player pool provided by MTGO Traders will be used entirely for the prizes based on match win (as usual, 40% of the pool divided between all the undefeated players, 60% of the pool divided between all the players with 1 loss), while Clan Leys will cover everything else. And of course there's more than what there used to be, and that's the real nice part. For starters, these are the regular prizes now, both new and old (and in some cases, reworked):

• Endangered Prize (1 tix credit): awarded to the highest-ranked Endangered Tribe of the week (you can see the list of the eligible tribes here). This is different from what we were doing until now, where the smallest tribe would get the prize regardless, and the ranking would be used only in case of a tie. But we think there's not really a difference between a 5-member tribe and a 12-member tribe, especially when compared to tribes with hundreds of members. Plus, the prize for playing hard-to-pull-off, miniature tribes is the Virgin Prize, and as it was, the two prizes overlapped too often. You have to decide, instead: either to build a deck in the Endangered area that can beat the other fellow Endangered Tribes; or to try and be the king of the Virgins. They are two entirely different goals, as it should be. Another change is the update on the eligible tribes: Myr and Rat are now considered Endangered, while Assassin isn't anymore. So, the excluded tribes in the Endangered zone (which goes from 4 to 50 available online members) are now only 5: Ally, Artificer, Assassin, Eldrazi, Kor. Rules for the Changeling ability stay the same: you're allowed a maximum of 4 creature cards with Changeling (non-creature cards aren't affected), which is the reason why tribes with less than 4 members aren't eligible.
• Virgin Prize (1 tix credit): awarded to the highest-ranked Virgin Tribe of the week. A Virgin Tribe is a tribe that didn't take part in Tribal Apocalypse yet (counting from the beginning of the Blippian Era, a.k.a. January 2011). You can find the list here, but the remaining ones are these 15: Cephalid, Dryad, Harpy, Homarid, Homunculus, Mercenary, Monger, Mongoose, Rabbit (only eligible once Zodiac Rabbit will be actually online), Scorpion, Squid, Thalakos, Unicorn, Whale, Worm. What will happen after every tribe in the list will be "de-Virginized"? (A point which, at the current rate of 4 Virgin Tribes per event, will be reached sooner rather than later). That's simple, we'll start again with the Almost Virgin Tribes (or something like that), that is the tribes that have been played only once. And so on. There's an update to the rules for Virgin too: no creature cards with Changeling are allowed for the Virgin Prize, unless they are needed to complete the tribal base. If you go Virgin, you need to go honest Abe with it. This rule might be subject to further changes once we get to Almost Virgin.
• NEW! Topical Prize (1 tix credit): awarded to an undefeated Topical Tribe. A Topical Tribe is one of the tribes of the moment, as defined by the content of the most recent Standard-legal expansion (so, Core sets don't count for that). At the moment, the latest expansion is Avacyn Restored (until Return to Ravnica will be released), so the current Topical Tribes are Angel and Demon. If you end undefeated with an Angel deck or a Demon deck, you'll get this extra prize.
• NEW! Up-and-Coming Prize (1 tix credit): awarded to a tribe that ends 1st place for the first time. The list of the tribes that achieved 1st place so far is here (you must look at the All-Time Ranking list). They are 39. Given that just ending undefeated doesn't guarantee the 1st place, and that's beyond the control of a player (it involves the opponents you were up against), here's how we solve the problem: each time an eligible tribe ends undefeated, the player can choose to challenge the 1st place player for both the placement and the resulting prize. It's exactly like when a 1st place player is challenged by a player with the same Points and Tie 2 ranking (the Games Win ratio). Only, in this case, the player of the Up-and-Coming tribe is fighting for getting 1 tix other than just the Hall of Fame points.
• Hamtastic Biodiversity Prize (5 tix credit): awarded to the player who registered (and ran for all the rounds without dropping) 10 different tribes in a row in 10 Tribal Apocalypse events. The player doesn't need to take part in 10 consecutive event weeks, as long as the sequence of different tribes isn't broken with a repeat. The current status of the prize is visible in a specific sheet of the Hall of Fame. The first 5 tix are provided by me, as they were the an endorsement by SBena to the hosts of the Ham on Wry event. Following instances of the prize will be entirely covered by Clan Leys via SBena_Bot.

 The first prizes under the new order have been awarded on June 30 (when, coincidentally, I was hosting). But that's just the icing, as there's more shenanigans to come. Starting from when this article will be published, so right now while you are reading this, a whole new challenge will envelop the Tribal Apocalypse world. I'm talking about...

TRIBAL ACHIEVEMENTS!

 It's an idea Winter.Wolf proposed here within a comment a few months ago, and later SBena independently had again while looking at the Duel of the Planeswalkers videogame. It's in fact what most videogames (especially browser games) do: a series of quests/challenges you have to complete in order to "unlock" the corresponding achievement (which may mean something in the game, but for us it's all about winning tix, and amassing glory). To understand what all this means, the easiest way is to look at the list, which is hosted here, in the Hall of Fame. Here's how it works: we have 50 different achievements to unlock, divided into 3 types: Deckbuilding, In-Game, and Endgame. Deckbuilding Achievements are unlocked by building your deck in a particular fashion (and sometimes, winning at least one match with it); In-Game Achievements are about making something happen during a game; Endgame Achievements are the ones that involve winning the game in a specific way. Each achievement is unlocked only once, by the first player completing it, who'll get the prize. After all the achievements will be unlocked (or after some time has passed, say a year), the achievement status will be cleared and we'll start again, possibly with some changes (new achievements added, unpopular ones removed). Also, the more achievements you unlock, the more tix you earn, the more achievement points you accumulate, meaning even more tix to be gained when you reach certain levels (we will disclose this later). Now the important part: when you unlock an achievement (and it stands to reason you were actively trying to do so), you have to call me or Blippy as a witness, otherwise the achievement will not count as unlocked (that's especially relevant for an Endgame Achievement: you have to tell your opponent not to concede, then call a witness in before proceeding; public replays in the room are proof enough, but they disappear very quickly, so don't count on them too much). SBena and Leys7 work as official witnesses, but only if they happen to be there in the moment the achievement is unlocked, and neither me or Blippy were available: you don't call on them, you only call on me or Blippy. Of course, most Deckbuilding Achievements unlock automatically when you register the deck and the requirements are verified.

 Here's some examples for the ones among you who don't want to go check the list right now:

• Deckbuilding Achievement – Rainbow Island: Playing with a Kaleidoscope Tribal deck – 1 tix
• Deckbuilding Achievement – Blue Thunder:  Playing and winning at least one match with a monoblue deck with no instants or sorceries – 1 tix
• Deckbuilding Achievement – Slow and Steady: Playing and winning at least one match with a deck where all cards cost 5 mana or more – 2 tix
• In-Game Achievement – Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Having Bruna, Gisela and Sigarda on the battlefield at the same time – 1 tix
• In-Game Achievement – Pay the Toll: Casting a Mossbridge Troll out of a Mosswort Bridge – 2 tix
• In-Game Achievement – Superfriends: Activating the "ultimate" of 3 different planeswalkers in a single game – 3 tix
• Endgame Achievement – All for One, One for All: Winning a game with Coalition Victory – 1 tix
• Endgame Achievement – Ignition: Winning a game with Darksteel Reactor – 2 tix
• Endgame Achievement – Miracles Happen: Winning a game while there are no permanents in play – 3 tix

 And that's just a tasting, there's 50 of them! Plus, there's a special In-Game Achievement called "I Made This Myself!": that's a contest to create a new In-Game Achievement. Clan Leys will judge all the submitted proposals and will award the prize after the first ten proposals have been received. Hope all of this will be fun, especially for players who are looking for different challenges than just trying to survive waves upon waves of Goblins or outrace combos. Plus, it involves the exploration of different cards and strategies, which is always a good thing, and one of our goals as a Clan.

 A quick note on Clan Leys members and the Special Prizes. Since I'm doing all the work and SBena is actually providing the tix, we will not be eligible for any of these prizes. On the other hand, Leys7, not being directly involved (if not as a consultant), will be our bannerman and clan champion. Finally, thanks to Winter.Wolf for some of the names and the ideas. And now let's pass to...

(MINOR) ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

 Bannings/Unbannings: in synch with the DCI's routine Banned & Restricted List Announcement update of June 20 (which by the way, gave us Land Tax back!), BlippyTheSlug passed laws on all the cards proposed for unbannings in a recent discussion. The suspension system is not approved yet (I'll keep lobbying for it), but the following cards have been unbanned:

   

  

 They've been all put in a Watch List (along with Grindstone), which means that as soon as they will get annoying, they will be banned again. So far we've done a few events with these cards available, and they didn't show up. All in all, if we can sustain their presence (like we sustain – so far! – Goblin Charbelcher or Cephalid Illusionist), it'll be a good thing for the event. An occasional Sneak Attack combo deck we might see once in a while will not annoy the average player as much as, say, the Punishing Fire combo does. All the remaining banned cards have a clear logic behind, and are just five (AEther Vial, Glimpse of Nature, Goblin Lackey, Hypergenesis, Thopter Foundry), plus the Trifecta of Doom (the three most feared creatures in the game: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Progenitus).

 The Kirin Challenge: that's always standing, folks. I'll give 1 tix out of my pocket to the first player who'll win a proper match (no bye, no opponent forfaiting) with a Kirin deck featuring 4 copies of each of them. C'mon, I've already thought of the next challenge after this one will be cleared: Nephilim!

 Videos: As you saw, I've started including videos in these articles. They are simple, mute replays of the games, but I think they still provide a better understanding of what the decks do. So far I only used the ones from my account's archive (and one of Leys7's), but I'll be more than happy to include other players' videos as well. In fact, it will get annoying soon if I'll be the only point of view in all the featured games. So, send me your YouTube links, please! If you never did a video capture before, it's unbelievably easy: just download a free software like CamStudio, click the record button, replay one of your games that you think it's interesting for any reason (maybe only because it was against a top deck, or even because you were unlocking an achievement right there!), and upload the resulting .avi file on YouTube; I'll embed it here. It's a piece of cake. I look forward to get videos from all of you! (And if you want to record them on the fly during the events, and/or put an audio commentary on them, that's even better, of course, but not required).

 All right, that's really all. See you on the Tribal room!