A Brief Update

For those of you who check here regularly, you're already aware that I was unable to blog last week due to a sudden ailment diagnosed as Labyrinthitis (swelling of the fluid-filled tubes and sacs in the ears), resulting in very bad vertigo and nausea. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I am happy to report that I am doing much better - meaning that I can actually go to work or sit upright in front of a computer without too much discomfort. Thanks to everyone who reached out to me to express their wishes for a speedy recovery.

There's a surprising amount of things I feel like I need to address. But rather than trying to pick one, I thought I would just give a quick update of a few timely matters and take more time later this week addressing some of these in more detail.

1. Monday Pauper Deck Challenge

As far as MPDC goes, we will have Season 33 as normal, beginning next Monday, April 25th, at 2pm EDT / 6pm GMT in #mpdc. While I still suspect that moving to some sort of league-style event is the best course for the future, it's not a change that I'm ready to make quite yet. More about this soon.

2. Update to Standard Pauper Card Legality

While the other two co-hosts of our community's Standard Pauper events have not officially conferred yet, given the state of things I anticipate that no changes will be made this season regarding whether or not Standard Uncommons previous printed at Common will be Standard Pauper legal. In other words, for the time being, these cards will continue to be legal, just like last season. There are a number of issues here to discuss, which I hope to do sometime soon.

3. Pauper Ravnica Unified League

During the last few weeks, Polyjak oversaw the Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealer League, which in my estimation was a big success. Starting on April 27th, a similar league will launch, this time as a Pauper Ravnica Unified League. Polyjak, along with several other notable players in our community, have worked very hard to create something well worth participating in. I plan on playing in this one and will once again be donating prizes, so I definitely encourage all my readers to join the fun. More about this soon. (are you noticing a trend?)

4. Standard Pauper Set Review for Shadows Over Innistrad

There is at least one thing I did manage to complete despite my illness. My full set review of Shadows Over Innistrad is available from PureMTGO. You can find Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here. I won't rehash my final comments from Part Three, but on the whole while I feel like the set is going to be good as far as gameplay goes, I'm not sure how successful it was in recapturing the feel of Innistrad. Anyway, I encourage you to read and comment.

I think that's all for now. My plan is to have a special Saturday post this week to help make up for not writing last week, and of course I'll be back on Thursday as well. Thanks as always for reading and being a part of our great Standard Pauper community.