MPDC League Scoreboards and Decklists

Earlier today I posted the results from the now complete Week Four of the MPDC League. Congratulation to cRUMMYdUMMY who went undefeated this week to earn the first place trophy.

Several people have requested permanent access to each week's Scoreboard to make it easier to track decklists. I finally updated the Scoreboard page to include these forms from each week. While the data isn't very easy to sort through in Google Pages itself, you can choose to save a local copy to your computer, which you can then input into your spreadsheet editor of choice. Hopefully this will allow some of you to share with us some insights on what's going on in the format.

I am also slowly in the process of exploring ways to save the Top 4 decklists from each week. Since the last time I checked, it appears that MTGOTrader's Decks feature seems to be working correctly, so I am in the process of uploading those into that database. But for the moment, you can check out the 1st place decks from each week below:

Week 1: White Weenie by nate316
Week 2: White Weenie by manaissues
Week 3: Burn by DrChrisBakerDC
Week 4: Azorius Artifacts by cRUMMYdUMMY

Last week we had 19 players who contributed a total of 69 games between them. Thanks to everyone who has participated in the league.

Is It Time To Ban Self-Assembler?

Almost exactly a month ago, I wrote about the growing concern that Self-Assembler would be bad for Standard Pauper. Right from the start of the season, many players were calling for the card to be banned. Since that time, the card has been played in nearly every winning deck in our weekly tournaments, while attendance has been on a slow but noticeable decline.

So, in consultation with Chris Baker and rremedio1, the co-hosts of SPDC, we have decided to temporarily ban Self-Assembler for next week's events. The goal will be to collect data on how this shapes the metagame and gauge player reaction to these changes. It's also worth noting that to really collect some good data, we'll probably have to extend the ban for several weeks, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. To recap: Self-Assembler will be banned in SPDC on Sunday, December 4th and in MPDC on Monday, December 5th.

Also, for whatever it's worth, I offered my players this past Monday a single ticket bounty if they would drop Self-Assembler from their decklists and still make Top 4. Although one of the four players is having issues with Gatherling and as such I don't yet have that list, none of the other three players took me up on my offer. That alone says something significant about the perceived power level of this card. It might be time to change my mind on this card.

The Week of November 20th in Standard Pauper

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the United States. Even though it's Turkey Day, after falling way behind last week, I wanted to make sure I got my weekly Standard Pauper metagame update out in a timely fashion this week, so here we are. Attendance continues to be on a slow decline, and it's hard not to think that the growing frustration with Self-Assembler isn't somehow too blame. More about that in a bit. Anyway, neither SPDC nor MPDC had enough players this week to cut to a Top 8, so there are only eight deck that survived into the playoffs. Let's take a look.

Esper Artifacts was the big winner this week, accounting for half of the decks in consideration. Moromete's build took 2nd place in both events this week, with both Storm_blade and JackSlagel finishing in the Top 4 with similar builds. Interestingly enough, Storm_blade's build tried to have it all, splashing into Green for a lone Pulse of Murasa, with two more in the Sideboard as well as three copies of Root Out. But in all four decks, it's the recursion value generated by Aviary Mechanic and Ironclad Slayer that makes these decks so good.

First place in SPDC this week was won once again by DrChrisBaker playing MonoRed, which utilizes its aggressive creatures and Madness cards like Fiery Temper to push through for damage while quickly refueling with both Cathartic Reunion and Tormenting Voice. But the deck also includes the controversial Flame Lash, a card that is very difficult to get online unless one is willing to invest in the Planeswalker deck for Kaladesh.

Meanwhile, first place in MPDC went to AlwaysFace's Sultai Control, which adds Black to the mix of the more typical Simic Big Stuff deck popularized by littlefield and Storm_blade to give the deck not only a significant removal suite but also some potential for sacrifice synergies as well. This newest iteration included Prophetic Prism, a card that is increasingly popular thanks to its ability to cycle, turn on Artifact synergies, and fix for colors all at a very reasonable cost.

The other two entries completing the eight decks in the playoffs was littlefield's aforementioned Simic Big Stuff and an Izzet Spells deck piloted by frycek.

Not surprisingly, all these decks included a full playset of Self-Assembler. While I personally am still unconvinced that this card deserves to be banned, I do think its presence is discouraging a lot of players from participating. To that end, as I announced at MPDC this week, I think we should implement a one-week ban on the card and see what difference that makes in the metagame. I will be reaching out to DrChrisBaker and rremedio1 to coordinate our efforts so we can get data from both tournaments. More on that as soon as I have confirmation on the temporary ban.

Special thanks to this great community that keeps this format alive! You guys are the reason that I'm still playing this game!

The Week of November 6th in Standard Pauper

Welcome back to this week's look at the Standard Pauper metagame, based upon the results of our two weekly Player Run Events. This week we had the unusual result that SPDC had enough players to cut to Top 8, while MPDC did not, leaving us with 12 decks that made the cutoff. So let's take a look at what these decks tell us about how the metagame is shaping up.

Probably the biggest surprise this week was that a MonoRed archetype captured the first place trophy in both events. DrChrisBakerDC's version from SPDC was very burn heavy, playing only twelve creatures, while bibbob's version from MPDC was much more balanced between spells and efficient creatures. But both relied upon a common core of Fiery Temper, Pyre Hound, Renegade Freighter, Self-Assembler, and Tormenting Voice. Congrats to both of them on their wins!

littlefield continued to innovate with his Simic Big Stuff deck, making Top 4 in SPDC and finishing in 2nd place in MPDC. The newest addition to this deck is Byway Courier, which is particularly good in a format with so much removal, since it always replaces itself when it dies. This archetype is proving to be consistently good despite whatever shifts the metagame brings.

Also noteworthy this week was a brand new archetype by reco91 called Bant Tokens, which made Top 4 in SPDC this week. This deck took the Eldrazi creatures from Simic and combined them with Glint-Sleeve Artisan to create a goodly sized swarm of tokens, which then get buffed via Borrowed Grace to enable a back-breaking strike against your opponent. It's always great to see new decks come to light and perform well in our events!

The rest of the field consisted of familiar versions of Izzet Spells, Esper Artifacts, MonoBlack Artifacts, and Gruul Monsters, with double entries for all but the last one. Not surprisingly, Self-Assembler continues to be an auto-include in every deck, which will only continue to fuel calls for it to be banned.

Let me remind you in closing that I am once again producing regular Standard Pauper Deck Techs over at PureMTGO on the winning decklist from each week of MPDC. Definitely check those out and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.

Farewell to the Standard Pauper Show

Today we bid a sad farewell to the Standard Pauper Show.

Earlier this week, the hosts of this fantastic video podcast announced via Twitter that they will no longer be producing the MagicGatheringStrat Show. For quite a long time, this show was dedicated to the world of Standard Pauper, covering both our our major tournaments each week as well as looking at a particularly interesting decklist. And while the show's focus eventually expanded to cover a more broad range of topics, this was still a great resource for our community of players.

For this last episode, they went back to their roots, providing a full recap of both SPDC and MPDC this past week. So to honor their great show, I thought I would allow this final show to take the place of my normal Standard Pauper metagame update for the week. Enjoy!

Farewell, guys. You will be missed.

The Week of August 7th in Standard Pauper

A brand new season of Standard Pauper weekly events has begun, bringing Eldritch Moon into Standard and already shaking up the metagame considerably. And at least for MPDC, this also meant a small surge of interest in the format, bringing in 18 players for this week's event and giving us our first Top 8 playoff in quite some time. With that, of course, comes four more decks to evaluate for this week, bringing the total up to 12 decks that made the playoffs between SPDC and MPDC. Let's take a look at that first snapshot of the new Standard Pauper metagame:

First off, as should have been expected, several players chose simply to run the pre-Eldritch Moon favorite Sultai Control without making any changes, which accounted for three of the twelve winning decks. Similarly, both PauperRBust and cRUMMYdUMMY took the GB Control shell and tweaked it in slightly different ways, but both took advantage of the mana ramp from Ulvenwald Captive and the new powerful Emerge creatures.

Second, we also had one other returning deck in the case of AEFabricio, running the GW Fliers deck that enjoyed moderate success last season.

Third, both DrChrisBaker and littlefield went with Izzet instead, choosing to run few creatures (but including the new Thermo-Alchemist) and instead focus on powerful spells, including Galvanic Bombardment and Take Inventory.

Fourth, we saw two brand new archetypes from both rremedio1 and Paranoid_Android. Rremedio1 ran a four color Tokens build, combining synergies from Impact Tremors, a mass of Black removal, Pulse of Murasa, and the new Emerge creatures. Paranoid_Android's build was a much simpler Azorius Fliers utilizing Displace in order to gain some incremental advantage off of his creatures' enters-the-battlefield effects.

Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, the first place trophies both went to Simic Emerge decks run by amnaremotoas and JogandoPelado respectively. This new archetype looks to be quite strong, and will certainly be a force to be reckoned with going forward.

The biggest takeaway from this week is that Sultai colors look to continue their dominance in the format. This is perhaps not surprising given the relative weakness of both White and Red at Common in Eldritch Moon. While all five colors were represented in the finalists' decks, Blue, Black, and Green seem to by far have the most important cards in the format right now. Of course, there's still plenty of room for innovation and change in the metagame, so it will be interesting to see what next week brings!

Thanks for reading.

The Week of July 10th in Standard Pauper

As I mentioned last time, I am still traveling at the moment, and so far I seem to be running about a day behind on everything. As a result, I can guarantee that my set review won't be done for Monday's deadline for PureMTGO, so expect it to come out the following Monday unless the editor is willing to get it published before then. In any case, as is become my regular habit, I want to take a look at what happened in our two Standard Pauper events this past week.

This week GB Control returned with a vengeance, with the typical build capturing three of the eight trophies and its three color variant that splashes Blue for Jwar Isle Avenger and Monastery Loremaster accounting for two more. The other three trophies went to an aggressive Orzhov list (without any Allies!) that took first place in MPDC, another aggressive Boros build, and the Bant Vessel list that first appeared last week.

Here's a few more interesting tidbits from the week:

1. While every color was once again represented among the eight Top 4 decks, Black was far and away the dominant color, appearing in all but two of the winning decklists.
   
2. Pulse of Murasa was included with a full playset in every deck that played Green, accounting for a full 24 copies among the six decks. Complete Disregard and Oblivion Strike were the next most often played cards (not including Basic Lands, of course).
   
3. GB Control continues to be the deck to beat, but it's interesting to see its Sultai variant also performing very strongly. Given that it's slightly more Control than the two color version, I expect that it has a slight advantage in the mirror, but is also more vulnerable against aggressive strategies and poor draws.
   
4. Speaking of which, DrChrisBakerDC published a Deck Tech and videocast of the Sultai Control deck he piloted to 1st place in SPDC. He managed a perfect 5-0 with that deck, so it certainly seems like he's on to something. Definitely worth checking out!

That's all for now. We've got one more week of regular tournaments before our season capstone events the week of July 24th, leading up to the release of Eldritch Moon on Magic Online on August 1st. Hope to see you in one of our free tournaments soon!

New Content for Standard Pauper

Today I wanted to share with you two new pieces of content for Standard Pauper. The first comes from Chris Baker, who maintains an infrequently updated blog called The Draft Brewery. He recently posted his full set review video for Shadows Over Innistrad as well as a brief post highlighting his top picks from the set.

The second comes from Adner, who maintains the blog for the Standard Pauper Players Clan on Magic Online. After a prolonged absence following the loss of the Standard Pauper filter, a new post is now available discussing his first place finish in SPDC 33.03 with a Mono Red Vampires list.

Be sure and check both of these out for some great Standard Pauper content. And if you're aware of other content for the format, be sure and let me know in the comments below so I can highlight it in future posts.

And as a bonus, let me also highlight the fact that Chris Baker has also been posting his matches from the Ravnica Unified League on his YouTube channel, so if that might be of interest to you, be sure and check that out as well. See you next time.

Zedikar Unified, Week One

The first week of the Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealed League comes to an end today. First off, I must say that Polyjak has gone above and beyond when it comes to this event, providing an excellent website and quickly responding to the feedback he received from players. Everything has worked smoothly, and I am glad I chose to not only participate but sponsor this event as well.

While I opened some pretty solid Blue and White cards, overall I wasn't very impressed with my pool. I ended up building a mediocre U/W Flyers deck to start with, figuring that the consistency of two colors was probably better than trying to have a slightly three color deck with bad mana (especially since my only fixing was a marginal Lifespring Druid). I ended up going 0-2 with that build, and honestly was feeling pretty discouraged.

Chris Baker (aka DrChrisBakerDC) reached out to me, and I ended up sending him my pool. After looking it over, he suggested I go ahead and cut most of the bad White cards out of my deck and instead play Blue Green with a strong splash in White. The mana would be pretty sketchy, but when it came together he believed my chances would be much better. Here's the build he suggested:

Zendikar Unified

Week One

Creatures 2 Dawnglare Invoker 2 Reckless Scholar 1 Sky Ruin Drake 1 Calcite Snapper 1 Skywatcher Adept 1 Surrakar Banisher 1 Sporecap Spider 1 Netcaster Spider 1 Oran-Rief Survivalist 1 Eldrazi Skyspawner 1 Kozilek's Pathfinder 1 Tajuru Pathwarden 1 Lifespring Druid 1 Snapping Gnarlid 1 Eldrazi Devastator 17 cards Other Spells 1 Seer's Lantern 1 Treasure Hunt 1 Anticipate 1 Puncturing Light 1 Guard Duty 5 cards

Lands 6 Forest 8 Island 4 Plains 18 cards Sideboard 1 Snapping Creeper 1 Demystify 1 Relic Crush 1 Eland Umbra 1 Zendikar Farguide 1 Makindi Shieldmate 1 Negate 1 Shared Discovery 1 Whiplash Trap 1 Lone Missionary 10 cards

For space considerations, I didn't include my entire pool, but just the relevant Sideboard cards. While I ended up almost always including Whiplash Trap after sideboarding, overall I was pretty happy with this alternate build. I ended up going 2-1 with it, bringing me to a decent 2-3 record overall. The two copies of Dawnglare Invoker were by far my most valuable card, and I won many of my games off that card alone.

All of my games were pretty grindy. Removal, especially if it can deal with big creatures, seemed particularly important, especially given the unusual number of Invoker creatures being played (creatures with an eight-mana cost powerful ability) that often determine who will win the game. At least at this early stage, it seems like the format will be pretty slow, with lots of high Toughness creatures. Creatures with evasion are also proving to be quite strong.

Tomorrow we'll receive a new booster pack, so it will be interesting to see what possibilities open up. We will see.

What's Current In Standard Pauper

As small as our community of Standard Pauper players is, there still always seems to be something going on that's worth mentioning. So today I thought I would just post links to a few of the more interesting items of note.

1. The Standard Pauper Double League is officially over, but you can still watch video from the three biggest matches of the event - the Finals for Phase One, the Finals for Phase Two, and the Grand Championship.

2. DrChrisBakerDC took the trophy in SPDC 32.04 with an innovative Temur Token Control deck. He also posted a deck-tech and videocasts of his match, which you can find in full here.

3. Speaking of Chris, there has also been some discussion about another Standard Pauper Sealed league. Right now the leading contender is some form of a Zendikar "unified" theme using boosters from both the original Zendikar block and the current Battle for Zendikar block. You can check out all the discussion over on the pdcmagic Standard forums here.

4. Despite the diversity and innovation in the Top 4 finalists of MPDC 32.04, Izzet Control earned yet another trophy, continuing its domination of the format. Rounding out the finalists was a Jund Tokens build, a Jund Allies list, and an Exploit/Delve themed Sultai deck.

5. Finally rremedio1 has started updating his Metagame Tracker app once again. It's current as of this post, and has a ton of useful information about the current state of the Standard Pauper metagame. For example, apparently Negate is the most commonly played card in the format right now. Definitely check that out.

That's all from me for today. If you've got news or content about Standard Pauper, definitely send me an email or let me know in the comments below. I'm always happy to cross-promote solid content for our great format!

Mono Black Zombies in SPDC 32.01

A brand new season of Standard Pauper Player Run Events has begun, and as I discussed last week, we did make the decision to allow cards previously printed at Common but reprinted at higher rarities in Standard to become part of the format, at least for this season. And not surprisingly, it didn't take long at all for these new cards to find their way into decklists. In fact, the 1st place finish in SPDC this week came from a MonoBlack Control build that utilized two such cards - Grasp of Darkness and Cruel Revival. Fortunately for us, the pilot was none other than DrChrisBakerDC, who lost no time in creating a deck-tech video to guide us through his deck. Here's the decklist:

Click the image above to enlarge.

And here is his video explaining how the deck works:

Although he lost in Round 1 to an innovative Jeskai "America" deck, Chris proceeded to win his next four matches to claim the trophy for SPDC 32.01. This definitely looks like a strong deck - one that I certainly intend to test myself!

So what are you playing in this new metagame? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

Starting Points for Analysis of the Format

Registration for the Standard Pauper Double League is well underway, with almost twenty players registered in just the first 48 hours of the announcement. The event has been advertised on Twitter, reddit, and a couple different websites, and there are already several names I didn't recognize. So if you haven't already registered, just send your MTGO name, and time zone to gwyned at gmail dot com with the subject line, "Standard Pauper Double League," and you'll be all set.

Today I want to make sure you know where to get some great information on what to play in the league. Even with the recent rotation of Standard, there's already quite a bit of data to help you navigate the new metagame. Here's some great starting points, in no particular order:

1. Chris Baker wrote up a great blog post, covering not only his set review of Battle for Zendikar but also addressing how the rotation of Standard changed the Standard Pauper metagame. Check out the post and accompanying video here.
   
2. One of the two weekly Standard Pauper Player Run Events (SPDC) has already resumed, and the other one (MPDC) will start this coming Monday. You can always see the breakdown of decks and how they performed off the start page on pdcmagic.com. Going forward, this will give you a steady flow of new information, so it's well worth keeping tabs on. Better yet, come join us on either Sunday or Monday at 2pm EST and participate in the fun yourself!
   
3. rremedio just wrote a great post on the Standard Pauper Players blog talking about the results from SPDC 31.01 and the different archetypes that were played. This is a great snapshot of where things stand at the moment, and is well worth a detailed look. Check it out right here.
   
4. My full set review of Battle for Zendikar is also complete and available over at PureMTGO. It's broken up into three parts: Part One (White and Blue); Part Two (Black and Red), and Part Three (Green and Colorless). I hope you find it helpful!

I also anticipate having lots to say about the event here on my blog, which I will be updated twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So break out some sweet brews, get testing online, and come be a part of the Standard Pauper Double League!

More Details on the Standard Pauper Double League

A week ago, I wrote about the possibility of running another Standard Pauper "league-style" event, where players are responsible to play out one match each week against their assigned opponent in a five week Swiss style tournament that would cut to a Top 8, Single Elimination bracket to determine final ranking. Then, after the initial five weeks are over, for those who did not place in the Top 8 (along with anyone else who didn't participate the first time), would have the opportunity to compete in a second chance Swiss tournament that would also run five weeks before cutting to a Top 8 bracket. Finally, the two 1st place winners would battle for the ultimate prize in a best-of-5 match to determine the Grand Champion of the Double League.

We've had a lot of interest in the league, and even some donations already lined up (see below), so I'm happy to announce that the Standard Pauper Double League is official, with a tentative start date of Sunday, October 26th.

First, I'm pleased to announce that we've already gotten official support from CardHoarder, who agreed to fund 30 tickets worth of credit. Thanks so much to them, and to Chris Baker, who lobbied them for their support. They are also sponsoring the Sunday Standard Pauper weekly PRE (SPDC), so definitely show your support for them by sending them your business. I will plan on matching that donation, which means we're already up to $60 worth of prizes - not too shabby for a free event! I also know that joekewwl has pledged to support the event as well, so I expect that that number will continue to rise.

Second, I've had some people ask about why making Top 8 in the first go-around disqualifies you from taking part in the second five weeks of the event. For me, the rationale is simple: anyone who makes the Top 8 is walking away with some decent prize money (although I don't have the exact prize structure finalized yet). And I'd rather extend that opportunity to as many players as possible, even if it means that those few who earn that Top 8 spot the first time miss out on the opportunity to participate in the second half of the event.

Finally, the event will be using the Gatherling database on pdcmagic.com to manage pairings during the Swiss rounds. This has the advantage of letting players report their results, see standings, and view pairings all in one easy and convenient place, without having to wait for me to update anything. For the Top 8 Playoffs, I will be using a simple online bracket system that will have to be manually updated - but that's a much smaller number of players, and thus much easier on my end to track and manage.

If you have other questions or comments, feel free to ask below. I will continue to work out all the final details and make an announcement early next week with all the pertinent info. In the mean time, get on Magic Online and start testing out those Standard Pauper brews!

See you next time...

Origins for Standard Pauper

As I've said so many times before, now is a great time to be part of the Standard Pauper community. Not only do we have two great Player Run Events that run just about every week, but we also have an abundance of great content about the format. With the release of Magic Origins online, and the beginning of new seasons for both MPDC and SPDC, everyone is trying to figure out how the new cards will impact the metagame. But it's not like you have to figure all of this out for yourself. Instead, we've got four different sites with great reviews and metagame analysis of Standard Pauper and how Magic Origins will affect it:

1. MagicGatheringStrat's weekly podcast reviewed the set over two recent episodes, which you can find here and here.

2. Standard Pauper enthusiast and co-host of SPDC (and often-time guest host for MPDC) rremedio1 wrote an excellent review of the set for the StandardPauperPlayers blog.

3. DrChrisBaker, host of SPDC, also completed an entire video review of the set, with highlights on his most recent blogpost.

4. And last but not least, we have my own exhaustive set review broken up into Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

And if you know of any other content for Standard Pauper on another site, please let me know in the comments, and I will add it to this post. Thanks for reading!

Mono Blue Control

Of late in the weekly Standard Pauper Deck Challenge event, DrChrisBakerDC has been quietly stacking up wins with a deck that seems to be somewhat under the radar: Mono Blue Control. In fact, he took first place with the deck in both SPDC 29.05 and 29.07, going undefeated in both events. This archetype has yet to make an appearance at MPDC, but with its recent success, I expect that will change very soon. So I thought today I would take a look at the decklist and point you towards the videos that Chris submitted a couple weeks ago covering the deck.

Mono Blue Control

1st place by DrChrisBakerDC in SPDC 29.07

Creatures 4 Jeskai Sage 4 Whirlwind Adept 1 Nimbus Naiad 1 Palace Familiar 10 cards Other Spells 4 Divination 4 Griptide 4 Nullify 4 Treasure Cruise 3 Rise of Eagles 2 Anticipate 2 Negate 1 Cancel 1 Voyage's End 1 Whisk Away 26 cards

Lands 16 Island 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Radiant Fountain 24 cards Sideboard 4 Sidisi's Faithful 4 Coral Barrier 3 Disdainful Stroke 2 Voyage's End 2 Negate 15 cards

This is a classic Control list for Standard Pauper, playing lots of permission spells and card draw and then winning off the back of a particular potent late game creature - in this case, the surprisingly effective Whirlwind Adept. The list is also optimized to power out Treasure Cruise as quickly as possible, utilizing the 'cantrip' creatures, lots of spells, and even Evolving Wilds to get a bunch of cards into the graveyard as quickly as possible. Other than the hard counters, the deck also dedicates several slots to bouncing an opponent's creatures with Griptide and the like, giving it the time it needs to eke out some major card advantage and transform that into a win.

If you'd like to go more in-depth into this deck, see some matches, and see how the deck has changed since its original form, check out Chris' videos below. This is definitely a great deck, and one that I will be digging into more in the days ahead. Thanks for reading!

Feeling Blue in Standard Pauper

After a seemingly endless domination by White in Standard Pauper, I think it's fair to say that Blue may have risen to take its place. It all started with Treasure Cruise, which is arguably one of the best Commons to see print in quite some time. Blue has been paired with every other color now to take advantage of this excellent card, results in decks like Azorius Heroic, Izzet Control, Dimir Devotion, and even my own Wintergreen.

But that isn't to say that Blue necessary even needs the support of another color to be good. With the release of Dragons of Tarkir, we've seen a MonoBlue Combo deck rise to competitive play as well as other Control decks rise to the forefront, driven by other value cards such as Anticipate, Rise of Eagles, and Weave Fate.

Indeed, DrChrisBakerDC earned himself a 1st place finish in the most recent SPDC with a powerful Mono Blue Control deck. If you're interested in the deck, checkout his Deck Tech video below, and if you like what you see, you can also view video from all of his matches with the deck. Enjoy!

Standard Pauper PRE Survey

Please note that there is now a follow-up survey in addition to this one regarding specific times and days of the week for our events. If you have a moment, please click here and let your voice be heard!

Earlier this week, I was discussing with Chris Baker the current state of the two Player Run Events we run. These are free Standard Pauper tournaments, with over $40 a week in prizes going to the winners each and every week. Once upon a time, it wasn't unusual for us to see over 60 unique players in a week; now, we're lucky if we get a quarter of that. The question is, why?

So I am asking you, my loyal readers, to participate in a short poll. Given the views on this blog, I know only a small percentage of you regularly participate in our weekly events. For the rest of you, I have a simple question I would like you to answer: Why don't you participate in our events? Or, if you do sometimes participate, what keeps you from participating more?

Why don't you participate (more) in the weekly free Standard Pauper events?

There are weekly tournaments? Never heard of them...

I'd play, but they just don't fit my schedule.

Sorry, but I'm just not interested in the format.

I hate the Magic Online client and refuse to use it.

I'm just starting out, and I don't feel like I'm good enough to compete.

I don't like the host(s) and/or the players.

I play every week; don't look at me!

View results

There are weekly tournaments? Never heard of them...0%

I'd play, but they just don't fit my schedule.0%

Sorry, but I'm just not interested in the format.0%

I hate the Magic Online client and refuse to use it.0%

I'm just starting out, and I don't feel like I'm good enough to compete.0%

I don't like the host(s) and/or the players.0%

I play every week; don't look at me!0%

Other: (Please specify)0%

My Current Thoughts on Treasure Cruise

Last week, I asked Standard Pauper player Zoltan to submit his best arguments for why Treasure Cruise should be banned. He had quite a bit to say on the topic, which you can read in full here and here. Let me say that I really appreciate his willingness to put his case out there and open himself up to comments from the rest of the community. I would love to see my blog serve in this function more in the future.

Now no one is questioning that Treasure Cruise is a strong card. The ability to draw three cards rarely sees print at Common anymore. Even so, without Delve, this card would probably not see any play. If you are so far ahead that on Turn 8 you can afford to spend all your mana and not affect the board, you're probably going to win that game anyway. But with Delve, you have the potential to reduce the casting cost all the way down to a single Blue. If you could always cast it for that cost (perhaps by paying life instead of exiling cards from your Graveyard), the card would be absurdly broken and probably would not have seen print at all, much less at Common. So the reality is that Treasure Cruise falls somewhere between those two extremes.

That said I do not believe that Treasure Cruise should be banned. Here's why:

1. I agree with both rremedio1 and DrChrisBakerDC that Treasure Cruise is helping, not hurting, the health of the metagame. The existence of this card gives players a strong incentive to play Control. Without it, the Aggro decks like White Weenie and Boros Heroic would pretty much dominate the entire metagame. Additionally, I do not believe that banning Treasure Cruise would make space in the metagame for decks that currently aren't seeing play.
2. Based on the numbers crunched by rremedio1, decks including Treasure Cruise that place in the Top 4 in recent Standard Pauper events make up only approximately 40% of the metagame. Other powerful Commons from previous sets have seen numbers much higher than this without being banned.
3. While I agree with Adner's comment that Treasure Cruise violates the New World Order philosophy of card design, Rosewater has always been clear that Commons that are pushed in a set due to being part of that set's theme often violate the design tenets of New World Order. New World Order doesn't prohibit such cards; it merely says there must be solid design reasons why those cards should see print at Common. Personally, I am thankful that cards like Treasure Cruise still see print from time to time. The existence of these cards excites players, and when players are excited, they play more Magic.

I do agree, however, that the lack of anti-Graveyard effects is hurting the metagame. I would love to see a Common come into the metagame that allows you to exile cards from your opponent's Graveyard. If I had to pick one way to "fix" Treasure Cruise, this is what I would do. Relic of Progenitus would be my pick, but even Tormod's Crypt would be fine.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on these articles. And for everyone who didn't comment but took the time to read and think about the issues, thanks to you as well! See you next time.

Why Standard Pauper Is Worth Saving

All this week I've been talking about the problems with Magic Online, how it relates to Standard Pauper, and what we as a community can do about it. Tuesday, I wrote that while there is no doubt Magic Online is a mess, it's worth putting up with it to keep Standard Pauper alive. Thursday, I wrote about different options we have as a community to help bridge the gap while Magic Online goes through its growing pains. Finally, today I want to remind everyone about why Standard Pauper is worth saving.

Back in April 2013, a petition was started asking Wizards of the Coast to support Standard Pauper. It ended up with just under 350 signatures on it. Around that same time, Chris Baker, who is affiliated with ChannelFireball, also wrote a blog post talking about what a great format Standard Pauper is.  I myself have written several different articles discussing why Standard Pauper is good both for the community and for Wizards of the Coast. So what's so special about it?

• It's cheap to play.
• It uses the most popular and relevant format.
• It has an interesting and varied metagame
• A more 'flat' power-level rewards better skill over time
• It is supported by multiple Player Run Events
• It has a Magic Online clan devoted to it

It's a great format. Let's do whatever it takes to keep it alive.

A couple postscripts for this week:

1. I wrote an article on Common Design and its implications for Standard Pauper. Check it out here.
2. I am working on a new league format called Standard Pauper Sealed. You can find out more about what this means and how it's possible here. More about that next week.

Thanksgiving

Complaining is easy. Intentionally being thankful is much harder. What do you have to be thankful for?

Today, I realize I have much to be thankful for: a beautiful wife; healthy and thriving kids; two cars; plenty of food, water, and clothes; a fulfilling job; and a great home to live in. I am also thankful for:

• Magic Online - warts and all, I wouldn't be playing Magic without it.
• the Standard Pauper community - without which, I couldn't play or write about the format that I enjoy the most.
• Standard Pauper content providers like DrChrisBakerDC, MagicGatheringStrat, the Standard Pauper Players clan/blog, Mundisv, Brennon, Cabel, Adner, and others I'm sure I've forgotten.
• Joekewwl and MTGOTraders, longtime sponsors of MPDC
• My readers, that make my blogging, articles, and videos possible.

What do you have to be thankful for?