Eternal - Omens of the Past

Although technically still in beta, the Eternal digital card game by Direwolf Digital is very close to releasing their long-awaiting second card set entitled Omens of the Past. You can read my previous posts about this great game here, or check out the spoilers here.

Anyway, in case you are a fan of this game but haven't been paying attention, this weekend you can actually play with several of the new cards in special preview events. All you need to do is "sleeve-up" a deck that consists of one of the five faction pairs for this new set, and the appropriate new cards of that faction will automatically be added to your deck when you enter the preview event. And through these events, you can start earning booster packs of the new set that will be added to your collection once the new set releases. Best of all, these events are absolutely free!

This is exactly the kind of event that Wizards should be running online instead of their prereleases. It gets players excited about the new cards, gives them a chance to start playing with them right away, and doesn't cost you a thing. Sadly, as I have mentioned before, Wizards of the Coast has a lot to learn when it comes to digital card games.

Magic Digital Next

Yesterday my good friend joekewwl tipped me off to the fact that Wizards of the Coast is somewhere in process of creating a brand new Magic the Gathering digital initiative. He referenced this article published earlier this year, which in turn is based on a press release from Hasbro. joekewwl also mentioned that this project, which is referred to as Magic Digital Next, may already be looking for a select group of players to playtest this at some point in the future.

As you can see from the above graphic, this new digital project would be geared for casual and competitive players looking for a well polished digital experience but that isn't quite as all encompassing as Magic Online. The article states that this is no doubt driven by the success of Hearthstone, which is streamed around the clock, available on just about every platform, and has a very successful e-sport franchise. Furthermore,

"while the paper version of Magic may be doing better than ever before, its digital offerings are weirdly split between two products which at best are kinda-sorta OK. Magic Duels is their free to play side which is largely targeted towards players new to the game, but judging by reactions of hardcore Magic players, many of the restrictions the game has keeps them from getting invested. Meanwhile, Magic Online exists in a constant state of jank and inexplicably is only available for the PC."

I for one would love to see Wizards of the Coast actually launch a well-polished and competitive digital product that could be favorable compared to games like Sol Forge, Hearthstone, or Eternal. Unfortunately, Wizards has a proven track record of bad decisions when it comes to digital offerings, so unless Hasbro is willing to make a significant investment in such a product, I feel that any such new game may come as too little too late.

The End of an Era

Many longtime users of Magic Online look back on previous iterations of the program with nostalgia, remembering the way things used to be before a decision by Wizards of the Coast changed things, often for the worse. Sadly, I now completely understand what that feels like. As of yesterday, the Standard Pauper filter is officially gone from Magic Online, bringing an end to an important era for the format.

On August 29, 2012, about a year after Standard Pauper enthusiast joekewwl visited Wizards of the Coast as part of the 2011 Community Cup team, it was officially announced that Standard Pauper was now available as an official format on Magic Online. Although it did not include any sanctioned events, for the first time Magic Online players could easily find an opponent in the casual room who was guaranteed to be playing the same format. But as of yesterday, November 11, 2015, all that has come to an end.

So where do we go from here? How can we continue to support this great format?

• Whenever you are online, join the #StandardPauper channel. Going forward, this will be the most reliable way to find opponents to play against.
• For Standard Pauper matches, just label your table as the Standard format, with an entry in the Comments field that it is a Standard Pauper game. As long as no Commons are banned in Standard (an event which would be a major failure for design and development), this will be the closest card legality match.
• You might also consider joining the Standard Pauper Players Clan as another way to easily find opponents and discuss the metagame with other players. PM me in the client and let me know if you want to join.
• Continue to let Wizards of the Coast hear your disappointment. Don't let the issue go away. Make your voice heard via Email, social media, and whatever other avenues are available to you. Take the Magic Online survey and don't mince words. Lee Sharpe in particular should hear from us regularly.
• Finally, participate regularly in the weekly Standard Pauper events. These numbers matter!

 I can think of no better way to conclude this than the image that was used in last week's Diaries of the Apocalypse when faced with the elimination of their own Tribal Wars format:

Sunday Bonus: First They Came

Presented without further comments, courtesy of Tolarian Community on Twitter (and read from bottom to top):

Responding to the Rationale Behind the Removal of Standard Pauper

So in case you missed it, Robert Schuster posted a response on the official Magic Online Tumblr page regarding the decision to remove several casual formats from Magic Online. Today I wanted to post some quick thoughts about how I would respond to the line of arguments he develops. Feel free to use them in your own discussions. 

Furthermore, I will also be using this as an outline for an upcoming PureMTGO article on the topic. More on that soon.

Wizards has advanced five claims about why removing Standard Pauper is good for Magic Online. Here's how I respond to those claims.

Claim #1: Represents less than one percent of play on Magic Online.

Response: You get what you support. If a format isn’t sanctioned, is it any surprise that the vast majority of users don’t play it? Additionally, the format is an on-ramp for new players to transition into mainline formats, steadily feeding new players into them, As a result, these players eventually stop playing Standard Pauper in favor of other formats.

Claim #2: Fragments the player base.

Response: If only a small number of players are playing it, it clearly isn’t fragmenting the player base. Instead, removing the filter only disenfranchises the existing player base.

Claim #3: Players will wait too long to find a match in the format.

Response: Taking away the filter only guarantees that people who want to play in the format will actually have to wait LONGER to find a match.

Claim #4: Can’t afford to take the time to playtest and develop cards for the format.

Response: If the format isn’t sanctioned, and is based on Standard, there is no need for additional playtesting or development.

Claim #5: Frees up development time by...

a) not needing to test card interactions in the format.

Response: Standard Pauper has ZERO additional card interactions that aren’t already tested for, since all new cards in a set are automatically tested against the Standard format environment.

                        

b) not needing to maintain legality lists.

Response: Standard Pauper has an identical legality list as Standard, except that it also excludes non-Commons. This should be trivial to program.

While some of these arguments might be valid for some of the other casual formats, they simply don't hold for Standard Pauper. And, for reasons I've stated previously, the argument could be made that removing it as an official format will, especially in the long run, do more harm than good.

One Final Thought Concerning Leagues

As I was preparing my post last time discussing the announcement by Wizards regarding the return of leagues to Magic Online and the reasoning behind beginning with Standard Constructed leagues rather than Sealed, there was one other point I neglected to include. Ever since I discovered Hearthstone, I have urged Wizards of the Coast to study what makes that game so successful and to apply those lessons to Magic Online. Given the massive success that Hearthstone now enjoys, it appears that Wizards has indeed taken notice.

While obviously the exact details have not been disclosed yet, Constructed Leagues will offer the same sort of asynchronous tournament experience that Hearthstone now offers in its Arena game mode. Way back in November I noted that this seemed to be the way that Wizards was taking leagues on Magic Online, and the latest announcements have only confirmed this.

In both Hearthstone Arena and Magic Online Leagues:

• You practically have no time limits when it comes to deckbuilding.
• You have the option of playing out your matches over a short or long period of time.
• For each match, the software attempts to pair you against an opponent with a similar record, but priority is given to getting you a game as quickly as possible.
• You play a set number of games, with prizes determined solely by your record (without any consideration as to who you played or their respective records).
• You can enter the tournament as often as you wish.

Obviously, Magic Online ran leagues long before Hearthstone was even in the conceptual stage. But nonetheless, it is interesting to see these similarities.

Initial Thoughts on Leagues Announcement

Since I seem to have gotten into the habit of commenting on recent news regarding Magic Online, I thought I would finish out the week by discussing the recent update from Wizards of the Coast regarding the return of leagues. Now clearly this is a contentious issue, with a long history of Wizards making promises that leagues would be returning "soon," as well as being one of the ways that they justified the painful switch-over to version 4 of the Magic Online client. So what did we learn from this update?

Leagues now have an official release date, with a progressive "roll-out" schedule.  The code is scheduled to go live this next week, but will only be available to an internal test group, and then a wider but still closed beta, with a target of going public sometime in mid September. But as many people have noticed, this is something fairly different than the leagues in the past. These are not Sealed events, but instead are Standard Constructed format. Why would Wizards do this?

In an effort to get a quality Leagues experience delivered sooner, we changed course from the more complex Sealed Deck League to the simpler Constructed League. This allowed us to focus on key League functions and performance without worrying about deck building, adding cards to a deck mid-League, and running multiple stages that Sealed Deck Leagues include. This saved both development and testing time. It also allowed us to double down on load testing and make sure we can support the large number of players we want in each League.

While the delay is unfortunate, the work delivered has created a much better foundation upon which to build the future of Leagues. We've upgraded our testing capabilities, especially around load testing, so we can do more testing faster. We've refined the Leagues infrastructure to allow better scalability, so future releases should be easier. This all translates to a better Leagues experience for you out of the gate and as we deliver addition features and support.

While you may be disappointed by this, in my opinion this is good news. Wizards realizes they have a terrible track record when it comes to their online experience, and as such wants to take things one baby step at a time, rather than trying to release everything all at once. Of course, this means that even after these leagues go public, the community still won't have what we've been waiting for. Worse, since the primary reason many players preferred leagues was the low cost of entry, these leagues will probably not any cheaper than participating in other Standard events online. On the other hand, when Sealed leagues do finally return, there is a greater chance that they will actually work as intended, as the overall systems for the leagues will have been rigorously tested and refined by that point in the distant future.

For me, the bottom line is that while I probably will not play in these Standard leagues (since I have no desire to invest the required funds to do so), I do see this as a positive sign that real progress is being made towards returning Sealed leagues to Magic Online.

Some Thoughts on Magic Online, Part Two

Last time, I wrote about the recent decision by Wizards of the Coast to replace tickets with Play Points as the primary way that players enter Constructed events on Magic Online. I discussed how the decision was obviously unpopular with most people who play the game, since this is essentially replacing cash prizes with, for lack of a better term, Monopoly money - a currency that only has value within the game itself rather than actual monetary value. I stressed that, in my opinion, this is part of a calculated move to eliminate the ability for players to "make money" by playing Magic Online. Today, I want to discuss why Wizards of the Coast might decide to make such a move.

For months now, people (including myself) have been lauding the success of Hearthstone as the premier example of what an online collectible card game should look like.  But what we seem to have perhaps overlooked is that in Hearthstone, real money only flows in one direction - into Blizzard's coffers. With money, the only things you can purchase are either card packs or adventure-style expansions. And because there is no secondary market and no trading, there's no way to later recoup any of that investment, save for performing well in high level tournaments. Outside of that avenue though, no matter how well you perform in either ranked play or in the Arena, your only rewards are dust (an in-game currency used to craft new cards), card packs, or gold (an in-game currency used to purchase card packs and/or adventure-style expansions). Again, money flows into the game - but it never flows out.

I suspect that Wizards of the Coast may be moving towards such a system. By eliminating tickets and replacing them with another currency that cannot be traded or otherwise sold, you eliminate the ability for players to ever get any money back out of the game. In fact, if Wizards takes the next step and eliminates tickets altogether, they will essentially wipe out the secondary market altogether, since tickets are the defacto way of buying and selling individual cards. Even if trading continues to be an option, without a currency to trade, I am uncertain if online dealers such as MTGOTraders could continue to exist, since their only business model would be to sell individual cards for real money through their website - cards that could only be obtained by purchasing large numbers of packs from Wizards themselves and cracking them all open to resell individually.

This would also, as it turns out, explain why Wizards decided back in early February of 2013 to raise the cost of redemption from $5 to $25. Prior to that, one could conceivably obtain all the cards from a set online, redeem them for physical copies, and then sell the paper cards for a small but decent profit, particularly if you could offset the online costs by skilled play. And while I haven't run the numbers, I suspect it is now much harder to make a profit on such a transaction. This would certainly fit the model of eliminating online play as a method of making money while still keeping their promise to allow players to redeem online cards for paper ones.

Honestly, I hope I am wrong. If this is the direction Wizards is actually going, this is bad news for many of the online vendors who make a living off the Magic Online economy. But it certainly would be following in the success of Hearthstone, and potentially could turn major profits for Wizards of the Coast in the longterm. We shall see.

Some Thoughts on Magic Online, Part One

It's been an interesting summer for Magic Online.

It's been about a year since the permanent transition to version 4 of the online client, a transition that was designed to allow future improvements but also brought with it a great deal of confusion and frustration that ended up alienating a lot of what I would term the casual players on Magic Online. But since that time, the overall experience seems to be getting better. Bugs were addressed, load times decreased, and generally things are working the way they are supposed to, or at least as well as they ever have.

But then last month, Wizards made a major announcement that they were radically changing the way that Constructed events would work going forward by introducing a new currency called Play Points that would exist alongside tickets. Play Points can only be earned by playing in Constructed Events, can be used as an entry fee for almost any event (both Limited and Constructed), but otherwise cannot be traded for or obtained in any other way. Alongside this change, Wizards also increased the entry fee for Daily Events up to 12 tickets (or an equivalent amount of Play Points) while essentially decreasing the overall prize payout (since you were now awarded Play Points rather than tickets). Finally, Wizards also essentially eliminated Daily Events for Pauper, Legacy, and Vintage, replacing them with what amounts to 8-man queues.

Not surprisingly, the response from the online community was overwhelmingly negative, leading many people to sell out and walk away from the game. In fact, some have estimated that in the course of two weeks the Magic Online economy lost 12 percent of its value. And while lots of players are certainly still playing on Magic Online, there is still considerable grumbling about this decision.

If you're interested in the economics behind the decision, how it affects your expected value from an event, or anything of that sort, you'll find plenty of information on that available elsewhere. What I want to explore is why Wizards made this decision, and why players are so upset by it. Actually, I think the reason is pretty simple: Wizards is eliminating the ability to "make money" in Magic Online.

Tickets, as a commodity, have an actual monetary value. They can be purchased for approximately one dollar, can be traded to players or bots for cards, and can even be redeemed for actual money from a variety of different sources. None of these are true of Play Points. Their only value is letting you enter into another event. So even if the only change Wizards had made was to replace the tickets given out as prizes with an equivalent amount of Play Points and left everything unchanged, players would still be upset. It's as if you've gone from awarding cash prizes to awarding Monopoly money. Playing for Monopoly money still might be fun, but it's certainly not the same thing as winning cash.

And it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Sadly, this means that Wizards probably knew very well that this change was going to be very unpopular. Yet they did it anyway. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this is an intentional, strategic move on their part to accomplish a particular goal. But why would they want to eliminate the ability to win actual cash prizes? And what are the potential changes in an economy where what you own in Magic Online doesn't have any actual value? That's what I want to explore next time.

Standard Pauper PRE Data Analysis

As part of my recent project to survey information from our players on the two Standard Pauper Player Run Events that are run each and every week through pdcmagic.com, I have been analyzing data from this year's attendance at both Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and Standard Pauper Deck Challenge. My hope is that after I've had the chance to sort through all this data and talk with individuals within the community that we will be able to make whatever changes need to be made to better support Standard Pauper going forward.

Let's take a look at my analysis from the data from MPDC and SPDC:

Click on the above image to enlarge it.

 Here's my take on this data:

1. Over just 29 events, we've had 96 unique players participate in one of our events. Of those, about ten percent have participated regularly, with another 15 percent playing occasionally. We're actually attracting a fair amount of new players, given that this spans only four months of time.
2. Unfortunately, of the 96 unique players, a full 43 of them have only participated once. While my data doesn't account for new players who have stuck around, it's still fair to say that we have a retention problem. The majority of newcomers don't stick around to play more than once.
3. Of the players who have participated in at least 5 events, only 4 of those only play in either MPDC and SPDC. The other 21 have played at least once in both MPDC and SPDC, although most show a decided preference for one event or the other (although this isn't represented in the graphic above).
4. MPDC has a higher overall attendance, which makes sense given that it's been running at that time slot and day for a whole lot longer than SPDC has been at its current day and time.

Bottom line, we only average about 13 players per event. That's the number we need to change. And that's what all these surveys and data is all about.

Isn't Standard Pauper an "Official" Format Online?

It was brought to my attention this week that Standard Pauper is not listed as an official online-only format on Wizards' website. Now this might be excusable if they're just trying to focus on the popular or dominant formats. But no, even other casual formats like Kaleidoscope, Momir Basic, Prismatic, Singleton, and Tribal are listed. This seems to be a clear oversight and should be addressed.

Colin, better known to the community as Cabel, is the one who brought this to my attention. If you're curious, you can read some his reasons why he thinks this is the case here (warning though, it's a bit long). I prefer to believe this is simply an oversight on the part of Wizards of the Coast, and as such, the best thing to do is simply to bring it to their attention. Which I did on Twitter.

Now I'm encouraging all of my readers to do the same. Click the link, favorite it, retweet it to your followers, and/or add your own thoughts to the message. This is an easy way to let them know that we still care about this format.

What? You're not on Twitter?! Well, that's a shame, because there is a ton of great content about Magic there, and it gives you an accessible way to interact not only directly with Wizards of the Coast, but with all sorts of Magic personalities and community members. You don't even have to post anything yourself. Just make an account, follow people whose content you enjoy, and be part of the conversation.

And speaking of Cabel, he has recently resumed writing on his blog after a long hiatus, so I encourage you to check it out. He's just finished looking at the new White cards in Dragons of Tarkir. It's always great to have more voices in the Standard Pauper community.

Treasure Cruise Banned?

Here we go again.

Early this week, Wizards announced that as of April 1st, Treasure Cruise would be banned in Pauper. This reignited a simmering discussion about whether this card would or should also be banned in Standard Pauper. This is an issue that has seen quite a bit of discussion since the card was released, with a vocal minority arguing that the card is "bonkers" broken while the majority simply believe it is good but not detrimental to the format. As I have stated before, I am firmly in the latter camp.

But of course, the real concern was whether or not the banning of Treasure Cruise in Pauper would, by default or by neglect, mean that the card would also be banned in Standard Pauper. I actually tweeted this very question, both to the general Magic Online Twitter handle and to Lee Sharpe, the Digital Product Manager for Magic Online. Imagine my surprise when I received within just a few short minutes this reply from none other than Ryan Spain, former co-host of Limited Resources and current Design Manager for Magic Online:

I think it's safe to say that the ban will not affect Standard Pauper. And a big shout-out to Ryan for answering my question so quickly.

So let's put this to bed once and for all. Treasure Cruise should not, and (almost certainly) will not, be banned in Standard Pauper.

Why I Won't Boycott Magic Online

On Sunday, Twitter exploded with rage over a bug with Magic Online where the renown Luis Scott-Vargas had his win-condition shuffled away by Ponder even though he clearly clicked no on the client. Of course, this happened during an evening stream with hundreds of people watching, so it got immediate widespread attention. Lots of people were quite upset by this, and rightly so. But by far the most widespread comment I saw was that the best solution was simply to boycott Magic Online until things get better. Here's a small sampling of the tweets:

Despite all this rage, I don't believe that boycotting Magic Online is the right solution to the problem. Here's why:

1. It offers what I can't get elsewhere. At the end of the day, Magic Online is really my only outlet to play Magic the Gathering in general, and Standard Pauper in particular. Magic Online allows me to do that on my own schedule and from the comfort of my home. And even though the client is plagued with bugs currently, it still offers me an experience I can't get anywhere else.
2. I've invested too much. Interestingly enough, this isn't really a financial issue for me. In fact, I've probably spent less than $50 total on Magic Online; maybe less than $30. But I've devoted countless hours to hosting MPDC, writing articles, making videos, chatting with players, and enjoying Limited and Standard Pauper matches. Boycotting Magic Online essentially means throwing all that way.
3. Having a voice requires keeping a seat at the table. Who is Wizards more likely to listen to? Someone who quit the games months ago and is still angry about the whole thing, or a current player who periodically gives feedback (both positive and negative)? If I want things to get better, I have to be willing to be part of the solution.
4. I support vendors who depend on Magic Online revenue. So many of my positive experiences on Magic Online came because of sites like PureMTGO, ChannelFireball, MTGOAcademy, and MTGOTraders. These sites depend on Magic Online (at least in part) for their revenue. It's not their fault that the client is a mess. I want to do my part to support these great organizations and the people behind them.

And of course, as I've written about earlier this month, Magic Online is the best hope for Standard Pauper. There's no way I'm giving up on that!

So that's why I won't boycott Magic Online. I'm invested for the duration. And I think you should be too.

Writing for PureMTGO

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am a semi-regular writer over at PureMTGO.com, an e-zine dedicated to Magic Online that specializes in casual formats. The site is sponsored by MTGOTraders.com, which in case you somehow missed it, is one of the premier online stores serving Magic Online. Why do I bring this up? I'm glad you asked!

A couple weeks back, I wrote about why Standard Pauper is worth saving and what you can do about it. One of the best ways to do just that is to create content for the format. In that post, I mentioned how PureMTGO is always open to unsolicited articles from new writers. While there are probably other sites that would be open to new writers about Standard Pauper, I believe PureMTGO is your best choice. It's not only easy, but they are also quite generous with their compensation. Here's what you do:

1. You need to create an account for their site. This feature is found on the right-hand side of their page under "Account." Fill in all the necessary information. Be sure and include a legitimate E-mail address, as this will be the means by which you are compensated for your article

2. Once you've created an account, you simply click on the "Write Article" located in the same place where you log in. This opens a handy editor that allows you to create online content with needing to know .html code. Of course, if you already know some coding basics, you can click on the "Source" button and edit the specific code. Here's what the editor looks like:

3. The editor allows you to save your progress, so you don't have to finish all at one point. You can even preview the article to double-check exactly what the end user will see.

4. Once you've finished, save the article, then click on the "Workflow" tab. From here, you select the "Submitted" button, and you're all set! Be sure you're happy with your content before you do this, as there's no way to make any additional changes without contact their staff.

5. Once you've submitted the article, it will usually be published within a few days of submission, depending on the total submissions they've received lately.  Unlike other sites, PureMTGO doesn't pay based on advertising or views or anything like that. While they don't advertise their specific formula, you can expect between $20-$30 in credits for a quality article in the 3,000 word range once the article has been published.

6. To redeem these credits, you simply login to your account, click on the "Redeem credits" link, select how much you want to redeem, and submit. Within 48 hours, you will receive a gift certificate to MTGOTraders.com in this amount. 

If you've got specific questions, feel free to ask in the comments below. You can also contact Joshua Claytor, who serves as the Content Manager for PureMTGO. There is also this informative video on their site geared for prospective writers that you should also check out here.

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.

What To Do About Magic Online, Part Two

Last time, I wrote a plea to the Standard Pauper community not to give up on Magic Online. My rationale is simple - to give up on Magic Online is (probably) to give up on Standard Pauper as a format.

Now there's no doubt things are pretty bad. The new client is buggy, crashes often, and has alienated a lot of players. Wizards is big on promises, but so far pretty short on deliver. So what should we be doing in the midst of all this turmoil? Here are my thoughts, starting with the simplest and moving up the scale of difficulty.

1. Keep showing up. This one's pretty simple. Keep participating in the Standard Pauper Player Run Events. MPDC and SPDC both run at 2pm / 7pm GMT on Monday and Sunday respectively. If you doing nothing else, just showing up and playing goes a long way to keeping the format alive.
2. Play casual games. With the online filter, there are lots of casual Standard Pauper players who for whatever reason aren't participating in our PREs. Make a point to get online every few days, look for Standard Pauper games in the Just For Fun room, and play a couple matches. Be polite to your opponent, and maybe even strike up a conversation afterwards. In this way, you can be a great ambassador for the format.
3. Submit feedback to Wizards of the Coast. At anytime you can submit comments or technical issues to WotC by using this form. Believe it or not, they do listen to their customers, even if they don't always do a great job of delivering. You can also contact Mike Turian, who serves as the Digital Product Manager. Click here to E-mail him directly.
4. Leverage social media. Seems like everybody is involved in some form of social media, so why not use it to support Standard Pauper? Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or something else entirely, let your friends know about this format that you enjoy so much. 
5. Create content. If you have decent tech skills, there's no reason you can't create your own Standard Pauper content. PureMTGO will allow anyone to submit articles for publication, and is always open to new authors. Write up a deck-tech, talk about your experience during a PRE, or even just promote the format in general. You could even earn some credits on MTGOTraders for your hard work!

I will finish off this series with a post about why Standard Pauper is worth saving. More on that next time.

What To Do About Magic Online, Part One

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you're probably familiar with my thoughts regarding the current state of affairs on Magic Online. I've discussed my own frustrations with the game in general, and even talked about how the transition to the new client, while very painful, is necessary to arrive at a better product in the end.

It's clear that things are not good at the moment. Every week I hear from different players in the community complaining about various bugs, crashes, and disconnects that make their experience difficult at best and impossible at worst. Then yesterday, for only the second time since I became the host of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, I had to cancel an event due to a server crash.

Now there's no doubt that these issues have hurt the Standard Pauper community. Not that long ago, our weekly Player Run Event was drawing as many as 40 players every week; now we're lucky if we reach the upper teens in attendance. Not all of this can be blamed on the new client or its associated difficulties. But all the data I've seen points to a mass exodus from Magic Online from the casual crowd, which is certainly a major part of the Standard Pauper community.

So what should be done? In the midst of this mess, what should the Standard Pauper community do?

Unfortunately, the most common answer has been to quit playing altogether. Now, I can understand this decision. If I were simply a casual player looking for some fun games, or just looking to win enough prizes to continue to purchase the new Commons as they come out, I probably would quit too. But here's the thing: those aren't my goals. No, the reason I play, the reason I write articles and blogposts, the reason I make videos, the reason I host MPDC is simple: I want to see Standard Pauper grow and thrive to the point where Wizards has no choice but to make it a sanctioned format on Magic Online. That's why I stick it out. Because I strongly believe in this great format we call Standard Pauper. So should you.

And so today I have a simple message for the Standard Pauper community: Don't quit. Don't give up. Don't sell out. Don't walk away. We've come too far, had too much success, simply to give up when things get tough. Thanks to the tireless efforts of this community, we've seen Standard Pauper become an official format on Magic Online. But if the community vanishes, that official support will evaporate. It's happened to other casual formats before.

So what should we do instead? Good question. Thursday, I'll share my thoughts on that subject.

Goblins vs. Gnomes Added to Arena Plus a Free Arena Run

Look what's waiting for you the next time you log into Hearthstone.

If people weren't already hyped for the release of the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion for Hearthstone, this is sure to get them excited! Not only can you get a sweet sneak preview of some of the cards by playing in Arena over the next week, but you also get a free chance to do so just for logging in between now and Monday when the game releases!

I hate to sound like a broken record, but imagine if Wizards of the Coast did things this way for Magic Online. A new set is about to release, and they give everyone the opportunity to play in a prerelease free of charge. To be fair, Wizards actually did this once already as a small token of apology during the transition to the new client.

I won't argue that Hearthstone is a better game than Magic the Gathering. After all, they are two related but ultimately very different products. But compare Hearthstone to Magic Online - and there simply is no comparison. Wizards still has a lot to learn...

MtG Sealed Deck Card Generator

Although I rarely take the time to play anymore, I am a big proponent of the Limited format for Magic the Gathering. Indeed, one of the reasons I gravitated towards Standard Pauper in the first place was the similarities between that format and Limited.

With the return of Magic Online leagues in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future, I found myself wondering what options existed to create a Limited-like experience for Standard Pauper. An obvious first step would be the ability to generate sealed decks digitally without having to actually purchase any packs. After some searching, I came across a useful website that does just that.

From the main screen, you pick whatever card set you want to generate packs for. For each set, the site supports not just creating packs, but even generates card lists for prereleases, fat packs, gift boxes, and the like. Once you've selected your options, you click "Generate my sets!" and you get a full-size card output for each pack. Even better, you can then export your results to a text file, allowing you to not only easily save your results but also load the sealed pool right into Magic Online. Here's a sample showing me generating a 6 pack Khans of Tarkir Sealed Pool:

So, this got me thinking: wouldn't it be fun to create a special league where each player generates a sealed pool using whatever combination of Standard sets they want, then cut out all of the non-Commons, and run a Sealed League. Even better, just like previous Magic Online leagues, you could even add an additional pack each week, allowing you to change your deck as you wish. With the ability to generate packs without cost, this would be a completely free experience.

What would you think of such an event? Would you participate? What potential problems might arise? Let me know in the comments below.

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?