The Week of September 11th in Standard Pauper

After a week hiatus from my weekly blog entry, today I'm back with another metagame update for Standard Pauper. As always, I'm looking at the decks that made it past the cutoff in our two weekly Standard Pauper events (SPDC on Sunday and MPDC on Monday) and identifying trends, cards to watch out for, and any other information that seems relevant. This week only MPDC had enough players for Top 8 (just squeaking by with the minimum of 15), so we're only looking at 12 decks this time around. So let's get started!

SPDC was all about Izzet Spells, which claimed three out of the four spots, including both the 1st and 2nd place trophies. While these two decks weren't identical, they were very close, and I would say that DownByTheRiverside's build is more or less the stock version of this archetype. Izzet didn't fare nearly as well in MPDC, accounting for only one of the Top 8 decks, but that could simply be because only two out of the fifteen players chose that particular deck.

The first place trophy in MPDC in fact went to bibbob playing the Tremors deck, which as you may recall is a Gruul build that wins using a combination of tokens and Impact Tremors as well as a bunch of burn spells. This deck has a decent matchup against Izzet Control, but bibbob was the only player among both tournaments to select this deck. But apparently it was the right choice!

Moromete took 2nd in MPDC with a different variant of the 4 Color Pulse Control deck that took first place two week's ago, which is much closer to a Temur deck that splashes Black for Vulturous Aven and a few additional removal spells post-Sideboard. It also looks to have simpler color requirements overall, making it a bit easier to play.

The rest of the decks included two Top 8 finishes by chula and olstyn with an Orzhov Auras build, a repeat of Storm_blade's winning deck from last week, two Dimir decks (one a Control build by beatnik bobby, while the other a Midrange Flyers by rremedio1), and one unknown deck, since this player neglected to actually enter his decklist.

With the the online release of Kaladesh only about a month away and the subsequent rotation in Standard, the metagame is about as diverse as I've seen it, with winning decks found using all five colors in running the full spectrum between Aggro and Control. Izzet Spells continues to be the most important deck overall, so whatever you choose to play, it's important for that matchup to be winnable. But otherwise, there is certainly quite the variety of decks to choose from, with no other deck clearly rising above the others. This is definitely one of my favorite things to see in the Standard Pauper metagame!

If you're interested in more information about these decks, I encourage you to check out my Standard Pauper Deck Tech series over at PureMTGO, where I normally feature the previous week's 1st place deck from MPDC. Thanks for reading.

Changing Standard Pauper Legal Cards

For those who don't follow me on Twitter or regularly check on the Standard forums on pdcmagic.com, you may be unaware that we have recently been discussing changing the definition of Standard Pauper. Specifically, we are evaluating whether or not cards that were printed at Common in previous sets but have been reprinted at higher rarities should now be allowed into the format.

You see, with the removal of the Standard Pauper filter from Magic Online, there is a discrepancy with how both the official Gathering database and the online client display cards when you search for both "Standard" and "Common."In both cases, the database returns cards that were printed at Common in prior sets but existed in the current Standard at other rarities, thus giving the impression that they are Standard Pauper legal. Prior to the implementation of the filter, it was the responsibility of the players to watch out for these cards. Often times, this meant that new players would play a match with an Uncommon and be forced to concede and change their deck. 

In my opinion, the advantages of now allowing these cards into the format can be summarized like this:

1. It erases all question of card legality. If a card is listed when you select "Standard" and "Common" on any official card database, the card is legal in Standard Pauper. 
2.  It widens the format and helps combat the perceived "dumbing-down" of Commons since New World Order philosophy changed the design of Commons.

Of course, there are also two potential concerns as well:

1. In going against Wizards' design decision to move certain Commons to higher rarities, it allows the potential for present or future cards to become unbalancing or unfair. 
2. It risks having to later remove these cards from the format should Wizards later decide to reimplement the Standard Pauper filter.

If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out the discussion and make your opinion heard. As far as MPDC is concerned, I will be making a decision (in coordination with the hosts of SPDC) sometime this week, so don't wait!

And just for reference, here are the current cards that would now be Standard Pauper legal if this change was implemented:

Arc Lightning
Cruel Revival
Death Wind
Fiery Conclusion
Grasp of Darkness
Knightly Valor
Pilgrim's Eye
Pyrotechnics
Rolling Thunder
Runed Servitor
Sigiled Starfish
Strider Harness
Totem-Guide Hartebeest

See you next time!