More On the Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealed League

As I mentioned last week, Polyjak is running a Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealed League. First and foremost, today is the last day of registration, so if you want to participate, stop reading this right now and go sign up! Second, we already have at least fifteen players participating, and a prize pool of 40 tickets!

Now, it's important to realize this will work a little bit differently than the other "league-style" events that I ran in the past. Rather than receiving a single match each week, each player can play up to 5 matches per week, with the restriction that you can't play the same person twice. Each time you play, BOTH players are required to report the results using this form. You get three points for every win and one point for every loss, so it's worth your while to try to get all five matches in each week.

Each week, you also get to open one more booster pack from the five that make up Zendikar Unified (Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch). Remember that since this is a Pauper League, the cards in your pool will only include Commons. The league will run for five weeks, ending just before the release of Shadows Over Innistrad on Magic Online. Each week a winner will be declared, with a Grand Champion crowned at the end of the league. Prize details have not been announced yet, but I'm sure there will be an update on that soon.

As always, this league is totally free to play. Many from the Standard Pauper community are participating. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today before the opportunity is gone!

Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealed League

Last time, in my discussion on what's going on in Standard Pauper, I linked to an ongoing topic over on the pdcmagic Standard forums about some sort of Standard Pauper Sealed. Apparently Pauper enthusiast Polyjak got impatient with all the discussion and went ahead and announced that he would be hosting a Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealed League. More on that in a moment.

The original Zendikar block will always have a special place in my memory. It was the first block that I was fully invested in the format after my discovery of Magic Online, and I not only played a lot of Standard Pauper at that time, but even dabbled in a surprising amount of Zendikar limited as well. The block contains some very powerful Commons - Flame Slash, Journey to Nowhere, Kor Sanctifiers, Kor Skyfisher, Plated Geopede, Sea Gate Oracle, and Ulamog's Crusher, just to name a few. These are powerful enough that they probably won't ever be reprinted at Common. And now, you have a chance to play with them again.

You can read all the details for the sealed league here, and signup at this link. You'll receive five boosters (one from each of the five sets in Zendikar and Battle for Zendikar blocks), plus two more of your choice (which can't be from the same set), with each pack being generated over at mtgen.net (and the non-Commons stripped out). Once you have your card list, you simply go to your favorite store or bot and purchase the cards you don't have, then create your decklist. And while a few of the more potent Commons are a couple bucks for a playset (with Searing Blaze leading the charge at almost a dollar a piece), most of the Commons can be purchased for less than a nickel each.

Anyway, this sounds like a lot of fun, so I definitely encourage you to participate.

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!

More Exploits in Dragons of Tarkir

As I continue the process of working through the entire collection of Dragons of Tarkir Commons, I have been writing all week about what impact these new cards will have on the format. As I mentioned last time, by far my favorite new mechanic in this set is Exploit. While I don't think all five of these Commons will see widespread play in the format, I don't think it's premature to state that this mechanic will probably make the biggest impact as a whole.

Let's take a look at two more of them:

Gurmog Drowner harkens back to one of my favorite cards, Forbidden Alchemy. While it costs an extra mana, and is Sorcery speed as well, this is still a powerful effect, especially given the extra synergy you get from placing the other cards in your Graveyard with Delve. A 2/4 for 3U is decent, but not that exciting; such cards typically only see play with a relevant ability. In a dedicated Delve deck, this probably slots right in, giving you the spell ability most of the time, but also a 2/4 when you need it. Or, if you have tokens or other abilities that trigger on death, this is also well worth considering.

At 4, Silumgar Butcher is both a 3/3 creature and dealing -3/-3 is overcosted by one mana, so you're definitely paying extra for the flexibility here. Lash of the Whip has not seen much play in Standard Pauper, since if you're paying that much for removal you want less conditional removal like Flesh to Dust, even if it is a bit more expensive. However, if Black can find enough creatures with relevant 'enters the graveyard' abilities, it shouldn't be too difficult to get both sides of this card. And in that scenario, this card is quite strong. As such, this should see play in decks with these type of effects.

Given how strong the Dimir Control deck already was, these Exploit cards may be enough to push that deck to dominate the metagame going forward. We shall see.

In other news, the Standard Pauper Sealed League came to an end this week, with  _ShipIt_ taking home the trophy with his Boros build. Congrats to him, and thanks to everyone who participated! I've had several people ask if I plan on running it again, and I would love to do it again in the future.

What Are the Best Uncommons in Standard?

As the Standard Pauper Sealed League draws to a close, another league is about to start up. MagicGatherStrat is sponsoring their fourth community league, this time using the Standard Silverblack format, in which all of the Commons and Uncommons in Standard are legal. Registration closes this coming Thursday (March 12), so you've still got some time if you want to participate.

As I pondered entering this event, I found myself wondering what information existed about the format. Once upon a time, there was a consistent weekly Player Run Event in the format, but as far as I can tell, no such event is currently running. As a result, I could not find any information that would help me understand what archetypes or even specific Uncommons would be good in this format.

On the one hand, this is great. Playing in unexplored formats, especially one with nearly 900 individual cards, leaves lots of room for brewing and discovery. On the other hand, with the league starting next week, there is only so much time to devote to it. Worse, unless you have a good network of online friends to test with, getting some matches in with a bunch of different decks is all but impossible. So what's a guy to do?

My solution was to check out MTGOTraders and use their Advanced Search feature to search all of the Uncommons in Standard by price. This also had the advantage of giving me a good idea what kind of cost I would be up against.  As it turns out, there are only four Uncommons valued at more than $1 each, and less than 20 that are priced at more than 3 cents each. Leading the pack by a significant margin is Stoke the Flames, which as of this post is going for nearly $5 a copy.

So why are these Uncommons priced the way they are? All things being equal, cards are either expensive because of their rarity or because of their demand. And since all these are Uncommons in sets that can still be drafted on Magic Online, more than likely these cards are seeing a significant amount of play in Standard or Modern right now. Does that mean they will be good in Standard Silverblack? Maybe, and maybe not, but it's certainly a good starting point.

(By the way, don't be fooled by the pricetag for Sengir Vampire. It's not seeing play in Standard. But it is only available through the Intro packs for Magic 2015, which means it's quite rare online (and in high demand for those trying to redeem the set), hence its price).

Got opinions on what Uncommons are going to be good? I'd love to hear them! Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

Standard Pauper Sealed League Update

Although I haven't been blogging much about it, we're already four weeks into the Standard Pauper Sealed League. We started out with 44 players, and as of this post, only 10 of those have already dropped out. 4 players remain undefeated currently, but of those only bava has played out his match for this week; at least one of the remaining three will also drop their match this week. And with one more week to play, no more than 2 players will emerge with a 5-0 record from the event.

After Week 5, the league will cut to Top 8, and while the exact probabilities aren't yet determined, it's likely that players will have to finish at least 4-1 in order to survive this cut. However, with prizes available down to Top 16, even those going into Round 5 with two losses still have something to play for!

For me, it's been an odd experience thus far. I've lost the only two matches I've gotten to play; while both of my wins have come from opponents dropping out of the event and thus conceding without a card played. While I felt like I made some big mistakes with my pool for Round 1, I feel like I actually have a decent decklist now, and so I am hopeful that I can scratch out a win next week and at least secure a spot in the Top 16. We will see.

Today on the pdcmagic.com Standard forums, JMason expressed something I thought was worth discussing:

I hate to say I'm not enjoying the league as much as I had hoped. The sad state of the client makes managing the pools and trying to use different decklists (transformative sideboard) a real chore. And playtesting is nigh-on impossible. I find I'm putting a ton of work in to set things up for not much payoff. My last 2 matches I had bad beats, and I'd love to be playing more matches a week to get back some of the investment and see the deck work the way it should do at least a few times. 

I can't help but wonder if others have had this same experience. While the inability to "playtest" your list is fairly consistent with the Sealed experience, the fact that the event is stretched out over five weeks definitely makes that lack more palpable. Perhaps the next time a league is put together that uses an "off-beat" format, it would makes sense to organize a couple different playtesting sessions where players could interact, share decklists, and play some practice matches without having it affect their official record. Heck, perhaps I could even organize some sort of mini-tournament, where the winner walks away with a ticket or two, just to encourage players to participate in these practice sessions. If you have some ideas on how we could make this experience better, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

My Interview on the Standard Pauper Show

This week I had the distinct privilege of appearing on the Standard Pauper Show, a podcast by Sam, Brennon, and Dan over at the MagicGatheringStrat. This is the only podcast that I am aware of that covers information on the Standard Pauper format, and I was delighted to talk with them about the format and my own experiences with it.

I encourage you to watch the whole episode. But if you just want some highlights, here's what we talked about:

• Our experiences so far with the Standard Pauper Sealed League.
• The current state of the Standard Pauper metagame, with Boros Heroic and Izzet Control the favorites among a surprisingly diverse set of decks
• How I got involved with Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and eventually became the host.
• At what time period I started playing Magic the Gathering.
• My least favorite Standard Pauper meta: post Magic 2013 release, with the advent of the Archeomancer / Ghostly Flicker combo.
• My favorite Standard Pauper meta: Shards of Alara block + Zendikar.
• Some personal anecdotes involving Black Lotus.

Intrigued? Check out the whole episode below:

See you next time!

Playing Standard Pauper Sealed

We're a week into the inaugural Standard Pauper Sealed League. We ended up with 44 players total, which is a pretty respectable number for an almost completely unexplored format. Perhaps the fact that it is so unexplored is part of its appeal to many players. But, as I was painfully reminded this week, Sealed is a very different beast from Constructed, and even from Draft. So today I wanted to pass on few pointers about Sealed in general that I believe are particular relevant in Standard Pauper Sealed.

1. Aggro is dead. Most of the time, you will not be able to put together a viable Aggro deck in Sealed. You simply won't have enough fast, aggressive creatures, and your opponent is much more likely to be playing more defensive creatures. While the tempo of Sealed is pretty slow, it is very difficult to take advantage of it.

2. Board stalls are likely. The average Power and Toughness of Common creatures is probably around 2/3. And with less removal at player's disposal, you're likely to find yourselves in a situation where neither player can attack profitably, at least without some help from multiple combat tricks. As such, cards that allow you to push through board stalls are more valuable than they might otherwise be.

3. Evasion and removal are quite strong. All other things being equal, you will want to play as much of your removal and your creatures with evasion as possible. Even expensive and/or sub-optimal choices are going to be surprisingly good in this format. Games will often be decided by who can answer their opponent's evasive creatures.

4. Late game cards and mana-sinks are also quite good. Since the speed of the format is so slow, expensive, late game cards will typically get to come out to good effect. Similarly, in these situations, you will often have quite a bit of mana at your disposal and very little to do with it. Cards that allow you to squeeze extra value by means of mana hungry activated abilities are not only playable, but can have a surprising effect on the game.

Like I said, I became reacquainted with these facts the hard way. I ran an aggressive Boros build with low cost creatures and some solid removal. But my opponent's deck, while slower, was defensive enough to keep me from gaining enough advantage in the early game, and eventually I lost both games to his superior but slower force. In fact, both games I lost to Shadowcloak Vampire, a card I have never seen play in Standard Pauper but one that proved to be quite strong.

Got interesting stories about how your experience has been with this format? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

Standard Pauper Sealed League

Here's the announcement you've all been waiting for!

I am happy to officially announce the Standard Pauper Sealed League. Last month, I previewed this great format with an article on PureMTGO, a couple videos, and a previous post discussing how the event would work. But if you've somehow missed all that, here's the quick concept: a 90 card Sealed pool consisting of all Commons, generated from 9 packs in any combination of sets that are currently legal in Standard. You receive your pool, sort out of the non-Commons, create a decklist, and battle it out over a several week period. And like the old Sealed Leagues, you can even add additional packs as the event goes on!

So here are the official rules for this event:

1. Registration: Registration begins immediately and will be open until 11:59pm EST on Friday, January 30th. To register, send an email to gwyned at gmail dot com with "Standard Pauper Sealed" in the subject line and include your MTGO username, your time zone, and your choice of boosters for your Sealed pool (more on that below) in the body of the E-mail. There is no entry fee to participate - in other words, it's absolutely free!

2. Important Dates: You must register by Friday, January 30th at 11:59pm EST to participate in this event. You will receive your Sealed Pool by 11:59pm EST on Sunday, February 1st. Round 1 then begins on Monday, February 2nd. Each round will run one week, beginning on Monday and ending at 11:59pm EST every Sunday.

3. Sealed Pool: Each player can choose which booster packs will be used for his or her Sealed Pool. You pick 9 boosters from the five sets currently in Standard (Theros, Born of the Gods, Journey Into Nyx, Magic 2015, or Khans of Tarkir). However, you may not choose more than 4 boosters from any one set. This means, at minimum, your pool will contain cards from at least three different sets. As the host, I will be generating pools for each player to ensure integrity. You will receive your pool as an E-mail attachment, and you will need to sort out all of the non-Commons prior to building your decklist. Check out this video for a walkthrough on how to do this (start at the 4:12 mark on the video).

Additionally, after you have finished your match for the week, you can request an additional booster pack worth of cards to be added to your pool. These pools will also be sent via E-mail attachment and will need to be manually added to your existing pool.

4. Decks: Decks are 40 card minimum, with any card in your pool available during Sideboarding.

5. Structure: This event will be Swiss style, with the total number of rounds determined by the number of players:

• With less than 17 players, we will play 3 rounds. 
• With 17 players or more, we will play 4 rounds.
• With 33 players or more, we will play 5 rounds.
• With 65 players or more, we will play 6 rounds.    
• With 129 players or more, we will play 7 rounds.

After the Swiss rounds are complete, there will be a cut to Top 8 (resulting in three more Single Elimination rounds).

I will be using Gatherling on pdcmagic.com to facilitate matches. This means that each participant needs to have a functional account at pdcmagic.com/Gatherling. I will be adding players to the event manually once I have received your registration E-mail, so don't try to register on that site directly.

Each week, login to the Player CP on Gatherling and look for the entry under Standard Pauper Sealed #1. There you will see your Pairing for the round. Once your match is over, both players will need to record the results in their Player CP as well. Failure to complete your match may be grounds for disqualification for the event. Be sure and contact your opponent early each week to make sure you can complete your match in a timely fashion.

6. Tables: Please set up each match as follows; before you join a match, make sure the match is setup correctly.

• Type: Freeform
• Match Structure: Best 2 out of 3
• Event Timer: 25 minutes
• Allow Watchers
• Comment: Standard Pauper Sealed Round #
  

7. Conduct: It is the responsibility of each player to be aware of all the rules for this event. Ignorance will NOT be an excuse.

This event, like any Player Run Event, relies on the honor system. Please be a good sport.

If you’ve contacted your opponent and have not received a response in 48 hours, please contact me. If only one person contacts me and no results are reported, I will award that player a match win and drop his or her opponent.

If you are having any other problem (such as your opponent not showing up, your opponent dropped connection in the middle of the match, harassment, or anything else), don’t hesitate to contact me. And if you suspect another player is cheating, let me know. But I trust that every player will be a good sport and act in good faith such that I never have to become involved.

8. Prizes: The exact prize structure will be determined by the total number of players, but I will be donating a minimum of $28 in prizes. If you are interesting in donating to this prize pool, please contact me at gwyned at gmail dot com with the subject line "Standard Pauper Sealed Prizes".

9. Questions: Leave any questions in the comments below, or feel free to contact me at gwyned at gmail dot com.

Introducing Standard Pauper Sealed

Today, I am happy to officially introduce the next 'league-style' event sponsored by this blog: Standard Pauper Sealed. All this week I've been teasing videos and hints via Twitter, and today I introduced the format over at PureMTGO.com. But if you've somehow missed all that, here's the quick concept: a 90 card Sealed pool consisting of all Commons, generated from 9 packs in any combination of sets that are currently legal in Standard. You generate your pool, create a decklist, and battle it out over a several week Swiss-style Player Run Event. And like the old Sealed Leagues, you can even add additional packs as the event goes on!

Now I am not quite ready to reveal all the exact parameters for this event. But I wanted to get this information out early, both to reach as many people as possible and to give the community time to test out the format and start experimenting with Sealed Pools. Here's what you need to know:

• The event will start in early January, probably the week of January 4th.
• Your initial pool of cards will consist of 9 packs in any combination of sets that are Standard legal (Khans of Tarkir, Magic 2015, Theros, Born of the Gods, and Journey Into Nyx). These pools will be generated by the host to guarantee that there is no cheating.
• Decks are 40 card minimum, with any card in your pool available during Sideboarding.
• The event will be free to play, with prizes sponsored by this blog. Additional donations from the community would be welcome! The exact payout will be determined by the number of players - the more participants, the better the prizes!
• The matches will play out 'league-style,' which means you play one match against your assigned opponent each week. There may also be the option of playing additional matches that would count towards tiebreakers.
• The number of Swiss rounds will be determined by the number of players. After week one, each player can choose an additional pack each week to add to their pool.

I am very excited about this format! What about you? Let me know in the comments below.