MPDC League Season 3 - Esper Artificers, Mark 3

Another week of the MPDC League brings...yet another victory for the Esper Artificers deck, this time piloted by the renown joekewwl. While his version is certainly similar to the one that cRUMMYdUMMY has played over the past few weeks, joekewwl's version definitely has some interesting variations. So I thought for today's post we'd take a quick look at some of his choices.

First, this version adds a couple of new cards into the mix. While earlier versions have typically included several copies of Fireforger's Puzzleknot, joekewwl also included Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, which gives the deck significantly more card draw. He also added Djeru's Resolve to presumably give it some creature protection as well as Compulsory Rest, which serves as an alternate removal spell to Unquenchable Thirst (and as such doesn't require the deck to run any Deserts).

Second, joekewwl's version is more creature light, trimming a single Thraben Inspector, Aether Swooper, and two Aviary Mechanics to make room for the full playset of Self Assembler and almost a full set of both Cartouche of Ambition and Knowledge.

Finally, while his Sideboard was fairly similar, joekewwl's version made room for Dispel, which is one of the better permission spells in a Control vs. Control matchup.

Overall, these changes definitely push the deck towards the Control end of the spectrum. It plays fewer creatures, but draws more cards, and generally will be stronger in the late-game than cRUMMYdUMMY's version. It would be interesting to read the thoughts from both of these players on which version they think is stronger, and why.

Hope my readers are enjoying this third season of the MPDC League.

MPDC League Season Two Results

And just like that, the second season of the MPDC League is over. Thanks to all 22 players who participated, who logged nearly 250 matches over the 5 weeks that we played. For Week Five, cRUMMYdUMMY not only again took the trophy for the week, but also managed to secure the title of Season Two Grand Champion.

Couple of logistical points of interest. First, we're running back-to-back seasons for Hour of Devastation, which means Season 3 has already begun! Second, while all of the HOU booster packs for Season 2 have already been distributed, the Season Total prizes from MTGOTraders won't go out until early next week. joekewwl is also working on getting the Door Prizes from Season 2 distributed to the winning players. If you believe something is in error, please contact me right away at gwyned at gmail dot com.

cRUMMYdUMMY went 5-0 once again with his Esper Artificers deck, using the exact list he mentioned in the comments in my previous post. This deck has proven to be quite strong, so it remains to be seen if the metagame can adapt and find a way to consistently beat it. If you've got some ideas on how to do that, I'd love to hear it in the comments below!

Finally, on a more personal note, I recently was let go from my job, with my current position ending at the end of next month. So in the process of applying for jobs, interviewing, and the like, my blog posts probably will be a bit hit or miss for the next couple months or so. Sadly, this probably isn't that different than what it's been recently - but at least now I have a better excuse!

Anyway, I'll be back later this week with my promised write-up of my experience at GenCon 2017!

MPDC League Season 2 - Esper Artificers, Take Two

With a short Season 2 of the MPDC League, we're already at the final week for this season. Interestingly enough, this week's winner is once again cRUMMYdUMMY, who piloted a very similar list to the one from Week One to capture the trophy for this week. You can view his original decklist as well as my breakdown of its contents here. So today, I thought I would look at some of the changes that he made for this week.
I. Maindeck:

• -2 Self Assembler (both moved to the Sideboard).
• -3 Cartouche of Knowledge (1 moved to the Sideboard)
• -1 Brilliant Spectrum
• +1 Cartouche of Ambition (1 moved from the Sideboard)
• +4 Boon of Emrakul
• +1 Ironclad Slayer

II. Sideboard:

• -1 Forsake the Worldly
• -3 Grasp of Darkness
• -1 Cartouche of Ambition (moved to the Maindeck)
• -1 Metallic Rebuke
• +2 Self Assembler (moved from the Maindeck)
• +1 Cartouche of Knowledge (moved from the Maindeck)
• +2 Renewed Faith

The two biggest changes are the inclusion of a full playset of Boon of Emrakul and the inclusion of two copies of Ironclad Slayer. Boon of Emrakul seems like a perfect inclusion, as it can serve both as conditional removal (killing any creature with 3 Toughness or less) or as a way of pumping up your own creatures once they are large enough. Ironclad Slayer also seems right at home here, with at least thirteen targets in the deck between the copies of Inventor's Goggles and the Cartouches. The deck is also slightly less controlling with the removal of Brilliant Spectrum and only a single copy of Cartouche of Knowledge remaining in the deck, and that only in the Sideboard. But the most interesting change is the inclusion of 2 copies of Renewed Faith (which is considered Standard Pauper legal thanks to being printed as a Common in Onslaught block). Pure Lifegain spells are usually pretty bad, but the fact that this either grants you a hefty six Life or can instead be cycled and still gain you two Life makes this a pretty reasonable option, particularly against very aggressive decks.

Congrats to cRUMMYdUMMY on his second 1st place finish of this short season!

MPDC League Season 2 - Esper Artificers

The first week of Season 2 of the MPDC League is in the books. And as promised, we've got some new content to show off. First, we've got a fantastic trophy designed by Polyjak. Second, I've got a new visual decklist graphic as well as a short write-up of cRUMMYdUMMY's winning list from Week One, which we're calling Esper Artificers. Let's take a look at his list:

As its name suggests, this deck is all about Artificers and the Artifacts they control. Aether Swooper, Bastion Inventor, and Aviary Mechanic are all Artificers, giving them an immediate advantage when combined with Inventor's Goggles. Add to this mix a full playset of Self-Assembler, Thraben Inspector, and a single Pilgrim's Eye, and you've got a fairly aggressive creature-based strategy. These creatures can then be further augmented with the Cartouche of Knowledge and of Ambition, making them into an even more formidable threat.

However, that's not to say the deck can't also play the long game. There are seemingly dozens of ways to abuse the "bounce" effect of the Mechanic, generating card advantage from not only your creatures, but from the Cartouches and Prophetic Prisms as well. The list even includes 2 Metallic Rebukes for some "soft" permission and a single Brilliant Spectrum, which thanks to the Prophetic Prisms could potentially draw up to 5 cards.

The Sideboard gives the deck some powerful Artifact/Enchantment hate from Forsake the Worldly, whose Cycling ability ensures it will always be useful. Other options include some additional counter magic from Essence Scatter, Negate, and another two copies of Metallic Rebuke, some helpful removal spells in Grasp of Darkness, and the fourth copy of Cartouche of Ambition for when you really need the extra life granted by Lifelink.

Congratulations to cRUMMYdUMMY for piloting this deck to a 5-0 finish and earning the trophy for Week One.

Finally, don't forget to check out my top picks from Hour of Devastation for Standard Pauper, which is now available over at PureMTGO.com.

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.

The Week of October 30th in Standard Pauper

It's Thursday, so it must be time for another installment of my weekly metagame update for Standard Pauper. The big news this week, of course, is the discussion on whether Self-Assembler should be banned now that almost every deck is playing it. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out the discussion over at pdcmagic.com. You can also read my own ramblings about it here.

For this week, attendance was a bit lower at MPDC, leaving us with only eight decks that survived the cut to the playoffs between our two Player Run Events. Coincidence or not, this also resulted in a much smaller field of decks.

For SPDC, the trophy went to DownByTheRiverside's Izzet Control build, which as has been mentioned before is almost identical to last season's build save for the addition of Cathartic Reunion and, you guessed it, Self-Assembler. He also chose to include Pyre Hound, a card that didn't see much play despite being quite well-suited for this particular deck.

For MPDC, the trophy went to a new Dimir Artifact build piloted by cRUMMYdUMMY. This deck relies upon cheap creatures that synergize well with Artifacts, backed by a powerful suite of removal spells. It also utilizes Gearseeker Serpent as it's primary win condition, although of course it too includes a full playset of Self-Assembler.

Also noteworthy was littlefield's Top 4 finish in both events with the Simic Big Stuff deck, which is quite similar to the build he piloted to first place back in MPDC 35.01. During the event this week he joked that any deck worth playing starts with Take Inventory and Self-Assembler, and based on the finalists this week, he's probably not far off.

The rest of the field included Sultai Control, a Gruul Monsters style deck, Esper Control, and a Mono Black Artifacts list. And yes, each and every list included a full playset of Self-Assembler. Green, Blue, and Black are by far the most dominant colors in the metagame, but White and Red were also present to a lesser extent. Just goes to show that even with one card making every list, we still have a surprising amount of diversity, with no one deck yet rising to the point of being the best deck.

That's it for this week. Hope to see you online next week at one of our events!

The Week of September 18th in Standard Pauper

While all eyes are on  Kaladesh and how that will affect the format once it is released on Magic Online, we've still got one more week of tournaments to go, plus the capstone event for both SPDC and MPDC exactly one week before the set comes out.

This was a somewhat unique week for me, as I ended up hosting both SPDC and MPDC. I finished in the Top 4 in SPDC, but didn't have the time or energy to play the next day. But it was great to be part of both of these events and get to interact with so many of the great people in our community that makes these events what they are. Anyway, we've got 12 decks that made it into the playoffs between the two events, so let's dive in to this week's metagame update.

First, Izzet Spells continued its reign as the top contender this week, accounting for 33% of the winning decklists. We're not really seeing much if any variation in the list from week to week. Interestingly enough though, for the first time the deck failed to earn either first or second place in either event, which may indicate that it's time in the spotlight is drawing to a close.

Second, Storm_blade's Simic Eldrazi deck also continues to do well, taking both a Top 4 and Top 8 spot in MPDC this week. If you're interested in what makes this deck work, I published a Standard Pauper Deck Tech on his list this week over at PureMTGO, which I encourage you to check out.

Third, bibbob once again performed very well with his Impact Tremors build, narrowly losing out in the finals of MPDC to take 2nd place this week following his trophy-winning result last week. His decklist has continued to evolve recently, and now includes a few copies of Sprinting Warbrute, Tajuru Beastmaster, and Rolling Thunder, as well as Snapping Gnarlid out of the Sideboard. Once again, I am surprised how few people are playing this archetype right now given how strong it is in the current metagame.

Fourth, olstyn and I both chose to play a 4 color Pulse Control deck this week. Despite the fact that he splashed for White and I splashed for Red, the deck are remarkably similar, playing the same core of cards but supporting them with different removal options. For whatever it's worth, my version is the exact list that cRUMMYdUMMY took to first place back in MPDC 34.04. Olstyn's version manages to incorporate the Aura package with Ironclad Slayer recurring Choking Restraints and Dead Weight, and definitely looks like a deck worth paying attention to in the last few weeks of this season.

Fifth, br_laern took 2nd place in SPDC with a typical Orzhov Allies deck. Despite being virtually unchanged from last season, I think this is still a viable choice, and one that more people should probably be playing.

However, I definitely saved the most interesting for last. The first place trophy for both events was earned by two new entries into the metagame. First, Ravager1 brought an Azorius Midrange deck that combines permission and card draw with strong sacrifice outlets for Wretched Gryff and Aura-based removal in Pacifism and Spontaneous Mutation, once again recurred with Ironclad Slayer. Second, Cl3m brought a UB Control build that includes the unique mix of  Elusive Spellfist, Monastery Loremaster, Vampire Envoy, and Ruin Processor to augment a mix of card draw and removal spells. Definitely take the time to look at both these decklists!

All in all, this remains a very diverse metagame, and one that I think continues to be very interesting and fun. If you've never done so, let me encourage you to check out our weekly events. Browse over to PDCMagic.com for all the information and then come join us at 2:00pm EST / 6:00pm GMT in the #MPDC channel. See you next time!

The Week of August 28th in Standard Pauper

As I mentioned in last week's metagame update, we've continued to see growth in the attendance at our weekly Standard Pauper tournaments. In fact, between the two events this week, we had 32 unique participants, with 5 of those participating in both tournaments. In fact, for the first time since I started these updates, both events cut to a Top 8 playoff, bringing us up to 16 decks to consider for this week's update. That being the case we've got plenty to talk about today, so let's jump right in.

Izzet Tempo continued to be the big player in the metagame this week, accounting for six of the 16 top decks. While there is still some variation between these lists between a more midrange tempo build and a true control build, all of these decks are utilizing Elusive Spellfist and Thermo-Alchemist, activating them with a suite of spells that includes burn and card draw. Of these, DownByTheRiverside was the most successful, taking his build to an undefeated 6-0 in SPDC and capturing the 1st place trophy.

GB Control accounted for only two decks this week, one of which was a unique 4 color variation piloted to 1st place by cRUMMYdUMMY in MPDC, splashing Blue for Wretched Gryff (and Negate in the Sideboard) and Red for Rolling Thunder (as well as Boiling Earth in the Sideboard). The deck relies on 3 copies of Pilgrim's Eye and 4 copies of Primal Druid to gain access to its stringent color requirements, and is slanted enough towards Control to give itself the time to be able to cast all its cards.

The RG Tokens deck that won in MPDC last week had two appearances in the Top 8 of MPDC this week, one of which was my own 2nd place finish. I will be publishing a full deck-tech on this list over at PureMTGO, which should be available this coming Monday. Bibbob played the exact same list as I did, and lost to the exact same deck I did a round earlier (the aforementioned 4cc variant of GB Control).

The rest of the top decks including a Hexproof Selesnya build by bibbob, a Dimir Zombies build by Fred_Dettofano, a Gruul Monsters deck by hero1141, another Dimir Control deck by rremedio1, and a Orzhov Aura build by olstyn. Of these, only olstyn managed to survive the Top 8 round, finishing in Top 4 in MPDC. All of these decks were either new or at least uncommon in the metagame, but look to be potential contenders in the future. If you're looking for something new to play and experiment with, any of these might be a good place to start.

A few other thoughts from this week:

1. Thermo-Alchemist continues its dominance, and has certainly replaced Pulse of Murasa as the most important card in the format right now. Given the dominance of the Izzet archetype right now, your deck should probably include a reliable way of dealing with this card early in the game.

2. Blue and Red have become the most important colors in the metagame right now, with all but three of the sixteen top decks including at least one of these colors. Excluding Thero-Alchemist, the next most popular cards appear to be the Red removal spells such as Boiling Earth, Fiery Temper, and Twin Bolt.

3. Once again, White is the least popular color, with only two decks of the sixteen playing this color. However, the strength of its Aura based synergies with Auramancer, Ironclad Slayer, and Totem-Guide Hartebeest, especially combined with its strong removal, certainly shouldn't be underestimated. Hopefully we'll see this trend reversed in future events.

Finally, let me remind you that every Monday I am publishing an article and videocast on the winning deck from the previous week's MPDC, which you can find over at PureMTGO.com. You can also get a sneak peak at that content early by subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you across the digital table soon!

The Week of August 21st in Standard Pauper

It's been so great seeing so many new players showing up for Monday Pauper Deck Challenge over the past few weeks. We've seen attendance in the high teens, topping out this week at 20 players. While this is a long way from the 40-50 in attendance we've seen in the past, it still seems an encouraging sign that our community is starting to grow again. It also means we played out a Top 8 playoff again this week, giving us 12 decks to consider for this week's state of the metagame in Standard Pauper. Let's take a look at how things have changed since last time.

The Izzet Tempo list has risen to new heights, accounting for five of the eight decks that made Top 4 between our two Standard Pauper events. The deck also captured the trophy for both events, with AfroDwarf winning in SPDC and emerald000 winning in MPDC. The most notable innovation in the deck is the inclusion of more Madness effects, with olstyn's list in particular making use of both Mad Prophet and Reckless Scholar as enablers for Fiery Temper. Overall, nearly half the players in these two events were playing this archetype.

The GB and Sultai Control decks that dominated last season all but disappeared this week, with a lone entry by afreeAk in both events being not only such list to make the playoffs, but the only one that saw any play at all. I'm not sure whether to chalk this up to simple fatigue with the archetype, or a more fundamental shift in the metagame. This is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Perhaps the most noteworthy entry is a RG Tremors deck played by Ravager1 that took 2nd place in MPDC. This deck is a tokens build looking to deal lots of damage via Impact Tremors. I actually played a very similar list at the end of last season, and overall I think it's definitely one worth exploring in this new metagame.

The rest of the top contenders this week includes a Dimir Control list by rremedio1 utilizing strong Graveyard recursion, a Jund sacrifice list played by cRUMMYdUMMY, and an "all-in" Rakdos Madness list piloted by Storm_blade.

So here are my observations on what I saw this week:

1. It should go without saying, but you should definitely expect to come up against the Izzet Tempo deck early and often, so you're gameplan better include cards that are strong against it. Given its lack of creatures and high number of spells, I would expect permission and card draw to both be important elements of such a strategy.
   
2. Thermo-Alchemist has probably eclipsed Pulse of Murasa as the most important card in the format right now. It's three Toughness makes it difficult to remove early, and when it goes unchecked it's not unreasonable for it to do 10 or more damage in a very short time in the Izzet decklist. And of course, Aura-based removal like Pacifism does very little to stop it.
   
3. White has completely disappeared from the top decks this week, accounting for only two decks between the two events. While some sort of Selenya aggressive build or an Aura-based decklist could be very viable in the metagame right now, these lists have definitely been on the decline, despite the strong support for the latter in Eldritch Moon. 
   
4. Finally, the Emerge deck has likewise faded away, although both Emerge creatures continue to be very important in the metagame. But with all the removal at your disposal, it simply isn't a viable strategy to build your entire strategy around these creatures.

That's it for this week. Also, if you've never checked out MPDC, why not give it a try this week? I encourage you to browse over to PDCMagic.com for all the information and then come join us at 2:00pm EST / 7:00pm GMT in the #MPDC channel.

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 17th in Standard Pauper

I had the misfortune of being without Internet (despite reassurances to the contrary) since Tuesday night, so once again I am not only posting this late, but have had very little opportunity to work on my set review. Such is life. Fortunately, after this weekend I will be back in my normal routine, and should be able to catch up on time lost. But enough excuses.

This week was the final week of Standard Pauper tournaments before the end of season capstone events tomorrow and Monday. So what happened this week in our metagame?

This week the typical GB Control build was completely eclipsed by the Sultai version. While it only accounted for three of the eight winning decklists, it did take the gold trophy in both events, piloted by the excellent Forli. cRUMMYdUMMY's aggressive Orzhov deck made another appearance, as did BW Allies, Boros, and Bant Vessels, along with a new Rakdos build by rremedio1. By sheer weight of its victories, the Sultai Control deck looks to be the deck to play in our capstone event, but if you chose to pilot it, make sure you have a solid gameplan for the mirror. Let's see, what else?

1. The Pulse of Murasa count was down to 16, but a full playset was included in every deck with access to Green. That particular card continues to be one of the cornerstones of the format.
   
2. Half of the winning decklists were playing three colors, with only Evolving Wilds plus either Vessel of Nascency or Pilgrim's Eye for fixing. While obviously more difficult with the loss of the come-into-play-tapped Dual Lands, three color mana bases are still quite possible within the format.
   
3. Paranoid_Android and afreeAk tied for Season Points in MPDC, earning an average of 6 points per event. Both of them will receive a booster pack of Eldritch Moon for their achievement. It certainly is worth your time to play in every event and post your decklist each week!
   
4. Speaking of afreeAk, he was also testing a new Naya build designed to utilize tokens in combination with Impact Tremors as well as recurring Auras that looked quite interesting. It seems a tricky strategy to pull off, but one that might be quite rewarding. Definitely something to consider!

And that's what happened this week in Standard Pauper. I look forward to seeing many of you this coming week for the last event of the season!