The Ban of Self-Assembler

Back at the beginning of the month, the hosts of SPDC and MPDC (including myself), made the decision to test out banning Self-Assembler from Standard Pauper. While we never agreed upon a preset time frame, we certainly understood that it would take more than just a single tournament to gauge how this change impacted the metagame and the state of our events.

Since Self-Assembler was banned, the response has been positive. I personally have had several players thank me for this decision, and not a single player has expressed to me any desire to see the card return to our events. While I will wait until Friday to examine in depth how the metagame has shifted during that time, my initial conclusions is that the format doesn’t actually look that much different than it did prior to the banning. Additionally, banning the card doesn’t seem to have actually positively impacted the number of players participating in our events; in fact, just this past week SPDC didn’t even have the minimum number of players to actually hold an official event. Of course, this decline in attendance isn’t uncommon during this long stretch around the holidays. I suspect both the long interval between card releases and the general busyness of the holiday schedule both contribute to this decline.

But with all that said, I contend the banning of Self-Assembler was a good decision by the community. As such, I fully support leaving the card banned at least through the end of this season, leading up to the release of Aether Revolt. With that set released, it would probably make sense to allow the card back into the format and see how it interacts with the new cards in the pool.

According to our Season Schedule, we are now officially on our Holiday Break. Our events will resume on the week of January 8th, with two more events leading up to the season ending WORLDS event on January 23rd. And for all three of these events, Self-Assembler will be banned.

Is It Time To Ban Self-Assembler?

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

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

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

The Week of November 20th in Standard Pauper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Week of November 13th in Standard Pauper

Welcome back to this week's look at the Standard Pauper metagame, based upon the results of our two weekly Player Run Events. Once again SPDC is proving to be the more popular event, with just enough players to cut to Top 8, while MPDC fell short with only 12. That leaves us with 12 decks that survived the cutoff and made it into this week's metagame update. Sorry too for the delay in getting this post out, but it's been one of those weekends. But enough preamble. Let's take a look at this week's Standard Pauper metagame.

It seems that Izzet Control may once again be the deck to beat, winning 1st place in both events. Congrats to both Arctic_Ghost and Bubalix on their respective wins. Panoslennon also placed in Top 8 with yet another Izzet build. While there were slight differences among these three builds, each of them relief upon a strong base of removal spells and card draw, including Fiery Temper, Galvanic Bombardment, Take Inventory, and Tormenting Voice, all of which enable multiple activations of Thermo-Alchemist.

littlefield went right back to work with his Simic Good Stuff build, making the playoffs in both events by claiming Top 8 in SPDC and Top 4 in MPDC. This deck is all about the big creatures like Peema Outrider, Wretched Gryff, and Self-Assembler, backed up with a full set of Take Inventory and some removal.

Surprisingly, the remaining eight decks were all unique from one another. Reco91 took 2nd place in SPDC with his Bant tokens build that first made its appearance last week, while Storm_blade took 2nd place in MPDC with the Esper Artifacts archetype. For SPDC, Dimir Control, MonoBlack Control, Orzhov Allies, and Gruul Monsters made up the remaining decks in the playoffs, with Rakdos Control taking the final playoff spot in MPDC. Also of note is the fact that MonoRed did not appear at all in the top decks, despite taking 1st place in both events last week.

So now the question becomes whether or not Self-Assembler is constraining the metagame into only allowing certain decks to prevail, as well as whether or not its presence is causing a downward trend in the number of players in these events. Perhaps it is indeed time to seriously consider taking action on this card, even if it's just to try a week without it or even offering a bounty for winning decklists that don't include it.

The Week of November 6th in Standard Pauper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 October 23rd in Standard Pauper

Today's post was delayed by some gateway errors over at pdcmagic.com, but I'm happy to report that those have been resolved. I have also resumed my Standard Pauper Deck Techs, and I should have the first installment up on Monday. But for today, I want to take a look at the twelve decks that made it to the playoffs of our two Standard Pauper events and offer a snapshot of the current metagame.

Gone entirely was the Gruul Thriving deck that performed so well last week. Instead, the archetype to beat this week is a return of the Izzet Spells deck, which earned a Top 4 finish in SPDC and two Top 8 finishers in MPDC. This build is very similar to the one that dominated last season, but adds Self-Assembler and Tezzeret's Ambition to the mix.

Another archetype that performed well was an Esper Auras deck. This deck is all about Artifacts and Enchantments, utilizing Ironclad Slayer and Aviary Mechanic to recur strong cards like Boon of Emrakul, Dead Weight, Prophetic Prism, and Self-Assembler, while backing up those threats with a strong removal suite. GotThisForSOI piloted this archetype to first place in MPDC as well as a Top 4 finish in SPDC.

These two archetypes were the only ones to have multiple representatives among the playoffs of the two events, with 8 other unique decks filling the remaining slots.

Among these was a Sultai Control build by rremedio1 that took the trophy in SPDC which relies upon the sacrifice synergies of Primal Druid, Wretched Gryff, Bloodbriar, Bone Splinters, and Altar's Reap to generate a ton of card advantage, backed up by powerful Pulse of Murasa as well as the new powerhouse of the format Self-Assembler.

The rest of the pack included a Mono Black Vehicles deck, a repeat of the Rakdos Madness deck that performed well last week, a Dimir Control build, a Boros Vehicles deck, a Simic Big Stuff deck that was also featured last time, and a Mono Blue Control build. Of these, only two didn't include a full playset of Self-Assembler, which as I mentioned earlier this week has quickly become the card to beat in Standard Pauper.

Yet despite the prominence of that single card, the metagame is still quite diverse, with 10 different decks among the top performers. Perhaps that will be the saving grace of the format, since almost any deck can take advantage of this card without constraining the deck in any particular direction. This will certainly be something to watch moving forward.

See you next time.

The Week of October 16th in Standard Pauper

Hard to believe it's been a month already since my last metagame update for Standard Pauper! But this week marked the return of both of our Standard Pauper Player Run Events, with twelve brand new decks that made the cut to the playoffs between them. With the rotation of both Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins and the release of Kaladesh, things are obviously going to look very different. That being the case, I suspect it will take several weeks for the best decks to emerge. But with that said, let's go ahead and take a look at the top performers from this week's tournaments.

Three archetypes earned multiple finishes among the two events. The first was a Gruul colored Thriving deck, nicknamed for its two Thriving creatures Peema Outrider and Riparian Tiger, who joined forces with the Landfall enabled Snapping Gnarlid and Valakut Predator to create quite the beatdown deck. This archetype took 1st place in SPDC and a Top 8 finish in MPDC.

The second archetype was a Rakdos Madness deck that plays off the synergy between Madness cards and Tormenting Voice (and its Kaladesh equivalent Cathartic Reunion), backing them up with a varied suite of removal and solid creatures. This archetype earned a second place finish in both events as well as another Top 8 finish in MPDC.

The third archetype was what I have termed a Simic Big Stuff deck. This is essentially a revamp of the Simic Eldrazi deck that performed so well last season, but with the key addition of Self-Assembler and Vehicles instead of some of the Eldrazi fatties. This archetype took both 1st place and Top 8 in MPDC.

The rest of the field was an Esper Midrange deck, a stock Orzhov Allies from last season, an almost unchanged Izzet Spells deck, a Stompy deck, and MonoBlack Vehicles.

Among all these decks, the big winners from Kaladesh appear to be Peema Outrider, Renegade Freighter, Self-Assembler, and Thriving Rhino. If you're playing a deck that includes three or four of these cards, you're probably going to do alright moving forward! It will certainly be interesting to see how these cards continue to impact the metagame going forward.

Presenting the Champions of Season 32

This past week we had the capstone events for this season of both SPDC and MPDC, generally referred to as our WORLDS event. Although the rotation of Standard means that a lot of this past season's metagame won't be directly relevant, I still thought it was worth taking one last look by highlighting the two champions from our WORLDS events. Storm_blade took the trophy in SPDC with his Simic Eldrazi deck, while rremedio1 took the trophy in MPDC with a 4 color Sultai Control deck. Let's take a look at their lists:

Simic Eldrazi

SPDC 34 Champion Storm_blade

Creatures 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 4 Elvish Visionary 4 It of the Horrid Swarm 4 Primal Druid 4 Scion Summoner 4 Wretched Gryff 1 Monastery Loremaster 2 Eldrazi Devastator 27 cards Other Spells 4 Epic Confrontation 4 Pulse of Murasa 2 Might of the Masses 1 Cathar's Shield 11 cards

Lands 11 Forest 11 Island 22 cards Sideboard 3 Negate 3 Root Out 2 Deny Existence 2 Drag Under 2 Dispel 2 Rabid Bite 1 Bone Saw 15 cards

The strategy of this deck is to play lots of early creatures like Elvish Visionary and Primal Druid, generate mana ramp via the Eldrazi Scions from Eldrazi Skyspawner and Scion Summoner, then leverage all that mana to Emerge either It of the Horrid Swarm or Wretched Gryff, or simply power out the Eldrazi Devastator to overwhelm your opponent. It's mostly a creature-based deck, but it does have a smidgen of removal with Epic Confrontation. It also plays Pulse of Murasa (and Monastery Loremaster as a virtual fifth copy) to keep itself alive and recur its creatures, a couple Might of the Masses to give it an additional angle to win, and a Cathar's Shield to help protect its best creatures from burn-based removal.

Sultai Worlds

MPDC 34 Champion rremedio1

Creatures 4 Elvish Visionary 3 Primal Druid 3 Vulturous Aven 3 Wretched Gryff 2 Eldrazi Skyspawner 2 Pilgrim's Eye 2 Ruin Processor 1 Dutiful Attendant 1 Monastery Loremaster 20 cards Other Spells 4 Pulse of Murasa 4 Reave Soul 3 Oblivion Strike 2 Brilliant Spectrum 2 Complete Disregard 1 Rolling Thunder 17 cards

Lands 5 Forest 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Island 4 Swamp 3 Holdout Settlement 2 Unknown Shores 1 Mountain 23 cards Sideboard 3 Boiling Earth 3 Negate 2 Natural State 1 Caustic Caterpillar 1 Drag Under 1 Duress 1 Monastery Loremaster 1 Roilmage's Trick 1 Rolling Thunder 1 Ruin Processor 15 cards

rremedio1's build relies on a surprisingly similar base of creatures, but having access to Black gives the deck access to a whole host of powerful removal spells like Reave Soul, Oblivion Strike, and Complete Disregard, as well as generating even more sacrifice synergy with the excellent Vulturous Aven. Rather than the big Eldrazi, rremedio instead chose Ruin Processor, which serves a similar role but also sometimes gives you an important boost of Life as well. Brilliant Spectrum is probably the most surprisingly card in the deck, but when you have access to four colors, it becomes quite strong. Finally, it's worth noting that in order to support all those colors, the deck runs two Pilgrim's Eyes as well as Holdout Settlement and Unknown Shores.

Congrats to both Storm_blade and rremedio1 on their victories! I personally can't wait to see what the new format has in store once Kaladesh is released on Magic Online - which, if I recall correctly, starts today!

Getting Ready for WORLDS

It's hard to believe, but the 34th season of our two weekly Standard Pauper tournament comes to an end early next week. This will also be the last event where the Commons from Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins will be legal. As a result, next time I'll take a look back at what proved to be the top hits from those two sets. But for today, as we get ready for the final events of the season, I wanted to set aside my normal Thursday state of the metagame and instead talk about what you should be prepared to face as you enter the capstone events on Sunday and Monday.

1. While they are by no means the only contenders, the most important decks in the metagame right now are Izzet Spells, Simic Eldrazi, Pulse Control, and Tremors. If you're just looking to pick up a strong deck and run with it, you're best bet is to pick one of these.
   
2. Even if you're not playing one of those four decks, it would be wise to understand each of them. You should be familiar with the cards they play and the basic strategy for each archetype. If you're looking for help in this area, you can check out my Deck Techs for each of these decks.
   
3. Removal is going to be key in almost any match-up. But not just any removal will do. You want:
•  Instant speed, cheap removal to help deal with early critical threats like Thermo-Alchemist.
• Unconditional removal later in the game to help deal with the Eldrazi big hitters (Eldrazi Devastator, Ruin Processor, and Wretched Gryff). 
• Beating token strategies is also best accomplished by having access to Red for Boiling Earth, even if you can only find room for it in the Sideboard. 
• Finally, having the ability to exile creatures with Touch of the Void can also be an excellent way to sidestep Graveyard recursion.
  
4. I'm not seeing many players using hard counters, but I also think that this might be a great way to get an edge, since most people won't be playing around them. While everyone is including Negate and Turn Aside, especially in the Sideboard, Spell Shrivel is something that will catch a lot of people by surprise.

I doubt there's a deck that can do all of that, but if there is, that's what I'd play this coming week. Hope to see you on the other side of the virtual table soon!

Borderland Marauder and Standard Legality

For the past couple seasons of our Standard Pauper tournaments, we've been experimenting with allowing cards previously printed at Common but reprinted in Standard at higher difficulties as Standard Pauper legal. You can read some of my previous thoughts about that issue here, but basically it comes down to the fact that the official Wizards' databases indicate those cards are legal for both Standard and Pauper.

Recently, a similar issue has arisen with Borderland Marauder, which was a key card in Adner's Red Eye Vampire deck, which captured the trophy for SPDC 33.03. Although this card was not reprinted in Magic Origins or any of the other major expansions that are Standard legal, it was printed in the Welcome Deck 2016, which is a small demo set Wizards of the Coast distributes to game stores. All of these cards are technically Standard legal, and will remain so until Shadows Over Innistrad rotates out of Standard.

This demo set includes three other Commons that are also Standard legal despite not being in any of the marquee expansions: Marked By Honor, Oakenform, and Walking Corpse.

Regardless of your opinion on whether these should be legal or not, the issue is pretty clear: they are Standard legal Commons, and are listed as such in all official card databases. As such, they are legal for play in our Standard Pauper tournaments.

While this may be confusing, Adner's story is a perfect example of why these need to be legal:

I agree this is a bit confusing for brewers indeed, especially when back from a long period away from the game and format. This was the case I faced when brewing this RDW. I just used the STD filter available on MTGO then chose common rarity, and the Borderland Marauders just showed up ! So I gave them a ride. How decisive were they really? Not very much. Reprints, symbols, different rarities, man I can now understand why I am bald tearing off all hairs when it gets so complicated. 

So now you know.

New Content for Standard Pauper

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

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

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

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

What's Current In Standard Pauper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mono Black Zombies in SPDC 32.01

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

Click the image above to enlarge.

And here is his video explaining how the deck works:

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

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

Starting Points for Analysis of the Format

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

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

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

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

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

Origins for Standard Pauper

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Trophies for MPDC and SPDC Season 29

Today I want to give a huge shout-out to Standard Pauper player Jonder_qind, who took the time to create a design for trophies for Season 29 of both Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and Standard Pauper Deck Challenge. This week he sent me all 28 trophies, and I have now updated Gatherling so that we are all caught-up for this season. If you're a regular at either of these events, please express your thanks for the great job that he did.

So here they are, in all their glory. Enjoy!

Standard Pauper Metagame Diversity

One of the criticisms often leveled against Standard Pauper is that with such a small cardpool the format will inevitably grow stale, with only one or two decklists outperforming everything else, making the format entirely too easy to "solve." And while there certainly have been times when a handful of decks have dominated the Standard Pauper metagame for a period of time, most of the time there is a very healthy amount of diversity in the format. And I am happy to report that right now is one of those times.

To illustrate this, just take a look at the last two weeks of Standard Pauper PRE data, taken from MPDC 29.07 and 29.06 as well as SPDC 29.07 and 29.06. In those four events, we had 3 different Top 8 playoffs as well as one Top 4 playoff. And out of those 28 slots, we had eleven distinct archetypes. Of those, three decks accounted for 12 of the Top 8 finishes, with Dimir Merchant, Stompy, and Izzet Control each with 4 appearances. Red variants also placed well, with Boros Tokens and RDW evenly splitting another 6 appearances between them. Rounding out the top spots were Golgari Delve, Esper, and Selesnya Heroes with 2 each, and single finishes by MonoBlue Control, GB Constellation, and Wintergreen.

I would call that a healthy amount of diversity! These decks touch upon all five colors, and represent Aggro, Control and Midrange (with only Combo being notably absent; although, such a deck does exist in the format right now). In fact, the closest thing to a common denominator is the inclusion of Treasure Cruise, which is included in 5 of the 11 archetypes.

Thus, I think it's fair to say now is a great time to be playing Standard Pauper. If you've never participated in one of our events, don't you think it's time to come check it out?

Mono Blue Control

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

Mono Blue Control

1st place by DrChrisBakerDC in SPDC 29.07

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

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

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

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