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.

Why Standard Pauper Is Worth Saving

All this week I've been talking about the problems with Magic Online, how it relates to Standard Pauper, and what we as a community can do about it. Tuesday, I wrote that while there is no doubt Magic Online is a mess, it's worth putting up with it to keep Standard Pauper alive. Thursday, I wrote about different options we have as a community to help bridge the gap while Magic Online goes through its growing pains. Finally, today I want to remind everyone about why Standard Pauper is worth saving.

Back in April 2013, a petition was started asking Wizards of the Coast to support Standard Pauper. It ended up with just under 350 signatures on it. Around that same time, Chris Baker, who is affiliated with ChannelFireball, also wrote a blog post talking about what a great format Standard Pauper is.  I myself have written several different articles discussing why Standard Pauper is good both for the community and for Wizards of the Coast. So what's so special about it?

• It's cheap to play.
• It uses the most popular and relevant format.
• It has an interesting and varied metagame
• A more 'flat' power-level rewards better skill over time
• It is supported by multiple Player Run Events
• It has a Magic Online clan devoted to it

It's a great format. Let's do whatever it takes to keep it alive.

A couple postscripts for this week:

1. I wrote an article on Common Design and its implications for Standard Pauper. Check it out here.
2. I am working on a new league format called Standard Pauper Sealed. You can find out more about what this means and how it's possible here. More about that next week.

What To Do About Magic Online, Part Two

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

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

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

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

What To Do About Magic Online, Part One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rakdos Midrange

It seems like the RDW deck is out of control.

Then again, maybe it's just me. While RDW and Boros have managed a few Top 8 finishes over the past few weeks, it appears that the decks simply aren't consistent enough to take home a trophy. On the other hand, they are consistently beating me. Between the MagicGatheringStrat Standard Pauper league and MPDC, I faced three of them almost back-to-back. Frankly, I'm tired of losing to it.

So I decided to see what it would look like to throw as many removal spells into a decklist as possible and see if maybe that could stem the bleeding. Surprisingly, the deck has actually performed fairly well in early testing. Here's the list I'm currently playing:

Rakdos Midrange

by gwyned

Creatures 4 Disowned Ancestor 4 Servant of Tymaret 3 Disciple of Phenax 2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 13 cards Other Spells 4 Debilitating Injury 2 Flurry of Horns 1 Font of Return 4 Pharika's Cure 3 Read the Bones 4 Lightning Strike 4 Magma Spray 1 Covenant of Blood 23 cards

Lands 4 Bloodfell Caves 4 Evolving Wilds 6 Mountain 10 Swamp 24 cards Sideboard 3 Forge Devil 2 Typhoid Rats 2 Baleful Eidolon 1 Flesh to Dust 1 Rotfeaster Maggot 3 Feast of Dreams 3 Scouring Sands 15 cards

The list ended up having a pretty strong MonoBlack shell, but with a full complement of Debilitating Injury, Lightning Strike, Pharika's Cure, and Magma Spray. Against aggressive archetypes, it can also side in Forge Devil, Feast of Dreams, Scouring Sands, and a 2/2 split of Typhoid Rats and Baleful Eidolon. The concept here is relatively straightforward: remove everything your opponent throws at you and grind out on the back of low Power value creatures like Servant of Tyramet, Disowned Ancestor, Disciple of Phenax, and Gray Merchant. It can refill using Read the Bones, and eventually recycle its creatures using the single copy of Font of Return.

If you've got some suggestions for the deck, I'd love to hear them. I'm usually not the best at brewing decks, so I'm sure there's something obvious I missed. Still, I've enjoying my testing thus far, and I hope that this proves to be viable in the current metagame. We'll see.

Thanks for reading.

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

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

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

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

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

Goblins vs. Gnomes Next Week!

It's official: Blizzard will release the new expansion Goblins vs. Gnomes for Hearthstone this coming Monday, December 8th. In addition to this announcement, Blizzard also spoiled the rest of the card set on its Facebook page. Prior to this expansion, there were 412 collectable cards; Goblins vs. Gnomes will be adding an additional 120 cards, so that's a major addition to the game. And by the looks of it, it will be shaking up the metagame considerably.

Blizzard also announced some additional balance changes:

Can you imagine a world in which Wizards of the Coast could tweak the mana costs of particular cards for balance reasons, or even change the card rules entirely?! In any case, these changes are nearly as drastic as the previous nerf to Hunter, so overall I don't think this will have a major effect; indeed, given the upheaval of the new set coming out, this will more-or-less get lost in the shuffle.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the release of this expansion! I've been saving up my in-game gold and can't wait to get my hands on some of these new cards.

What card(s) are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments below.