A Brief Update

For those of you who check here regularly, you're already aware that I was unable to blog last week due to a sudden ailment diagnosed as Labyrinthitis (swelling of the fluid-filled tubes and sacs in the ears), resulting in very bad vertigo and nausea. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I am happy to report that I am doing much better - meaning that I can actually go to work or sit upright in front of a computer without too much discomfort. Thanks to everyone who reached out to me to express their wishes for a speedy recovery.

There's a surprising amount of things I feel like I need to address. But rather than trying to pick one, I thought I would just give a quick update of a few timely matters and take more time later this week addressing some of these in more detail.

1. Monday Pauper Deck Challenge

As far as MPDC goes, we will have Season 33 as normal, beginning next Monday, April 25th, at 2pm EDT / 6pm GMT in #mpdc. While I still suspect that moving to some sort of league-style event is the best course for the future, it's not a change that I'm ready to make quite yet. More about this soon.

2. Update to Standard Pauper Card Legality

While the other two co-hosts of our community's Standard Pauper events have not officially conferred yet, given the state of things I anticipate that no changes will be made this season regarding whether or not Standard Uncommons previous printed at Common will be Standard Pauper legal. In other words, for the time being, these cards will continue to be legal, just like last season. There are a number of issues here to discuss, which I hope to do sometime soon.

3. Pauper Ravnica Unified League

During the last few weeks, Polyjak oversaw the Zendikar Unified Pauper Sealer League, which in my estimation was a big success. Starting on April 27th, a similar league will launch, this time as a Pauper Ravnica Unified League. Polyjak, along with several other notable players in our community, have worked very hard to create something well worth participating in. I plan on playing in this one and will once again be donating prizes, so I definitely encourage all my readers to join the fun. More about this soon. (are you noticing a trend?)

4. Standard Pauper Set Review for Shadows Over Innistrad

There is at least one thing I did manage to complete despite my illness. My full set review of Shadows Over Innistrad is available from PureMTGO. You can find Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here. I won't rehash my final comments from Part Three, but on the whole while I feel like the set is going to be good as far as gameplay goes, I'm not sure how successful it was in recapturing the feel of Innistrad. Anyway, I encourage you to read and comment.

I think that's all for now. My plan is to have a special Saturday post this week to help make up for not writing last week, and of course I'll be back on Thursday as well. Thanks as always for reading and being a part of our great Standard Pauper community.

Short Break from Blogging Due to Illness

Yesterday I was diagnosed with Labyrinthitis (swelling of the fluid-filled tubes and sacs in the ears). I have had hearing loss and slight ringing/static in left ear for several days now. Yesterday I woke up with extreme vertigo. I couldn't even sit up without triggering severe nausea. I was able to see my doctor in the afternoon and got some meds prescribed, although the appointment was very unpleasant. Ears and nose did not look infected. No other symptoms like fever or congestion.

Most of the time I am okay if I am flat on my back, but I have been able to tolerate sitting for very short periods. Just walking to bathroom and back is very hard. And even on meds, worst of the symptoms can last a week on average, slowly improving after that.

So based on all that, I've decided to take a short break from blogging. Once I can reliably sit and stand, I'll gladly get back to it.

The Future of MPDC

This past Monday, I was sitting online once again, watching as the same dozen or so players slowly filtered into the #MPDC channel and registered for our weekly event. I hate to sound an old timer, but it's hard for me not to reflect on the days when this event was drawing 40+ players every week. In fact, we just barely had enough players to make the 8 person minimum for the event, and only because someone who was planning on playing was willing to jump in to make sure it happened.

After reflecting on this trend, I sent out the following Email to everyone who participated in the Standard Pauper Double League - over 60 players in all:

You are receiving this E-mail because you participated in the Standard Pauper Double League. As I mentioned at pdcmagic earlier this week, I am seriously considering changing our weekly Standard Pauper tournament to a recurring league-style event, where pairings are played out at each person's convenience rather than everyone having to show up at a particular time and place.

With our weekly attendance averaging only around a dozen players, it's clear that most of you don't participate in this event. Back when I did my survey, it did seem like the most common reason for a lack of participation was simply how hard it was to make any particular time and day of the week work for a majority of players.

If we were to make this change to MPDC, would you be interested in participating in such an event long term? And if so, would you be willing to play out multiple matches in a week? How often would you like the league to end, award prizes, and then start up again?

As I consider this change, your feedback is very important to me. I would love to facilitate as many people as possible playing Standard Pauper on a weekly basis, and maybe this is the best way for that to happen. I'd love to hear back from each and every one of you, even if it's just to say that you wouldn't really be interested.

Thanks for reading.

I've already heard back from over a dozen players, and for the most part the response has been fairly positive. It does appear that running a league-style event is much better for many people who remain interested in Standard Pauper. 

That said, there are still several details that would need to be worked out:

1. What is a reasonable number of matches to expect people to play in a week?
2. How often would the league reset - only once Standard rotated, or once a new set was released, once every four weeks, or something else?
3. How would the event be organized - using a spreadsheet like the recent Zendikar Unified Sealed League, using the built-in tournament software on Gatherling, or something else entirely?
4. Would the league feed into some sort of in-person event, like a Top 8 or something similar?

Now I certainly don't want to give the impression that my mind is made up yet. However, I certainly see the advantages of moving from a weekly event to a league-style approach. Sure, it has its disadvantages. But on the whole, they might just outweigh the disadvantages.

If you've got an opinion on the matter, I'd love to hear it. Drop me an email at gwyned at gmail dot com, or reply in the comments below.

Farewell, Common Duals

As was pointed out to me in the comments section of my previous post, I neglected to call attention to the fact that the Khans Common Dual Lands are about to rotate out of Standard, leaving the format without multicolored lands for the first time since Return to Ravnica. This will obviously have a major impact on what types of decks are viable in the format. Without access to reliable color-fixing, it will be unusual to see decks with three or more colors of cards. And given that such decks have performed well over the past few seasons of our weekly Standard Pauper Player Run Events, it will be interesting to see if this pushes the metagame away from Control once more.

Additionally, with this type of Dual Lands being rarity shifted back to Uncommon in Shadows Over Innistrad, there is the potential that this may not be a temporary situation, but a return to the baseline environment at Common from the more recent color intensive sets. This would be unfortunate, as reliable mana fixing not only allows players access to more colors, but also makes aggressive decks more consistent and thus better able to compete against Control strategies, which in my opinion is more healthy for the format. We shall see.

In the mean time, what Land-based color fixing will exist going into Shadows Over Innistrad? Evolving Wilds will still be available, as will a close variant from Shadows called Warped Landscape, which costs 2 to sacrifice and fetch any Basic Land but also taps for colorless immediately. We also have Crumbling Vestige, which only taps for colorless save for the turn it comes into play, when it adds any single color of mana to your pool. There is also Unknown Shores, which only creates colorless but can essentially filter any mana already in your pool from one color to another. And of course there is Holdout Settlement, which works on a similar basis but demands that you tap a creature rather than another mana source. Finally, Fertile Thicket deserves an honorable mention. While it doesn't actually fix your Lands directly, it does let you search among the next five cards in your library for one basic Land to put on top of your library while returning the other cards to the bottom of your library.

Obviously none of these are anywhere close to the ease and convenience of the Common Duals. Just how good they are will have to be tested before any firm conclusions can be drawn. But it's safe to say the format will definitely look very different.

Farewell to the Clans, Part Two

Last time, I talked about how with the upcoming release of Shadows Over Innistrad that Standard will be rotating soon, with some very significant Commons from Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged leaving the format forever. This shift will drastically change the Standard Pauper format, and so I wanted to dedicate my blog posts this week to looking at what I believe are the six cards whose loss will have the biggest impact in the format. I already discussed Disdainful Stroke, Gurmag Angler, and Hooting Mandrills. Today, I'll look at the other three.

4. Jeskai Sage is another card that looked fairly innocuous when it was released, but proved to be a major cornerstone of an archetype in the format. In the right deck, it typically will attack as a 2/2 thanks to Prowess, and is a particularly strong target for combat tricks. But best of all, you can trade it off with your opponent's creatures without regret, since upon death it immediately cycles for a brand new card. That's built-in card advantage for an already decent card, and in a format where every little edge counts, it's little wonder that this little card proved to be such a gem.

5. While White has somewhat fallen out of favor, Sandsteppe Outcast is the perfect card for any White Weenie or similar archetype. For your three mana you get three points worth of Power, which most of the time you will want to split up into two creatures, one of which gets Flying. The fact that the card also had the Warrior subtype was another important boon to this card's versatility and power. Given the Spirit synergy in Shadows Over Innistrad it's a shame to see this go, as it would have been right at home in the new metagame. As is, this card will continue to live on in its color-shifted cousins Eldrazi Skyspawner and Ghirapur Gearcrafter.

6. In this case I definitely saved the best for last. Treasure Cruise turned out to be one of the more broken Commons to see print in recent times, thanks primarily to how routine it was to fill up your graveyard and cast this for half its cost or less. In fact, it's so good that it ended up being banned in Modern, Legacy, and Pauper. This card alone made it almost always worth your while to play Blue, and if so you always wanted the full four copies in your deck. While I still don't think it should have been banned in Standard Pauper, I know many players will be happy to see it go.

And so those are my top picks from Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged that will be leaving the format with the release of Shadows Over Innistrad. Other honorable mentions include Feat of Resistance, Mardu Hordechief, Elusive Spellfist, Sultai Emissary, Whirlwind Adept, and Whisk Away. One thing is for sure - Standard Pauper will look quite different in just a few short weeks!

Farewell to the Clans, Part One

With the full spoiler now available for Shadows Over Innistrad, we are mere weeks away from saying farewell to both Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged. Khans of Tarkir in particular proved to be quite strong for Standard Pauper, and so seeing these two sets rotate out of Standard is going to be a big shift for the metagame. Given that, I thought I would take some time this week to look at what I believe are the six cards whose loss will have the biggest impact in the format.

I will be looking at these cards in alphabetical order; no overall ranking is implied by the order.

 1. Counterspells that cost only two mana have been proven very strong in most formats, and today it is rare to see them printed at any rarity, much less Common. So while Disdainful Stroke certainly wasn't as good even as Mana Leak, it was excellent in Control matchups to prevent your opponent from casting his or her big cards. While this saw more play in the Sideboard than main-deck, it remained a very good option against certain decks, particularly given how strong the Delve mechanic proved to be, since it only cares about the converted mana cost, not how much was actually spent.

2. When I first reviewed Gurmag Angler, I wasn't particularly impressed, since it is just a big dumb, expensive beater. However, two factors made it much better than it appeared. First, the ability to use Delve to cheat it in early made it very difficult to deal with. Second, the fact that you had access to it in Black, which traditionally does not get large creatures, also was a factor in its success. As it turned out, it is ridiculously easy to fill up your graveyard with cards, and with unconditional removal at an all-time low, this card does a good job of dodging most forms of removal.

3. Hooting Mandrills also proved to be quite strong. It's only one mana less than the Angler, and even better has Trample, which makes it much more difficult for your opponent to simply chump-block and ignore it. In a color that already has access to lots of big creatures, this card often was the best of the lot, simply because it was so easy to power it out quickly. It also proved to be a great enabler for Savage Punch and its cousin Epic Confrontation. Finally, 4 Toughness is still enough to sidestep many burn spells and other conditional forms of removal.

Noticing a theme yet? As it turns out, almost all of the Delve cards made a major impact on the format. But all the rest paled in comparison to what proved to be the best Delve card in the set. Which we'll take a look at...next time.

13 Thoughts on Shadows Over Innistrad

In case you missed the announcement, the full spoiler for Shadows Over Innistrad has been released. It's hard to believe that we're just over two weeks away from the set's release on Magic Online, and I have yet to write a single word about the set. Now, with all the cards revealed, that means it's time for me to get writing on my full review of the set for Standard Pauper. But for today, I want to share with you some brief thoughts about my initial impressions as well as a few cards that impressed me on first glance. So in keeping with the theme, here are my thirteen thoughts on Shadows Over Innistrad!

1. Flip cards probably won't be a major emphasis, as there are only four printed at Common (two in both Red and Green). They are classic werewolves that flip to "night" if no spells are cast and flip back to "day" if two or more spells are cast.
2. There are plenty of classic Common effects costed at an extra mana with the new Investigate mechanic, such as this one. It will be interesting to see how good either the extra artifact or the two mana cycle effect will shake out to be.
3. We've got a cycle of Common Enchantments that sacrifice for a color-themed effect. The White one at least looks good.
4. Nice to see we have some discard outlets at Common, such as in Ghostly Wings.
5. Not very impressed with the Blue Commons at all.
6. Nice! Dead Weight is back.
7. Outside of Twins of Mauer Estate, Madness in Black doesn't look that attractive.
8. In the right deck, Fiery Temper lets you live the dream of casting Lightning Bolt. Otherwise, it's a more expensive and harder-to-cast Lighting Strike. 
9. Pyre Hound gains permanent counters unlike Prowess creatures. That seems...strong.
10. Just as Temur Battle Rage rotates out, we get a new Double Strike card in Red.
11. 'Clue-tokens-matter' type effect?
12. A potential combo with Pulse of Murasa? And with Stoic Builder too.
13. Green has surprisingly few creatures, and overall looks pretty weak.

And as far as cards that caught my eye: Apothecary Geist, Dauntless Cathar, Stitched Mangler, Ghoulcaller's Accomplice, Shamble Back, Fiery Temper, and Pyre Hound. 

What do you think of this set? Let me know in the comments below.