Junk Enchantments

So during the week between the rotation of Standard on Magic Online and the start of the new season of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, I was busy testing several new decks and decided what looked promising in the new metagame. I was testing various Boros and Orzhov builds, and had just about settled on a deck, when Zachary Barash (of Hipsters of the Coast fame), sent me this provocative tweet:

Needless to say I was intrigued. Next time we were both online, I got to face this "new best deck" across the virtual battlefield. I proceeded to get beaten by said deck - and hard. Granted, this is not an unusual experience for me. Still, I was impressed. I immediately set aside the decks I had been working on and began testing with this new one instead.

Although this isn't the version he initially showed me (or even the one I eventually played), I believe that this is probably the strongest version of this deck, now known as Junk Enchantments:

 

The deck's concept is simple and straightforward, yet remarkably powerful. It functions similar to a Hexproof archetype, save that instead of relying on Hexproof creatures, you instead make use of the special qualities of the Bestow mechanic that essentially prevent you from getting two-for-one'd if your opponent destroys the target of the Bestow Aura prior to it resolving. Ethereal Armor is clearly the most powerful card in the deck, followed by Auramancer, Read the Bones, and Hopeful Eidolon.

The strength of the deck is its flexibility. You can go slow and play the value game very well with Auramancer, Read the Bones, and Bestow, or you can explode with a Turn 1 Hopeful Eidolon, Turn 2 double Ethereal Armor. However, conserving your Ethereal Armors is probably the wiser course of action, as they just get better as the game goes on.

Anyway, despite my initial enthusiasm, I have had nothing but trouble with this deck in two weeks of tournament play in Monday Pauper Deck Challenge. I have a record of 2-5 with the deck, and have seen it lose just about every way possible. I suspect that this is, at least in part, a combination of bad play, bad luck, and some less-than-optimal builds, rather than a true reflection on the deck itself. Still, it's been brutal for me.

So what do you think? Is this archetype viable? Or was it just a gimmick whose initial success was more due to its novelty than any real strength? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!

Klatch Coffee

It's hard to believe that in almost eleven months of blogging, I've only submitted a single post related to what is probably my biggest hobby outside of Standard Pauper. What is that, you ask? If you've been paying attention at all, then this post is a not-so-subtle clue. I'm talking, of course, about coffee...or espresso, to be exact.

At some point, I should share more about my own history with espresso and why I find it to be such an amazing beverage to consume. But today, I instead want to promote what recently became my favorite distributor of espresso - Klatch Coffee.

These guys are SERIOUS about their coffee. Their "roastmaster" and owner travels all around the world, picking only the finest coffees, and roasts them in small batches at their company headquarters. In fact, when you place an order, your coffee isn't even roasted until then, so by the time it's delivered, you get a freshness that is unparalleled. They've won all kinds of awards, including a very prestigious "Best Espresso in the World" at the World Barista Championship in Tokyo. They feature four different espresso roasts year round, and seasonally offer single origin espresso roasts while supplies last.

Of course, none of that matters if the coffee isn't both delicious and affordable. Fortunately Klatch delivers on both counts. While certainly more expensive than buying a bag of Starbucks at your local grocery store, the quality you get is far above anything else I've ever tasted. And compared to other gourmet espresso roasts like Illy, Klatch is noticeably less expensive, particularly in bulk.

So if you're a coffee snob like I am, and you want to try one of the best coffees in the country, you can't go wrong with Klatch Coffee. Try them out; you won't be disappointed.

My Return to Hosting

Yesterday I completed my very own March of the Returned as I resumed hosting Monday Pauper Deck Challenge. Although attendance was still a bit lower than I would like, overall I felt like the event was a big success. It honestly felt quite satisfying to back in my role as host, and I am so grateful to each of you who took the time to thank me for coming back.

While some of my hosting duties are quite familiar, this season I am challenging myself to continue to grow in my skills in terms of consistency, presentation, and the little flourishes. For example, for the first time ever, I created a trophy image for milegyenanevem, the winner of Monday's event, who piloted a very powerful Mono-Black deck. I probably spent about three hours altogether searching online for the right tool, playing with the various elements I could cobble together, and learning the ins and outs of the software. While I certainly have room to grow in my skills as a trophy designer, I felt like my initial design wasn't too shabby:

I ended up using a great free program called Paint.NET, which has many of the features of advance image editors like Photoshop while being much easier to use for a newcomer. While this program doesn't natively support the PSD Photoshop file-type, a quick add-on overcame that limitation with ease. From there, it was a simple task to download the old trophy elements still available over through the Artwork forums on PDCMagic.com. I also uncovered this post by user Polyjak that proved to be quite helpful.

Despite the several hours I had to devote to my first attempt, overall the process seems pretty easy, and in the future I should be able to create these within a much more reasonable time frame each week. 

If you missed your chance to participate this week, let me remind you that Monday Pauper Deck Challenge takes place every Monday at 2pm EST. All you need is a Standard Pauper deck, an account on Magic Online, and several hours to devote to playing one of the best formats Magic has to offer. Hope to see you next Monday!

Changes for MPDC

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will be resuming my position as host of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, which begins its 23rd season this coming Monday. I am excited about this opportunity to be more involved with the Standard Pauper community once again. As host, my goals are simple:

• Make MPDC the premiere Player Run Event experience for Magic Online.
• Grow participation in MPDC, particularly from new players or those new to Magic Online.
• Increase awareness and exposure to the Standard Pauper format.

To that end, there will be some changes going forward to how Monday Pauper Deck Challenge will operate. I will freely admit that some of these are more experimental in nature, and will not necessarily apply after this season. But in each case, I believe these changes will support these goals.

1. MPDC will return to using DCI Reporter to run the event, rather than the automated Gatherling tool. Not only does DCI Reporter give me as host more control of the event itself, it also creates a much more attractive product for Pairings and Standings that can be used to advertise the event.
2. Speaking of which, each MPDC event will continue to be advertised in the Player Run Events channel of the Wizards forums. But once again, this advertisement will include the results of the event, rather than simply the announcement itself. I believe the quality of these posts goes a long way to attracting new players.
3. MPDC will award the winner of each event a trophy, much as was done in the past. While I have some technical challenges to overcome to make this a reality, I will endeavor to get this done each and every week in a timely fashion. This is another nice way to advertise the event, and one that I would like to see resume.
4. Worlds, the capstone event for each season, will now be open to everyone. It will be the same format as each other week - Swiss with Top 8 cutoff - but will still feature the improved prizes. The Top 8 players from the season, as determined by Season Points, will receive a free bye for Round 1 of this event. This will allow anyone who shows up to play, but still give our regulars an incentive to participate each week.
5. Last but not least, I will be offering better prize support for Top 8. In the interest of full disclosure, my intent is to pay for these additional prizes out of the $5 credit normally awarded to the host of the event, rather than asking for additional prize support from our sponsor. While the details of this are not finalized, the prize payout will now resemble something like this: 

• 1st: $7 gift certificate to MTGOTraders
• 2nd: $4 gift certificate to MTGOTraders
• Top 4: $2 gift certificate to MTGOTraders
• Top 8: $1 credit at MTGOTraders bot
• Door Prize: 4 cards from the MPDC Prize Pool

As always, your feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see many of you on Monday for a new season of MPDC!

My Decision

Last week, I wrote about the future of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge (which I will refer to as MPDC from this point forward) and my own past and present involvement with this Player Run Event and the Standard Pauper format. I asked several questions, and received a fair bit of response from  my readers which I covered in my previous post. After surveying your responses, I took quite a bit of time over this weekend to think and reflect deeply upon what I believe is the best course of action.

Here's the short version: As of Season 23, I will return as the host of MPDC.

If that's all you wanted to know, feel free to stop reading now. But if you're interested in why I believe this is the best course of action, keep reading.

So here's the long version:

• As much as I think a Standard Pauper league is a great idea, the response from the immediate community hasn't been that strong. For such a endeavor to succeed long-term, I feel like I would need buy-in from a majority of the community. I don't think we are there yet.
• Furthermore, I don't believe a league is the best way to attract and retain new players. In a weekly event, all you have to do is show up with a Standard Pauper deck, and you're in. You don't have to sign up, find your opponent, coordinate schedules, or anything like that.
• I also know exactly what it takes to run MPDC, and to do it well. I understand the time commitment, the need to advertise both the event and the results, and how best to keep all the players informed.
• MPDC is probably the only reason I still play Magic today. Even though I knew about Magic Online for quite a while, it wasn't until I discovered this PRE that I decided to spend the money and start playing again. Based on that, I feel like I owe it to myself and to others like me to make this great event everything it can be.
• The only real negative is the need to shift my real life schedule. Prior to my recent move, I had Mondays off, so hosting was rarely an issue. Today, I work a much more typical work-week. However, I was able to shift my office hours on Monday, allowing me to get off early enough to run this event each and every week.
• Last but not least, I truly miss being so regularly involved in the Standard Pauper community. Hosting provides me with a great pulse on the format, which in turn fuels my writing and videos, which in turn brings greater exposure to the format. Until the day that Wizards of the Coast makes Standard Pauper a sanctioned format, my quest is not complete.

So there you have it: I'm back.

He drew a deep breath. "Well, I'm back," [Sam] said.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King.

The Future of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge: Your Response

Earlier this week, I asked my audience to respond to a set of four questions related to the future of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and my involvement in the Standard Pauper format. I was happy to see that this was the most commented post on my blog, and I thought I would take some time today to look at what you guys had to say.

For clarity, let's take the questions one at a time:

I. Are two weekly Standard Pauper PREs really viable given the recent trends?

Overall there seems to be solid support for keeping both events. It doesn't seem like there is any agreement on why things are trending down. Suggestions for improvement included making sure we secure long-term prize support, do a better job of advertising, and re-brand the two events to make the distinction between them more clear. But if there are really distinct groups of players for European and American timezones, it makes sense to keep both.

II. Can we find a reliable and skilled host or hosts to run these two events for the long term? If not, do you feel like I should try and take back hosting MPDC?

The community seemed unanimous that there are enough players willing to do the hard work to provide reliable hosts for the future. There was some question as to whether or not I actually have the bandwidth to be one them, which I will address next week. There was also a suggestion of organizing a group of players together to run both events more as a business venture.

III. Is there sufficient interest for me to go ahead and get this "league-style" event off the ground, or is that simply muddying the waters further?

The "league-style" event I have been discussing got mixed responses, with an almost even split between positive and negative. There was some thought that the success of the recent Hipsters league event was due to the fabulous prize, and that this shouldn't be seen as a support for leagues overall. It was also suggested that this league event replace SPDC, which is the Thursday night Standard Pauper PRE. The question was also raised as to whether this is really the best thing for the community going forward.

Thanks again for all of you who took the time to respond. Please feel free to use the comments below to continue the discussion. I will mull over this information over the next few days and then let you know early next week what I think this all means.

Thanks for reading, and sorry that this is so late getting out!

Missed Deadline, Again.

Missed my normal deadline for Thursday. Between real life and other writing deadlines, it just didn't happen today. Thursday's update will instead go up sometime tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

In the mean time, check out my Twitter for links to some of the content I created today!