What's What in Standard Pauper Right Now

With the release of Journey Into Nyx on the horizon, there's a lot of great content on Standard Pauper available right now. Today I wanted to take this post to share with you some of the highlights, in case you've missed it.

1. The Colors of Standard: Standard Pauper enthusiast and veteran of MPDC Mundisv has a great article on the most dominant decks in the format right now. This could easily serve as a primer for what to expect from the upcoming MPDC Season 24 Worlds. You should definitely give it a read.

2. Journey Into Nyx Standard Pauper Review + Italian Game Primer: Chris Baker of ChannelFireball fame posted his review of the new set for Standard Pauper, even before the full set was officially spoiled. Chris has had a ton of success in the format, and his thoughts on the new cards are well worth your time. And if you're a fan of drafting, check out his intriguing "Italian Game Primer" towards the end of his article for a great way to resolve who gets what cards at the end of a draft.

3. The Standard Pauper Show, Ep 8 Journey Into Nyx Review: Brennon of MTGOstrat.com just published the eighth episode of his "The Standard Pauper Show." He reviews the winning decklist from MPDC 24.09 and then devotes most of an hour to reviewing all of the Commons from Journey Into Nyx. Unlike many podcasts, his is more of a video cast, with great visual information that supplements the audio.

4. Writer Adept: Standard Pauper Review of Journey into Nyx, Part One: And if you still can't get enough info on the new set for Standard Pauper, check out my review over at PureMTGO.com. Part One includes all of the mechanic cards and Common cycles, while Part Two (which is forthcoming) will cover the rest of the set. If you enjoy bad puns, this is the review for you!

5. Blackout ! Mais comment allez-vous?: Finally, Adner, captain of the largest Magic Online clan devoted exclusively to Standard Pauper announces that he is effectively stepping down from his role as clan captain. While he will continue to participate in the format, he has been somewhat disappointed by the lack of involvement by the clan members in promoting the format as a whole. If you're looking for someway to give back to this great community, this would be a fantastic opportunity.

If you know of any other recent content that I missed related to Standard Pauper, let me know in the comments below, and I'll make sure it gets included. Thanks for reading!

Journey Into Nyx: the Font Cycle

One of my favorite things to see in a new set is a cycle at Common that ties into the theme of the set. Journey Into Nyx actually has two such cycles: one, a cycle of one mana Instants that utilize the new Strive mechanic; and two, a cycle of Enchantments that mimic the effect of earlier spells at Common. Today I want to talk about the latter.

So here they are, in all their glory:

 

This cycle is a clever bit of design, although the Green one doesn't fit in perfectly. Most obviously, these are all 2 mana Enchantments with a sacrifice ability and an additional mana cost. They each also mimic a spell that has become a staple in their respective colors: Angel's Mercy, Divination, March of the Returned, Lava Axe, and Rampant Growth. Interestingly enough, the activated cost is one mana cheaper than the aforementioned spell, with the exception of both the Green and the Black, which have the same cost. It is also worth keeping in mind that all of these can be activated at Instant speed, whereas before these effects (with the exception of Angel's Mercy) were all Sorcery speed.

Unfortunately, only two of these effects typically see play. Font of Return seems playable, albeit expensive, if for no other reason than the potential for a three-for-one. But Font of Fortunes is arguably better, in that it doesn't require any particular game state to be good. Drawing cards is typically good - and drawing them at Instant speed is quite good. The only downside is the preponderance of Enchantment-hate in the format right now, requiring you to keep the activation mana up at all times if you don't want to lose the opportunity.

I wrote about the other cycles in my upcoming Standard Pauper Review of Journey Into Nyx, which will be available this coming Monday. Be sure to check it out! And thanks for reading.

AzAgCon with Journey Into Nyx

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but the Theros block is drawing to a close as Journey Into Nyx is about to be released into Standard. As always, with the release of a new set, I've been hard at work on my Standard Pauper set review. I have it on good authority that Part One will be published this coming Monday, covering all the mechanic cards and the different cycles at Common.

 If you've been keeping up with my blog for the past week or so, you know that I've been tweaking a deck created by Chris Baker known as Crouching Cipher Hidden Strings. Earlier this week I discussed my own version of the deck and why I made the changes that I did. Today, I want to talk about two cards from the new set that seem tailor-made for this archetype.

The first one is War-Wing Siren. While we've had a couple Blue Heroic creatures at Common, this is the first one that gains +1/+1 counters. While it may not initially look that impressive, Akroan Skyguard is proof enough that this card will be quite good. While not quite as cheap to cast, its increased Toughness makes it much more resilient. In fact, I would argue that Wingsteed Rider is actually a better comparison, and that card has proven quite strong. Combine this with Wavecrash Triton, and you have the foundation for a solid Blue Heroic deck that might even be powerful enough not to need much support from White. Either way, I will definitely be testing this out with my AzAgCon deck after its release.

The second card I am excited about it Ajani's Presence. While there is a whole cycle of these Strive spells at Common, this is by far the best. While not quite as good at protecting creatures as Gods Willing, it provides a boost to both Power and Toughness and, more importantly, allows you to target multiple creatures in a turn, potentially triggering multiple Heroic targets. I strongly suspect that this will see play in White Weenie after its release. For the AzAgCon deck, 2 is a bit expensive to cast off of only 20 Lands, and may require some additional tweaking to the mana-base. But this effect seems powerful enough that it is worth the cost. Again, this will be one I can't wait to test once the new set is on Magic Online.

How about you? What cards are you excited about? Let me know in the comments below. See you next time.

AzAgCon

What the heck is AzAgCon?

Perhaps it's not the most evocative of names. But it is a simple abbreviation for Azorius Aggro Control. As I discussed last week, I have been trying to utilize Hidden Strings to its full potential by taking ChrisBaker's Crouching Cipher Hidden Strings decklist and transforming it into more of an Aggro-Control archetype, inspired by the successful Delver Blue list of the past.

Here's the build I ran in yesterday's MPDC 24.09:

AzAgCon

played by gwyned in MPDC 24.09

Creatures 2 Wavecrash Triton 4 Cloudfin Raptor 4 Akroan Skyguard 4 Daring Skyjek 4 Vaporkin 3 Syndic of Tithes 3 Wingsteed Rider 24 cards Other Spells 1 Traveler's Amulet 2 Mizzium Skin 4 Essence Scatter 3 Hidden Strings 2 Negate 4 Gods Willing 16 cards

Lands 4 Azorius Guildgate 8 Island 8 Plains 20 cards Sideboard 3 Keening Apparition 3 Celestial Flare 2 Dispel 3 Beckon Apparition 1 Hands of Binding 3 Disperse 15 cards

For all my efforts, the deck didn't end up that different than the original Crouching Cipher Hidden Strings decklist (which ended up taking 2nd place in this same event). Let me explain why I changed what I did.

• To achieve a more controlling build, I added 4x of Essence Scatter and 2x Negates. Essence Scatter is particularly good against MonoBlack Control, which I expected to face.
• After testing, I felt like Loyal Pegasus wasn't a good fit. It typically can't attack until Turn 3 anyway, and is terrible when it's the only creature in play. So I swapped them out for 4x Vaporkin.
• I swapped out 1x Wingsteed Rider and 1x Syndic of Tithes for 2x Wavecrash Triton. The Triton is quite the combination with Hidden Strings, allowing you at times to completely lock down an opposing creature. It is also easier to cast than the Rider.
• I also ended up cutting both Hopeful Eidolons, despite their usefulness in the deck. This did have the slight advantage of sidestepping all Enchantment hate, which is quite prevalent in the metagame.
• When I was done, the list was evenly split between Blue and White, and I was worried about having equal color demands with only 20 Lands. I ended up cutting 1x Hidden Strings to make room for a Traveler's Amulet. I'm still undecided whether 3 or 4 Hidden Strings is correct, as they can be a dead card at times.

Sadly, the deck did not perform well. In my defense, I thought my draws were pretty poor. I did manage to easily defeat MonoBlack control in Round 1, but then completely tossed away a game during Round 2 to lose 1-2, and then never got going against two above-average draws against White Weenie Auras. I ended up in 9th place even still, and I still think the deck is better than its mediocre performance.

So what do you think of my changes? Let me know in the comments below.

I am hard at work on my Standard Pauper review of Journey Into Nyx, and so Thursday I will be reviewing a card that I think will be perfect in this deck. See you then.

Sunday Miscellania

Due to a busy Easter weekend, this post is a day late and a dollar short. But I wanted to give you a quick update about what I'm working on.

First, as you may have noticed, my 40 Days Away from Magic is over. Hence the fact that I have lots of plans for upcoming articles and projects.

Second, although the official card gallery is not yet complete for Journey to Nyx, the entire set has been spoiled on various sites, including this one. As such, I am already at work on my Standard Pauper review of the set. Part One should be submitted sometime this week.

Third, I have decided that for the upcoming Season 25 of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, I will be doing a weekly video follow-up with the winning deck for each event. I actually did this way back in Season 9, and some of those videos remain my most watched videos ever. This time around the videos will be accompanied with a weekly article over at PureMTGO, but the emphasis will definitely be on the videos themselves.

Finally, I hope to have an updated Hidden Strings decklist completed this weekend, which I will test out for tomorrow's Monday Pauper Deck Challenge. Win or lose, I plan on discussing my decklist this coming week.

And by way of postscript, if you have any ideas for future projects or posts, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

Deck Flashback: Delver Blue

Today I want to start a new blog series called Deck Flashback. Essentially, in these posts, I will be looking back to successful Standard Pauper decks of the past, breaking down what made them work, and discussing how those concepts might be applied in the current metagame.

The release of Innistrad brought one of the most powerful Blue Commons to be printed in recent time: Delver of Secrets. The chance to get a 3/2 Flyer that effectively has Haste on Turn 2 or 3 is too good to pass up, even if there's no guarantee it will ever be more than a 1/1 for 1. Delver saw play in just about every deck that ran Blue, and was the backbone for several successful deck archetypes.

One of those archetypes was an aggressive mono-Blue deck that was usually referred to simply as Delver Blue. Here's a sample decklist, taken from MPDC 18.01:

Delver Blue

FlxEx MPDC 18.01 Top 4

Creatures 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Phantasmal Bear 4 Stitched Drake 4 Welkin Tern 16 cards Other Spells 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Mana Leak 4 Ponder 4 Psychic Barrier 4 Thought Scour 4 Vapor Snag 2 Negate 2 Turn Aside 1 Silent Departure 29 cards

Lands 15 Island 15 cards Sideboard 3 Steel Sabotage 3 Disperse 2 Stormbound Geist 2 Cancel 1 Turn Aside 1 Negate 1 Flayer Husk 1 Mutagenic Growth 1 Silent Departure 15 cards

I believe three elements made this deck so successful:

• It was the epitome of Aggro-Control; drop a quick creature, protect it with counter-magic, and ride it all the way to victory.
• The high number of spells compared to either Lands or Creatures all but guaranteed that Delver would flip within 2-3 turns at most, and often right-away.
• It had a very low Land count, thanks to a very low mana curve, playing only a single color, and including 12 cantrips. This meant it rarely wanted more than three Lands in play, and typically drew very well.

Sadly, nearly all of these cards have rotated out of Standard, with very little in the way of analogs to take their place. So why did I take the time to look at it?

Last time, I talked about Hidden Strings and its use in an aggressive Azorius build. While the build that took the trophy for MPDC 24.07 is quite strong, I found myself wondering if one could retool the list to an Aggro-Control archetype. Naturally, the first place to start is to look at other successful Aggro-Control decklists and see what made them tick.

Next time, I hope to apply some of these insights into just such a decklist. But until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts about Delver Blue and how it might be a springboard for a successful Aggro-Control archetype that takes advantage of Hidden Strings. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. See you next time!

Hidden Strings

Sometimes a card that once was written off as little more than chaff turns out to be quite good in the right deck.

As it turns out, I believe Hidden Strings is just such a card. About a month ago now, Chris Baker blogged about several decks that he was considering playing and/or recommending for the ongoing Standard Pauper Gauntlet. One such deck he entitled Crouching Cipher Hidden Strings. Fast-forward several weeks, and player rbernardinello won MPDC 24.07 with this exact decklist. And that's where I first saw it. I was intrigued by the inclusion of Hidden Strings, and decided to build the deck and see what it could do.

It didn't take me long to discover just how powerful Hidden Strings is in that decklist.

At first blush, I didn't see a lot of value in this card. Sure, it had an interesting effect, but ultimately didn't seem to produce enough value to be worth a card. On its initial casting, you could use it to tap down an opponent's creature, untap one of your own attackers to give it pseudo-Vigilance, untap two of your lands to generate extra mana, or even tap down your opponent's mana sources. But its Cipher effect was much less useful, since it didn't do anything until after combat was already over for your turn.

The release of Theros changed all of that. As it turns out, the ability to target multiple targets with one effect pairs up perfectly with the Heroic mechanic. In fact, you don't even have to actually tap or untap the creature in question; merely targeting it is enough. Similarly, with the release of Born of the Gods, Hidden Strings allows you to potentially tap or untap a creature with the Inspired mechanic.

A study of the existing card pool reveals 16 potential creatures with either mechanic; but of those, the greatest concentration is in White and Green. With White Weenie already showing great success in the format, splashing Blue for Hidden Strings and a few other support cards seemed the best way to support this synergy.

Yesterday, it seemed several players were experimenting with this card in various colors, although I did not see anyone playing Chris Baker's original list other than myself. Despite the fact that Hidden Strings didn't show up at all in the Top 8, I believe this card has the potential to be a significant role player in the weeks ahead, especially if Journey to Nyx brings into the cardpool a few more decent Heroic or Inspired creatures. We shall see.