WotC Changes Standard

Surprisingly, there are still players in our Standard Pauper community who don't pay any attention to what;s going on over at Wizards. While I will be the first to admit that most of the time what's trending over at WotC doesn't pertain much to the Standard Pauper format, this is still a mistake. After all, if Standard is the most popular format, it should go without saying that whatever Wizards decides to do to that format will definitely spill-over into Standard Pauper in one way or another.

So in case you missed it, last week Mark Rosewater announced a major change to the way that they are structuring Magic sets. Currently, Wizards releases two Expert blocks a year, each of which is three sets, as well as a Core block, for a combination of ten sets a year. This also means that Standard, at most, includes eight sets, since Standard doesn't rotate until the third Expert block is released (and thus includes two Core sets, just like it does now). But all that is going to change.

Starting in the fall of 2015, each Expert block will only be two sets instead of three. Furthermore, by the time the spring of 2016 rolls around, Wizards will be releasing three Expert blocks a year instead of two. Additionally, this means that something had to be eliminated, and that something is the Core set. Finally, Standard will now rotate after six sets, which works out to twice a year instead of just once. This also means that Standard will now always be either five or six sets, rather than ranging from five to eight as it does now.

If you want the full details, I strongly suggest you read the full article here, which is accompanied by some handy graphics. But my overall impression of this change is quite positive. Here's why:

• With Standard rotating more often, the metagame will change more quickly. Format-warping cards will rotate faster, and established decks will have to adapt to this more rapid pace. While I maintain that the metagame is already fairly healthy, this change can only improve that.
• With the Core Set gone, the overall complexity of the format will increase slightly, since the Core Set had more stringent restrictions on what could be printed at Common. While the total number of cards will be smaller, the overall quality of the cards we do have should be higher.

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

White Weenie Tokens

If I've said it before, I've said it a hundred times on this blog - when in doubt, White Weenie is the way to go in Standard Pauper. Back as the Magic 2015 set was being spoiled, I predicted that Triplicate Spirits would be one of the break-out Commons of the set. Surprisingly, I have yet to see much in the way of successful builds using this card or the Convoke mechanic in general. However, from the moment I got to play with this card in the prerelease, I have been trying to run a White Weenie tokens build to success in Monday Pauper Deck Challenge.

Over the last two weeks, I seemed to have found some decent success. I managed both a Top 8 and Top 4 finish, and I am now reasonably happy with my build. Here's the list I ran this past Monday:

WW Tokens

MPDC 26.03 Top 4

Creatures 4 Syndic of Tithes 4 Heliod's Pilgrim 4 Nyxborn Shieldmate 3 Selfless Cathar 3 Sungrace Pegasus 2 Hopeful Eidolon 20 cards Other Spells 4 Raise the Alarm 4 Triplicate Spirits 3 Ethereal Armor 3 Fortify 3 Pacifism 2 Eyes in the Skies 1 Knightly Valor 20 cards

Lands 16 Plains 4 Radiant Fountain 20 cards Sideboard 4 Keening Apparition 3 Beckon Apparition 3 Celestial Flare 2 Sundering Growth 2 Court Street Denizen 1 Selfless Cathar 15 cards

The basis concept of the deck is to go "wide" rather than "high"; meaning, generate a lot of small creatures rather than trying to build and protect one or two large threats. This proved to be a great way to sidestep removal, as your opponent simply can't afford to trade one-for-one with all of the tokens this deck can generate. Additionally, Nyxborn Shieldmate, Hopeful Eidolon, and Selfless Cathar are practically tokens themselves, with the Cathar also have the ability to play around both Shrivel and the like, which is definitely the biggest threat your opponent can play.

Once you've assembled a large number of creatures, all it typically takes is one big swing with Fortify and/or the pump from Selfless Cathar to win you the game. Alternatively, using Ethereal Armor and the Bestow creatures to pump up any of your fliers can also prove to be a viable strategy.

The Sideboard mostly helps against other White or Red decks running powerful Enchantments, but also includes some additional removal, some anti-graveyard recursion, and the ability to lock down big creatures using Court Street Denizen. Given the way the metagame is shaping up, it's hard to have too much Enchantment hate at your disposal.

Hope you enjoyed this look at my current White Weenie Tokens deck. Now that you've seen both this list and my Boros Tokens list, which one do you think is stronger, and why? Let me know in the comments below.

Finally, it's not too late to get into Chris Baker's "M" Core League. But the window is closing rapidly. Don't miss out!

Hearthstone: The Hunter-taker

Last time, I discussed the power of the Undertaker in Hearthstone and how I was hoping to take advantage of its powerful synergies in a different Constructed deck. One day, as I was watching TrumpSC stream, he battled against a Hunter list I had never seen before that paired Undertaker with a bunch of solid Deathrattle minions and combined that with Mad Scientist to draw into the Hunter's Secrets. Intrigued, I took to Google to discover whether such a list had been published yet. It took a bit of searching, but I eventually came across this list.

Although I lacked the Legendary Leeroy Jenkins, I had all the rest of the cards, and thus quickly assembled them into a deck I dubbed the Hunter-taker. I ended up also cutting Loatheb to make room for a pair of Sludge Belchers, which do a surprisingly good job of protecting the Hunter's more fragile minions in the mid- to late-game, enabling you to push through the last few points of damage.

The results surprised me. For the first time ever, I found myself rapidly climbing up the ranks in the Ranked Constructed queues, allowing me to push into single-digit rankings for the first time. I am currently Rank 8, and in the few days left for this season of Constructed play, I am hoping to make a serious push towards Legendary. But even if I don't make that goal, I have already accomplished more than I expected.

Interestingly enough, Hearthstone expert and well-known streamer Reynad popularized a similar list on his stream last week, which you can read all about here. Looks like I am definitely onto something good!

Next time, I'll take a look at what I've been playing in MPDC the past two Mondays - White Weenie tokens!

Hearthstone: The Undertaker

Over the past month or so, I've seen a fairly significant jump in my ability to compete in Constructed Hearthstone. Thanks to cracking a lucky Legendary, I was able to assemble my first Constructed-worthy deck, using the exact 30 cards that TrumpSC included in his Zoo deck. While I was fairly happy with that build and had some decent results, so many of my games were mirror-matches in the lower tiers of Ranked Constructed. Eventually, I decided I wanted to run something different.

I ended up choosing to try out a mid-range Hunter build based on the list that Reynad had popularized. I started with his exact build, save for a single copy of Eaglehorn Bow, which I did not own and lacked the dust to craft.I experimented with several variations of the deck, testing out various removal pieces to combat Zoo and playing fewer copies of the traps and Stonetusk Boar. But once again, while I was having some success, I wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting. In particular, the Zoo matchup seemed to be no better than fifty-fifty, and given how popular that deck has become, that just wasn't good enough.

About that time the Construct Quarter from Naxxramas was released, dropping Undertaker into the metagame for the first time. Three stat points at one mana with a minor ability is pretty standard for Hearthstone, but in this case the potential is there to slowly build this lowly one-drop into a formidable threat. Currently, there are a ton of strong neutral low-drops with relevant Deathrattle abilities, including Leper Gnome, Haunted Creeper, and Loot Hoarder. This creates the potential for a massive buff midgame, or even forcing your opponent to waste their removal on a lowly 1-drop. Intrigued, I started looking for a decklist that took advantage of this potential.

Then, while watching a Hearthstone stream, I came across a great deck that was tailor-built around the Undertaker, and was seeing great success in the Constructed queues. Next time, I'll talk about that list and my results with it thus far.

Boros Tokens, Part Two

Last time, I discussed my initial thoughts about a Boros Tokens build for Standard Pauper whose basis came from the successful Kuldotha Hawk deck from back when Scars of Mirrodin was legal in Standard Pauper. The concept was to create a deck that combines a large burn package with a lot of tokens and pump spells to go both big and wide to defeat your opponent, and to support that plan with some modest card advantage.

Here's my first attempt at the deck:

Boros Tokens

Creatures 2 Selfless Cathar 3 Heliod's Pilgrim 4 Akroan Crusader 9 cards Other Spells 4 Annihilating Fire 4 Lightning Strike 4 Inferno Fist 4 Raise the Alarm 4 Triplicate Spirits 3 Massive Raid 2 Ethereal Armor 2 Fortify 2 Madcap Skills 29 cards

Lands 6 Mountain 6 Plains 4 Boros Guildgate 4 Radiant Fountain 2 Evolving Wilds 22 cards Sideboard 3 Gods Willing 4 Keening Apparition 3 Pacifism 1 Fortify 3 Hopeful Eidolon 1 Rootborn Defenses 15 cards

While I haven't done a lot of testing, thus far I've been pleased with the results. It relies on 16 burn spells, with Inferno Fist doing double-duty as an Enchantment. It's only got 8 Enchantments total for value with Heliod's Pilgrim, but the combination of Madcap Skills, Ethereal Armor, and Inferno Fist seem to be quite strong. Akroan Crusader gets tokens going fairly quickly, backed up with Raise the Alarm and Triplicate Spirits. Selfless Cathar and Fortify allow the tokens to get big for a massive swing, and Massive Raid can be a powerful finisher. The Sideboard is even less tuned, but gives the deck some more defensive options and answers against specific threats. Pacifism and Hopeful Eidolon are particularly nice, since they can be searched up with Heliod's Pilgrim.

Like I said, it's a pretty rough list thus far, and definitely needs some refining. So I'd love to hear what changes you'd make to the deck. Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

Boros Tokens, Part One

Last week, I posted my second Deck Flashback featuring the Kuldotha Hawk deck from Season 15 of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge. The goal of this particular series is to examine powerful Standard Pauper decks of the past, analyze what made them good, and discover whether a similar archetype is possible in the current metagame. For review, here's what I found particularly relevant about the Kuldotha Hawk decklist:

1. It was blazing-fast, using cheap creatures and burn spells to quickly finish off an opponent.
2. It used equipment to buff its smaller creatures for maximum value.
3. It was capable of drawing lots of cards.
4. Its low mana curve and card drawing engine allowed it to run very few lands.

Stripped to its core, Kuldotha Hawk relied on tokens, burn, pump effects, and card advantage. Boros seems the perfect color combination for these four elements, so to build something similar in the current metagame, that seems the ideal starting point. So what analogues exist in the current cardpool?

• Tokens: Magic 2015 gave us two solid options that produce multiple tokens in Raise the Alarm and Triplicate Spirits. Other possibilities include Eyes in the Skies, Flurry of Horns, Hive Stirrings, and Knight Watch.
• Burn: This is the easy part. The cardpool is chock full of cheap burn spells, including Annihilating Fire, Lightning Strike, Magma Spray, and Shock.
• Pump Effects: For power-boosting equipment, our only choices are Riot Gear and Skyblinder Staff, neither of which are very effective. But Fortify and Inspired Charge are great for tokens, while Bestow creatures and/or Auras are also worth considering.
• Card Advantage: This is the hardest element to replicate. The closest one can come in Boros colors currently are the token spells, which give you pseudo-card advantage by producing multiple creatures for only a single card. Auramancer and Heliod's Pilgrim can create additional advantage as well, assuming the deck includes relevant Enchantments to recur or search up.

 Next time, I will take a look at how one might combine these elements to create a viable decklist. In the mean time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this archetype!

Finally, don't miss out on the new Standard Pauper league that Chris Baker is hosting: "M" Core All-Stars League. This will be run similarly to my Multicolor Mayhem league, and Writer Adept is donating 20 tickets to the prize pool! Get all the details in the link above, and I hope to see you soon on the other side of the virtual table.

Brief Gencon Report

The past four days I have been attending Gen Con, the largest gaming convention in the United States and probably among the largest such events of the year. I am still planning on the second part of post on the Kuldotha Hawk Deck Flashback, but that will have to wait until Tuesday. Today I want to briefly talk about my own experience at the conference and share a photo gallery that captures much of the spirit of the event.

As my regular readers might be aware, my wife and I are both aspiring fantasy authors, so we spent much of the conference attending the Writers Symposium, which is a series of panels and presentations by various successful authors in the speculative fiction market. I also took an entire day to play in a couple different Pathfinder modules through the Pathfinder Society. The rest of my time was spent crawling about the Exhibit Hall, playtesting games, gawking at all the 'geek-tastic' merchandise, and nearly being trampled by the sheer press of numbers that engulfed the hall. My wife and I purchased a couple new games which I will be reviewing in future posts. I did browse through some of the Magic the Gathering booths and tables, but since I have no experience playing in any sanctioned events in person, I never actually picked up a single Magic card the whole weekend.

Overall it was a lot of fun. Gen Con is an event like none other, and the sheer volume of games and resources at your fingertips is mind-boggling. Equally inspiring was sitting among at least several hundred roleplayers all playing the same game (although different modules) at the same time. And, of course, the sheer volume of cosplayers was staggering, ranging from the excellent to the funny to the vulgar. If you enjoy that sort of thing, our local newspaper already posted a fantastic photo gallery that I recommend you check out.

I am also exhausted, feeling under-the-weather, and behind on several projects, having gotten up for the last three mornings well before sunrise and going to bed way past my normal time. My kids haven't seen their parents except for brief snatches over that same span of time. Which means I need to finish off this post and get back to the tatters of the life I have been neglecting for Gen Con. It was a ton of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year.