Yet Another Perspective - 2nd Place at MPDC 23.06

First of all, let me introduce myself: Hi, I'm NT_Smith...

Well, not really, that is my digital name. My paper name is Manu, I'm 24 years old, I'm from Spain and I've been around Standard Pauper for a while now. I play MTGO in my laptop/toaster so I crash a lot. I'm currently and probably forever unemployed so I play a lot too.

Last season, I won SPDC 19.26 with Übermühle, the UB Mill deck that I believe started a trend. It was not a good deck as it was designed just to beat BUG decks running Ghostly Flicker. I was not a good pilot either and I confirmed it a couple events later when I milled myself in a mirror match against FabioS, LOL.

Alternative win conditions are not my thing. I didn't like the deck but winning is nice, isn't it? I also believe that at difficult times when banning Ghostly Flicker looked like the only solution to keep the format I love alive, Dimir Mill gave better, more playable decks a chance to come back. And they did.

When the metagame adapted to it, UB Mill became fairly beatable and I stopped playing it. There were so many answers back then!... I was discouraged, truly discouraged. I was so bummed that I stopped playing at all. But as I said I love this game, this format and the people that make it possible...

So I'm back, baby! I'm back playing, deckbuilding and now writing. It was time. Almost two months deep into a metagame with no answer to Crypt Incursion and not good enough burn to melt MundisV cold, cold heart I managed to take 2nd place at MPDC 23.06. I doubt anyone not playing Dimir Mill could do better right now. Here's the decklist:

NT_Smith's BESTOWPROOF

Alseids are an essential part of a healthy breakfast.

Creatures (26)
3 Auramancer
4 Centaur Healer
4 Gladecover Scout
3 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Keening Apparition
4 Leafcrown Dryad
3 Observant Alseid
1 Rubbleback Rhino

Other Spells (13)
2 Commune with the Gods
4 Ethereal Armor
2 Ranger's Guile
3 Pacifism

2 Wildwood Rebirth

BFF's.

Lands (21)
9 Plains
8 Forest
4 Selesnya Guildgate

Sideboard (15)
1 Auramancer
3 Celestial Flare
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Pacifism
2 Pit Fight
2 Ranger's Guile
2 Seller of Songbirds
2 Sundering Growth
1 Wildwood Rebirth


It took me a couple of games to know what I could and what I couldn't do, but it was a really fun deck to play and I'm very happy that I got so far with it. The rest of the article will be some of my impressions on the 75 cards I put together and my thoughts on the archetype. I will leave the matchups for the PDC boards. If you want to read about them, you can find them all here.

I encountered Adner in the casual room right before MPDC 23.05. He was testing Bant Bestow but he was not going to participate in the event that day so he could answer my questions before his article came out (most of my card choices are already explained there so be sure to check it out). Thank you very much, Ad.

I liked the idea and the archetype but I was still not convinced by the blue splash, so I put together what I think is a harder, better, faster, stronger two color version of it. The deck is obviously not perfect and it needs some tweaking, but it can be a good contendant in a future, hopefully healthier metagame.

In other formats with a better mana base, three color decks are better than their two color version in almost every matchup. Naya, Jund, BUG and UWR will be always better than Gruul, Rakdos, Golgari or Izzet. This is not our case. In my honest opinion, playing three colors in Standard Pauper is unreliable, playing too many guildgates is a huge tempo loss and not playing gatekeepers to gain back some of that lost tempo is a mistake.

Playing Hexproof in an enchantment based deck is the way to go. Yes, the Bestow mechanic makes sure you won't get "two for oned" when your enchanted creature is targeted with removal, that is nice and you will play that way and still succeed a lot of times, but one for one removal is pretty good too.

Having an untargetable thread on board can luckily be enough to annul your opponents' removal set and mess with their entire game plan. If they don't have an answer for a hexproof creature (sacrifice effect, global damage spell or combat trick) and can't rush you, your bestowed Gladecover Scout is game. A 1/1, GAME. Be sure to play around Electrickery, Devour Flesh and Celestial Flare and you will be just fine.

Hopeful Eidolon is a spirit but might as well be A BEAST. No more weird black splashes for Mark of the Vampire, you have a lifelink aura in white right where it belongs. I played it as a Trained Caracal a lot of times, not only against monoblack to protect Gladecover Scout from edicts but also as the weakest, yet the best creature to bestow upon. If destroyed or bounced (yes, please!), you only lose a 1/1 after all.

Tweaking, not Twerking. Apart from the adjustments in numbers (I'd probably run one more land), there were two cards that didn't feel right. Rubbleback Rhino is just too slow and I only played it twice. I don't even know if it's a sideboard card. As it turns out, my sideboard is wrong and messed up and also wrong and my card choices are bad and messed up too. I forgot the metagame completely and didn't include any Razortip Whip against Dimir Mill, for example. And talking about wrong...

"This Ranger's Guile should be Gods Willing, damn it". A very poor deckbuilding decision that got me stuck and made games longer. As it turns out, Adner deck was better than mine at two things: dealing with flyers, and evasion. I realized it too late. Concordia Pegasus, Deadly Recluse and Sunspire Griffin could have helped with the first issue, but the white instant from Theros came to mind more than any other card as the perfect way to solve the second one.

Protection is plainly better than hexproof and I was already playing "da sexy purple tattooed elf" so Ranger's Guile was a redundancy sometimes. Gods Willing grants evasion to push your biggest creature through a bunch of chump blockers and deal lethal damage sucessfully, is a safeguard against combat tricks, it causes removal to fizzle just like Ranger's Guile and smoothes draws which is essential late game. I missed all of Gods Willing modes and I have already included it in the deck.

But granting protection has a drawback too. Be careful when choosing white or green, as your auras from the chosen color will fall from the creature as a state-based action. You can also use it at your advance to create an army of smaller creatures, but I think that would not make sense too often.

Thank you very much for reading this far, I think that's almost everything I had to say. You can access the deck statistics and download Bestowproof current decklist here. You can copy it, change it, tweak it, twerk it, rename it and play it as much as you want. But make sure you have fun while at it!

Best regards. Wake me up when Gravepurge is back,

NT_Smith

Beating Dimir Beaters

I have been running hot lately with the Dimir Control deck (or Dimir Mill, if you prefer it that way) and I would like to give you a short recap of my latest tournament as well as give you some advise on how to play against aknowledged opponents and offer new tech options to strengthen your 75.

To begin the tournament, I had to play in a mirror match. My opponent Mace_Windu had Read the Bones in his deck and I also resolved a few Psychic Strikes against him, which gave me enough „library advantage“ to just wait for a billion of turns. My opening hand in  the second game was three lands, three Dispels and a singleton Razortip Whip. Since Mace_Windu kept a hand with three Islands, a few 4 CMC cards and Pilfered Plans he just conceded without hitting his black mana in a few turns. I sided in my „damage package“ against him Razortip Whip and Benthic Giant.

1-0 Round 1: Mace_Windu  with Dimir Control 2-0

In the second round I played against Gwyned and his Azorius Control, which looked were potent against Dimir. I won the first game simply countering everything he played, but he was ready for this matchup in the second game. He sided into a 75 cards deck and mulliganed to 4. I think that is way better than mulliganing to 0, which looses to Archaeomancer very quickly. I made a huge mistake by siding out 1 Archeomancer and just did not have anything to attack him before decking out. I side in my Archeomancer, Benthic Giant and Whip in the 3rd game and win a very close game only because Gwyned made a mistake of Last Breathing my creature to pull me in the race between attacking Omenspeaker and Razortip Whip.

2-0 Round 2: Gwyned with Azorius Control 2-1

I win against CIPPDOGG playing Mono-Black in two very easy games. Mono-black is the best match-up for our deck and CIPPDOGG did not try to side into more cards or do any other  tricks, which is the only way for Mono-Black to win against a reasonable Dimir hand.

3-0 Round 3: vs. Mono-black by CIPPDOGG 2-0

The fourth round was not very pressuring, when I was undefeated, but I wanted to win against wisker‘s Mono-Red again.  And I did it, in the first game I filled his graveyard with countered creatures (and discarded Makkas) while taking some insignificant damage and then Crypt Incursion just put it out of his reach. I lost the second game in four turns after mulliganing and stumbling a little, that was the perfect time for Mono-Red to shine. The third game was a lot like the first, filling his graveyard and the Incursing it. I also hit my personal record for biggest Grisly Spectacle mill, which was equal to 8.
4-0 Round 4: wisker  with Hyper Aggressive Mono Red 2-1

Top 8 vs Chipp Extort 2-0

These two games are hard to remember for me, but they were quick and easy. I think extort is a reasonable match-up. They never accumulate a big mass of Extort creatures to drain a lot and their creatures are too mediocre to deal 20 in time. Important thing to remember – Pharika‘s Cure hits everything in this deck besides  1/4s some players opt to run.

Top 4: vs CIPPDOGG MonoBlack 2-0 

My opponent from the 3rd round. Once again, Mono-Black is a great match-up. CIPPDOGG learned from his last match and tried to run 75 cards and not play any spell, but here my singleton „safety“ Tome Scour showed up and foiled his plan. 

Finals: vs beatnik bobby Bant Hex 2-0

Finals games were quite interesting and it came down to me having a removal spell for his Gatecreeper Vine in conjunction with Devour Flesh to remove big Voltron creature. This deck can be quite powerful if they stick a hexproof creature on the field and puts a bunch of auras on it. And sticking a one drop is not very hard, so drawing our Devour Fleshes is required to win here. Also, this was the second match I drew Stymied Hopes and it was way too late in the game, do not run that card, it is not the fifth Essence Scatter we want.

During all these matches I have never missed Read the Bones I cut. It is bad against aggro and puts us behind in the library count against 75 card decks or the mirror. There are no need for this card in games 2 and 3, so it has no place in the 75. Considering how happy I was to cut Read the Bones, I was equally satisfied with Pharika‘s Cure‘s performance. It is a great cheap removal card and I am definitely maining 4 next time. This card in conjunction with Devour Flesh allows us to survive early game against aggro and trumph them with Crypt Incursion. I could go as far as to say that with these cards we are not even unfavored against the Mono-Red, although I might be biased.

As for sideboarding, Tome Scour was a hidden gem for me in the last MPDC. Running only one copy in our maindeck provides us with a wiin condition against these players who refuse to play a spell when they have more card in their library. We are guaranteed to draw it before milling out and our Archeomancers can recast necessary number of Scours to win. Running one makes sure we do not draw it too eaerly and we are not flooded with excess copies, also the only way to win against us with Tome Scour in the deck is to deal 20 (and more) damage. After siding, bringing in the second copy might be correct, especially if we saw our opponent  side into 75 cards deck and mulligan. That means they are not going to kill us with damage and all we need to do is hit our land drops patiently. I also want to point out that the third copy of Tome Scour is for the mirror because they can get milled before we draw them and we want to cast that  card as many times as possible there. I have not tested the mirror match enough to convince you that milling with Tome Scour is better than dealing damage with Razortip Whip since that card provides a solid, impossible to remove twenty turns clock. It sounds funny, but that clock is not easy to beat by milling. In this tournament my „damage-dealing package“ of singleton Razortip Whip and Benthic Giant was underwhelming and I always thought I had rather gone full Tome Scour plan. Both sideboarding options might be correct, but Dimir players should commit to either damage or mill sideboards. I think that staying on the mill plan is better, but it is not a given.

Despite recent success of Dimir Control, people, who hate it, please, do not give up yet. I think format can evolve to beat it and Simic Aggro and Azorius decks with flash creatures and blue mana for cheap counterspells seem to be the right way to beat Dimir.

See you at the tables,
MundisV

What Makes a Strong Magic Playgroup?

Today I wanted to cover the important topic of a Magic playgroup. It is somewhat ironic for me to cover this topic, since for almost all of my time playing Standard Pauper I have been, as Adner put it, a lone wolf. For the most part, I have written articles, built decks, and participated in events without intentionally getting advice from my fellow Standard Pauper players.

Of course, as the newest member of this clan, that has to change.

If you never read Next Level Magic by Patrick Chapin, I would highly recommend it. In this short but tightly-packed book, Chapin covers just about every aspect of mastering Magic the Gathering. Not surprisingly, he has quite a bit to say about the value of establishing a solid playgroup and how that group contributes to the success of all of its members. Rather than trying to regurgitate that section of his book, let me instead give you the highlights.

So what makes for a strong playgroup?

1. Everyone in the group should be actively working to getting better. The best way to improve in Magic is to surround yourself with other people who are trying to improve. Individual success leads to greater success for the group, which in turn supports greater success for each individual.
2. There should be a diversity of skills in the group. Not everyone in the group has to contribute in the same way or even the same amount. But each person should, at the least, be bringing at least one unique aspect to the group.
3. The group shouldn't be too big or too small. If a group has too few members, it risks becoming in-bred, recycling the same ideas over and over. On the other hand, if a group has too many members, it becomes too large to coordinate and communicate effectively.
4. The group should be united around a goal. Everyone in the group needs to understand clearly what the group is trying to accomplish. 
5. The group should playtest regularly and communicate results clearly. At the end of the day, the primary function of a playgroup is playtesting. Play a ton of matches, test out different decks, and communicate with the whole group what is being learned in these playtesting sessions.
6. The group should encourage one another. Magic can be frustrating. Bad luck seems to strike at the worst times. Simple acts of kindness and encouragement go a long way.

So, based on Chapin's work, what do we need to do to make this playgroup as strong as it could be?

Bant Bestow

This list was inspired by the Selesnya Bestow deck some clanmates like FabioS (Besta Ou !) have been testing. But i felt like more options were needed to give it an efficient go in the meta and decided to splash blue. Why? I hope you will find out while reading this. The list does well vs most other archetypes in the format, including Mill, RDW and even MBC. It's still under testing but it's definitly fun to play with. So if you want to give it a try, here it is !

BANT BESTOW

Creatures (28)
4 Observant Alseid
4 Keening Apparition
4 Centaur Healer

Enchant, enchant, enchant !

4 Nimbus Naiad
4 Auramancer
4 Leafcrown Dryad
4 Hopeful Eidolon

Other spells (11)
4 Ethereal Armor
2 Wildwood Rebirth
2 Commune with the Gods
3 Pacifism

Lands (22)
5 Plains
5 Forest
3 Azorius Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Unknown Shores
2 Island
2 Simic Guildgate

Sideboard
1 Feral Invocation
3 Ranger's Guile
3 Dispel
3 Celestial Flare
1 Pacifism
2 Annul
2 Aqueous Form

Card Choices / Creatures
28 creatures put the list in the aggro field. They are all 3cc except for their Bestow option. From 2/2's to 3/3's, keeping them safe from Shrivel or Electrickery.

4 Observant Alseid
Vigilance is so good in the format. Turn 3 beater / blocker or turn 5 Bestow for a vigilance Tron. Vigilance+Flying+Ethereal Armor : big clock.

4 Keening Apparition
Yes, maindeck !! Turn 2 aggressor and enchantment hate ready. Considering the manabase, it can also be a turn 2 play even if your starting hand has too many gates. Also maindecked to prevent opponent's pacifisms from muting your Tron.

4 Centaur Healer
Not much to say. One of the best creatures in the format and in the meta. Quickly turns into a 5/5 vigilance, reach, flying or 4/4 lifegain. I suggest playing the bestow creatures first though unless you are facing a mill deck.

4 Nimbus Naiad
One of the main reasons for splashing Blue into this archetype is evasion. Flying. Once you have 5 manas, you can bestow it and go for the winged swing. That's why he'll be the favorite target of your opponent's spells.

4 Auramancer
Really so good in this archetype. Allows enchantment recursion from graveyard, can become a threat when targeted by your bestow, we would like 12 in the deck !!

4 Leafcrown Dryad
Another turn 2 play on the early aggro way. Turn 4 bestow on any previous beater if needed to pass through 4 toughness blockers.

4 Hopeful Eidolon
Lifelink ! Added to the lifegain from Centaur Healers, this card will help a lot vs RDW and will drive your strategic choices depending on what is on the battlefield. Sometimes a turn 1 play followed by Etheral Armor on it, though it's a bit risky when facing red or Black, because that occurs quite often in the meta.
More often a mid-game option when bestowed.

Card choices / other spells
Only 11 cards, but well sorted.

4 Etheral Armor
Wins out of nowhere, tightens the clock fast, turns blockers into dead meat, this card gives your opponents shivers everytime you tap a white producing land on your turn. He really wants to get rid of it !!

2 Wildwood rebirth
Possibly 2 more Auramancers for ench recursion, but also some reach on graveyard when you are looking for a way to finish the game when it's stalled. Brings back Evasion (flying Nimbus), lifelink, reach, Etheral Armor or a centaur depending on what you need all the way.

2 Commune with the Gods
Very versatile card during game. Can help you sort and find what you need depending on the situation, fills in your graveyard with targets for Auramancers or Wildwood rebirth. Needless to mention, side them out VS Mill. I like playing that card when 5 manas are available, so anything you choose can be played same turn or the turn after.

3 Pacifisms
They keep efficient blockers out of the way and boost your Etheral Armor wearers. Also prevents early invasion and massive damage.


MANABASE
3 colors can be a problem. This is mostly Selesnya with a blue splash for evasion and better sideboard options vs the actual field.
Needs a bit of work but it's OK most of the time. Suggestions? Ideas?


Sideboard Cards

1 Feral Invocation
Surprise ! Mostly there for combat tricks or in response to burn trying to remove your 2/2's or 4/4's. Tried a single but may increase them as they are so good with Etheral armor.

3 Ranger's Guile
Not much to say. They ruin straight removal, can be useful for combat tricks, safe shelter vs anything, spell or ability that would target your win conditions. I like to keep them in hand for mid game, even late game, when you have board advantage.

3 Dispel
Ruins instant removal suite from Mill decks, negates summon counters so you can safely play creatures, very useful card often sided in game 2.

3 Celestial Flare
Trying to race your opponent? Removes a big lone attacker or a lone blocker, preventing your best threat from hitting the graveyard. May lower them to 2 samples. Still not sure.

1 Pacifism
The fourth copy is needed vs aggro or when you're on for the enchantment war.

2 Annul
More Enchantment hate, on the counter side this time, maybe increasing the number if that archetype spreads and we have to play the mirror matchup.

2 Aqueous Form
In case the board is locked and your flying evasion is not enough. Scry also helps keeping decent draws and getting rid of those land draws mid game and late game.

Of course the list is still subject to many evolutions, and i'll let you experience it to see how it goes versus other archetypes. But it has a really good matchup vs Mill and vs other Aggro lists, so it may have a slot on the top of the hill. Ready for some playtesting?

Have fun !!

Ad'

Private Clan Forum, it's on !!

Hello Standard Pauper Citizens.

It takes one and only post to keep you informed, great news : the private Clan Forum is up !!!

Let's discuss it.

Most sections and topics are restricted to Clan members only, and i really invite you to register in order to keep up with what's going on, and to let your voice be heard if you have an opinion or advice on anything discussed in the clan forums.

Is that Theros??

 The link to the forums can be found on the Blog's Homepage under "Clan Forum" section.

And while all paths lead to Rome, here's a direct link for the lazy clickers : 

http://standardpauperplayers.freeforums.org/

The man in charge for the forum is brother Bigbee, big thanks to him for stepping up and submitting this great idea that is now becoming a reality. Some contents available on the blog will be moved to the forums, Deckbuilding Workgroups for example.

Forum is also what you make it and want it to be, it's under construction, so please be part of it, it was made for you !!

See you there.

Evolution of Theros Standard Pauper and what I think about it

Hello everyone, I am MundisV, the winner of the most recent MPDC and, since the Deck Tech for Dimir Mill is already done, I would love to share my observations about Standard Pauper metagame. Please be aware that I am nowhere good enough to tell you what is definitely true and correct. Everything below is just my personal opinion, which can be (and probably is) flawed.

At the begininning of Theros Standard, our format, of course, was not defined yet and everyone was brewing something desirable according to person's favourite colour combination or part of major archetypes. In my opinon, in the very first event people just tried to jam the most powerful cards to their decks, and big creatures seemed great then, because there was next to no good removal. We saw Junk Extort take down the very first Casual MPDC event. Top 4 also featured an early version of Monoblack, as well as much different from now creature-based Dimir Control deck and my BUG big stuff deck. While this was a small tournament, at the earliest stages of the format, black proved to be very popular and powerful colour, also then I personally learned that Perilous Shadow, Pacifism and Grisly Spectacle were good (what might not be true today) and format was not as removal-light as I thought. Also, a great number of midrange decks with life gain (in Gary, Seruli and maybe Centaur Healer) made aggro a poor choice for the first week.

The second week of our format featured MPDC 23.01, which was dominated by Extort and Monoblack, although some intersting deck showed up: Boros Aggro, Hexproof Auras and Orzhov deck based on a synergy between Bestow creatures and Ethereal Armor. This event showed us much more synergistic decks, while midrange and control decks were left behind. I failed to achieve anything in this tournament with my Junk Midrange, which was a mix of my previous deck and the latest winning decklist.

I did not have time to prepare for the MPDC 23.02 and played my outdated Junk deck, which luckily made Top 4 even if I felt bad about it. Once again, meta was very diverse, although Monoblack and Extort decks kept their consistency. The finals featured two very powerful additions to our metagame: beautiful Gamelen's Golgari deck and Adner's masterpiece Dimir Mill deck, which won the whole thing. After losing to it, I quickly (once again) picked up the winning decklist and started to test with it.

As unbeatable Dimir deck can look from the other side of the table, it can be beaten. I had some bad draws and made some poor decisions, which led me up to a 2-2 finish in MPDC 23.03. It seems that similar fate occured to three other Dimir players, while Boros Aggro took down the event. The Top 8 contained some Orzhov Extort and Monoblack like usually, but in addition, we saw some strong new decks: Monoblue built by Kriss and Selesnya Aggro Auras built by FabioS. I believe, the addition of Adner's Control deck to Standard Pauper metagame made it even more diverse. Now big midrange decks and slow Monoblack deck could not reign supreme because Control beats them badly, this allows aggro decks to join the format, which makes midrange once again better. The existence of all major archetypes should be a proof that the format is still healthy and interesting.

If you got bored by this wall of text, I will leave you with my Dimir decklist, which is basically a rip-off from Adner baring a few cards:

 4 Archaeomancer

4 Read the Bones
3 Pilfered Plans
4 Devour Flesh
4 Grisly Spectacle
4 Essence Scatter
4 Cancel
4 Psychic Strike
2 Crypt Incursion
3 Thassa's Bounty

1 Unknown Shores
10 Swamp
9 Island
4 Dimir Guildgate

Sideboard
3 Pharika's Cure
3 Duress
1 Crypt Incursion
4 Razortip Whip
4 Dispel


It would have been great to add a match-to-match report of my tournament, but unfortunately I am bad at remembering details from the past and the PDCMagic page shows the event is still unfinished. Despite that, I remember some funny things from this event. First of all, I milled myself out  in the very first game of the tournament. My opponent learned a cute tactic from gwyned's article and stopped playing any cards when my library was smaller. Since I am a new Magic player , and I had played other TCG with different rules before, I thought the player looses only when he cannot draw a card during his Draw Step, unfortunately for me that was not true and when I tried to mill the last 5 cards from my opponent deck with Thassa's Bounties, I was unable to draw cards from my library and lost on-the-spot. This have happened to me once again, in the fourth round against FabioS, who also caught me with my pants down again, when I had a smaller library. I apologise, if waiting to draw the very last card seemed to be disrespectful, because I still was not certain, how some things would work out for me...  Also, I won with Archeomancers against an opponent who added his sideboard to the deck and mulled to 0 because I could counter all his removal against them (I believe this tactic isn't the best). I could tell you that my win in the finals against blightningly fast mono-red was due to amazingly lucky draws on my side and power of Pharika's Cure against that deck. At this moment, I would like to add the fourth copy to my 75 and probably move some of them to the main.
Also, I would reconsider Read the Bones, since I was siding them out almost all the time, it hurts against aggro and your library shrinks after casting it, which allows our opponents to abuse it and stop playing anything. The Sideboard part against control decks is almost  untested and I am not sure anymore if Razortip Whip is necessary.

To conclude, I want to say a big thank you for Adner, who takes of our clan, gwyned , who runs all these great events and, especially, MyGalaxy, who was the man, who intoduced me to this amazing Standard Pauper community.

MundisV

Bad Touch: Deck Tech

(This deck review was written and submitted by Gamelen. The author made Top 2 and Top 8 everytime he used it in MPDC, and it has inspired many players so thanks to him for sharing his thoughts on it and contributing to the Clan's blog). 

Bad Touch is a Golgari control deck in Standard Pauper that is based primarily around the powerful devotion mechanic.  It seeks long games with board stalls while digging for multiple copies of Gray Merchant of Asphodel to slowly establish control before punching through the final points of damage.

Preface: Devotion to Black

Like in Mono Black Control, the latent power Gray Merchant of Asphodel takes center stage.  It stalls the game against aggressive opponents and can close games out of nowhere.  The full potential of devotion only becomes apparent when two conditions are met:

1. The battlefield is controlled
2. The opponent’s hand is empty (or known)

The first goal is mostly self-explanatory.  Devotion counts the number of black mana symbols among Bad Touch’s permanents, so naturally the deck looks to keep a lot of black permanents in play.  A balance must be struck between developing the devotion count and ensuring the game goes long enough to cast Gray Merchant and Disciple of Phenax at opportune times.

The second goal of devotion decks is to eliminate answers from its opponent’s hand.  Instant speed removal can reduce, or even eliminate, the devotion count in response to Gray Merchant or Disciple of Phenax by removing the creature with the ability on the stack.  Counter spells negate the power of these cards outright.

Mono Black Control fulfills both of these conditions and is one of the most solid decks in the format.  However, with the Ravnica guildgates still available splashing a second color is quite easy to do and may well be worth the effort.

Bad Touch

Bad Touch forsakes maximizing the power of a single Gray Merchant or Disciple of Phenax for the ability to resolve those creatures more reliably and in multiples.

Creatures

4 Deadly Recluse

3 Corpse Hauler

4 Sluiceway Scorpion

4 Disciple of Phenax

Stranger Danger

4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Spells

4 Grisly Salvage

3 Altar's Reap

2 Read the Bones

2 March of the Returned

4 Devour Flesh

4 Stab Wound

Lands

8 Forest

10 Swamp

4 Golgari Guildgate

Sideboard

4 Duress

3 Sewer Shambler

3 Naturalize

2 Crypt Incursion

3 Pharika's Cure

Devotion Goals

In order to accomplish the first or our two devotion goals, we’re running Deadly Recluse and Sluiceway Scorpion to trade with our opponent’s best attackers while casting Grisly Salvage and Read the Bones to look for our Merchants and Disciples.  Devotion creatures are better in multiples and that’s how we’re going to cast them.

We play many cards that trade better than 1-for-1 to force our opponent’s hand empty.  We’re drawing cards at every opportunity, looking at our opponent’s hand, forcing discards, recurring high impact creatures, trading up with deathtouch, and scavenging in the late game.

Card Choices - Creatures

4 Deadly Recluse

Recluse blocks and trades with almost anything and only costs 2 mana.  It also wears scavenge counters well and will often trade for multiple blockers in the late game. 

3 Corpse Hauler

Hauler recurs Gray Merchants, blocks early when necessary, and beats for two late game where your opponents don’t want to target it with removal (making it another surprisingly effective scavenge target).

4 Sluiceway Scorpion

Scorpion attacks and blocks well while still being an unattractive target for removal.  This card is very flexible and provides extra value from Grisly Salvage.

4 Disciple of Phenax

Disciple might be the best card in the deck.  It usually trades 1-for-1 just from the discard, but it also reveals the opponent’s hand, blocks, and adds to devotion.  It’s not uncommon to cast Gray Merchant before Disciple of Phenax to prioritize card advantage over life totals.

4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Gray Merchant is the biggest reason to play black.  In close games it preserves life while whittling down the opponent.  In winning positions it ends the game.

Card Choices - Spells

4 Grisly Salvage

Grisly Salvage digs through 5 cards looking for Merchants while putting scorpions into the graveyard.  It also gives us a way to use the 2 mana we hold up for Altar’s Reap or Devour Flesh and is an excellent end-of-turn play.  Remember that Grisly Salvage can get lands when the shuffler isn’t cooperating.

3 Altar's Reap

Stab Wound on your Gray Merchant is horrible and can lose you the game.  Bad Touch also likes to recur creatures from the graveyard and benefits more from sacrificing its creatures than most other decks.

2 Read the Bones

Long games are won by card advantage and it’s hard to do better than Read the Bones.  There could easily be more than 2 of these in the deck.

2 March of the Returned

A 2-for-1 that gets exactly the cards you want.  Resolving this spell will often win the game, but also opens you to the graveyard hate that many opponents will sideboard.

4 Devour Flesh

Devour Flesh is one of the cheapest removal spells in the format and can also get you out of a Stab Wound.  Casting this card early helps mask when you have an Altar’s Reap.

4 Stab Wound

Sometimes Stab Wound forces opponents to remove their own creatures, but other times it gives your opponent a blocker that you don’t want to attack into, and still others it gets knocked off by a Gods Willing.  I go back and forth on this card.  If I can find room for Basilica Screecher it might stay, otherwise I may replace it with Grisly Spectacle.

Card Choices – Sideboard

The sideboard is by far the least refined part of this deck.  This is merely the sideboard I ran in MPDC 23.04.

4 Duress

Blue based control decks will counter your important spells and draw more cards than you can discard.  Hitting their important spells early or before resolving a Disciple of Phenax is important to maintaining card advantage.

3 Sewer Shambler

Many of the other powerful decks in the format contain swamps and Sewer Shambler helps break the effective mirror match.  The cheap scavenge makes it very flexible.

3 Naturalize

Ethereal Armor is a serious problem, especially with Hopeful Eidolon.  Naturalize may not be the answer.  This choice is untested.

2 Crypt Incursion

Incursion is good in the mirror when countering March of the Returned and Corpse Hauler and is serviceable against aggressive decks.  It has limited use in the Mill match where it can counter their Crypt Incursions, and is better than running a dead card.

3 Pharika's Cure

Fast aggressive decks and Extort both run many 2 toughness creatures that can end the game before you’re ready.  The removal is more important than the life gain, but it’s a nice bonus.

Metagame and Matchups: Early Thoughts

This format is still very young, but there are a few decks that you can expect to see at MPDC.  The popular decks that I remember facing are:

• Mono Black Control
• Orzhov Extort
• Selesnya Enchants
• Boros
• Dimir Mill
• Azorius Control

I will attempt to briefly summarize my thoughts on these matches.

Mono Black Control

This is effectively the mirror match.  Basilica Screecher needs to be dealt with early before it does too much extort damage.  Try to keep their devotion low enough that you can avoid revealing too much of your hand to Disciple of Phenax.  Conversely, cast Disciples to tear apart their hand and try to keep them top decking so your Grisly Salvages and scavenge counters can carry the match.  Try to play around their Corpse Haulers and make sure to save Altar’s Reap for Stab Wound.

Orzhov Extort

Kill anything that has the word “extort” on it immediately.  Those points add up quickly and are an absolute priority.  Disciple usually comes online quickly enough to pick the last creature out of their hand.

Selesnya Enchants

Ethereal Armor and Auramancer (for Ethereal Armor) are the cards that matter.  Deathtouch does a good job at keeping the rest in check.

Boros

The new Boros lists tend to run 30 or more of the most efficient creatures in the format.  I don’t believe I’ve played this matchup yet, but it could be very difficult.  Keeping them off of battalion will make it easier to block which is important since Bad Touch doesn’t have very many removal spells.  Be careful of getting blown out by Madcap Skills when relying on blockers.

Dimir Mill

You will lose this match.  This is the number one reason not to play Bad Touch.  Mill’s opening hands can be shaky and punishing them with Duress is important.  I’m also considering Mind Rot as a sideboard option, which may at least give us a chance to defeat mana-screwed opponents.  Depending on how Mill decks evolve the alternative anti-Mill strategy proposed by gwyned may be appropriate: http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2013/11/beating-dimir-mill.html

Azorius Control

This match is an absolute headache.  It is just difficult to keep track of everything they can do.   Resolving Disciple of Phenax is important to get a look at their hand to know when they have Celestial Flare, Essence Scatter, and perhaps most importantly Last Breath.  Deathtouch does a good job of getting through Court Hussar, but Deputy of Acquittals and Archaeomancer can accumulate card advantage quickly.  I have a winning record against this deck, but I don’t know if I should.

Evolution

Bad Touch is far from settled in my mind.  There are many cards that I’m considering trying while exploring Golgari in Standard Pauper.  Without going into detail, here are the possibilities that have piqued my interest:

Grisly Spectacle

Basilica Screecher

Sedge Scorpion

Baleful Eidolon

Trestle Troll

Terrus Wurm

Rubbleback Rhino

Commune with the Gods

Wildwood Rebirth

Shrivel

Drown in Filth

Cremate

Beckon Apparition

Mind Rot

I welcome anybody to play this deck and let me know how they do with it!  It leads to interesting and frequently close games in which you press a minute advantage over many turns.  Good luck to all of you Standard Pauper Players and may all of your decks earn interesting names!

-Gamelen

I Just Watched Pacific Rim or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Monsters

Having participated in MTGO for over a month now (and playing Standard Pauper for most of that time span), I can safely conclude that I have no idea what I am doing. If I did know anything about Magic, I would not be attempting to force an R/G ramp deck into a game environment intent on discouraging creature play at every turn. Adner, Heliod bless his soul, opened up Pandora's Box (appropriately enough, I suppose, given Theros' theme) with his B/U control, and now the premier tournament-winning deck plays a game of attrition that forces one's opponent to experience Hemingway levels of impotence (love ya, Ads!)

Enough with the rant. I love creatures. I love combat tricks. I want to seize my destiny. Namely, summoning a massive two-headed snake to devour my enemies - or, failing that, a highly aggravated cyclops. This is the deck I constructed to fulfill my desire.

He is so strong, I will call him Bane or: Category Five Kaiju

You know it's my destiny.

10 Forest
4 Gruul Guildgate
10 Mountain

4 Deadly Recluse
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
4 Nessian Asp
4 Spearpoint Oread
4 Zhur-Taa Druid

4 Lightning Strike
4 Pit Fight
4 Ranger' Guile

Sideboard
3 Academy Raider
1 Ruination Wurm
3 Act of Treason
3 Naturalize
1 Phytoburst
4 Shock

The premise is simple enough: utilize the Mystic and Druid to fuel the arrival of badass monstrosities. The Recluse serves as a glorified removal spell, while the Oread can either assist her monstrous brethren or take the field of battle herself. Lightning Strike and Pit Fight help control creature presence, while Ranger's Guile is a nasty surprise for any removal.

I utilized a method recommended on the Wizards site: construct the sideboard by forming alternate game plans, rather than a laundry list of counters to certain deck types. The deck can play more offensively by slotting in Academy Raider and the Wurm (against control decks), while Act of Treason and Shock can help against other creature decks. Naturalize is mandatory because, you know, enchantments and stuff, and Phytoburst is a nice bomb. I think.

How does the deck perform? I don't know, it's 1:00 in the morning. I assume poorly, given that I constructed this monstrosity (ha ha). I plan on broadcasting later today on my Twitch Channel, so maybe I can try this deck out in a highly public fashion, thus increasing my chances of humiliation. Huzzah.

If you finished this post, I admire your courage. Hopefully I will see you on the magical field of magical battles.
-Kyle "ChaoticCrawler"

BOROS !!!

(This deck review was written and submitted by Rhysticy, winner of the MPDC 23.03 trophy, congrats and thank you for contributing to the clan blog !)

Here's the list : 

Creatures

4 Daring Skyjek

4 Gore-House Chainwalker

4 Skyknight Legionnaire

4 Splatter Thug

4 Viashino Firstblade

4 Wojek Halberdiers

3 Foundry Street Denizen

3 Rakdos Shred-Freak

2 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells

3 Madcap Skills

3 Lightning Strike

2 Gods Willing

Lands

9 Mountain

7 Plains

4 Boros Guildgate

SIDEBOARD

3 Keening Apparition

3 Annihilating Fire

3 Chandra's Outrage

2 Pacifism

2 Azorius Arrester

1 Gods Willing

With Adner's success in the previous week with his Dimir Slow Mill build, I really wanted to try to find a deck that could either out-control his deck or simply win before a Thassa’s Bounty could resolve. I played against a blisteringly fast red deck but its all-in approach was a little too discomforting for me to want to play. While the Boros deck doesn’t have a good match up against the Slow Mill deck, it can punish it for not having enough removal immediately. 

To best combat the expected metagame of Monoblack and other mid-range and control variants, I upped the Viashino Firstblade count to the full four and added in the three (for a lack of owning a fourth) Foundry Street Denizens in lieu of Skinbrand Goblins. The deck just wants to be deploying more threats than control decks have answers for and punish land-heavy and land-light hands.

Crypt Incursion is an obvious problem, as dealing an additional sometimes twenty points of damage is incredibly difficult. Frostburn Weird also proved to be an effective wall; fortunately, the sideboard has a pair of answers in Chandra’s Outrage and Pacifism.

Sideboard:

The Chandra’s Outrages comes in against difficult 4-toughness creatures, namely Grey Merchant of Asphodel and Frostburn Weird. The full three come in on the draw, and often just two on the play.

Pacifisms are brought in against non-extort, non-Grey Merchant decks. Being cheaper than Annihilating Fire and Chandra’s Outrage allows me to drop a Pacifism and a creature turn four or five.

Azorius Arrester does similar work to the Pacifism but is more for tempo, since it’s not a permanent solution. I never actually brought them in, though I would conceivably do so in the mirror or against another non-blue aggro deck.

Keening Apparition was another card that never made it out of the board. Most enchantment removal kills the creatures in the deck, save Stab Wound on an unleashed Splatter Thug, so there was never a need for it. The spirit was mostly there to have some answer to Mark of the Vampire, Hopeful Eidolon or Ethereal Armor.

The third Gods Willing would come in against decks another aggro deck, perhaps. It’s a nice trick and scry is valuable to find threats and not blanks, but it’s often the last card out of my hand and rarely do I want multiples.

Annihilating Fire would come in as an alternative to Rubblebelt Maaka against decks with Celestial Flare. Avoiding the two-for-one is of utmost importance and it’s always sad to play the Maaka as an actual creature. On the rare occasion, I could see myself bringing in an Annihilating Fire in on the draw if I needed to remove something from the game; I’m not sure there is a creature, though, that merits that concern.

Against Grey Merchant decks:

With Grey Merchant decks being as ubiquitous as they are, I feel it’s prudent to address how the decks interact with each other. With few strong plays before turn 4, the idea for the Boros player is to be as aggressive as possible. Basilica Screecher only trades with a Denizen, Daring Skyjek or Rakdos Shred-Freak, so any two- or three-drop can safely run through it. Pharika’s Cure and Devour Flesh are often turn two plays, as well, but they do not add to the board and the haste creatures that come down afterward can often be punishing. Since Grey Merchant of Asphodel can both gain life and block incredibly effectively, the 3 Chandra’s Outrages come in; on the draw, I typically removed the Foundry Street Denizens as they would be outclassed quickly and on the play I would side them back in, often removing Gods Willing and a Madcap Skills, in an effort to deploy more earlier threats in an effort to go wider rather than load up on a single creature.

Rhysticy

(Edit : yes, the sideboard played during the event was 14 cards due to a mistake)

DIMIR SLOW MILL

Better now than never, I hear you roaring mates !!

here's the list that took the trophy for  MPDC 23.02.

And it's a Mill deck, as surprising as it can be.

So now is time to open a new section on the blog, it will be called "Hall of Fame", and it's purpose is to gather the trophies (winning decks) collected by the Clan members in Player's Run Events on PDC / Gatherling. Mates keep it up !

I have been really busy these days, and had no time to write about this list and archetype, but the Standard Pauper Community is keeping a sharp eye on what's going on and the deck was analysed and used enough by potent and (more or less) skilled authors. Let's not discuss this please, case closed, I am not a skilled author.

You'll find Gwyned's articles on it below, only our devoted host can write this good in that perfect english (is that insulting for a US native?) on his blog, Writer Adept. Highly recommended ! I feel ashamed as a non native speaker, but I'm french afterall, and french people are known for huge difficulties when it comes to foreign languages, i'm sure you noticed that already.

Here's Gwyned's first presentation post on the list :

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2013/11/dimir-mill.html

And a second post dedicated to "How you can beat Dimir Mill", and it appears it's not that difficult.

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2013/11/beating-dimir-mill.html

Thanks for helping us defeating this horrible archetype because it really deserves it afterall (quote MyGalaxy lol).

The first article ever published on the decklist can be found here :

  http://mtgostrat.com/2013/11/blue-black-mill-standard-pauper-jasons-top-8-decklist/

As you can guess from reading the link only, the deck was used by JasonTMS in Hipsters of the Coast Standard Pauper's event in TOP 8 right after the list won MPDC. Great, congrats !

There was also a Topic on PDCMagic.com about the archetype : 

http://forums.pdcmagic.com/viewtopic.php?t=8194

Will Dimir Mill just stay up on top of the metagame, or was this trophy just a striking surprise??

Surely time and changes to the list will tell....

And it has told a bit already !

Gwyned revealed ways to improve the Dimir Mill list on his Blog, you can read that here :

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2013/11/options-for-dimir-mill.html