Merry christmas ! ! !

The Standard Pauper Players Clan would like to wish you all a

 Merry Christmas !

Blink of an eye on a Magic Card (Ice Age), surely not celebrated worldwide, but still, here it is !!

Naked Gobos in the snow, wow Mr Gelon...

Winner's interview with MyGalaxy!

Hello and congratulations once again, MyGalaxy!

* Could you please introduce yourself? How did you start playing Magic and MTGO? What other formats than Standard Pauper do you play?

Hallo again. This info is in the last interview, but anyway. I am Andriy from Germany, 31 yers old. I started to play about 3 years ago with STD pauper format. I play also STD Constructed with Mardu and KTK Sealed, if I win a daily constructed

* Your favorite colours and archetypes?

Mostly everything what is not a control deck

* How did you decide to play White Weenie in the tournament?

Ususally at the beginning of each season I try to create a deck and then to tweak it. At this season this simple WW build delivered pretty good swiss results for me, so I stuck with it.

* How did you like cards like Divine Favor or Jeskai Student?

They both could be changed, but if the deck works, so why to change anything? Student is useful with some spells I play. Divine Favor almost always remains untouched in SB.

* Will you play the deck again?

Yes, I like fast games. They give me me time to cook, to eat and to take a shower between rounds

* Can you explain your sideboarding a little?

I get the pillar of light in vs midrange/black. One more triplicate spirits and possibly Divine Favor vs aggro/heroic. But this week my SB was pretty much untouched.

* What about your match-ups against UR Control, or Mono-Black/UB Devotion. Do you feel favored?

No, I don‘t Black makes me discard and gains too much life with a merchant usually. Black and UR both have cards to destroy my complete table with -1/-1. MY deck used to „loose to Merchant and Sands“, but now it „Wins“!;=)

* General thoughts on this format?

This season is pretty cool (maybe because I win often). There is a variety of decks. Pity, we don‘t have numbers to play 4 rounds. But new players play different decks. It is not like everyone sticks with UR only.

* Is there anything positive/negative you have to say about MPDC tournaments or our community?

I always say only positive about MPDC and our players For me it is very strange, that we have less players than usual. I thought a lot of new players will come with KTK and will begin their MTGO way with STD pauper. But somehow the weekly attendance is not this good. I remeber we used to have less prize support, but more players. Now we have like 1 tix for top 8 and 2/4/7 credits for top 4. I finisher second twice and bougt 1 Sarkhan and 3 hushwing gryffs for only 3 Euro with gift certificates. That‘s pretty cool. You win the event and you have enough credits to get your next commons set. Maybe we have to promote these events. I would up-up every thread if needed just to let players know that we have such events.

* Do you read MPDC winner's interviews on our site?

Yes, always. I like to get to know more about personalities behing the nicknames.

* You have been playing White for a while, did you adjust a lot to the shifting metagame? Or it wasn't necessary?

As I have noticed, I am the only one to play this deck. Probably, other players don‘t see this deck as a threat. So there are no dedicated SB cards vs it. I just adjust the number of pegasus before every event

* Tell us one random thing, how do you feel about MTGO?

MTGO creashes seldom for me. After I got more RAM it runs pretty smoothly. But I do prefer to restart it after 2 rounds of any event

* Shoutouts?

To our STD pauper community. To gwyned for finding time and a power of will to host MPDC for such a long time. To you, to bobby (cheering you up for that land screw in the third round of the swiss), to Joe with his prize support and to other guys who come to play at MPDC/SPDC and enjoy it!

* Anything else you would like to add?

Be a man, come and play MPDC and SPDC!

Cross Posting / What To Do About Magic Online, Part One

(Here's the latest post from Gwyned on his blog "Writer Adept", and I chose to copy and paste it here because it looks like a shining light in the dark depths of the terrible client called v4 on MTGO) - Ad'.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you're probably familiar with my thoughts regarding the current state of affairs on Magic Online. I've discussed my own frustrations with the game in general, and even talked about how the transition to the new client, while very painful, is necessary to arrive at a better product in the end.

It's clear that things are not good at the moment. Every week I hear from different players in the community complaining about various bugs, crashes, and disconnects that make their experience difficult at best and impossible at worst. Then yesterday, for only the second time since I became the host of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, I had to cancel an event due to aserver crash.

Now there's no doubt that these issues have hurt the Standard Pauper community. Not that long ago, our weekly Player Run Event was drawing as many as 40 players every week; now we're lucky if we reach the upper teens in attendance. Not all of this can be blamed on the new client or its associated difficulties. But all the data I've seen points to a mass exodus from Magic Online from the casual crowd, which is certainly a major part of the Standard Pauper community.

So what should be done? In the midst of this mess, what should the Standard Pauper community do?

Unfortunately, the most common answer has been to quit playing altogether. Now, I can understand this decision. If I were simply a casual player looking for some fun games, or just looking to win enough prizes to continue to purchase the new Commons as they come out, I probably would quit too. But here's the thing: those aren't my goals. No, the reason I play, the reason I write articles and blogposts, the reason I make videos, the reason I host MPDC is simple: I want to see Standard Pauper grow and thrive to the point where Wizards has no choice but to make it a sanctioned format on Magic Online. That's why I stick it out. Because I strongly believe in this great format we call Standard Pauper. So should you.

And so today I have a simple message for the Standard Pauper community: Don't quit.Don't give up. Don't sell out. Don't walk away. We've come too far, had too much success, simply to give up when things get tough. Thanks to the tireless efforts of this community, we've seen Standard Pauper become an official format on Magic Online. But if the community vanishes, that official support will evaporate. It's happened to other casual formats before.

So what should we do instead? Good question. Thursday, I'll share my thoughts on that subject.

Information Post : Clan Forums deleted Today

Here we are.

There was no official word on it, but it's now official: Clan forum is down !

3 or 4 people used to visit the clan forums, now they are gone. Thanks !

Talk with Godzo, MPDC 27.06 winner

Hello and congratulations on your win, GodZo!

Could you please introduce yourself?

Hello and thank you. My name is Giordano and I like competitive games. I'm known especially as StarCraft: Brood War player (my favourite game) and I played several multiplayer games, mainly RTS and RPG.

Before StarCraft, I was a nice guy, and I played several tournaments in "real" Magic the Gathering. : )

What is your identity as a wizard?

I like aggro decks like White Wheenie, maybe mixed with blue and flying, also I like green color, so my archetype is maybe an aggro deck with a mix of these colors.

At the moment I only play Standard Pauper format, it's my favorite one. My favourite card? In standard pauper, Gods Willing is one of the best cards.

How did you start playing Magic? MTGO? Standard Pauper?

I played Magic the Gathering in the years '95, '96, but I started to play MTGO just last year (2013), with the release of the M14 core set. 

Your favorite deck ever? Your favorite card?

If we consider all the formats, the old Crusade deck is my favourite one, and Tundra is my favourite card. : )

What led you to playing the deck you won with?

In contrast to my favourite archetypes, I won with a Black Discarder deck, sadly I see a Triumph of Evil with the actual format, that it's also the name I assigned to my last deck. : )

Would you play that deck again in a tournament? If no, why?

Merchant Black Deck is very solid at the moment, also mixed with other colors, I will play it for sure, if I don't find better decks.Also, it depends, if I have time to test new decks.

Sometimes I test new decks in the tournaments directly, because there are not enough people to play during the week. I played some Green Stompy decks in the past tournaments and I placed as second in one of these.

Could you explain some of the more interesting choices in your decklist? Like Carrion Crow, Returned Reveler or Crippling Blight.

Carrion Crow is a nice 3 mana drop, for a black deck, but it can be weak if you are under pressure to aggro decks, because it's tapped when you cast it, I added just one of it to reinforce my air aggression.

Returned Reveler is a pretty bad creature overall, but it's not bad against Red and Izzet and it ensure some board presence together with the Disowned Ancestor, while Crippling Blight is a nice 1 mana nerf or removal against aggro starts, it can kills some 1 mana creatures in turn 1 or it can give me some devotion for Gary. Some of card choices are focused to have the best mana curve in the first game of a match also.

A short recap of the tournament?

I met 4 decks, two Dimir Merchants with Treasure Cruises. In these matches I discarded a lot of blue cards, so they became more similar to mirror matches, these games are often decided by number of gray merchants or flying creatures, Sultai Scavengers are very good in this match up, because they are not easy to stop. Fimbulvetrr said I was the bane of Asphodels and Cruises. : )

Then I met a Red aggro deck, this match up is not easy for black, because Red can be very fast, but my opponent was not too much lucky with draws, so I easily got the win.

and at last I met MyGalaxy, two times, that was a close match up, in the 1st match I was pretty screw with lands, I lost very fast and I risked to go out of the top 4. But in the finals instead, luckily I had very good openings, removals, all I needed and Merchants did the final hit.

What was the best card in the deck, in your opinion?

Merchant!

What card did you miss the most? / Is there anything you want to add after the tournament?

I tested this deck all the past week, I was prepared enough for the tournament and I don't see big changes to make at the moment.

What do you consider to be the best archetypes at the moment?

Merchants Decks (black or splashed), Izzet Control Decks, Aggro Monocolor Decks (Red, White or Green) and Midrange Green Creatures with some splash colors, we have seen some heroics too. Meta is still young, we'll see more archetypes in the next months, I suppose.

What is your strategy against these top decks?

Always the same (with black), discard the cards of opponent hand, attack or defend (depend of which deck I meet) with the first creatures, then I play flying creatures and call the Merchants, that is the basic strategy. Choose the right sideboard to improve the value of the cards.

Can you explain your sideboarding a little?

My sideboard is pretty standard, Feast of Dreams and Festerglooms are very strong removals, but much specific cards, they are only good against specific decks. The other cards permit to me to have more removals, or more draw cards, against control decks or in mirror matches I would to draw more, while vs heavy aggro decks I go with more removals and less draws, versus big creatures I can add 1 more Deathtouch and 1 more Flesh to Dust.

Do you think there are any metagame differences between this MPDC season and the previous one?

Yeah, there are many differences, in the previous season we seen a lot of Ethereal Armor decks (the best card in the format), often countered by Mass Removal decks, and Dimir Mill that counters Mass Removal.

Now we have no more these kind of decks.

Now it seems more about fast aggro, big creatures or draw cards and the Gray Merchant can make the difference in this meta. I like this meta at the moment, because there is more space for big creatures, ramp decks, aggro variances, tokens, and maybe heroics and enchantments, but still I didn't deepen the meta of the new season. For this reason I'm playing mostly decks that i know from the previous season.

General opinion on Treasure Cruise in Standard Pauper?

It's a very good card, especially in the Izzet deck, we seen it's very good in combination with counter and red removals, but I don't see it necessary in other decks, like the black deck for example, it has already a lot of good draw cards.

Do you belong to Standard Pauper Players clan?What benefits do you feel from being in the clan?

I'm in Standard Pauper Players clan, it's a clan of friends mainly, I don't have some benefits from it, a part Adner give me around 10 tix for month (not true lol).

I think should be nice to have more presence and specially to have more people to play during the week, speak about strategies, test new decks and improve as players and deck lists. In the past season I trained a lot with rremedio1 and I had very good results also.

What led you to join the clan?

Adner! He also told me about MPDC tournaments where I discovered this small but cool community.

Do you have any tips for a new Standard Pauper player trying to Top 8 his first tournament?

I would to start with some aggro decks to learn better the meta, learn the interface commands (for new MTGO players), and learn to avoid mistakes. Top 8 is not difficult with a good deck and a good playstyle.

What about your avatar, it's great?

 Yeah, I spent 0.17 tix for it! Oo

See You, Good Luck and Have Fun, and don't Rage (happened to me the previous tournament :/).

GodZo

Congratulations to MPDC 27.05 winner - Fimbulvetrr! The interview.

Hello and congratulations on your win, Fimbulvetrr!

Thank you very much!!1!

1. Could you please introduce yourself?

Some Juan, 28 y/o.

2. What is your identity as a wizard?

I like drafting, and among player run events I really like Classic Heirloom. I’m giving Standard Pauper another go after failing pretty hard last time I played it. I think it’s got something to do with being stubborn and wanting to play monoblack decks. Luckily, Treasure Cruised has forced the splash!

3. How did you start playing Magic? MTGO? Standard Pauper?

I started back when Urza’s Destiny was released; a couple of high school mates who played MtG got me hooked into the game. I remember I would happily trade my Masticores for anything since I considered discarding a card during your upkeep a terrible and bad thing.

I created my MTGO account last year, since a couple of friends still played. I was told to try out pauper, til the rust came off. Last time I’d touched an MtG card I was still beardless!

4. Your favorite Standard Pauper deck ever? Your favorite card?

Haven’t really played many standard pauper events, both W and UW Heroic decks were pretty good, too, last year.   The best standard pauper card has to be Treasure Cruise.

5. What led you to playing the deck you won with?

Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Treasure Cruise.

5.1. Would you play that deck again in a tournament? If no, why?

Definitely, so I go 0-3 and brew something new to feed with.

6. Could you explain some of the more interesting choices in your deck list? Like Disowned Ancestor, Nimbus Naiad and Mind Rot.

Nimbus Naiad is the best three drop in the colours and you can and want to bestow it. Disowned Ancestor is a solid blocker and enabler of Mardu’s raid, which is a pretty cute play on turn 2. Also, since a bestowed Ancestor stops everything in its tracks and you have enough digging power to make huge life swings or increase devotion. Mind Rot is just 2x1 discard effect.

7. In which match-ups did you like Mind Rot and Eternal Thirst from your sideboard?

Mind Rot did well against Izzet Control and the one mirror match , and I don’t think I sided in Eternal Thirst more than once.

7.1 How did Feast of Dreams perform throughout the tournament?

Poorly, it was replaced every single game for either Negate or Pharika’s Cure.

8. A short recap of the tournament?

4x Izzet Control, 1x UB Devotion, 1x Monored Aggro, 1x White Weenie. I don’t know if it’s interesting, but chaining Merchants is always fun hehe.

9. What card did you miss the most/Is there anything you wanted to add after the tournament?

Black is severely lacking in decent removal. Feast only killed bird tokens, Pharika’s and Injury are good but not an answer to threats. Deck will pretty much fold to 1 big heroic creature.

10. What do you consider to be the best archetypes at the moment?

Izzet Control, probably.

11. What is your strategy against these top decks with Dimir?

To nullify their birds, minotaurs and red removal with my (bestowed) ancients, to discard their counters with Skullhunters or Disciples, and to resolve a Benthic Giant.

12. What’s your opinion on White Aggro deck, which you played against in the finals?

Only loses to flood. (Editor's note: I like this one.)

13. Why did you choose to play 3 copies of Treasure Cruise, one of the most powerful cards in Standard Pauper?

Because I don’t want two in my opening hand.  Deck doesn’t run many instants or sorceries to fill the graveyard with, so a two of in a starting hand probably means I’d be in trouble against fast decks. I run 3 Read the Bones as well.

14. Do you belong to Standard Pauper Players clan? What benefits do you feel from being in the clan?

No, I’m in a clan with some friends tho. Benefits are all the yelling happening in Skype. (EN: It's like people can speak silently on Skype :D)

15. Do you have any tips for a new Standard Pauper player trying to Top 8 his first tournament?

Not really, I got lucky. Play Treasure Cruise, maybe?

16. Shoutouts?

Shoutout to Torreth and his Nimbus Naiad suggestion!!!

Thanks for answering, good luck in the next tournament! Make sure I can interview you again!

Clan Hall of Fame, updated !!!

Written in GOLD forever !

WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!



This short post to let you all know that Clan Hall of fame was updated today.

Sorry for this long delay, been away so long it's hard to keep up with what's going on lately.

Just take a little time to check it.

Please claim your trophy in the hall of fame if you can't find it !

The winner takes it all, congrats !!!

Recent MTGO Playing Experiences, to Rant or not to Rant?

While attendance for both MPDC and SPDC look stable this season with a good STD Pauper dedicated PRE player base, I have noticed more and more ranting posts about the new client aka V4, but also MTGO and WOTC on various community platforms recently.

Though the game, Magic The Gathering, is undoubtedly still very entertaining, fun and complex, many regular online players seem to keep away from it nowadays, and for various reasons. I must admit that includes myself as well.

1) A decreasing interest for the game, motivated by the way WOTC treats their customers online.

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2014/10/why-should-i-play-magic-online.html

As Gwyned states : The fundamental problem with Wizards of the Coast in regards to Magic Online is this: They see no reason to provide motivation for you to play. Magic the Gathering is a hugely successful enterprise. People all over the world love to play it. And so they created this software that allows you to play it online. But to them, that's where their responsibility ends. 

I fully agree. We’ve been given virtual presents and gifts for the MTGO tenth anniversary, as a reward for our loyalty, as customers. That was nearly 3 years ago and it felt good. Not that I’m only interested in free stuff. The clan features and options are not really friendly in V4, increasing them and making them better or simply operational would be entertaining and  motivating enough, but I can’t figure out how expansive it would be for WOTC.

2) A resource heavy guzzler-software (V4) that old computers (even new ones) can’t hardly run anymore.

http://puremtgo.com/articles/your-mtgo-stock-analyst-current-state-affairs

Nice survey ! How do we collectively feel about MTGO? (Select the blank lines so you can read the text !)

In the comments: 

"My issue with the new client comes down to one main thing. My computer can't handle the program. (…)It just isn't worth it for me to play if I'm not going to have a chance at being competitive. I'd really like to play in the KTK Limited Champinship qualifiers that start this week, but I see no point in getting my hopes up when I know it will just end in frustration.

Since I can't play the format I like best, I spend little to no time using the program and can't really comment on what I do or don't like among the features that you are trying to gather information on.

Right now my computer is fine with everything else I use it for, so I really can't justify shelling out the money for a new computer just to play MTGO."

Concerned here too. Could not play a complete match without being disconnected, once or several times, all along the last 10 challenges I was given to play this week. I know I am not alone. I’ve been discussing this with other players. Some say they never experienced this yet, others are really fed up with that unstable connection problem already. Of course you can get back into the ongoing game by restarting the software. First relog is always a miss, at least for me, second one is always successful but when I’m back I’m always behind on time and do often get a loss for timing out in the end. Quite frustrating. I bought a new PC 3 months ago because my old one could not handle V4, looks like it can run it now, but I really can’t figure out where those disconnections come from. I play other Online games and MTGO alone causes me such problems.

One more thing. WOTC is a US firm, and US players seem to be reporting less technical problems than European players (prove me wrong in the comments). Furthermore, their “ping” or delays seem to be shorter and more efficient. I know we're not all equal when it comes to MTGO though.

What is your opinion on that?

3) A buggy software and a slow motioned customers refund policy evolution.

Yes MTGO is bugged. Very bugged.

Interface is bugged, display is bugged or slowed down, cards are bugged and that deeply impacts the players gaming experience, for high scale competitors as well as newcomers. Of course the situation is overall getting better, though every program update can bring a new incredible “surprise”.

http://community.wizards.com/forums/102326

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/magic-online-general/565402-official-complain-about-v4-thread?page=4

http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articles/archive/reimbursement-policy-update-2014-10-27

http://www.quietspeculation.com/2014/10/a-giant-leap-forward-for-mtgo-customer-service/

Yes, WOTC had to fix and update their MTGO reimbursement policy. I can easily understand getting to the point that regulars were not interested in joining Online pay-to-play events anymore. Nightmare buggy crashing events where you pay to enter and get no reimbursement nor prizes at all after playing and winning several rounds should have never been. Changing that bad customers refund policy took like... forever.

 Don’t get me wrong, I am still in love with MTG.

I hearsay one of the most difficult thing in life is to make good use of your leisure.

Quite relevant.

I’ll be focusing more on paper play within a smaller local community, as well as playing more boardgames with real life friends, until my online MTG experience gets better and less frustrating, meaning I can find the motivation to log in from time to time.

What about you?

Do you still find motivations to play MTGO?

Did you buy a new PC for V4?

Are you happy with the client and the new customer reimbursement policy?

I'd like to read you in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Adner.