But rest assured that although I cannot use Magic Online any longer, I am still playing Standard Pauper In Real Life. In fact, tonight was the first gathering of Standard Pauper Paper Players at my Local Games Shop. We did not have enough people show up for the event to officially fire and give out prizes. Despite this, good times were had by all, slinging commons with various Standard Pauper decks. A Red Deck was trying to Win in an attempt break Impact Tremors, without success, while a Black & White Warriors & Tokens build won in a Rush of Battle! And what Standard Pauper get-together would be complete these days without a White Blue Heroic Cruise list out-performing all the rest?
Ah, yes...This great format is (keyword there...) as much fun on paper as it is (again, keyword...) in Magic Online. I just can't help but wonder why so few people showed up. Not only to my in-store event but at the MPDC and SPDC tournaments, which have been well-attended for going on nine long years now.
Hmm... could it be, perhaps, that maybe nobody knows about the very existence of our favorite format because...the official Magic: the Gathering website doesn't even say it exists!
There is page that lists all the other formats on Wizards.Magic.Com. It's linked to in bold above so you can see for yourself that I'm not making this up. Really...you can't make this stuff up!
Dig this: Every other format gets acknowledged as existing on that page. Regular Standard is right up top, but Standard Pauper isn't mentioned anywhere. Pauper itself is also there, but not the Standard Pauper variety our great Clan is built around. Just plain old Pauper without a single word about Standard Pauper being a thing. According to that web page, this thing we do... is not a thing!
At first, I couldn't believe it. I thought I just didn't see it. But nope, it's not there. And I still can't believe I have to tell you this! I shouldn't have to tell you Standard Pauper exists. But no, I have to say it exists because the WotC MtG Format page doesn't. Can you believe I am telling you this?
Well, believe it, Standard Pauper players, both Clan Mates and the uninitiated. I'm telling you the cold, hard, awful truth: our favorite way to play is nowhere to be found, not anywhere at all, on the Magic: the Gathering site run by Wizards of the Coast themselves. I don't mean it's buried and hard to find or in really, really small text at the very bottom of the page...
No, I mean this as literally as possible want to say it as clearly as possible here...
Nowhere at all!
Nulle parte!
Es ist nicht da!
¡Nada en absoluto!
Non una parola!
Zupełnie nic!
Existe até mesmo uma menção?
Ακόμη μια φορά;
Нет, нет и нет!!
...in other words, the Standard Pauper format exists...but Wizards' website doesn't say so.
When it comes to this format, Wizards cannot even conjugate the English verb to be! (Because that is the key word here,)
And that means there is only one thing to do: We must fix this problem. Once and for all.
This has to be a big part of the reason why our two weekly events on Magic Online are not nearly as well attended as they have been in the past. Why, I recall when we had well over thirty players on a regular basis. That was fun! But it's not fun when events don't even fire, and my Offline event didn't because, darnitall, nobody can find out about it hardly anywhere... when they should be able to find out about Standard Pauper at the same place they can find out about every other format under the sun.
But Wizards of the Coast doesn't list it on the Formats page. That leaves us Standard Pauper players and potential new players, friends, and competitors - unfairly - in the dark.
Now, I have already posted about this on my own blog, Cabel the Pauper, where I am actively blogging about the format again, this time as an IRL event organizer. Gwyned has also added his voice to his blog, Writer Adept. I'm sure you've heard of it, or met this long-time MTGO host :-)
I've even sent out tweets and e-mails, too. Most recently, I started a Discussion Thread on the Standard Pauper Forums at PDCMagic.com to help reach those who are not in the Clan or just don't frequent this blog too often. I'm currently working on getting a Change.org petition started to change this situation. That seemed to help us back when we didn't have a Filter for Magic Online. We got what we asked for. Well done!
And now all we're asking for is that the Format we know and love, Standard Pauper, be given a seat at the table with all the other formats on that web page. Because it's a format, so it belongs there. All we want is for Wizards of the Coast to say that Standard Pauper IS. Period.
Consider this blog a call to action to start contacting everyone you can: every fellow Standard Pauper player, every Magic player you meet, and certainly everybody at Wizards of the Coast you can possibly contact in any way, shape, or form.
We're a Clan, Mates. That means when trouble strikes or a problem arises, we all put down our decks of cards and take to our computers to communicate and make our voices heard. Or we stay at our computers, but we log off Magic Online and open up our GeeMail, MyFace, or Twhatever and get to work, together, to get what we Standard Pauper Players rightfully deserve. What we've earned by making Standard Pauper a thing, a good thing, a great thing, possibly, dare I say, the best thing ever!
So let's get to work to get Standard Pauper listed on that Formats page on the official Magic: The Gathering website!
Standard Pauper Players of the World, Unite!
You have nothing to lose but good games :-)
I wish you all good luck with this, Mates, and I hope you have fun with it, too, just like I always close with a wish that you have good games: GL&HF! Peace,
- C
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