This blog has been quiet for a while now, so I think it is time for a small update. Both Adner and me are having trouble finding enough time (and with lack of time comes lack of motivation) to develop relevant content. We'd like to have more people writing for the blog, so if you want to talk about your decks and experiences in Standard Pauper or anything else, please contact us.
During the past week I heard some doubts and misunderstandings from Standard Pauper Players, specially the newest ones, so I decided to address them here.
The Rotation
The first thing I want to talk about is the next rotation and the overall changes in the rotation system for MTG blocks. I've seem some misunderstanding about the subject and it looks like not everybody is sure about how it is going to happen, so here is a quick recap:
When Magic Origins is released, there will be no rotation. Just like when the previous core sets came out, we are going to have our card pool at maximum size and it will probably be biggest Standard Pauper card pool ever. I don't have numbers to back it up, but we will have three large expansion sets (THS, KTK and DTK), three small expansion sets (BNG, JOU and FRF) and two core sets (M15 and MOR) with Magic origins being the largest core set ever.
When Battle for Zendikar comes out, the Theros block and the M15 core set will rotate out. Battle for Zendikar is the first block with the new system of two sets for each block. When the next block after BFZ starts (nicknamed "Tears"), Khans of Tharkir and Fate Reforged will rotate out, but Dragons of Tarkir and Magic Origins won't and there is the first change to the rotation system we will notice. Standard formats will then be consisted of three "small blocks" (blocks with two sets), and DTK and MOR will be filling the space one of those small blocks. When the next block (nicknamed "Lock") starts, both DTK and MOR rotate out and we finally have all the changes complete.
As a side note, these changes caused mixed reactions from MTG players. Many of them see the faster rotation rate as a bad thing because the cards they buy may stay legal for Standard for a smaller amount of time, leading to more money needing to be spent into new cards. We, Standard Pauper Players will only get the good sides of the changes in my opinion, which are faster changes to the format, making metagames more dynamic, and seeing new planes at a faster rate. This because Standard Commons are the cheapest cards in existence and you can even buy four or five cards or a penny in bulk bots.
Is the format warped by Treasure Cruise?
Past week we had a few players complaining about Treasure Cruise being legal in the format. They are new players and apparently they were facing Treasure Cruise in most of their matches and it felt to them that to win, one must play this card. Players more used to the format promptly refuted this and explained to them that decks without Cruise were doing very well, etc etc.
I decided to make a recap of the past month metagame, so the numbers can give us a better picture of what the meta really is and how well TC has been doing. The TC subject has been discussed many times, but the card is banned in eternal formats for a reason, so I think it is natural that people worry about it.
The Last Month
During the last 4 weeks, 123 decks were reported on MPDC and SPDC. 38,95% of them played blue, so it is safe to say that Treasure Cruise appeared in almost that many decks, because it is very rare for a blue deck not to play TC in Std Pauper.
There were 8 events, with 7 different winners (Boros Tokens being the only deck to fetch two wins). Treasure Cruise was in 37% of the winning decks.
15 different decks appeared in the top 4, with the most successful ones being Grixis Control with 5 appearances, Boros Tokens and Formidable Green with 4 appearances each. Treasure Cruise appeared in 31,25% of the top 4 decks.
In my opinion, these results show a diverse metagame, not dominated by Treasure Cruise. In fact, it is the card that enable most of the decks it is in, so we would probably have less competitive decks without it. You clearly don't need TC to win, but if you still think it is bad for our format, I'd like to hear your arguments.
Outro
We would like to have a more active blog here, but as mentioned before, real life usually crushes us. Anyway, I'm making preparations to commit with a weekly post at least, starting in a few weeks. If there is anything you would like to see here in our blog, please let me know in the comments. If you would like to write for the blog, it belongs to all Standard Pauper Players, so it is yours too. Contact Adner or me, or let us know in the comments, and we will give you writer access.
I hope you enjoyed and I see you next time.
Until then, have a good one!
rremedio1
