The Standard Pauper Filter Issue

Today we were going to have a happy post about the Standard Pauper Double League, but instead we need to talk about some bad news.

Yesterday, Wizards announced the retirement of the Standard Pauper filter on MTGO among other formats which are being cut. I will quote their reasoning here:

"In order to focus our efforts on improving the most popular formats on Magic Online, we are removing official support for some rarely-played formats and player configurations with the November 11, 2015 downtime. Combined, the removal of the formats below represents less than one percent of play on Magic Online.

...

We are always looking to improve the player experience on Magic Online. Trimming our offerings will allow us to focus on improving the most-played formats, and will simplify the interface for starting a game."

This is really hard to understand. First, because relating the removal of a "rarely-played" format with the improving of a popular format is something impossible to buy. Do you really thing Standard Pauper, or Legacy Tribal Wars, or Emperor, or all of them combined took any focus from what would Wizards give to the main formats? In the especial case of Standard Pauper, the filter is just a subset of the Standard filter and it does use only the core constructed rules. I wouldn't agree, but I wouldn't be able to deny it if they said that formats using different rules require too much attention and maintenance from them, but I cannot believe the almost zero support they give to Standard Pauper can hold any other format back.

Second, none of the formats being cut add any unwanted complexity to the interface. If you don't deliberately build a deck for some of these formats, they simply won't show up in your lobby. Surely there are a lot of improvements in the lobby and in the collection being asked by the community, but this decision won't help it in any way. If you don't play these formats you will see no improvements at all, on the other hand, if you play them, your hobby will become much harder (in the case of Standard Pauper) or nearly impossible (in the case of more complex formats). And that's what bugs me the most.

Well, I can be completely wrong about all of this. Maybe there is some big update in the client interface coming up in the next few months and having extra, underplayed formats would make its implementation much harder, but if that's the case, I think Wizards should be clear about it.

Their reasoning aside, I think there are other reasons why this is a bad decision:

MTGO tries to emulate paper MTG as close as it can, including the financial model. One of the main advantages of paper MTG is that you can play the game any way you want. Of course, this can't be fully reproduced in the digital game, but those filters help go a long way on helping that.

As for Standard Pauper, specifically, the format is the best entry choice for Constructed play. It is very cheap and easy to learn.  MTGO really lacks a good newbie friendly option for constructed play. Classic Pauper is just too advanced for a new player without enough paper experience while Standard is too expensive for someone who doesn't even know the basics of competitive play.

By cutting Standard Pauper from the client instead of taking the further step of adding basic sanctioned support for the format, Wizards is not only hurting the format passionates like us but also ignoring the players who come to MTGO without previous MTG knowledge. Every other digital card game works hard to get this kind of customer, and that's why some of them are ridiculously bigger than MTGO.

We have two PRE's happening every week with 16-22 players. It may not look like much, but it is a decent size tournament, on par with Modern, Legacy and Vintage daily events. These players usually find the format by themselves, since there is no promoting being made by Wizards. In my case, having the option to build a Standard Pauper deck in the client prompted me to search the internet about the format and find pdcmagic.com. The PRE's can still happen without the filter, but new players will have a harder time discovering the format, and that's why the filter is so important for us.

Can we do something about this? Please check this blog post by gwyned. If you care about Standard Pauper, the best thing you can do is let WoTC know about it.

To end my rant on a positive note, I remember you again to check the Standard Pauper Double League. It is pure awesomeness! Months of fun and over $175 in prizes!

And that's all...

Have a good one

rremedio1
@Zygrunt on Twitter
rremedio1 on MTGO