Straw Poll : DrChris' Event Series !

http://strawpoll.me/1975669

Interview with Torreth, MPDC Season 24 Worlds Winner !

Featuring Torreth  and Mundisv !!

Traditions... You'll find season 23 winner Interview, Mundisv, here. 

http://standardpauperplayers.blogspot.fr/2014/02/interview-with-mundisv-mpdc-season-23.html

Mundisv' wins again this season, big congratulations mate !!!

This time we have the Winner of the MPDC Season 24 "Worlds" Event, and that's TORRETH. Thanks for taking some time answering these questions in English, mate !

- In few words, who are you in real life, Torreth?

My name is Lucas, I’m from Argentina, and I’m a 31 years old 

“veteran” MTG player.

- How did you hear of MTGO?

I’d been in touch with old friends, back from the day when we played paper MTG, and they kept playing online, since the paper version is really expansive in my country, so it’s really restrictive to have a good player base at the local store, most of them just use the online version.

- Do you play Paper Mtg? Since when?

Well, I started playing approximately when Tempest came out. I played until 2001 and then became a student, sold my collection (which I deeply regret ) and never went back except for some casual or limited event.

- For how long have you been playing on MTGO?

I think I created the account about a year ago and with the help of my friends, purchased some Pauper decks to learn the interface and started playing casually.

- How much do you spend in MTGO per month?

I believe besides my initial purchase, I bought 10 tix before getting to know Player Run Events, just fell in love with them, and tried my luck with the great PRE prize system.

- What is your favorite format there and why?

Well, I really like all the budget formats, especially STD Pauper, Pauper, Heirloom and SilverBlack. I think they are the fairer formats, anyone being able to try and play any deck.

- Do you think MTGO STD Pauper Online Metagame reflects what it can be at a local store?

Oh yes, I think the Meta is deeply explored and tested by the Online community, especially by MPDC players, Brennon from mtgostrat.com with his Standard Pauper Gauntlet, Mundisv and his articles from puremtgo.com, various clan mates with theirs respective blogs, Gwyned or DrChrisBakerDC for example, had created a very large Information base, that any group from a local store who wants to run this type of event will benefit from.

- What kind of player are you, do you like aggro or control most?

Back in the days of Tempest and Urza’s saga I really enjoyed Mono Blue Control (when Masticore was broken good). So I stuck to Control, but I really enjoy playing both types.

- What are your favorite colors?

Blue, Black, Green, White and Red. In that particular order.

- Why did you choose to join a clan on MTGO and how did that come to happen?

Well you (Adner) invited me to join and I gladly did because it’s one of my favorite formats and all the clan mates are really nice people, with whom we share some fun hours every Monday.

- What's the added value of being in a MTGO Clan from your point of view?

It’s really good to be in a clan with people sharing something with you, and this one can help new people to know this format, which is great to someone just starting out MTGO.

- Are you a rogue deck brewer or do you like playing the best performing deck in the format?

I’m not much of a brewer myself, but I like to always take a look at the existing deck for some improvements. I really liked BigBee White Weenie from last season, and with BoG seemed natural to add the Akroan Skyguard and the Nyxborn Shieldmates to his base, and the deck perfomed really well for most of the season, until people started to adapt to it, with celestial flare and other edict effects especially. Then 

the UW aggro brew by DrChrisBakerDC seemed really resilient to that metagame adaptation by swarming and carrying Dispel on the SB, the only thing I changed was replacing the Syndic of Tithes for the more tempo-based Azorius Arrester.

- You have been performing so well all season 24 long with various lists, how would you explain that?

Well, like always in MTG luck is a big factor, but I think testing almost every good deck throughout the season really helped me out.  That way I could feel their strengths and weaknesses, and I believe that can give you an edge when facing such decks.

- Do you think everyone can make a meteoric rise to fame with the std pauper format, just like you did with WW and UW heroics? What would the best skill requirements be to achieve that?

Yes, if there’s a format that lets you learn, adapt, test and brew it’s STD Pauper. With almost every card available to everyone, if you have the time, you have nearly no restriction to go for the prize.

- As MPDC Season 24 third player on points, it looks like attending a whole season is challenging for you? Why?

I have missed some tournaments due to real life issues, and I think I was late for one due to some summer timezone change in the USA, haha. But I enjoyed each and every one I played and I want to congratulate Mundisv for the first prize in the season scoreboard, as well as gwyned for hosting every event.

- What were your favorite 5 cards this season with Theros and Born of the gods ?

Well Akroan Skyguard and Nyxborn Shieldmate, with the always feared Gods Willing backup. The Loyal Pegasus for the flyers/swarm strategy. And the everlasting, undisputed, lord of the black: Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

- What competitive archetypes could emerge this forthcoming Season 25 with the addition of Journey Into Nyx?

I think Hubris and War-Wing Siren are nice additions to blue, especially for gwyned’s azorius control. There are some interesting heroic creatures too, like Bloodcrazed Hoplite and satyr Hoplite, just to name a few.

- What will you be playing for Season 25?

Time will tell, but with Journey into Nyx there are some nice additions to existing decks, and maybe some room for new brews.

- Could you please make a quick recap' of your path to victory in MPDC Season 24 Worlds, round after round and as far as you can remember since the matchup results are not available yet on PDCMagic ?

Round 1: Bye :D

Round 2: vs rremedio1 W 2-0 Stubborn Heroes

2nd Round was against the GW heroic variant, rremedio1 included Deadly Recluse in the main deck, but fortunately I was able to play around them and exploit the flyers advantage, lucky for me the SB really helped out in this one.

Round 3: vs SickThunder W 2-0

Sorry, I can’t remember his deck, my apologies to SickThunder.

 Round 4: vs Gordani (WRB Control) W 2-1

Oh boy, that deck scares me! Packing 20 removals maindeck, plus 6 more on the SB, including shrivel. I don’t remember much of the first game, but somehow I was able to win. 2nd game I was stuck on lands, unable to leave free mana for protection effects, and under beating until it was too late.

On the 3rd game I was on the play, and he had to spend some turns in mana fixers, so I was able to provide an early beating that finished with 2 heroic guys with Strings ciphered and protection.

Top 8: vs Adner (MBC) W 2-0

In my experience I think the Azorius have the advantage, but not by much, especially now that MBC is packing shrivel in the SB.

Game 1: was really close, he drew only 1 removal, and despite playing Grey Merchant on turn 5 and 6, the Azorius Arrester and the Hidden Strings provided me with a safe passage to win the race.

Game 2: He killed my first 3 drops before they could tap, and played grey merchant on turn 5. Things were looking grim, but I managed to top deck a Windsteed Rider, with 2 Hidden Strings and 2 Mizzium Skins in my hand, next turn drew a Raptor giving me the edict protection, to seal the match.

Top 4: vs Gordani (WRB Control) W 2-1

Nooo, this deck again!. I remember one game going to me because he missed some early land drops. Another he just crushed me with removal and I think 3 white Gatekeepers.

In the third game I believe, I was really lucky he wasn’t able to profit with the shrivels, because my raptor evolved out of reach, so he only 2 for 2 me, and I was with enough gas on my hand to win the game, with the help of some gods willing and dispels.

I think I was truly fortunate to be able to win vs Gordani twice; he is a really good player and, in my opinion, his deck had the upper hand.

Finals: vs ScionOfJustice  (WW) W 2-1

First game went to him; I kept a 2 land hand, and just drew like 7 or 8 more lands.

On the second I had to mulligan to 5, kept a 1 lander, but was lucky enough to draw my second land on time. I think with Sideboard this deck has an edge vs WW, bringing the Celestial Flares and Dispels can really disrupt his game plan, plus his Gods Willings suffer from the “disenchant” effect, unlike the ciphers cards. The final game I think he kept a sketchy hand, because his first play was an Auramancer without graveyard target, and I went ahead with the help of removal and flyers.

- Thanks a lot Torreth for the precious time you spent answering those questions, and for sharing your experience in the game with our readers and members. I have no doubt you will keep on performing well for MPDC Season 25.

Thanks all for reading and see you next time, here or online ! !

MPDC 24.11 Cancelled because of MTGO Crash / Zombie Creeping Flesh

"The Dead have risen from the grave"

"Only human flesh satisfies"

Peter will  either harm or please your ears, clicking the video is up to you.

Since There was  a "Blackout". Further explanation is needed indeed.

I have been a bit disappointed with my Clan-Captain duties and the lack of good results succeeding in making more members involved in Clan's daily life (a.k.a Clan chat window on MTGO) ,  forums, and on this blog (by author's permission, members just have to ask and I grant it).

After that and as promised, I decided  to attend MPDC 24.11, and have a good time with my old fellows Standard Pauper players on MTGO again. 

Like I can remember I'm a player sometimes.

Registering  on /join mpdc  and /join mpdccom chats and saying "Hello" to everyone as usual and expected, opening many chat windows with long time friends or brand new recruits. That's what I do like and need once a week at least.

All in the name of Fun and Challenge. That's what we're here for aren't we?  

I really felt like playing an archetype I had missed for too long, but nothing else given nowadays' mood background. Meta-game choice as well of course. MBC has been the deck to beat for so long. I wanted to play it straight forward and test those UW and WW Heroic match-ups, they have been performing so well in the last MPDCs indeed. 

Here's the list I played on Monday, three rounds of Swiss were scheduled given the 21 players attendance :

BONES
2 Servant of Tymaret

2 Corpse Hauler

3 Disciple of Phenax
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Perilous Shadow
4 Basilica Screecher
2 Deathcult Rogue

FLESH
3 Pharika's Cure
3 Grisly Spectacle
4 Devour Flesh
3 Read the Bones
3 Stab Wound
4 Quag Sickness

BLOOD
21 Swamps

Sideboard SURGERY
4 Razortip Whip
2 Duress
2 Crypt Incursion
2 Mind Rot
2 Altar's Reap
1 Midnight Recovery
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Corpse Hauler

And here's how it went.

- Round 1 VS Beatnik Bobby playing his famous and well known HEXPROOF list.
Game 1 : slow start and Mana issues for Bobby.
Game 2 : Bobby wins it with skills and experience, I get bad draws.
Game 3 : Bobby plays around Devotion, removing all I can play. But discard and Gary do the job before we both go on top-deck mode and a removal wins it all.

2 -1 GGS Mate !

- Round 2 VS MikeyK playing a BWR well tuned control deck.
Game 1 : Mikey struggles getting rid of Stab Wounds and wins it with Sunspire Gatekeepers..
Game 2 : Garys and removal backed with Extort do their job.
Game 3 : we both settle things until mid game then Mickey mills me and 2 Garys go to the grave while I have a Corpse Hauler and 3 untapped swamps on the battlefield.  He then quits immediately, I could easily understand that.

2-1 GGS Mate !

Big Ups to Mikey for being able and ready to attend the event, our format really needs and deserves highlights and attention from such great and famous players / streamers. MikeyK Radio !

- Round 3 VS JMason playing either WW or UW.
Game 1 had just started for 3 turns when MTGO crashed badly, very badly, sadly never allowing the event to complete.
That was a real good start. Top 8 was there already but I would have enjoyed playing all matches until their ending.

You can read about that crash and how it impacted the event, our favorite host's report on his blog :

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2014/05/magic-online-crashes-during-mpdc.html

Well that was it for Monday. Of course that was a bit frustrating, I was counting on my last Season Points increasing opportunities, but they just melted like butter with the crash. I was there for Fun as always so there's no big deal, I 'm not going to go that way as respectful and legitimate as it may be.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27314_The-Magic-Online-Championship-Series-Should-Not-Exist.html

MPDC is the one and only Standard Pauper Championship, thanks to Gwyned, and we all want it to be that way in the future. Please attend the series if you can. It's really fun and challenging when MTGO is running well.

Never mind the crashes, are you ready to stand up and fight for the Standard pauper Revolution ?

No discussion, Dennis will only please your ears.

But Peter can play punchy Reggae too : Trapper ain't got a Bird !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3x3lFd6jqk

That's it for today, see you at MPDC WORLDS next Monday !!
Will that be with a MBC list ? Who knows?
Please visit our forums, check out the upper banner.
Ad'

Blackout ! Mais comment allez-vous?

Bring on the night

It's been rampant for months now, you won't learn nothing new : I am really busy these days !

You may think WOW what a great post once more, wait, let's subscribe to this blog posts using the "Follow" Item on the bottom right hand side !!

Then you are alright !

"Le pays des Bisounours" is over. At least for me, let me explain.

Been spending months trying to gather people around one goal and community, the Standard Pauper Cause. Ideally competitive, friendly, a warm welcoming entity for new players and regulars to share experience and have fun. Humanity devoted platform too, we all get benefits from sharing game concerns, but life general topics as well, if one is randomly interested in that.

Working for more attendance at MPDC, having Standard Pauper being sanctioned as an officially supported format on MTGO, recruiting famous players or beginners for one goal, using the Clan option way. But not only that.

The Clan 's been building a forum and an Email address in case anyone interested in the format and community can get in touch and get a friendly walk-through of the game. That's great !
Sadly, it appears that a vast majority among Clan members, and I do respect all of you mates, do not like or want  to use these tools we've been building. I wish that will change.

I have been in other Clans before, so I feel a bit used to experiencing that overwhelming silence or stagnation that settles after a while if not immediately after a community rises.

Successful sometimes hopefully, assessment is bitter-sweet most of the time. I don't take it personal, feel free to say I am wrong and explain the reasons in the comments below if you think I should. Discussions were launched on the Clan forums, new events and actions were clearly and publicly announced, they never met attendance until now.

This all may sound a bit dark and hopeless but it is not !
Still there is hope !

Just a few reminders in case one misunderstood what being part of the clan is :

- No one earns money from what is published or discussed on this blog and Clan forums, unlike other sites.
- A MTGO Clan, like any community, is what the members make it and await from it.
- No man is an island, no man stands alone.

So, with real life taking over and over these days and the lack of time to post (interesting) things, I will put the Clan Blog on hold / Blackout for a bit in hope other members / new members can show up and fill in the voids, say what they want, and move into Clan and community action.

I will keep on playing on MTGO as an individual from time to time when I can, and hope someone will be devoted enough to the clan and take the reins from me in the near future. Until then I will mostly be the silent captain so you'll have to find me online or send a mail to the Clan address.

standardpauperplayers@gmail.com

Gotta love Standard Pauper !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTrtZRfDN4

Any comments or that's just life and perspectives of a busy family man?
Let me hear you.
Just in case.

Tranquility Now! (or soon...)

Hey, did you hear?  This card has been spoiled for M15:

This will completely wreck all those White Wienie decks!

     I am, of course, three weeks late for April Fool's Day.  This card has been out of print for over a decade, and will probably never return. (other than special sets & duel decks)  I just dream of splashing for green and sweeping the board of all those pesky Nyxborn Eidolons, Ethereal Armors, Madcap Skills, Pacifisms, etc...

     With the Born of the Gods cycle, enchantments will be running a lot of boards in the Standard PDC format for a long time.  So don't forget to pack your Naturalizes, Revoke Existences, Keening Apparitions, Nullifies & Negates into your stacks of 75...  because my dreams of Tranquility are just that, dreams.

    See you at the next MPDC...  I'll be the one running 20 enchantment removal spells...

     RRR726

Theros Standard Pauper Sealed Clan Events !!!

Sealed !!

Ever dreamed of playing a Standard Pauper Event Sealed Event on MTGO?

Theros Standard Pauper !!

Well we make this possible, as a Clan Invite Only Event so we can see how it goes.

Thanks to BIGBEE, he is the man in charge of this wonderful Event set-up and that takes place on the Clan's Forums.
So it's coming on SUNDAYS at 6 PM GMT + 1. You have to register on Clan's Forums and say you are interested in playing it, in the appropriate section named "STD Pauper Sealed Event". All stuff and explanations are on the forums, so see you there.


So if you register on Clan's forum and are or become a member of the clan before the event starts (get in touch with Captain Adner Online or mail standardpauperplayers@gmail.com), then post something on forums to say you will be attending next sunday, and give us a mail we can reach to send you the Draft Set, we're definitly going to have fun !

At 6 PM GMT+1 every SUNDAY in Anything goes Room / Getting serious Room, Bigbee will send all registered Clan Members their Draft Set by Email if members haven't downloaded and generated a Draftset by themselves using the Draft Generator, and allowed Building Deck time will be 15 minutes.
Then we'll go for 3 to 4 rounds of swiss depending on the attendance (we need at least 4 members to launch the event, it will be cancelled and postponed otherwise).

Visit the Clan Forums for more information and walkthrough for the Sealed Events.

It's there and UP to YOU now wether you take part or not.

Fun, Experience, Commmunity.

Tix Entry Standard Pauper Events Poll : the Results

Most of the Standard Pauper Players Clan members would like to see Standard Pauper become an officially sanctioned format on MTGO sooner or later, and the sooner the better !!! 

There are many reasons for them to keep hope alive. Let me quote a post from old-timer and format enthousiast and player, as well as community pillar Joekewwl, published on PDCMagic.com during the last month of December : 

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:53 pm    Post subject: Standard Pauper events for Mtgo????
ok guys, now that I have your attention. Looks like this is going to happen but way down the road and here's why. After talking with Wotc about it heres what I know. They have had talks about events for Std Pauper. The current issues they want to get out of the way is New UI aka Wide beta up and running 100% and close the V3 version. So anything new like this is on a back burner. Good thing is they are talking about moving forward but no date on that. Im just happy with the fact that they have talked about in house and its not just the community. The new contact person at wotc that we all need to keep in touch with for this is Mike Turian Hes the Digital Product Manager heres his email. michael.turian@wizards.com So anytime anyone feels like shooting an email asking for event support please do. Anything awareness from us to wotc only helps remind them we want this and keeps on the radar.  Thanks- Joe _________________ MTGO Beta Moderator and Test Guru Selected to the - 2011 Community Cup: The Community Team

So I deeply encourage you to write to Michael Turian if you want to show support for the Standard Pauper format. Why? Remember now how Pauper became a sanctionned format on MTGO on the 1st December 2008 ?

http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Pauper_Magic

Venerable Community members and  hosts, like Gwyned, have been relentlessly writing and bringing attention to the Standard pauper format in order to achieve official format recognition : 

http://puremtgo.com/articles/should-standard-pauper-become-sanctioned-format

http://puremtgo.com/articles/standard-pauper-good-wizards-good-you

Hiroshi Hyde even submitted a petition on Change.org, you can find and sign it here : 

http://www.change.org/petitions/wizards-of-the-coast-make-standard-pauper-a-supported-format-on-magic-online

Before Pauper became officially supported as a format on MTGO, there were free to enter Players Run Events (PRE) only and that's how the pauper community built its roots. These Pauper PREs are still running and active as you can check here :

http://community.wizards.com/forum/magic-online-player-run-events/threads/4065936

Of course Pauper Dailies may never return after they were recently removed, you can read about that here :

http://cabelthepauper.blogspot.fr/2013/12/wacky-wednesdays-pauper-dailies-whacked.html

Still there are competitive and officially supported Pauper Events you can officially enter online...

So let's hope we can pay and enter officially suppported Standard Pauper Events on MTGO one day too. Because it looks like a majority is ready and willing to do so, we'll come to the poll results very soon.
But before we can do that, players interested in pay-to-enter competitions will have to build things by themselves. And now we come to the poll.

More than a month ago, a public poll was started on this Blog.

http://standardpauperplayers.blogspot.fr/2014/01/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-that-is-todays.html

37 people have given their opinion a chance to be heard on the following question : 

Would you attend Tix entrance fee Standard Pauper Events?

Thanks to all of them, wether clan members or not, for taking the time and effort to speak their mind on that, now here are the results and where we could go from there.

Yes : 72%

No : 28%

The results are quite clear. 72 % out of 37 players, and that means 27 people would enter a Tix Entrance Fee Standard Pauper Event. That is interesting for us, but it is as well for MTGO Teamwork / Management.
It means that we, in the first place, then MTGO could put together a Tix entrance fee Standard Pauper series. There is a topic and discussion going on on the clan's forums, don't miss it if you want to let your voice be heard, but ohh Clan forum is for Clan members only.

So where shall we go from there now?

Maybe it's time for another round of questions, so we can have a more efficient brainstorming session before we can set things up.

And for example :

What would be the best Entrance fee?
1 Tix
2 Tix
3 Tix
More

Would you like it to be open to all or restricted to Clan members only?
Open to all
Clan members only

Would you like it to be a single event or a league?
Single Event
League

If played as a single event, would you limit attendance? And if yes, what would be the upper limit?
No
Yes, no more than 32 players
Yes, no more than 64 players
Yes, no more than 128 players

Of course each of those questions could be submitted as polls here, but I'm not sure it is the best solution.
So please use the comments and give us some feedback on the way you see this taking place some day, and again, the sooner the better !

Thank you for reading, and may your opponent never draw his Garys when he needs them.