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.

The Dark Horse from Born of the Gods: Servant of Tymaret

You are underestimating my powers!

	To be honest, Born of the Gods wasn't too impactful for Standard Pauper. It didn't provide much tools for innovators and the most successful archetypes remained the same. Actually, two decks winning MPDCs post-BNG ran no card from it (shootout to rremedio1 for finally taking down a tournament with a list running BNG cards). Despite a lack of power in the set, one, in my opinion, strong card got overlooked. It's Servant of Tymaret. There are currently 4 cards, all white, which can exile creatures in this format. Counterspells and bounce can get rid of the Servant but blue isn't popular in general right now. Servant of Tymaret is a great blocker against any ground creature, has immunity to removal spells, heals us and damages our opponent. It is close to a planeswalker with so much utility! Such a versatile card is expected to be very good in an underpowered commons-only format. Nevertheless, this powerful card needs a home. With 1 power it's hard to get through and without it's inspired trigger 1/3 blocker is not all that impessive. This means we want to be playing this card in a deck, which has plenty of removal for opposing creatures. The first place I tried Servant in was Dimir and it was awesome there. Due to the fact that Servant is black, we can have a lot of removal in any  deck with him. It is definitely fitting in Orzhov Extort and maybe it's possible to brew some kind of Rakdos burn/drain deck. Not sure about synergies in Golgari colours but if it wants to go controllish Servant is always available. I would like to also mention that in event, where Dimir Control dominates the format again, Servant could be an option. It has a lot of resilience and creates a "quick" 10 turns clock. It would also be a nice sideboard for every  Black deck against Mill decks. Metagame is still full of aggro decks and counterspell-based Dimir Control has a hard time keeping up. I'm much more interested to try Servant out in a black deck with either red or white. Or, considering latest results for three-coloured decks, BWR control. These colours provide us all the removal we want and we can add  Ubul Sar Gatekeeper due to our mana base. For MPDC 24.04 I decided to play Rakdos Mono-removal and it didn't pan out very well. Creatures 4 Servant of Tymaret 4 Kragma Butcher Spells 4 Devour Flesh 4 Grisly Spectacle 4 Lightning Strike 4 Pharika's Cure 4 Read the Bones 4 Shock 3 Auger Spree 2 Razortip Whip   Lands 12 Swamp 7 Mountain 4 Rakdos Guildgate SIDEBOARD 4 Duress 3 Stab Wound 2 Razortip Whip 2 Electrickery 1 Crypt Incursion 1 Auger Spree 1 Mind Rot 1 Asphyxiate After some practice I learned that Servant has a lot more ways to die than I previously thought. Devour Flesh is a cheap and clean answer considering our Servant of Tymaret is going to be alone on the battlefield most of the time. -X/-X removal sells also get rid of this creature and Quag Sickness is a popular card in most of Black decks. Last Breath is yet another popular removal spell in White that can get rid of our every creature. Kragma Butcher was lackluster for me because our opponent had a removal spell for it pretty much all the time. Overall, deck didn‘t perform up to my expectations, but it was still a great lesson  for me that not everything what‘s great on paper is good in practice. Please, do not underestimate Servant of Tymaret because of my failed experiment though. It‘s still a great card with no shell for it to shine yet. I made this deck just to test Servant‘s power in a correct environment. Unfortunately, this list is not even close to a perfect one for Servant of Tymaret. Yet, it's a start. The card is really powerful and with more people exploring it, someone should find a way to break it. See you in the next MPDC, Mundisv

Interview with Mundisv, MPDC Season 23 Champion

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

My name is Raimundas. I'm 18 years old with about a half of a year left before I'll finish my school.

- How did you hear of MTGO?

Previously, I played Yugioh TCG in paper and poker online. I knew about Magic from the Yugioh players and thought it's convenient  to play the game online, since here in Lithuania we don't have any high-level events and the metagame in FNMs is stale. I stopped playing Yugioh and fed my urge for card games by playing MTGO recently.

- Do you play Paper Mtg? Since when?

I don't own any paper cards and I have only played a few times with cards borrowed from my friends.

- For how long have you been playing on MTGO?

I started playing online the last summer, so it's over a half of a year.

- How much do you spend in MTGO a month?

Since I'm a student without a stable income, I try to avoid spending money on MTGO. I haven't spent any besides the initial cost for an account. Thanks to our great PRE prize support system, which allows me to keep freerolling this game.

- What is your favorite format there and why?

My favorite format has to be Standard Pauper (with Standard SilverBlack in the second place), where I can be as competitive as anyone else with a small budget. I like these formats, where card pools are smaller and it is easier to predict the metagame and innovate.

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

I believe paper players are aware of PDCmagic.com, where you could find  all the successful decklists, which should lead to similar metagames. There are no paper Standard Pauper tournaments in my country, but I believe paper ones are less competitive with only local players being able to compete.

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

I'm a control player by heart, but I always try to stay open and keep playing the best deck instead of locking myself in a cage of wrong habbits.

- What are your favorite colors?

I love blue due to my preference for control and the colors I pair it the most with are red or black.

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

Standard Pauper community, and especially MyGalaxy, helped me a lot at the beginning and I wanted to become a bigger part of that community. Also, when I created my MTGO account I knew that I would be playing PREs most of the time with my low budget and I wanted to get involved into the clan activities rather sooner than later.

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

Our format is still small compared to others and being in a clan helps us to find similar minded people, in addition to playtesting partners. Grinding online can also feel quite lonely sometimes and  having someone to chat with is cool too.

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

I'm not a spectacular brewer and I'm playing the best deck most of the time. I prefer tweaking playable decks to brewing new ones.

- You have been performing so well all season 23 long with various lists, how would you explain that?

Lady luck was on my side and I kept abusing the most powerful decks all season long, which naturally leads to victories. In my opinion, following the metagame  and willing to switch decks were the most important here.

- Do you think everyone can make a meteoric rise to fame with the std pauper format just like you did with Mill and other lists? What would the best skill requirements be to achieve that?
Everyone can be successful as long as that person has free time on Mondays to dedicate for pauper, while also trying to step up his own game all the time.

- As MPDC Season 23 winner on points, it looks like attending a whole season is challenging for you? Why?
I'm a person up for a challenge all the time and dedicating myself to achieve something was very satisfactory for me. I liked this season and, as long as I have free time, I will always aim for the top in the upcoming seasons.

- What were your favorite 5 cards this season with Theros?

In no particular order, Tome Scour for being an amazing addition in the early days of Dimir Control, Ethereal Armor and Hopeful Eidolon for being amazing in the strongest deck, Pharika's Cure and Archeomancer for being amazing cards in the Dimir deck.

- What competitive archetypes could emerge this forthcoming Season 24 with the addition of Born of the Gods?

I'm not much of a brewer, but I think with a second Heroic creature for green and white, either white-based or green-based heroic decks could become a thing. I would also love to see something built to utilize the powers of Floodtide Serpent, Sphinx's Disciple and Servant of Tymaret but I'm not sure about that.

- What will you be playing in Season 24?

It's too early to say my deck of choice for sure, but I'll follow the metagame and always aim to play the best deck available. Also, I'll be the first one to try every control deck possible before switching to aggro.

- What do you think about Standard Pauper format for Magic in general?
I think it's a stepping stone for anyone looking to be successful in Magic. It's especially appealing online, where some people want to enjoy competitive gaming without a need to spend their money.

- What are your future plans for Magic?

In a perfect future, I want to be "infinite" on MTGO. I'm looking forward to saving up for a Block deck and grinding some Daily events.

- Would you suggest playing MTGO and MPDC for anyone else?

Definitely, it's fun and challenging. Player Run Events allows us to mimic everything competitive players do in other formats for free: analyzing metagame, tweaking and teching our decks, brewing, improving sequencing and decision making inside games.

- Are you happy about the MTGO client?

While a lot of people complain about this poor client, I think it's perfect. I never wanted fancy graphics and this client is close to minimalistic, professional poker platforms. The bugs are not really relevant for me and the only bad thing seemed to be event crashes, which is fixed right now.

- What do you think about the future of Standard Pauper?

I doubt it that Wizards would add sanctioned events for the format, but they should promote this format in the future, since it's a great way to introduce Magic to new players.

- What do you think about the future of our clan and clan blog?

If the format is getting more exposure, our clan should keep growing, which is really great. The clan blog should become a cool place for MPDC champions to publish their decks and share their ideas on our format.

- What would you want to get printed as a common in future sets?

I would love to see a cycle of underpowered common planeswalkers. ;)

- Thanks for answering, Mundisv, and Good luck for MPDC Season 24 !

Born of the Gods : it's here

Net working?

Today will be a very short post, real life is taking over.

 Major fact : Born of the gods commons are available and cheap enough now for you to gather them and have a fight in the Standard pauper Arena.


Purchase them, at least the ones you need and get ready for next Monday's

MPDC

Season 24 will be starting right away, hosted by Gwyned !!

Get ready on 24/2 February, please keep an eye on PDCMagic for further announcements.

Special Standard Pauper Singleton / Cross posting !

And there was light !

Can't wait for Born of the Gods to be released Online ?

In need of brewing something special soon?


Something Standard Pauper?

Gwyned, our great historical host for MPDC series on PDCMagic.com and clan mate has decided to host something special in order to shorten the wait before MPDC Season 24 launches the week after. He announced that on his blog, Writer Adept.

So get ready for next monday, same time same place.

Get ready for STANDARD PAUPER SINGLETON !!! 

Monday February 17 at 2.00 EST.

All details can be found here, please read it carefully  :

http://writeradept.blogspot.fr/2014/02/special-standard-pauper-singleton.html

Really hope to see you there, just proceed as normal or read Gwyned's New Player Primer.

Born of the Gods : green cheese moon ?

Born of the Gods Review time once again, few days away from Online playtesting. I was whispered by the Muses Green gets a few interesting cards from the set.Full visual spoiler can be found here again :


http://mythicspoiler.com/

MonoGreen, Selesnya Auras, Simic Permission, Golgari Bad Touch and possibly Gruul could take advantage of new gems given from the gods. Out of those 8 cards, can you see the Magnificient Seven?

So, hmmmm, here are the green common cards that caught me eye :

What a pity this small badger is not a beast, like the flavor text tells. He would have been nice with Advocate of the Beast. Without a boost, his Trample ability is useless. Not the best turn 1 play in Green, Sledge Scorpion or Elvish Mystic are better choices.

Cheese.

Bestow 5 for a +3/+1 boost, or a 3/1 body for 3 manas. No ability at all. Is that even good for a Hexproof deck?
Selesnya Auras deck surely has better picks already.

Only reason it caught my eye is a fine art, I do like wolves.

This Inspired centaur warrior is interesting. 3/3 beater for 4 manas is classic. The fact that he can get out of most Burn range once 4/4 or even 5/5 is the best part. Make him unblockabe with Aqueous Form and you have a potential killer.

Springleaf Drum reprinted as an uncommon? What a pity !

Oh, those hairy hoofs are so cute.

Here comes a good card. A 1/1 body is weak for 2 manas, but the upside is you can take benefit and get a land. Not only a Basic land, but even a gate. This guy is a great mana fixer, but not only.

Let's say you're playing Selesnya Auras and you have an Auramancer and that satyr in your starting hand, but no Aura. Get a land, mill the reavealed aura(s) in your graveyard, and get them back casting Auramancer on turn 3. Well, that's what this guy makes possible. Simply can be good in any deck playing some Green, wether monocolor or multicolor.

Devotion to Green? Maybe.
Still a bit risky, since if you play this on turn 2 or 3 it can die from a Shock or whatever. You'll have to target him twice before he reaches the out of Burn range. Perfect target for Aspect of Hydra if you're heading for a Monogreen deck.

Aggro? Devotion to Green?
Here I am, rock you like a hurricane ! (reference/quote? Say in the comments)
And the flavor text is great. There were better days at same casting cost, given Garruk's Companion, but hey, that's a fair deal for Mono Green Deck actually.












Great art !
Not a bad card, though the snake will often gain you 4 life  because a 7/7 monster is too hard to deal with. Ramp deck playing threat after threat every turn once manabase is set can be painful.  And that card can fit such an archetype.

Want to give it a try and see?

We have Giant Growth and we will have this too. Because it can be better than Giant Growth sometimes. Green Devotion is the way for that card to shine. And there can be some !
Nyleas Disciple and Aspect of Hydra are crying for some action right there. Swordwise Centaur, Setessan Oathsworn, battery !
All this and more makes it worth giving a test.

Ready?






So here we are done with the spoiler !
No Born of the Gods Artefacts or Lands review for Standard pauper, all of them being rated as Uncommons or Rares.
So what do you think?
- Will Born of the Gods have any impact on the Standard Pauper Metagame?
- What cards do you intend to play at competitive level?
- Wich color gets the most interesting cards in your opinion?

Just let us know in the comments below ! So many readers and so few feedback is weird. Let's change that !

The hidden card Mill would take advantage of still has not been guessed, check this post :
http://standardpauperplayers.blogspot.fr/2014/01/born-of-gods-blues-in-you.html

And open the golden door using the key to the mistery. Here's a hint : Dimir Mill will have to splash a third color, playing it wisely and recurrently. Post in the article comments to claim your prize !