Greetings and well met! I am Cabel the Pauper. This is my first post on my brand new blog about Pauper Magic and my other eclectic interests.
In real life, my name is Colin. I'm a Thirtysometing dude from historic Albany County, New York. I am an American citizen and English is my native tongue. I cannot blog in any other language...yet!
Blogging
What I write here will reflect my interests and who I am in real life. The subject matter will focus primarly on playing Pauper on Magic Online. But I'll also blog about any of those things listed in the blog description from time to time. I like lots of different topics and enjoy sharing my thoughts and writing about all of them.
But the top focus of Cabel the Pauper will be Standard Pauper and all Rarity-Restricted and Casual-Competitive formats of Magic: The Gathering on Magic Online and on paper.
This is my second attempt at a blog after years of political blogging as Soundpolitic and posting about Pauper as Copperfield. I consider it a big step forward in my personal reboot as a Magic player and blogger at the same time.
I'm thinking a bit of my Magic and blogging history is an order, if only to get it out of the way so I don't feel the need to keep relating the same tale ad nauseum. I'll try to keep this explanation - and all blogs henceforth - brief and to the point:
Soundpolitic
As Soundpolitic, I learned the ropes about blogging. I started out on DailyKos and then The Albany Project, eventually working my way up to a front-page and rec-list poster of political blogs. It was a good writing experience and I got to meet some interesting politicians and activists in my local political scene.
But that era of my blogging and political development is over. I no longer aspire to be the citizen-journalist I originally set out to be. I believe just talking politics with family and friends once in a while is sufficient for now. I finally want to make my break with the Democrat vs. Republican deadlock as I have completely rejected both conservatism and liberalism. I'll probably only blog about this sort of thing here only once in a blue moon, and try to keep it Magic related.
That's the main focus of the new Cabel The Pauper blog: Pauper Magic.
Pauper Magic
I first started playing Magic: The Gathering soon after seeing my first cards at a youth group in middle school. The cards were intriguing and I wanted to know what the text box meant, what the symbols in the corner were for, what the numbers at the bottom meant, and everything else about this unique new game. I played from 4th Edition during Alliances and Tempest was the last set I got into while playing during lunch and after school.
I quit for a long time, but once I got my first "real" job, I used some of my extra cash to return to Magic. I was drawn back by the black borders of Tenth Edition and classic fantasy Tribal elements and Hybrid multi-color of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor. Unfortunately, I lost the job after only a few months, and a few months later sold my rares and uncommons to compensate.
Fortunately, this lead me to discover the Pauper format and PDCMagic and put my remaining commons to good use. After a while of playing Standard Pauper on paper, I finally got a Magic Online account. I got my Classic Burn deck that I always wanted, but I always focused on Standard Pauper due to affordability and the great weekly events, MPDC, hosted by Gwyned, and SPDC, run by PDC and Gatherling guru, Jamuraa.
Part of this blog's purpose is to live up to the inspiring example of these Standard Pauper pioneers. So the majority of content on this blog will focus on that format specifically and Pauper generally. And I don't think I completely lived up to these guys as Copperfield.
From Copperfield to Cabel
Under the name of Copperfield, I started posting deck threads, and later branched out to writing articles on Pure MTGO. I'm still proud of much of my past work, but more often than I'd like I displayed a regrettable tendency to engage in flame wars and "troll-hunting". Aside from that, there was the practical matter of solving confusion as to who I was when posting as Copperfield while playing/running hosting in-game as Cabel.
So now it's just Cabel in-game and online and there will never be such useless silliness posted under this clean new alias. The name change represents a clean break from these bad habits as well a fresh start as a Magic player and blogger. "Copperfield" was just a stepping stone, some mistakes were made and lessons learned, and "Soundpolitic" was no different. So retiring both egotistical alter-egos and adopting Cabel makes perfect sense.
Cabel the Pauper
As Cabel, I will continue to post on the PDCMagic boards and will also be making use of the Standard Pauper Players clan-only forums. I will also try to change my username on PureMTGO and other sites in anticipation of new articles and further forum posts. MTG Salvation seems like fertile ground for Standard Pauper, and as always the push for official support from WotC marches onward.
But more than anywhere else, I will post here. And the plan is to post prolifically, yet succinctly. And above all with good nature, good humor, and good intent.
Because as you can see, I tend to be rather long-winded! I have many ideas about many things and feel the need to explain everything about anything I think. This is not bad if kept in my mind, but it's not all worth posting and this blog needs focus and clarity the same way my thoughts do. This new blog will finally serve as exercise in improving my writing and thinking skills.
So instead of spewing thousands of words about every current of thought that sweeps me away - or getting so caught up in my thoughts that I turn into Mr. Internet Jerk again - I will keep things on the topic and always be as kind and helpful as possible in posts and comments.
And when I say I want the blogs on Cabel The Pauper to be prolific and succinct, I mean I will post once a day and adhere to a strict one dozen paragraph limit....
Two For Tuesdays #1: Introduction!
Except for Tuesdays! If it's Tuesday, it's time for....Two-For-Tuesdays!
Two-For-Tuesdays will feature not one, but two posts. In one I'll share my thoughts on the previous nights MPDC tournament. In the other one I get to post whatever I want just for blogging fun, but these will likely be about Magic as well. This Tuesday, I choose to write about getting this blog started, introduce myself, and state my main goals and other random musings about what I want this blog to be.
Oh, and since I've done so already, I get to break my one dozen paragraph limit on my random Two For Tuesdays posts, too :-)
The Blog
And so it begins! By the end of today I'll get my thoughts on yesterday's tournament posted and the new Cabel The Pauper Blog will officially be up and running! I hope you enjoy it and visit regularly..
On the to-do list for the Blog's first week is visual and layout decisions and the construction of a proper Blogroll of other Standard Pauper sites and some related useful links for fellow Paupers. I need to figure out other daily themes to help me keep up the pace of blogging a little each day, too. I might even include links to my social media profiles, but I don't really use those for Magic much. If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see on Cabel the Pauper, let me know in comments.
Thanks for reading and stopping by. I look forward to blogging more and seeing you here again soon. Have fun, good luck, and good games!
Peace,
- C
No comments:
Post a Comment