Red Deck Wins SPDC 28 World Championship, IRL Standard Pauper Events Begin Tonight!

The 28th season of the Standard Pauper Deck Challenge on MTGO is over and nothing could make a Red Mage like myself happier than a Red Deck living up to its name and Winning the World Championship.   Yesterday a straight-up Red Aggro build took the top spot at  the SPDC Worlds 28 season finale:

Red Aggro

1st Place at SPDC 28 WORLDS by goomy1 on 5th April 2015

Creatures 4 Akroan Crusader 4 Nyxborn Rollicker 3 Borderland Marauder 3 Satyr Hoplite 3 Goblin Heelcutter 3 Mardu Scout 2 Minotaur Skullcleaver 21 cards Other Spells 4 Dragon Mantle 4 Lightning Strike 4 Titan's Strength 3 Magma Spray 2 Inferno Fist 1 Barrage of Boulders 1 Hammerhand 19 cards

Lands 19 Mountain 19 cards Sideboard 4 Forge Devil 2 Act of Treason 2 Collateral Damage 2 Scouring Sands 2 Krenko's Enforcer 1 Barrage of Boulders 15 cards

That should put to rest any idea that Treasure Cruise is hammering the format into ban-worthy pieces.  This hyper-aggressive, Sligh-curved masterpiece runs no additional card draw beyond that attached to Dragon Mantle, and no top-deck fixing except the useful Scry on Titan's Strength.

For the starkest of contrasts, it was piloted to the finals against the event host's own Izzet Blitz deck, which plays very similarly but splashes blue for Cruise, some bounce, and - in an interesting innovation - a blue Runemark.  In the end, it looks like mono-colored consistency won the day against diluting the power of pure Red!

By sticking with the one true color, our hero was able to run fewer lands and more fuel to add to the fire.  I personally like the inclusion of Inferno Fist to act as a heroic trigger while doubling as burn.  The Barrage of Boulders tech in the maindeck and sideboard are great ways to push through damage.  However, this is all speculation: I was not able to view the game in action or replay, so if anybody involved in the tournament has any comments, I encourage you to leave them below.

In other news, tonight will be the first night of a new season of In Real Life Standard Pauper events at my Local Games Store.  I previously reported these were to start last week and run on Tuesdays, however, there was an oversight: Tuesday is already Warhammer 40,000 night....

ASIDE: Warhammer players take up a lot of space.  And are rather noisy.  This makes finding a place to play Standard Pauper a bit tougher.  And makes things like communicating with your opponent and silently calculating combat damage a little difficult....

Therefore, we moved the event to Mondays while keeping everything the same. Stay tuned to see how my own Red Deck ends up performing after failing last week.

On that note, having tested Impact Tremors at that event, I have to change my mind about the card; I'll be cutting it and filling the slot with something that impacts the board instead of just my expectations.  For your continued reading pleasure, now that this blog entry is coming to a close, Gwyned has some thoughts on this card and other Token Deck possibilities up on Writer Adept for once Dragons of Tarkir is legal Online.

Until then, all real life Magic players are encouraged to give this awesome format a try.  And I hope all Online Standard Paupers enjoy the break between now and the 28th Monday Pauper Deck Challenge World Championships, set to take place on the 20th of April.

Good luck & have fun!  Peace,

- C 

Monthly Metablog & Metagame Report: March 2015, Part III - Metablogging about Me, Cabel the Pauper

The Monthly Metas are almost complete.  All that remains is to blog about blogging.  For those mainly interested in Magic or the other Five M's here, you may wish to skip this.  I would not hold it against you, dear reader.  

This Metablog is more for my purposes.  But I do love sharing my thoughts with my most dedicated readers.  So let's go beyond (thoroughly beyond, to the other shore!) and jump on in and see what the past month was like here on Cabel the Pauper.

BY THE NUMBERS: POSTS AND PAGEVIEWS

In the month of March, I returned to blogging after nearly 12 months of inactivity and posted a total of 14 entries to Cabel the Pauper.

Upon my return I reorganized the layout and purpose to streamline this blogs' topical content and to make sure such a prolonged absence does not occur in the future.  This was explained in my first blog of the month, "Back to Blogging and the Five M's of Cabel the Pauper."

The total pageviews for the last month met my unspoken goal of breaking a thousand, hitting 1,035 total views.  This brings the total pageviews of all time to 8,892, finally surpassing my previous blogspot page, Soundpolitic (which will not be brought back to life as this one was...and won't even be linked to!).

The two most viewed blog this month were "Standard Pauper vs. Friday Night Magic & Announcing: Standard Pauper In Real Life!" with 62 pageviews, and "Treasure Cruise BANNED in Classic, WOTC Silent on Standard..." garnering 45 hits.  These are numbers that make sense given the relatively small size of the Standard Pauper community.

As far as unquantifiable statistics go, I have not kept a log of my hours spent drafting, revising, editing, and posting and re-editing my blogs (ASIDE: Thanks to all comrades in the Pauper community for correcting my many errors!) 

However, an unspoken goal has been to get in the habit of writing as soon as possible after waking up in the morning on a daily basis.  This is dialectically opposed to my previous approach, which was to blog in a more spontaneous and sporadic fashion usually late at night.

That was probably the reason I had started this up twice and then failed to continue for an extended period of time. I am pleased with these results regardless of how many articles went live and how many hits they have received.  I believe that Cabel the Pauper is well on track to meet another monthly goal.

MAN OF LETTERS: M's OF THE MONTH

The primary M's blogged this month, aside from Magic and Metablogging, were Marxism and Media.  Magic: the Gathering Rarity-Restricted Casual Competitive formats, especially Standard Pauper, remain the primary focus of Cabel the Pauper.  The Marxist philosophical and political slant is always pervasive and I try to be humorously serious about this for purposes of both entertainment and agitation.

I enjoy this about my blogging probably more than any other aspect.  I believe it makes mine the single most unique website about both topics, Magic and Marxism - which, by the way, is merely a catch-all phrase for philosophy and politics in general, just like the former might refer to all fantasy gaming in all mediums, as well.  In future months, other schools of philosophy and political tendencies will be featured here, as will other fantasy hobby games...

However, the M of the Month was probably Media.  A major reason to return to blogging as a writer was to shift to this medium from one less conductive to producing quality content and encouraging engaging discussion, social media.  The reasons for this were outlined in "The Last Facebook Post."

Additionally, I consider writing to be a traditional medium of human expression, even when inputted and published on an electronic machine such as a computer.  Last month I began work on an extensive three-part series about writing on social and electronic media posted to the internet.  I gave this the title "To Draft Or Not To Draft" and Pack I - To the Left" appeared in March.  The next episode in this trilogy will be arriving in this new month of April.

Finally, I will use the rest of the month of April to provide additional links to the Five M's on the sidebar as well as finally get around to posting about the two which remain least-mentioned, Mixology and Meditation.  Stay tuned!

IN CONCLUSION: I'M OUT...LIKE A LION

Thanks for reading, though I wouldn't hold it against anyone to not go through all this.  The Monthly Meta is, as explained, more for my purposes than yours.  But your purpose as a read is my purpose is a writer: making this blog a positive force in our lives.  I hope it's entertained some positive thoughts about your favorite games and perhaps has perked your interest in one of the topics that I find interesting.

With that, the Monthly Meta for March is over and out...like a lion!  And now it's on to the month of April and the rest of Easter weekend.  Here's wishing everybody a blessed holiday...a perfect time for getting in some games and sharing ideas with friends and family.  Good luck & have fun!  Peace,

- C

Monthly Metablog & Metagame Report: March 2015, Part II - Standard Pauper Metagame

The month of March saw nine Player Run Events on Magic Online via PDCMagic.com.  The  Standard Pauper Deck Challenge (SPDC) and Monday Pauper Deck Challenge (MPDC) are nearing the end of their 28th seasons for the ninth and eighth years running, respectively.  The metagame data for these events are compiled on the Gatherling tool on PDCMagic.

TOP DECKS OF MARCH 2015

The Top Deck of the format this month was an Aggro build, Azorius Heroic Cruise.  This build adds the power of Treasure Cruise to a combination of efficient White and Blue Heroic and Prowess creatures with effective combat tricks to trigger these mechanics, protect threats, and frequently cantrip into more of the same.  With four wins, Heroic Cruise has won twice as many events as any other competing archetype.  It's performance in the Top Four is also better than any other list, making the cut nine times out of nine, an amazing 100% events-to-playoffs ratio.

Azorius Heroic Cruise

1st Place at MPDC 28.03, March 9th, 2015, by Forli

Creatures 4 Akroan Skyguard 4 Hopeful Eidolon 4 Wingsteed Rider 2 Jeskai Student 2 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer 16 cards Other Spells 3 Jeskai Sage 4 Defiant Strike 4 Feat of Resistance 4 Gods Willing 4 Treasure Cruise 3 Refocus 2 Chosen By Heliod 18 cards

Lands 10 Plains 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Tranquil Cove 2 Island 20 cards Sideboard 3 Negate 3 Retraction Helix 2 Ajani's Presence 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Last Breath 2 Pillar of Light 1 Erase 15 cards

That means it's not just the breakout builds of the season.  It will go down in history as one of the greatest Standard Pauper decks of all time!

The Metagame is almost evenly split between Aggro and Control strategies, with 19 of the former and 16 of the latter being piloted to Top Four status.  The most top-performing Control deck is Izzet Tokens Control, a "creatureless" strategy with the win conditions Flurry of Horns and/or Rise of Eagles, generating two large tokens at once, and backed up with counters, bounce, and burn.  Behind Azorius Heroic Cruise is the other best Aggro deck, Boros Heroic Aggro, which forgoes the card-drawing prowess in blue for more aggressive red creatures and direct damage.

Other decks of note are the Black-splash-Blue Devotion builds running Gray Merchant of Asphodel, at once a win condition and an engine for staying in the game.  These also play Treasure Cruise along with blue and black removal and card advantage spells for controlling board until Gary drops down on the battlefield.  Some players have splashed an additional color, the most popular being White for even more drain-life effects useful in the long-game.  On the Aggro end of the spectrum, an Orzhov Tokens strategy has become popular this month, featuring  powerful white token-makers for card advantage and enough black removal to clear a path before a well-time white mass pump spell.

Only one Top 8 deck, Mono Blue Control, has completely dropped off the radar after appearing earlier in the month.  Most recently, entirely new builds have surprised contestants and won events in their first entry! The last two events were won by an Izzet Blitz list, looking very much like "Red Deck Splashes Blue for the Win," piloted by the event host himself.  The next day, a Grixis Control build by rrmedio1 with no Gary or Izzet token makers (but plenty of Treasure Cruise and a scary Hexproof finisher) took the top spot at the last MPDC tournament of the month.

TOP STORIES OF THE MONTH

Treasure Cruise Banned in Pauper, Remains Legal in Standard Pauper

The most powerful card in the format is hands down Treasure Cruise.  No hard numbers are needed to back this up: the card was banned in Classic Pauper last month.  Having already been banned in other Eternal formats, this makes Standard Pauper one of the last places to play Magic where the card is legal and not overpowered.

Still, the conversation about possible ban-hammer-worthy cards is contentious - even when they are commons - and we Standard Pauper players must remain vigilant to make sure no single card destroys our format.  Until then, it's safe to say that Cruise has replaced Gary as the boogie man of Standard Pauper, for better or for worse.  It is this Pauper's opinion that the ship should remain on the waters and not be banned, and the rest of the community seems to have come to the same consensus.  It's a sure bet that Treasure Cruise will remain legal in the 29th seasons of MPDC and SPDC starting soon.

Campaign to Get Standard Pauper Listed on the Magic Formats Web Page

The banning of Treasure Cruise in Pauper raised questions of whether or not the card would still work with the Magic Online Standard Pauper filter.  In researching this, I came to discover that finding information on Standard Pauper on the official Magic: the Gathering Formats page on Wizards of the Coast web site is impossible: Standard Pauper is not listed as a format.

This month, other top players and I began discussing (perhaps a little too strongly at first...my bad!) on how to change this lack of information this long-running format, which has existed and thrived on Magic Online for going on ten years and is now being explored In Real Life at Local Game Shops as a result of the MTGO v4 debacle.  Stay tuned to the PDCMagic.com and other forums (and, of course, this blog!) for updates on the ongoing campaign to get Standard Pauper listed on the Magic: the Gathering Formats information page.

IN CONCLUSION

The month of March 2015 in the World of Standard Pauper is now in the history books.  Looking ahead, the month of April 2015 starts off with a bang: The SPDC Worlds Season Championship takes place this Sunday and the MPDC finale will take place about a week later.  It is very rare that new winning decks take players by surprise the week before these season finales.  Based on the metagame this month, one can expect the above-discussed archetypes to have a good change at the top trophies of the season(s).

Best of luck to and congratulations the Paupers who earned invitations and byes to the championships. And to all participants, may your topdecks be relevant, your maths be accurate. Good luck & have fun...and hey...Good Friday, too :-)  Peace,

- C

The Monthly Metablog & Metagame Report: March 2015, Part I - General Introduction

μετά

Of all the blogs I post, few are more fun than those in which I blog about blogging itself.  Every month here on Cabel the Pauper, I will go meta.  I sincerely hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do drafting, editing, and publishing these Monthly Metablogs.

This may be more for my own purposes than for my readers.  See, as long as I've been writing on the Internet, I've often found that when I'm writing about writing on the Internet while I'm...well, we have this prefix in order to not repeat ourselves so often, don't we?  The dictionary can define this better...in fewer characters than I seem to be able to keep to:

"Meta-" on Dictionary.Reference.Com

In the case of a metablog, we're after the second entry in the above-linked definition of this useful prefix.  Just as metaphilosophy is a branch of philosophy, primarily concerned with the question of what philosophy is (basically, philosophy is just thinking about thinking) a metablog is a blog about blogging.  These have been happening ever since The Blog as a genre of Internet literature first appeared.  The Wiktionary has a nice clear entry on this:

"Metablog" on the Wiktionary

A Metablog can become self-referential.  In fact, it has to be.  By definition!  This can get humorous, become confusing, and possibly annoying.  Indeed,  many see it as a waste of time or a load of nonsense.  I recall when I was working on a the wiki page during  the Great Designer Search 2.  I often had more fun writing about how to do the tasks than actually doing them!   It didn't take long for somebody to post a lamentful quip: "The Wiki has gone meta."  This poster was using the word accurately as defined above, but was also very likely hinting at the term's more vernacular use.  The Urban Dictionary is always fun to consult:

"Meta" on Urban Dictionary

I find that funny.  But I don't see why Magic players, especially those who play on the Competitive end of the Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive spectrum, should find such a thing useless.  After all, aren't we Magic players familiar with another oft-employed phrase with the same prefix?  It's the word that can be both a noun for a specific competitive Magic format's overall environment and a verb for a thing that players do while not playing the game trying to achieve victory in the same environment.

You got it: Metagame!  We use this word very often, fellow Paupers, Peasants, and other proletarians Magic-players.  Yet in drafting the metablog on metagaming for this month, I could not find a single, definitive definition expressed in dictionary times like those linked to above.

Now the Urban Dictionary did have an entry linked to on the "Meta" page, but I found unsatisfactory for Planesalkers.  We need something more specific for our Magic metagaming purposes.  There's much more to any Magic: the Gathering format's existence, and quite a bit more thought that Magic players put into the action of metagaming than a single dictionary-style entry just can't define.  One really should read (or re-read) an entire article on the topic from a verified professional:

What is the Metagame? by Jeff Cunningham, DailyMTG Academy, January 2007

This piece may be several years old (about as old as Standard Pauper as a Format Magic Online) but it's by no means out of date.  It remains one of the best places to familiarize yourself with the a metagame is and how to do metagaming.  Just in case any of you reading this were not yet familiar.  And to lead in to the second reason a blog titled something like  "Monthly Meta" will appear early each month: to report on a Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive Magic: the Gathering Format's metgame!

With all that out of the way, I'm done blogging about why I'm blogging right now.  Let us proceed with the Monthly Meta and take a thoughtful look at March 2015's Format of the Month, Standard Pauper...

...tomorrow :-)

Yes, dear reader, the one metablogging point I'll make in this entry is that my others are often very long.  Perhaps too damn long!  So the goal for this new month of April will be to "go beyond" my usual writing habits and shorten things up.  A bit.

That makes this entry merely an introduction to the Monthly Metas here on Cabel the Pauper.  And it means it's over.  Expect the March Metagame report for Standard Pauper tomorrow and the Metagablog for March on Cabel the Pauper, featuring the M's of the Month, later this week.

Until then, thanks for reading and good luck & have fun!  Peace,

-C