DTK Midnight Release Musings & Reviewing...the Reviews!

Part 1: Dragons of Tarkir Midnight Release Musings

I am tired this morning and afternoon!  And not just because I finally finished my five-part Critique of Dragons of Tarkir the day before: the new set was released at midnight last night.  And I was there to get my new cards as soon as my favorite card shop could legally sell them.

Partly because this was the first full set I reviewed in full, partly because I am to begin hosting Standard Pauper events at my local games shop this coming Tuesday, and partly to disprove all those fallaciously claiming "Pauper does not drive sales" - a part of the debate about Standard Pauper not even being listed as an official format on the Wizards.com Formats page! - I decided that it was worth it to head to my favorite hobby gaming and scifantasy fiction store at midnight to pick up my traditional Fat Pack and Intro Packs.

See?  Standard Pauper actually does drive sales!

I do this almost every set.  Although I could build a Standard Pauper collection by only making purchases on the secondary market, cracking open Boosters of a brand new set as soon as possible is just part of what makes Magic so, well, magical!  One of the great things about buying boosters and playing mainly Pauper is you can build your collection very quickly for less cash on opening day, when many stores offer first-time discounts to generate additional revenue for the most important thing any business can do...make payroll!

The next step for me?  Taking whatever rares, mythics, or in-demand pieces of silver back to the game shop to get some of your money back, then using that to complete your playsets of the commons you were not lucky enough to unwrap.  It actually works rather well, and if you go this route, you still get to have the irreplaceable experience of getting fresh new cards as soon as they are unleashed.  Hey, even Paupers have dreams of opening big money mythic rare foils :-)

And that's not all: this isn't just a Standard Pauper blog.  It's about all Rarity-Restricted Casual & Competitive formats.  Peasant is also an existing format.  So is SilverBlack, which is basically just "Rareless."  I may yet desire to return to an FNM to challenge myself to see how well I can do when utilizing uncommons.  And though I just purged my collection of all rares in order to get back into IRL Magic playing, I am (deep foreshadowing, here folks, stay tuned...) working on a Rarity-Restricted format of my own invention that will, I expect, allow cards with golden expansion symbols.

So after I got the promotional e-mail from the struggling little shop where I'll be running Standard Pauper Tuesdays starting in just a few days, I shuffled up my paper Standard Pauper decks and dropped in about 11:30 PM.  To my dismay (and owner on the phone with the cashier!) there was only one other customer there, and she was too tired to play.  But another dude walked in early to pick up his box, his hopes high that his chase for new Legendary rare perfect for his favorite Commander deck would be successful.  I sure hope it was!

I asked him if he'd ever heard of Standard Pauper.  He'd heard some rumors about it (and certainly didn't find out about it on the official M:TG website...grrr!) but never played before.  After that, it wasn't too difficult to entice him into a duel while we waited for the clock to strike twelve.  I gave him the current best deck in the format, Azorius Heroic Cruise, and he cut my Izzet Tokens Control build to play a game as we waited for midnight to arrive and legally allow us to make our purchases.

He dropped dudes nearly ever turn, but I had answers.  He was clearly still having fun plenty of fun, and was even able to Cruise for Treasure twice to summon more than a couple threatening Heroes.  But my bounce, permission, and burn was able to clear the way for Minotaur tokens for the win: I drew all four copies of Flurry of Horns.  Despite his defeat, he seemed more interested in Standard Pauper than ever, and the time flew.  He grabbed his box and quickly left as I wished him luck in finding that new Legend he'd been building his Pauper EDH deck around for months.

As for me, I grabbed the Fat Pack I always get because I think they are good buy.  For forty bucks, I get plenty of basic lands with new artwork and the correct expansion symbol for building block decks and keeping my decks aesthetically pleasing to me.  I get the booklet with the collectors checklist to help me keep track of how unlucky I am when trying to collect common playset.  I get that very cool d20 with the set symbol that could someday end up being a collector's item. And in my experience, you do get a better shot at pulling money cards from Fat Packs.

This is probably not true, but there was that mythic rare in the last pack.  Some kind of Deathtouch, Megamorph, Jurassic Park kitchen-scene lookin' beast.  I can probably turn this clever girl into that last copy of Impact Tremors I need for the  Mardu Tokens deck I'm brewing.  I failed to pull a single Ojutai's Summons to update that Izzet build with either, but I can turn that and a couple of foil rares I was lucky enough to find into funds for Standard Pauper.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story of my midnight Magic experience.  I thoroughly enjoyed playing a Standard Pauper match with another dude face-to-face, chatting with my co-organizer at the shop, and busting open those packs after reading the story.  I ripped open the packaging while re-watching the Dragons of Tarkir Standard Pauper set review from my comrades at MagicGatheringStrat...

Part Two: Reviewing the Reviews of DTK for Standard Pauper

...which brings me to part two of my blog post today, which is much happier than my previous critical reviews and my desperate ravings about Wizards refusing to acknowledge that this format exists.  I may be the most long-winded and foul-mouthed of Standard Pauper online personalities, but I'm by no means the only one.  There are others.  And I compile them here today for your convenience and reading pleasure.

See, the existence of these guys work is what allows my blog to take a unique perspective.  I couldn't be the long-winded, foul-mouthed, left-wing voice of the format if I was the only voice!  I need others to add their unique voices as well, in their own personal style.  If you'll forgive me this indulgence before we get to other Standard Pauper DTK reviews: This is one of the essences of collectivism being a superior line of thought than mere liberal individualism:

There is NO reason to be an individualist if you have NOBODY to share your individualism with!  In this sense, our old Existential Marxist friend, Jean-Paul Sartre, was wrong.

Hell is not, as he insisted, "other people."  Other people are, in fact, our Heaven here on Earth!

The only reason a collective ever exists is to ensure the expression of it's members' individuality with other individuals, isn't it?  The only reason individuals exist is to become part of an empowering collective, and the only reason a collective exists is to empower all the individuals that comprise the collective.  See?  ¡Sí!

Give that line of socialist thinking a second thought if you're so inclined.  But definitely check out these, the best of the rest of the Standard Pauper set reviews for Dragons of Tarkir!

GWYNED, THE WRITER ADEPT, ON PUREMTGO

Gwyned is THE authority on Standard Pauper!  He hosts the long-running MPDC PRE series on MTGO through PDCMagic.  He  blogs about Magic and many other topics on his succinct, well-composed blog Writer Adept.  And he also is the author of Standard Pauper articles on PureMTGO.com.  It's almost a moot point to instruct you to read his work.  If you get into Standard Pauper either in real life or online, coming into contact with his consistently excellent work is inevitable.  He's been giving us set reviews from the perspective of a Standard Pauper player for a long time.

The first part of his full set review is already published on PureMTGO and I highly anticipate parts two and three.  Instead of just going by color as most do, his approach is to review cards by various relationships such as new mechanics, horizontal and vertical cycles, and card types.  And instead of over-used letter grades or ratings on a scale of one to infinity, he uses a concise system based on Channel Fireball's "hit or myth" system.  Read his stuff if you only have time for one Standard Pauper set review.  That's an order, comrade!

DR CHRIS BAKER DC ON THE DRAFT BREWERY

Next up, we have DrChrisBakerDC, who is likely the Standard Pauper with the most reach and connection in to the world of Money Magic.  Chiropractor to the Pros, they call him.  His magical creations are written and published on his Wordpress blog called The Draft Brewery.  His nowhere near as high in word count as mine or Gwyned's, but can you blame him?  He's making sure that professional Magic players are in good enough physical condition in order to remain functioning mental athletes!

You can find a lot of good information on Limited play on his blog as well (something I need as much as I can get with!) and he's a formidable Magic player in his own right.  Seriously, one of the best who you can expect to lose against if you start hunching over your computer screen.  Since he's such a busy doctor and such a freaking good Magic player, he hasn't invested as much time as Gwyned or myself in reviewing the entire set or establishing a consistent, creative rating system.  But that's refreshing and it still works.  When you're as good as Dr. Chris, you can simply rate things on an A through F scale, rank the colors, and present a top ten list of the cards in the set.  He's got the authority to do so.  Respect his authorit-ah!

ERRATA: DrChrisBakerDC has also produced a 90 minute YouTube video reviewing every single card in the set, contrary to what I am about to report in the segment that follows.  Sincerest apologies submitted and appropriate action taken in compensation.  This message has been brought to you by Cabel the Red's Bureau of Correctional and Re-Education Facilities.

MAGIC GATHERING STRAT'S YOUTUBE DTK SP REVIEW

Thirdly, there is the gang at MagicGatheringStrat.  This cast of colorful characters are into both writing articles and Skyping together to produce YouTube videos and Podcasts about a variety of Magic formats.  Among the formats they cover, they produce probably more Standard Pauper content excepting perhaps myself or the Gwyned the Great!  They are the creators of The Standard Pauper Show, the only place on the web to get news on this format on a regular basis in a way that won't leave your eyes blurry from reading voluminous blog posts...

They even have a Standard Pauper subsection on their forums, the only other place I've found such a thing and that even I only just found out about.  Wow! Just...wow!

This is the second (or third?) time Brennon, VaultBoyHunter, and FanOfHistory have collaborated to produce what is thus far the only audio-video version of a full set review specifically targeting the Standard Pauper format.  These guys work through every new card in Dragons of Tarkir with great insights in real time featuring accurate visuals (with swipes that would make George Lucas envious). And they do it with a style is wonderfully informative and wickedly entertaining.  You will love their visual effects, their inside jokes, back and forth debates about whether cards are good or bad, and their enthusiasm for the format combined with a laid-back, down-to-earth attitude.

It's as if my prayers were answered.  These guys are the Standard Pauper equivalent of Evan Erwin & Brad Nelson's ten-hour Magic Show set reviews.  When you pick up your Fat Pack of Dragons of Tarkir, put this on and enjoy their hard work while you start brewing your deck!

CARDBOARD COMMONS REVIEWS PARA PAUPER...EN ESPAÑOL

Cardboard Commons Review Para Pauper de DTK Parte Uno: Blanco

Cardboard Commons Review Para Pauper de DTK Parte Dos: Azul

Cardboard Commons Review Para Pauper de DTK Parte Tres: Negro

Cardboard Commons Review Para Pauper de DTK Parte Quatro: Rojo

Cardboard Commons Review Para Pauper de DTK Parte Cinco: Verde

 (¡Próximamente!)

Finally, this one is rather challenging but I TRY to read it because my other hobby these days is...learning how to hablar español! Produced by a group of Spaniards (or at least Spanish-speakers) on a Wordpress blog called Cardboard Commons, this is one of my favorite new discoveries that combines two of my hobbies: reading and writing about Pauper and learning foreign tongues!

ASIDE: When you debate communism on social media as much as I have, you're going to start hearing the words "Why don't you just move to Cuba you commie bastard!" in your sleep.  I currently plan, long-term, on taking them up on that just to show 'em!  I also figure that learning how to speak this beautiful Romance language will make me a more marketable prospective employee during my remaining time here in the United States, which is now a bilingual country.  Deal with it.  America, love it or leave it? Tú habes. ¡Soy relinquo!

But enough about me.  And thank God for Google's translate feature!  That allows me to check my own translation (or see how bad Google has translated things...it's quite amusing to see Chrome get confused when encountering Magic player vernacular!) and so far I've found that these are the only other guys on the planet giving each card in all five colors a page of their own with reviews and critiques geared exclusively towards Pauper.  That makes for a marvelous discovery, indeed.  I encourage everybody to check them out now that they have been added to my Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive Magic: the Gathering blogosphere links.

¡Bien hecho, Cardboard Commons! ¡Sigan con el buen trabajo! ¡No puedo esperar a que el Review Para Pauper de DTK parte Cinco: Blanco!

El Fin

So there you have it, my personal story about my first ever foray into busting down a card shops doors to get my hands on brand new Magic cards as soon as possible.  And now you know I care enough about Standard Pauper to not just review the cards...but review the other other reviews!  Yeesh!

Before closing and wishing you all good luck & have fun, let me add this: my local games shop has decided to INCREASE THE PRIZE PAYOUT for the STANDARD PAUPER EVENTS played IN REAL LIFE beginning this coming TUESDAY, MARCH 31st!!  That's right!  You'll still be able to pick 40, 20, or 10 commons out of their huge dump-box inventory, but NOW you can also WIN PACKS!  That's right!  Win PACKS for playing STANDARD PAUPER!  Damn, this is exciting!  

Okay.  Now you have fun and hopefully experience good luck ripping open those brand new Dragons of Tarkir booster packs!  Until next time, thanks for reading ALL this text :-)  Peace,

- C

Standard Pauper vs. Friday Night Magic & Announcing: Standard Pauper In Real Life!

I am such a dedicated fan of Standard Pauper that I've actually challenged myself a few times to bring a deck designed to that format's specifications to a Money Magic event.  The most common of these are the Friday Night Magic competitions that take place at local game stores all over the world.

Standard Pauper is a Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive format.  That is, the cards you are allowed to build your deck with are restricted based on their rarity and you can play them either casually for fun or get organized and compete against other Paupers for prizes.

In this case, you are allowed to use only commons (the Pauper part) and only those from the currently Standard-legal card pool (the Standard half).  It's as simple as that.  If the expansion symbol is black and it's from one of the core sets or blocks that Standard allow, it's a Standard Pauper deck.


That means it's legal in both the Pauper format and in Standard.  So your deck will be legal to bring to an FNM.  But how will you fare when placing yourself at such a disadvantage?

The answer depends heavily on your build, a little bit on how skillfully you play, and mostly on the luck of the draw.  Having done this a few times, I can conclude that, while it's a fun and interesting experience if, and only if, you do not expect to win, your five-dollar entry fee is probably better spent completing playsets of commons.  And your intent should not be to win but instead to spread the word about how superior a format Standard Pauper is to Money Standard.

The best I ever did was to go 2-2, breaking even, back during Lorwyn-Alara-M10 Standard.  It was then that one of the best performing decks in Standard Pauper was Dominus Deck Wins.  Clout of the Dominus could turn your cheap Stream Hoppers, Riverfall Mimics, and Noggle Bandits into serious evasive threats that were difficult to remove.  Backed up with Lorwyn block's efficient burn spells and the highly anticipated return of Lightning Bolt, this riff on Red Deck Wins was one of the best Sligh decks in the format's storied history.

At that FNM, I got very lucky in addition to being well-practiced with the deck.  I won my first match, then lost two.  To break even, I had to face down the greatest challenge imaginable. My opponent was playing a deck worth well over $400 on the secondary market, the bad guy of Standard at the time: UB Faeries.  With Scions of Oona, Jace Belerens, Bitterblossoms, and all the rest of the rares I could never, ever afford.  I would need lots of luck.  I had to resist tilt like a madman.  And I had to make every single point of damage count and press whatever advantage lady luck graced me...

...and I beat him,  2-1!

In game one I curved out perfectly as he stumbled on mana.  I can recall his snide grin quite well.  Everybody gets bad draws, he surmised.  He surely figured he could roll me easily and didn't even reach for his sideboard.  In the second game, it was I who got stuck on a couple of lands, but DDW could run on two mana.  By halfway through the match, I saw my opponent begin to sweat as he began to run out of counter magic.  He was able to eke out a win by the seat of his pants.

After that game, he sideboarded with a grimace on his face.  I didn't even bring a board, but I'd shaken him enough.  By the time of his second mulligan, he was tilted.  My keep in game three featured a one, two, and three drop, and the all-important aura the deck was named after.  He though he had me when my first turn Stream Hopper was answered by a perfect second-turn Bitterblossom.  But this ended up being his foolish fateful mistake that cost him the match win!

My enchantment was allowed to resolve instead of his Spellstutter Sprite being able to foil my plans.  He proceeded to become angrier as he top-decked land after land, my dude breaking through the Faerie tokens while his life total was sent into the red by his own Bitterblossom.  He damn near threw his deck across the room when he had to report his match loss and didn't even shake my hand as is customary after the match.

Never have I felt so victorious after a match of Magic: the Gathering.  A five-dollar Pauper deck defeating a five-hundred dollar build, working hard for the win while my opponent hoped to buy his way to victory?  Now that's priceless!  Just like the FNM promotional copy of Mulldrifter I earned that night and treasure to this day.

Last week, I decided to see if I could repeat my success.  Yet I had no such luck.  This time instead of going aggro - which is what you should definitely do if you want to try this at home! - I ran  UB Devotion build with a splash of White.

 Now this may the best control deck in Standard Pauper right now.  But it's built to control other Standard Pauper decks, packed with answers against the aggro decks in that format, not Money Standard, before re-filling its grip via Treasure Cruise and developing a board position where dropping a Gray Merchant of Asphodel guarantees the control deck a high life total while annihilating the aggressive opponent's spindown d20.  It is NOT at all effective against the aggro decks current ramping and rolling in Money Standard.

This time I did not win a single match.

In fact, I didn't win a single game!  The best I did was get a GW Devotion Ramp player down to ten...but it was his fetchlands that did most of the work for me and he was more interested in seeing how big a Timmy play he could make with all the mana he was generating.  He could have swung in for lethal with nothing I could possibly do to survive several turns in a row.

However, I still considered my foray into Money Standard with a Standard Pauper deck to be successful.  This is because I merely wanted to spread the word that this budget format existed, that it was more affordable than regular FNM style Standard, and actually required more skill since rares and mythics didn't auto-win games for the players.

But most importantly, because of this exciting announcement:

Starting on Tuesday, March 31st, 2015, at 6:00 PM, just after Dragons of Tarkir is released, I will be hosting Standard Pauper tournaments In Real Life at my favorite little local hobby games store, Flights of Fantasy in my hometown of Albany, New York!

These events will be held to the same deck construction requirements as the Standard Pauper events that have been held on Magic Online for years through PDCMagic.com.  To assist the shop in doing what stores need to do (make a little dough!) there will be a tiny entry fee of just two dollars.  That's it!

There will be prize support, too.  If you win, you get to pick forty - count 'em - forty commons from the store's massive "dump box" full of non-rares sold for ten cents a pop regardless of their full market value.  You can effectively double your money if you take your deck to the top!  For runners-up, you get your entry fee back by selecting twenty commons.  Those who make Top Four end up losing only a dollar by picking ten commons from the prize pool.  A small price to pay for all the fun you just had!

And those who didn't make the cut?  At least they didn't break the bank :-)

This is going to be a fantastic fun event and I cannot wait to get started!  I'm hoping that tons of young people who would otherwise be discouraged by running into wealthy Magic players at FNM and quit will be encouraged to stick with the game via Standard Pauper.  And if adults with kids and tight budgets are feeling like Magic is too expensive to enjoy competitively, this series can and will prove them wrong.

As for me, I won't have to handicap myself so harshly any longer by bringing my Standard Pauper decks to Money Magic FNMs.  I can have fun competing in this awesome format just like I did on MTGO.  Because that terrible software is current killing Standard Pauper...and Standard Pauper is worth saving!

So I refuse to just log off and let the format die.  The only way to fight for the format is to get some boots on the ground and some bodies into the local game stores.  And two weeks from now, the full frontal attack on Wizards of the Coast insulting insistence one releasing inferior software and prohibitive expenses on paper is going to enter the battlefield with guns blazing, baby!

If you're in the area, I sincerely hope you will join us two Tuesdays from this one.  And if you're far away and connected to me via MTGO or PDCMagic and this blog, then stay tuned.  I fully intend to provide the Online Standard Pauper community with as much metagame data as I can gather and share it in hopes that Online players can also benefit from IRL play.

Until then, thanks so much for reading and sharing with me this exciting announcement and a bit of my personal Pauper history.  As always, good luck & have fun!  Peace,

- C

Weekend Previews: Upcoming Drafting Trilogy and Standard Pauper Deck Challenges

Welcome back to Cabel the Pauper!  Everybody please silence your cell phones and take note that there there is No Exit!  Today's brief update is a teaser of what's to come and has been approved for all audiences by the International Committee of the Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth-and-a-Third Internationale (Depending on Who's Counting).

The following pieces are currently being composed and will hopefully challenge everything you know about blogging, drafting, and Standard Pauper, coming soon to an Internet connection near you.  In other words, here's what I'm working on for next week on my little blog:

"To Draft Or Not To Draft" will be an epic trilogy about ONE MAN and his heroic journey into the evolving wilds of limited play with limited resources.

BASS-BOOM-BOOM-BASS....

Will our hero find that the pen is mightier by the sword?

BOOM-BASS-BOOM-BASS-BOOM...

Or will his life by the sword result in his death by the sword?

BOOM-BASS-SUB-WOOF-BOOM-Boom-boom-bomb-bass-bass-fade-fade....

[insert cheesy advertising tagline and social media icons here]

In addition to this series, I shall chronicle a Standard Pauper deck challenge taking place tonight.  I will bring one of the top decks in the online Standard Pauper metagame to a Friday Night (Money) Magic event at my local game store.  There's already plenty of Web-based promotion for this endeavor posted on this thread at PDCMagic.com for more information.

Finally, I'll be making a very important announcement regarding competitive Standard Pauper play In Real Life by the end of next week.  If you're in my geographic area and are hard up for tickets and entry fees and as frustrated as I am with MTGOv4's lack of functionality, but still desire to play the best Magic: The Gathering ever devised, you definitely want remain seated and stay tuned...

That's all for previews this Friday.  I hope you enjoy your weekend, are able to sneak in your own refreshments without having to make any concessions in your casual or competitive gaming outings the next few days.  Thanks for reading and good luck & have fun!  Peace,

- C