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

The Last Facebook Post

Yesterday I mentioned that I am taking great pains to reform my writing activities online.  This is why I am back to blogging here regularly, hopefully on a daily basis.  Over the past several years, I have cultivated a habit of posting hard Left-wing and critical commentary on social media several times a day on my Facebook page.....

Actually, that's not entirely true.  The gardening metaphor conjures up images of healthy botanicals and attractive perennials.  I've realized that a better analogy is to the weeds that must be uprooted in order to grow a garden properly.  My Facebook page has actually become overgrown with rantings and ravings that are not at all attractive.  In fact, it is shameful.  I was not cultivating anything of value.  I was screwing myself the same way we get mana screwed in Magic: The Gathering if we fail to build the proper mana base or include such fixing spells as Cultivate itself.

 But even that comparison lets me off the hook for what I actually doing: stacking the deck against myself.

So a couple of days ago, I determined that taking the first step to getting back to blogging here was not unlike taking the first of the twelve steps required for sobriety.  I had to admit to myself and to others that I had a problem with excessive posting on social media.

And I do!  That's a problem.  So I'm fixing it so as not to be so damned off-color.  I may be a Red, but that doesn't mean I have to spend my time online sinking deeper into a Swamp of egotistical self-indulgence.  That's the common bond between this blog and my other online activities.

I have already written about this on in my last Facebook post, which I will quote below in its entirety.  I'm already in the habit of writing online as soon as I awaken each morning.  But I need this to be a good habit, not a bad one.  I used to wake up feeling the craving to post, troll, post again, agitate, post some more, and before I knew it I would be through a whole pot of coffee with no food in my belly...and my writing would have remained just as grandiloquent as before and having failed to make my point as best as I could.  I was trying to agitate and educate and organize...but it was just agitating to others and resulted in a disorganized life for myself.

Now that I'm no longer trolling about that social media platform, I'll also note that I have taken to Twitter.  I find the restriction to 140 characters is doing wonders for my writing skills as I've probably exceeded a 140 sentence (or even paragraph!) limit on Facebook.  I hope my dear readers will follow my Twitter account as well as this blog.

Without further adieu, here is the adieu I bid to Facebook the day before I said buneas días to Cabel the Pauper: the Last Facebook Post:

Colin DavidMarch 8 at 1:02pm · 

This will be my final status update on Facebook for at least the next 40 days. It will also be the last post that I comment on publicly. This is an extension of my second-to-last update below inspired by two things: an interview with John Mayer and my recent decision to convert to Catholicism.

Turns out that I am a few days late to an annual party called Lent. I have yet to undergo the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults, but my meeting with the local Deacon is this coming Wednesday. So even though I missed the beginning of Lent last Wednesday, I'm just going to go ahead and get started now:

For Lent, I give up posting status updates and comments here on Facebook. This is likely going to be very, very challenging. I tried to do this a few weeks ago and it turns out I've failed miserably. Again. This time, I'm getting help from above to make sure I halt this destructive, egotistical behavior.

I'm not changing my ideas about the subject matter I post about most often. I am not just becoming a committed Christian. I remain a committed socialist, a dedicated amateur philosopher, a serious hobbyist historian, and a hard-line foul-mouthed antiracist, antifacsit, antisexist, anticapitalist ect., ect., ect....

The time has come to be *antiegoistical* in addition to these qualities. I need to oppose this aspect of myself instead of opposing all sorts of things I find wrong with other people, dammit.

But I'm *not* deleting my profile, here. That would just be too easy. If I am to learn how to resist temptation, then the temptation has to be there for me to resist successfully.
Furthermore, this platform is meant to keep in touch with people who have touched my life with their friendship and family ties and common interests. I had high hopes for Facebook as a means of rubbing opposing ideas together, engaging in meaningful political and philosophical debate that moves us forward as a collective brotherhood of humanity. But after years of testing this hypothesis, I have to make a scientific conclusion that moves from theory to law:

Facebook is NOT the place to debate politics or philosophy. My hypothesis was incorrect. And in fact, my referencing it as a hypothesis was every bit as much a tactic of denial as an addicts insistence that they don't have a problem. Nope. I've got a problem wit this thing. So it's up to me to fix it once and for all.

That said, is a Private Message option here that I intend to keep using in order to keep in touch with my family and best of friends. After acquiring one of these iPhone doo-hickies, I find that many folks just plain don't call or text...but they do make use of Facebook Messenger.

So in order to avoid slipping back into isolation by cutting off this means of communication, while you won't see me posting status updates or making public comments, I encourage you to contact me via private message and we can have a one-on-one conversation. I think that's better than spewing forth my rants for the world to see when I only ever reach a handful of folks anyway.

But now it comes down to it: This post itself is already too damn long and self-indulgent and egotistical! So I'm done. I hereby give up posting Facebook status updates and comments for Lent. I think it's fitting that I'm late getting started, but this is something that is better done than never.

40 days and counting starts of no new Status Updates and Public Comments. Starting now!

Starting now...

Whew!  Thanks for reading through all this verbosity.  This time - for the last time - I think it was necessary.  Now that I've satiated my daily desire to get writing first thing in the morning, it's time to get back to work on my proletarian IRL M:TG projects, one of which will be the subject of my next update: The Great Purge of 2015!  Until then, good luck & have fun! Peace,

- C