My Personal Appeal to Save Standard Pauper

Fellow Standard Pauper players, by now you've probably heard the news that Wizards of the Coast plans to remove the Standard Pauper filter from Magic Online on November 11th of this year.  

Our MPDC and Standard Pauper Double League host Gwyned broke the news on his blog, Writer Adept, and you should visit that blog post right now and take the time to contact the appropriate persons linked to therein in order to make your own personal appeal to them to please, please not do this.

The sub-host of the SPDC series, rrmedio1, has also posted some very good reasons as to why this decision is just awful over at the Standard Pauper Players Clan blog, saying it better than I could.  It leaves me no reason to compose a blog of my own on this topic, but I figured I'd make public the e-mail I sent to the people in charge of this decision in one last attempt to save the format.  Quoted below is the full text of the e-mail I sent to all the people Gwyned suggested we all contact.

Dear Wizards: 

I am writing you to urge you to reverse a decision that a Magic Online Player Run Event host, George Leonard, has made me aware of.  He hosts a weekly Standard Pauper event and is about to play host to a Standard Pauper Double League which Wizards of the Coast is generously donating prize support for in the form of sealed product.  He tells me that WotC has decided to retire the Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online. 

I urge you to please not remove the Standard Pauper filter from Magic Online.  The hosts of two weekly PRE's have put in so much good work fostering a community of players to play good games of Magic Online when we simply cannot afford any other format.  Standard Pauper is an excellent, challenging format to play Magic and is extremely accessible for new players.  

I have been playing Standard Pauper of and on since Zendikar.  Often my breaks between gaming are due to depression, which has kept me unemployed for years now.  Playing Standard Pauper is one of the few things in my life that works when everything else has gone wrong.  The friends I have on MTGO are some of the few friends I have left because of how my bipolar mood swings have adversely affect my offline life.  It would hit me rather hard if Standard Pauper were to leave me and I'm sure many other players feel the same. 

I'm sure this is just a mistake that went unnoticed in your organization.  It does not make sense to me that Wizards of the Coast would first choose to offer prize support to the Standard Pauper format only to turn around and make the format almost impossible to play. 

In the past, we used the Pauper filter.  However, there is a huge problem at present because Treasure Cruise is banned in Pauper but not in Standard Pauper.  We would have to use the Freeform filter or something and that leads to a lot of confusion regarding deck legality. 

I was very happy when we finally received a Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online to facilitate finding other players to ply Magic with.  I was also very happy when Standard Pauper was added to the official formats web page on the Magic The Gathering website.  And I was beyond overjoyed when I saw WotC finally offering prize support for one of our Player Run Events.  I still hold out someday that WotC will host Standard Pauper Dailies. 

But first I have to hope that the decision to retire the Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online will be reversed.  Please do not take this from me or my fellow Standard Pauper Players clan mates.  We really do love playing the game this way and so long as there is a Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online you can count on us picking up tickets in order to complete our modest collections each time a new expansion set is released. 

Personally, I think Magic R&D is doing a better job than they ever have in the past at designing sets that make this format even more enjoyable.  I understand we are not a large or particularly profitable group of player, but we do love the game that you produce and we would all appreciate it very much if you kept the Standard Pauper filter. 

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my appeal to keep the the Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online.  GL & HF! 

Sincerely, 

Colin Abele (Cabel on MTGO)

Now your own appeal does not have to be as long or personally revealing as mine.  I just wanted to put out there how much this format means to me (and all of us) in light of my unique individual situation.

To make a long story short, Standard Pauper has been one of the few things that keeps me going.  I'd hate to have the last blog I compose here be an obituary for the format.

Thanks for taking the time to read my own personal appeal and for clicking the links provided above to add your voice to this movement to save Standard Pauper.  The next update to this blog will, I hope, be about the success we all will be sharing in when Wizards of the Coast reversed this decision....or about how I give up on Magic Online for the last time.

Peace,

- C 

The Return of Cabel the Pauper

Just in time to cover for another Standard Pauper writer going away for a while, I am finally able to return to writing about the game (and playing it!) after having been gone for some time.

Believe you me, nobody was as disappointed about my absence as I was.  Playing Standard Pauper, organizing Player Run Events in the format, and writing about it all on this blog and on PureMTGO are high on my list of things I enjoy doing.  I did not plan my break from hosting and blogging, and sadly I will not be able to host again....

But I do plan to get this blog back up and running and write future articles about the exciting Standard Pauper format and its competitive metagame.  Real life has blessed me with a job that does not require me to work Mondays, so I expect to once again be a regular at the Monday Pauper Deck Challenge tournaments on MTGO.  That is where I will gain the necessary experience required to start writing quality content regarding the Standard Pauper environment and its unexplored nooks and crannies in this earliest of early seasons after the release of Born of the Gods.

I have returned!

Cabel the Pauper marches on!

 In the coming days, I'll have a new blog posting schedule worked out after revising my previous plans to fit with my new real life responsibilities.  In the meantime, feel free to use the comments to talk up what I missed when I went AWOL for a month and a half.  I'll see you in the Just for Fun Room.  When I do, I wish you good luck & good games.  Peace,

- C

Holiday Update 2013

I've missed over a week of daily posts here thanks to the hectic pace of the American Holiday Season.  As good and universal excuse as any!

But it is true!  Magic: The Gathering kind of has to take a backseat at this time of year.  Playing Standard Pauper on Magic Online keeps me going year-round.  The holidays, even though I don't necessarily follow the religous reasons for them, are still a traditional time to set aside some time for others in my life.  My family and my friends, those I love and those who love me.

So this blog has been on the back-burner in the lead-up to the big one, Christmas.  Now that Santa Claus gets to cash in on his seasonal unemployment compensation (snicker!) I can return to blogging about Standard Pauper.

And I've got more than cookies on my plate!

In the final days of the Old Year, Cabel the Pauper will be making preparations for the New Year.  Here's what you can expect:

1) A regular posting schedule, the most constant of any Standard Pauper blog, that is still consistent with my in-real-life schedule...

2) The next installment of my continuing monthly Standard & Pauper series at PureMTGO...

3) Final details on the next season of Standard Pauper Deck Challenge tournaments sponsored by PDC Magic on Thursdays in 2014!

You will find all that and more on Cabel the Pauper in 2014.  More Post-Tournament Posts and more Cards of the Day, more random posts on philosophy, and the addition of posts on the music I love and make as well.

But first...let me make it through the rest of the holiday season and maybe get a couple of relaxing matches of Standard Pauper in :-)  Until next year, good luck and have fun!  Peace,

- C

Wacky Wednesdays - Pauper Dailies Whacked!

It's a great time for the Standard Pauper tournament scene - the revived MPDC series is halfway through its new season and the revival of SPDC starts tomorrow!  But Classic Pauper players just got whacked by Wizards big time.

I did not notice Monday's announcement as I was too focused on Standard Pauper, but apparently Wizards has completely pulled support for Classic Pauper Daily Events on MTGO.  The Pauper community is all abuzz about this (check out this long thread on Reddit) and the vast majority of them are not happy.  Not one little bit.  They are correct in saying this is whack.

I can't add much to the discusion because I rarely play Classic Pauper and have never participated in a DE.  The Player Run Events offered by PDCMagic have always served my Magic gaming needs.  But I acknowledge that Dailies have a huge following and that Pauper Dailies in particular have a strong following and legacy on Magic Online.  Classic Pauper players often experiment with Standard, so this inadvertently affects us, too.

I will only say that this is also blow to Standard Pauper players.  Many of us are hoping for the same kind of official support for our format that Classic Pauper recieves.  I was even more optimistic this was on the way when we got our filter a short while ago.  But now that WotC is pulling support for the big Pauper format, I'm not as hopeful that Standard Pauper will get any Dailies anytime soon.  I hope Classic gets theirs back as soon as possible.

In the meantime, some are suggesting that PREs are a good way to fill the void.  If Wizards is going to actively destroy opportunities to play Pauper, then by golly, us Pauper players are just going to have to actively create new opportunities ourselves.  Sure, it requires players to step up to host, but I've found before that hosting is a fun and rewarding challenge.  I'm up for it again, with accidentally good timing.  So if you're a Classic Pauper player whose Daily just got whacked  (thanks, Wizards!) then I encourage you to stop by the Anything Goes room tomorrow at 8:30 PM, Eastern Time, for the Standard Pauper Deck Challenge event!

Until then, I offer my condolences to Classic Pauper players everywhere.  Give Standard Pauper a try while we wait for Wizards to get their act together.  See you soon and have a Wacky Wednesday! Peace,

- C

Monday Musings: Return to Hosting for SPDC

Welcome to the third week of blogging on Cabel the Pauper.  It's Monday and the MPDC Standard Pauper tournament is about to start.  I'm looking to outdo myself with Boros Aggro and Auras once again.  But that's really not what's got me so excited this week.  I'm guns-a-blazing getting ready to return to hosting Standard Pauper events myself by reviving the dormant and long-running SPDC series!

Right now, there is only one Standard Pauper weekly Player Run Event on Magic Online.  MPDC is run on Mondays at 2:00 pm Eastern because this caters to Europeans during their evening down time from work and family.  But it used to be that PDCMagic would run two Standard Pauper tournaments, and this series was the first.  "SPDC" stands for "Standard Pauper Deck Challenge" and first began in 2006.  Many hosts have lead this Thursday night event to provide a convenient time slot for American players to get the same chance to play competitive Standard Pauper for prizes.  And glory!

But for the past few months, the current season has been without a host.  Now, just at the time when a new Standard Pauper Clan arises and the old host of MPDC, gwyned, returns to regular events, it seems fitting that if I've got Thursday nights free and clear to provide that opportunity once again.  So I'm bringing back SPDC!

PDCMagic will continue to sponsor the series with 15 tix worth of prizes each tournament.  We'll be using the PDCMagic.com Gatherling feature for registration, reporting, and deck list posting just like MPDC.  And I'll keep things at the traditional time slot, that is Thursdays at 9:00 PM, Eastern Time.

And I'm getting started this week with the SPDC 19.37 & LCQ event!

More info is sure to follow.  After I "sleeve up" my deck for today's event!  I hope to see you there and wish you good luck & good games.  Peace,

- C