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

What Is Rarity Restricted Casual Competitive Magic?

Introduction

What do I mean when I refer to a Magic: the Gathering format as a Rarity-Restricted Casual-Competitive variant?  If you've read my previous PureMTGO articles or followed my forum posts as a Standard Pauper player and PRE host, surely you've heard me refer to two key different standards of building M:TG decks:

Money Magic versus Rarity-Restricted Casual-Competitive Magic

You can probably guess the difference by the keyword "Money" and the phrase "Rarity Restricted."  Money Magic is what I call the game when it is played with no rarity-based restrictions to building decks.  In other words, you can use any card in your deck regardless of rarity.  The primary forms of Money Magic formats are Standard, Modern, and especially Legacy and Vintage.  These are the formats that are the most expensive to play as the most powerful rares and mythics end up costing quite a bit of money on the secondary market, or one has to spend a lot of money chasing the cards.  This may not have been Richard Garfield's goal when designing this incredibly fun Turing complete game, but it is clearly the profit motivator of Wizards of the Coast.

Important Distinction & Philosophical Roots

This brings me to an important distinction: Rarity-Restricted Casual-Competitive arose in opposition to Money Magic because the rarity system itself, combined with the power of the secondary market, operating under the principles of capitalism, has engaged the very same oppositions in economic social classes as described by Marxist, anarchist, and other Leftist economics and philosophies.  I'll have more on these ideas as the philosophy of Rarity-Restricted Casual-Competitive (abbreviated as "RRCC Magic") but first, a few examples of existing formats.

RRCC Magic Formats

The prime example of RRCC Magic is Pauper, which of course restricts the cards allowed in deck building by the rarity of the card rather than what set the card is printed in.  In Pauper Magic variants only cards printed at common are allowed.  Another example, Peasant, also restricts rarity by allowing an unlimited number of commons and a limited number of uncommons (up to five) between the main deck and sideboard.  Finally we have Silverblack which restricts rarity by allowing an unlimited number of commons and/or uncommons in the deck.  I consider all three formats to be RRCC Magic because they are defined by the rarity restrictions applied to deck building.

Four Things That Rarity Restriction Does

Once one has decided on a system of restricting the rarity of cards one uses, a four distinct things happen.  First, the monetary value (or exchange value) of the cards used in the RRCC Magic deck falls dramatically when compared to Money Magic decks.  Second, the way that cards work and metagames develop (by the use value of the cards) changes, turning otherwise overlooked weak looking cards into Pauper and Peasant powerhouses.  Thirdly, one can apply the agreed-upon rarity restriction to the Set-Restricted Money Magic formats and play something like Standard Pauper in which only commons from cards printed in the current Standard card pool may be used.

But the fourth and most important things that happens when RRCC Magic formats come into existence is this: it allows Magic players who love the game but do not possess the economic means to play Money Magic formats competitively to play the game in a format they can actually afford.  In other words, my knowledge of Marxism leads me to believe there are two classes of Magic players: those who can afford the Money Magic formats like Standard and Legacy and those who can only afford to play in formats where the rarity of cards allowed is restricted.

Personal Experience and RRCC's Existence

If it wasn't for the existence of RRCC Magic formats like Pauper and the communities that foster them like PDCMagic.com and Gatherling.com, I would not be able to enjoy the game competitively.  This brings up the final distinction of RRCC Magic: they are designed to be both casual play formats and avenues for competitive play at the same time.  What that means is that there is a casual element to the game that does not destroy the competitive element of Magic via tournament play.  One can impose rarity restrictions on deck building parameters simply for the fun of it or for the challenge involved.  Hence the "challenge" part of the PDC acronym, which stands for "Pauper Deck Challenge."

The Acronym Evolves

The way I see it, this acronym needs to evolve to keep pace with the evolution of  Magic formats.  Peasant in the paper world and Pauper, a chiefly Magic Online phenomenon, are both a part of the same family and now Silverblack has joined the fray.  The goal of this piece is to raise awareness of R/C Magic variants so that good Wizards of the Coast customers never again feel that a rewarding casual or competitive gameplay experience cannot be had.  RRCC Magic can be either a stepping stone for somebody just starting on before moving on to playing with rares. Or one can do as I have done and dedicate oneself to only RRCC formats for both real world financial reasons and for the mental athletic challenge.

TL;DR Summary Definition

So there you have the basic definition of Rarity Restricted Casual Competitive Magic.  It says exactly what it means: any Magic: The Gathering format that restricts cards by rarity in order to produce a casual or competitive game play experience for the player who  does not have the money to play Magic without rarity restriction and/or desires the extra challenge of building decks with greater restrictions.  Magic guru Mark Rosewater is always repeating the same maxim "Restrictions breed creativity."  I agree, and I hope that Wizards itself realizes the creative force that rarity restrictions brings to the game as well as how R/C Magic can keep the game alive in times of economic hardship.

To Be Continued...

In the future, I will elaborate on some of the issues that R/C Magic brings to the table and what brought R/C to that table in the first place.  I'll explore how formats like Peasant and Pauper came to exist and why their existence is crucial to the survival of Magic: the Gathering as a living game...and why Wizards of the Coast should officially support these formats with the same energy and focus as they do Money Magic.

Conclusion and Farewell

For now, I hope you find yourself philosophizing a bit on these issues yourself in between sessions of building your Pauper or Peasant decks and playing on a level playing field in a format you can actually afford to invest your money and time in.  And as always I hope you have good luck and good games doing so, no matter what class of Magic player you fall into.  Peace,

-C

I Think It's Thursday: The Magic of Philosophy

While the primary focus of this new blog will be Standard Pauper and other Rarity-Restricted Casual-Competitive Magic: The Gathering formats , you'll notice I'm interested in a little bit more than just that.  Aside from music - which I just play instead of wasting time blogging about - my biggest current interest in a new-found passion for philosophy.

One might say I've fallen in love with wisdom.

So once a week I'll shift focus from Standard Pauper to my philosophy studies.  But I'm sure I can think up ways to tie the two together most of the time.  The best Magic writer of all time, Mike Flores, has often noted that has favorite hobby is not playing Magic, but thinking about Magic.  And that suggests that there is a Philosophy of Magic waiting to be thought up and written about.

For the time being, and from this point forward, I just want to share what I discover to be the Magic of Philosophy and the Philosophy of Magic.

The THOUGHT for this I Think It's Thursday is: I think philosophy is magical.  I've often had many variations of a dream profession. I'd wonder how great it would be to be a famous rock star or bestselling novelist, a powerful politician, or even pro Magic player.  But these days I  often dream of just being a philosopher, a worthier pursuit than all of these other dreams, and probably even the one for which I'm better suited and likely for success IRL.

::

Anyway, I'm rambling as I'm bound to do when I get all thoughtful.  Thanks for tagging along with me while I keep tabs on my philosophical studies and ramblings. Until the next time I Think It's Thursday, good luck, have fun, and good games!  Peace,

- C

Wacky Wednesday: Red Is The Wackiest Color

Red is my favorite color and it just happens to be the wackiest. Total coincidence, I swear! Shades of crimson are also my favorite in real life for deeply-held political and aesthetic reasons that are more deliberate. Therefore, it's fitting  I talk Red for the first installment of Wacky Wednesdays on the new blog...at least until I come up with something less cheesy and impulsive than "Wacky Wednesdays".

Yesterday I alluded to the fact that Lightning Bolt is my favorite Magic card of all time.  It was one of the first cards I ever saw and truly hit me like a bolt of lightning.  I bolted to the nearest games hobby shop to pick up my first two 4th Edition Starter decks and was so happy to pull a copy from both packages.  From then on, I've always loved this wacky game and bolting critters in the ass and opposing planeswalkers in the face with cheap burn.  As you can see, I  never even tire of the word, almost to a fault :-)

Little did I know that I was falling for the wackiest color in this already whacked out game!

My first success in Magic at the middle school lunch tables was with Sligh, featuring some classic uncommons like Viashino Sandstalker and Wildfire Emissary.  My God, we made a lot of noise when we were dueling over our bad macaroni and cheese!  Surely everybody thought we were whacked out beyond all professional assistance.

But I didn't care.  I was playing Red!

Later, when I discovered Pauper, I knew I wanted to get started in the Classic format with red decks.  These tend to be inexpensive but remain competitive.  Some might whine that Burn and Goblins are boring, but that's whack!  I like racing and I'm partial to lists that are almost entirely creature-less or almost entirely creatures, both.  Like I said, burning and bashing face are two of things I love about playing Magic no matter what format.  And as a final, fateful bonus, Red does historically well in our favorite format, Standard Pauper.

You just gotta be wacky enough to run Red!  Take off your thinking cap once in a while and throw on your mad cap.  Like so:

Check out at Madcap Skills up there.  That card is as whacked out as the guy on it!  Red isn't supposed to be an Enchantment color, but I guess everybody gets Auras these days.  This is one of the scariest in the format.  And see how Red doesn't just want to use simple evasion like white flyers or blue's dry "unblockable" dudes. Red wants to mess with blocking and attacking to create whacky psuedo-evasion situations.  Now that's just more chaotic and fun. And Red!

And that's just the edge of the flames for Reds random mechanics Paupers can exploit.  There are four, count 'em, four variations on the formerly-uncommon gem, Act of Treason:

Taking control of creatures at common?  And not in boring blue but in bright red!?  Sweet. And dripping flavor like the blood of the Red revolutionaries it implies.  Is it not an act of treason to start a revolution with red flags flying?  Does it not come completely by surprise, take control and untap the current position, and then end almost as soon as it began with everything back to normal but still completely altered, often with blood on the battlefield?  Yeah, Red flavor is wacky alright, but so spot on sometimes.  I used to rock this card in Standard Pauper out of  Boros and Goblin sideboards.  I'm thinking it's time to mess around with this mechanic again.  And with four ways to do so, one could quite literally build a deck chock full of these wacky sorceries .  And Smelt-Ward Gatekeepers.  Stupid Gatekeepers...

And I haven't even gotten to the weirdest of the whacked out stuff Red can do: looting & filtering, blowing up pesky artifacts and lands, making really big explosions - not the mention  the completely wackiest mechanics  of all on common Reds like making fast mana, messing up combat, sac'ing and shuffling, and more!  I guess that means a "Red Is The Wackiest Color: Part 2" post is coming some Wacky Wednesday in the future.  Until then, good luck, have fun, and good games!

Peace,

 - C

Introducing: Cabel the Pauper - A New Pauper Blog

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