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By: Copperfield, Colin Abele
May 06 2011 9:03am
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Vol. II, No. 3 - April 2011

Two blocks, a core set, and nothing but black expansion symbols.  Put those together and you get one of the most budget friendly formats of the rarity-restricted casual-competitive Magic variants, Standard Pauper.  Thanks to the dedicated folks at PDCMagic.com, you also get the chance to put your deckbuilding and piloting skills twice weekly at the long running SPDC and MPDC series of player-run-events.

And thanks to some Money Magic writers, we not only get to follow what's developing in the diverse meta that this card pool and playerbase has created, but we also know what those full two blocks will look like long before actually playing with all those New Phyrexia cards that were leaked.  As some of the top news in Magic right now, we cannot ignore that as we continue examining the evolution of the metagame.  So I'm excited to continue Standard & Pauper with a reasonable number of previews in addition to our continuing monthly coverage of the decks that continue to dominate and come blasting out of the woodwork.

Because, yes, it's a Godbook-worthy format too.  Read on to see why and see what New Phyrexia has in store for Standard Pauper decks old and new.

TOP STORY: BRAND NEW NAME, SAME OLD FLAG

Flame Slash Kor Skyfisher Squadron Hawk Negate

Above: A Handful of American Standards Help Replace Esper As Top Tri-Color Control Deck

In the month of April, a consistent force in Standard Pauper returned yet again to claim an impressive number of tournament victories.  Name it after whatever country you want, it's always been a royal wedding of commonly printed mechanics that has been proving itself well positioned to dominate the metagame for years in this non-eternal format.

In fact, pk23's gold-medal winning list below has started us off with such an influential bang that you can just say "3 Colors Control" or "Control C Control V" to refer to its defining impact on the metagame thanks to the number of competitors "netdecking" it in hopes of repeating his and other pilots' success:

The sun never sets on the [COUNTRYNAME]-ish Empire!

The major innovation in this list here is the re-introduction of permission into the time honored mix.  And small wonder it does so well.  Just compare it with this blast from the past:

Stars N Bars
By ZeroFusion, Winner of MPDC Season 5 Worlds, 18 May 2009
Creatures
4 Ballynock Cohort
4 Deft Duelist
4 Mulldrifter
4 Sanctum Gargoyle
16 cards

Other Spells
4 Incinerate
4 Recumbent Bliss
4 Remove Soul
4 Shock
3 Courier's Capsule
19 cards
Lands
7 Island
7 Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Mountain
2 Grixis Panorama
2 Naya Panorama
25 cards

Remove Soul

"Have you got a flag?"

See how the main idea stays the same, but the powercreep starts to show up like a flow of Phyrexian oil as sets come in and out of this rotating Pauper format?  Let's compare the list of past with the present iteration, and see if the NPH spoilers have anything on the horizon.

THE SAME, ONLY BETTER...

Count down from three, folks, we're about to examine The Creep in each of the new tricolor king's stripes.  These days, Flame Slash gives you twice the reach as Shock as part of the red removal suite. You could design an optimism test around Lightning Bolt: is it a strictly better Shock, or is Shock strictly worse?

One can't have a negative view of the new cast of white characters.  Kor Skyfisher is still the star of the format.  She's replaced the recursive role Sanctum Gargoyle used to play.  Noticing how important this update is may be tricky given their identical evasive bodies, but the Gargoyle's card advantage quality is self-parasitic compared to the socially-modular Kor's place in the new list.  These girls used to love to bounce Mulldrifters, but today's replacement Sea Gate Oracle take their place nicely, especially when you add in format-defining beaters Squadron Hawk.

The entrance abilities we see here are in no way unique to making this deck tick.  If you go black, you have Gravedigger in the Esper and Four Color Control lists, all of which are running the identical trio of Skyfisher, Hawk, and Oracle as maindeck playsets alongside awesome metagame answers like Kor Sanctifiers and Manic Vandal to fight Scars block troublemakers aplenty. 

In that sense, the biggest absence from the eternal meta-archetype of blue-based multicolor control has been Remove Soul, which served the same purpose back in the day: doubling as both creature removal and permission against the ETB "spells" attached to them that are so format-defining in Standard Pauper.

Aside from the surprise-factor Negate, the strongest change felt from pk23's popular deck is the inclusion of Deprive, even if there are ten taplands, and Stoic Rebuttal despite the relatively small amount of artifacts. These are there instead of just a playset of Negate because they can stop any creature spells.  If there was ever any hindrance to RWU Controls' power, it was the absence of the words "Counter target creature spell" in the format.

Fellow Paupers, the wait for a powercreeped Essence Scatter is over.  Feast your eyes on this pretty new face:

And it could not have come at a better time.  We spoke last month about whether or not the prevalence of Kor Skyfisher mandated the ban hammer because of it's own ETB effect abusing every other ETB effect possible.  It doesn't, and now that it has been proven that a three color control list can successful employ double-blue permission to stop them, Psychic Barrier is positioned for auto-include status once its released.  It's a great addition to a Fisher dominated field.

American, Esper, and Four Color Control have all been aggro-control lists, after all.  Moving from the pseudo-drawbacks of Deprive and Stoic Rebuttal to a guaranteed loss of life for the opponent could certainly make the difference in control mirrors.  Any one of these decks can and will stabilize at a mere one or two life to come back for the win, and if anything can topdeck you back into the game it's a creature that just needs to hit the battlefield for it's ETB effect when facing another removal-heavy list.  Goodbye marginal drawback, hello relevant upside!

And now, control players also have to adjust to a number of folks going the exact opposite route of diverse mana bases.  America tends to be the quickest of the control archetypes when it comes to clocks for fighting fasting aggro.  So it makes sense that it's risen to the top again when you consider the other big thing to happen in April: the emergence of mono-colored decks into the top tiers of competitive Standard Pauper.  All colors except blue have now performed well or at least been entered this season.  Thanks to Psychic Barrier, that could very well change in the future.  Maybe next month's Top Story will trumpet the return of MUC?

We'll see.  For now, let's keep the spoilers coming in our Side Story on the new rise of mono-colored brews hoping to break through tri-color dominance:

SIDE STORY: BLASTS FROM THE PAST AND A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE

Leonin Skyhunter Lightning Bolt Phyrexian Rager Giant Growth

Above: Some Classics Are About to Join Some NPH Action As Mono Colored Decks Continue to Corrupt The Metagame

Thanks no doubt in part to the blogging of White Weenie gold medalist Sanctified at Power to the Pauper, a few of us Standard Pauper players have been eschewing the ten tapland route.  His win late last month inspired multiple Top 8 performances in April, making it the most successful mono-colored strategy in what has become an influx of mono-colored strategies into the Standard metagame.

White Weenie
by Sanctified, Winner of SPDC 16.02, 24 Mar 2011
Creatures
4 Glint Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Perilous Myr
4 Soul's Attendant
2 Kemba's Skyguard
22 cards

Other Spells
4 Flayer Husk
4 Journey to Nowhere
3 Excommunicate
2 Necrogen Censer
2 Repel the Darkness
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
17 cards
Lands
20 Plains
1 Teetering Peaks
21 cards

Kemba's Skyguard

A WW deck from the WWW

Efficient beaters, just enough disruption, some block-specific synergy, and plenty of annoying lifegain to outlast the other aggro lists are all present and accounted for.  It's that last part that leads me to believe the dude spoiled below will be having an impact in the archetype:

It's hard to find a piece of this card that does not blend straight in to modern White Weenie.  The fact that his 3/1 first striking body is undercosted by an alternate casting cost that cards like Lone Missionary and Soul's Attendant easily negate is perfect.  The fact that he's an artifact increases the long-term reach of the metal-dependent Glint Hawk, and, depending on how fast you are racing, recast him with or without digging into your life total.  Also perfect.

White Weenie does continue to consistently make the cut after Swiss.  It's the most successful of a bunch of mono-colored beatdown decks that all get a major boost with their main goal of speeding up the metagame with this great new cost-reduction mechanic.  For example, you might be racing another artifact-heavy list the next time you bring White Weenie to the next event.

Kuldotha Red
by Cabel, Top 4 at SPDC 16.05
Creatures
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Perilous Myr
3 Blisterstick Shaman
15 cards

Other Spells
4 Burst Lightning
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Panic Spellbomb
4 Staggershock
28 cards
Lands
17 Mountain
17 cards

Kuldotha Rebirth

I Can Haz Topdex?!  AIIEEEEE!!

I can see one of those stark white soldiers running around just fine with my pet Goblins deck next season.  It's an all-in strategy to start with, so paying the life cost wouldn't a problem considering Legioinaire is such a very undercosted beater for red.  With regard to the list, it's flattering to see other players stock their decks with Scars block build-around-me Sligh selections and keep on Top Eight-ing it to at least Tier 1.5 metagame force.

As K-Red and riffs on mono-red become more popular, the deck has evolved a bit to include even more synergistic artifacts like Myr Sire and Flayer Husk to make the explosive Kuldotha Rebirth-into-Goblin Bushwhacker play even more consistent.  It ends up giving the deck one of the fastest clocks in the format. Kuldotha Red can be just as explosive as Boros Landfall on the best days, even if the Ichor Wellspring and Panic Spellbomb antics make it a bit more fragile.  So a new artifact creature like Legionnaire could be a good addition to the hyper-aggressive list.  Or... we could take advantage of another explosive NPH preview:

Kaboom!  If this doesn't end up being a staple in the tournament version of the list after testing (and it's definitely being tested), I won't be able to resist keeping a casual tweak that includes this Gobbo's heartburn-induced maw.  These Scars Goblins have biggest grins of any Magic block, just like playing Kuldotha Red always puts a grin on my face (shuffler conspiracy theories aside).

Mechanically speaking, Artillerize is a cheaper, faster Lava Axe-size blast to the dome to finish the job or a good way to get rid of formerly-out-of-reach dudes at the cost of just one of the cogs the deck spews forth. Hmm...I just dealt the last seven to you by giving Perilous Myr the Goblin Grenade treatment in my dreams...

Only next season will tell if this becomes reality, but for now, it appears that presence of a bunch of Eldrazi Spawn and now Goblin tokens makes maindeck Shrivel a good idea for those control decks out there.  Speaking of which:

Standard Pauper forums need a new thread to decide whether to ban AC/DC references.

Beating out K-Red and just behind WW in terms of mono-color power, your common cardpool in Standard gives you a nice long list of disruptive and recursive tools to go the opposite route of the Boros twins and go for the long haul.  It doesn't use the bounce engine of Orzhov to capitalize on its Cadaver Imps to bring back all kinds of removal spells on stick.

And that Morbid Plunder goes long way when it shows up.  A very nice addition from Mirrodin Besieged, bringing back just about anything is going help keep you controlling the battlefield.  But bringing back two bodies in from this graveyard is a nice haul indeed.  Did it show up early?  Snatch back that Fume Spitter and Perilous Myr to keep trading on up.  Did your Child of Night or (Sylovk Lifestaff) keep you alive long?  Bring back a fat Heartstabber Mosquito and Bala Ged Scorpion and really start to spin the wax!

Thankfully, New Phyrexia will be giving us another great contender in this department of beats that just plain kill with this great Morbid Plunder target:

The awesome artwork reiterating that this a new world is one thing.  These two abilities are the best of both worlds for this deck.  It creeps right on in the Plunder-Imp duo.  Frequently, you can get into some tense long games while your Cadaver Imps slowly trade with opposing Squadron Hawks.  This versatile Zealot with his classic MBC CMC offers a great solution for late game conundrums: do you need a way to break through the stalled board for the kill or do you need to take down a threat to survive? 

Follow the dark arts to the point of blind zealotry, and the right answer is always available. I can hear you MBC players cackling manically about your new cleric this...early!

Ahem...just don't laugh too loud: your new potential all-star is a great Psychic Barrier target.  Even though MBC gets it own version of the counterspell as part of a mirrored pair, I won't show it here because Blind Zealot just had to take black's spoiler slot. Which leaves us with only one spoiler and three words: Mono Green Infect. April saw this disappear almost entirely from the field...but take one look at this shiny new Elf and you'll know it's coming...

Now here we have a fine example of Wizards of the Coast printing exactly what their players were asking for.  The Poisonous One Drop who allows you to get your infectious threat out on turn one.  And with a fisftul of greeens-are-good-for-you pump spells, win as fast as turn two. 

That's right, turn two!  And not only will it be possible in Money Standard top decks, but in Standard Pauper as well.  Another emerald in the NPH Godbook confirms this but you'll just have to...ah, hell, the beans are already spilled and a Magic player just can't himself.  Here's the real final preview card since we don't have a Mono Green Infect list to share from the past month:

Already happy to pump their infecters with cheap Giant Growth riffs like Groundswell and Mirran Mettle, the future winning Mono Green Infect list just got its best pump spell with this powercreeper.  The Phyrexian mana reducing the cost of Porcelain Legion is pretty cool for aggro players seeking to deal combat damage as fast as possible.  But Mutagenic Growth is free!  Considering the double-strike-ish qualities of infect, this spell stands poised to give infect strategies (of any color!) a Fireblast-style boost when the two mechanics are married. You read into that correctly, I am calling it: MGI will win in the future because of this new royal couple.

Just look at those two cards look together again.  What a compleat pair!  It's almost enough to make you drop your current Infect plans and just wait until New Phyrexia drops.  There are a number of other infect creatures, and in all colors too, but at present, Infect seems to have fallen off the radar in tournament play in the past month, and the drop-off was even bigger after the leak went viral.

I saved these two best cards for last because I view the combo's impact as somewhat of a reminder about the leaks themselves: even though the cards aren't there to make a physical impact, the metagame appears to have been shifted slightly because of the knowledge of what will be played in the future.

Pure aggro infect at the moment hasn't been nurtured, not as much as I believe it could be.  I know I'm thinking to myself "why run the extremely sub-optimal MGI with only Scars and Besieged dudes when I have this dynamic duo coming down the pipeline?"  My gut tells me I'm not alone on this, but Glistener Elf and Mutagenic Growth look so good together, it's going to be worth the wait no matter how early they were spoiled.

So for now, you can expect to see probably a little less of infect as you might have when you show up for a Monday or Thursday Standard Pauper tournament.  But you will run into a lot more mono-colored decks than we've seen in quite some time in Standard Pauper between now and the time New Phyrexia goes online.

EDITORIAL PAGE: Setting A New Standard

How Wizards Feels About the NPH Leaks vs. How Wizards Feels About Standard Pauper

Call me crazy or call me out for making a stretch.  But unprecedented leak has left me with an insight into the relationship between Wizards of the Coast and the Standard Pauper community.  Reading the WotC's statement regarding the leaks gave a unique insight into just how the company thinks about it's product and the playerbase.  You can't read it and take away anything except that the people there care deeply about both.

I'm not reading into the specifics of the incident itself here.  It's the generalities in the subtext that jumped out at me.  The statement confirms my view that Wizards has our best interests in mind when it comes to producing and maintaining our favorite gaming experience.  And that leads me to believe that they will eventually do Standard Pauper players a big favor by answering the recent calls to lend a little bit of support this humble portion of the MTGO community.

During the month of April, Standard Pauper player ScopeDopeUSAF made the case that it needs to be easier to get these games going in the client itself.  As it stands, yes, Pauper has become an officially recognized format.  You can select it as a format and bam, all commons, nothing like the old days when Pauper was in its infancy.  The legacy of the /join pdc room, as I understand it, lies in a community coming together under a compact of trust to create their decks to standards that the client just didn't recognize in order to make the game work best for them.  By fostering that community and tirelessly supporting player-run events, the legacy of the PDCMagic website is the option to create a Pauper game on MTGO.  Any one of the folks who helped make this happen rightfully deserve nomination to the upcoming Community Cup Challenge, by the way...

But despite this healthy and vibrant formats existence, in order to get a Standard Pauper game (or an Extended Pauper or Block Pauper for that matter), we still have to jump through some extra hoops.  And it's not good for our game.  I find myself playing most of my games during tournaments because sometimes it's tough to find the games, and many new players experience the same log-off-in-frustration situation as well.  The Spike-half of me does not feel good about acting this way when my goal is to win or place well.  I feel that way Magic is just as real when you play only commons with the Standard card pool like that.  The number of viable decks, the fun being had playing the format, and the community surrounding it all tell me these things loud and clear.

But there's one incredibly simple thing missing: here we are, every month, examining this rarirty restricted casual competitive format, and there's still no way to create a Standard Pauper game with the MTGO client alone.  You have to make a regular Pauper game and type in something like "Standard Pauper" or "Pauper Type 2" or "STD PLZ!!" in the game description out in the casual or tournament practice room in order to test your deck properly before a tournament.  Despite taking this step, constantly seeing turn one Ancient Den or Ancient Spring  gets a little old after a while.

That's the conundrum I get out of this insight from the leaks in regard to Standard Pauper.  The above situation doesn't seem to come from a company that cares about its player does to do to a community of players, however small.  Or one that keeps up with its players: PDCMagic has been hosting Standard Pauper events since 2006.  Five years later, it's still going strong, and I believe it is growing.  In the past month I've noticed a general uptick in first-time players getting into this very budget friendly format with their brand new MTGO accounts.   I'm technically in my rookie year myself, and I wouldn't be here now if not for discovering that, yes, this format exists.

A company that clearly cares so much about all its customers the way Wizards implies they do in their statement regarding these leaks, as a company that has employed successful designs to please its customers base, even niche markets, all with the bottom line in mind, would be expected to make it easier for new players to come in with Standard Pauper as a starting point.  As a selling point. 

The selling point of this editorial page take up ScopeDopeUSAF's call to action.  If you believe there should be a Standard Pauper filter or have an idea for a tool that would make rarity restricted casual competitive formats easier to play - better by design - then hit them up sometime in between tweaking your America list for the mirror and let them know how you feel. By the time the new version of MTGO is ready, I believe they'll have listened.

Because after all, Wizards cares.  At least, I hope they do...

And now since I'm starting to sound a bit sappy, we close another month in the history books of this little format that can.  Want to read more? Check back on PureMTGO for PiDave's even deeper weekly analysis of the MPDC series, and then check back here in another month for the next edition of Standard & Pauper.

'Til then, see you in the /join pdc room!

Peace,

- C
 

1 Comments

Top notch read as usual! I by PiDave at Fri, 05/06/2011 - 09:42
PiDave's picture
5

Top notch read as usual!

I can't wait for NPH to get online as a new plethora of strategies will become suddenly available. As you pointed out pretty well, the only thing that can beat control is a super-aggressive deck...But they're getting a new weapon as well, and what a weapon Psychic Barrier is!

Keep up the great work! ;-)