Pauper is a really fun format. It has a few dominant staples of the meta game, but there are a host of decks just outside the top tier which can and do frequently make good showings. One of my favorite aspects of the format is that for the price of a single Standard deck you can own most if the competitive archetypes.
Playing a rogue deck is fine, like you said, as long as it's good. There are some rogue decks that have done well based on the fact that nobody plays them. If, for instance, an enchantment-control "pillow fort" (I hate that phrase btw) deck became widely played, people would pack the back to nature's and whatnot to dismantle the strategy.
This is kind of why a card like Keranos was better in modern than standard. in standard, people might actually have something like a deicide or whatever to kill the indestructible enchantment.
Appreciate it Paul, I think GW or RW will be the way to go, though I have been thinking of doing a modern version of the popular Naya Blitz decks of old standard. Even BW is something I have been considering. I will be working on it that's for sure.
Some thoughts for your White Weenies: Emeria. (Bring back your horde when you hit 7 plains in play. Ranger of Eos. (All those 1 cost cards love this guy) Wrath of God. (Yes it is weenie but really having a board wiper is important.) Teramorphic Expanse (or if you prefer ETBUntapped Flooded Shoreline + other plains fetchers.) Some less creatures might be better than the glut you have there but if not there are some great newer ones available. Also maybe branch into Boros, Selesnaya or Naya if you feel adventurous.
I noticed that attitude you mention from several public appearances by WOTC honchos. It seems to be prevalent among them no matter who does the speaking. But I suspect some of that is merely cover and some is the culture of not talking company business out of school.
I've actually talked to WOTC people in person and the company line is: "We know what we're doing." I think that's highly debatable, but that's their position. Criticism is not welcome. Why? "We know what we're doing."
Their second go-to line is: "Be patient." It's easy for them to take a glacial pace to do things because the money just keeps rolling in from suckers who will put up with a sub-standard product just to play online Magic.
Now Hearthstone comes along and it is very popular right now. WOTC's company line on that is: "It's not a threat."
Okay, buddy, just keep on thinking there will never be any threats to the empire. Why do you think they upped the number of Grand Prix tournaments? Star City has a wildly popular open series and WOTC saw the dollar signs.
The only things that ever get their attention are dollar signs.
I think you may have missed AJ's admittedly probably pedantic comment. It isn't that they couldn't. The edge cases even the ones that are 99.99999% unlikely mean that they either always code for that case (and check for it) or they work around it somehow. In this case they decided to be lazy and put it in the hands of the user. IE: It affects everyone equally so it isn't inconveniencing just one set of players and thus is just as "good" as if there were no problem.
I am in no way excusing this. I think it is reprehensible but it isn't the primary issue that bothers most players so it doesn't get much attention.
Good point AJ Impy, but this is one card and one which sees virtually no play. Could not a coder allow us to block if there is a Masako the Humorless on the battlefield? Do you think that one card amongst many thousands of cards (and a card which sees practically no play) should dictate the rule for the 99.99% of other occasions when we are being asked to block despite having no untapped legal blockers?
I agree with everything here. I found UR to be the best colors because Splinter/Kiki is the easiest combo in deck design and execution, plus Blue is the best color, and wow is Dack Fayden amazing here with all these mana rocks!
Also had a lot of good experiences with UG. The awesomeness of Blue, the mana dorks + natural order + GSZ + artifact/enchantment hate of green, plus there's always the dream of opening a Time Vault and then late picking a Kiora's Follower. I traditionally loathe playing Green but it's so good in this Cube!
Mono Red Aggro is brutal and usually avoided like the plague. Only drafted it once, but Eidolon + Sulfuric Vortex + Hellrider in the same deck is unstoppable.
EDIT: Also Nissa in Green.. if you don't have sufficient removal those 4/4's are going to ruin your day.
I remember one answer was that it was simpler to not check to see if there were qualified blockers. So in a sense, the programmers deliberately prefer to not "know" about the rules when the rules get in the way of making the program function. Sadly I think this mentality will continually bite us all in the feet until something dramatic happens with the decision makers.
Great article as usual! I agree with all your points.
I wish to add that it is a scandal that for years (and still now) we have been prompted to block when we have no creatures on the board (or no untapped creatures on the board) at the beginning of the Declare Blockers Phase. Do the coders not understand the basic rules of the game? (namely that if you have no untapped creature at the beginning of the Declare Blockers phase, it is IMPOSSIBLE to block). No flash creature or instant can change that.
This bug is a serious [redacted] nuisance, timewaster, and has led to skipping turns accidentally. (And yes WoTC have been notified for a long time.
You're right about Library of Alexandria. It's crazy how it sometimes is passed more than once. Today I took it 4th or 5th pick! That is insane, it shouldn't happen. Obviously there are decks that want some cards more. Maybe your deck with Voltaic Key and Tezzeret with a lot of card draw needs Time Vault more than Library. Some artifact decks need Workshop more than Library. But most of the time, you can't really pass it.
Also, sod it. I'll sponsor the achievements myself this year. No lower limit, 5 tickets a quarter, 5 for best of year, awarded quarterly. They're a fun challenge and I know at least one person was looking forward to going for them.
I wish that there was more stuff for someone like me, who likes playing duels, best of three, high level of competition etc, but don't have the free time for daily events.
I'm not sure what that would be, or how they'd accomplish that, but it would be cool.
I guess I'll get back into playing two-mans until i win enough packs to draft, draft, sell the cards, use the tix to enter more 2-mans... that's what I used to do.
I don't know how many people are playing MTGO, but Hearthstone already reached to 20 million players during October 2014. And I guess, this number will increase by time as even some of mtg pro are also streaming hearthstone.
I hope Wizards will take this serious and improve V4 to decent levels.
I understand that but my point was the software should handle it like many other games do, many feel like I do. By the way I am fine conceding in vintage when you have lost, what bothers me is we finally fire a 2hg edh game and round 6 when it is getting interested someone just quits because of something small like a mana leak on their commander.
Pauper is a really fun format. It has a few dominant staples of the meta game, but there are a host of decks just outside the top tier which can and do frequently make good showings. One of my favorite aspects of the format is that for the price of a single Standard deck you can own most if the competitive archetypes.
Playing a rogue deck is fine, like you said, as long as it's good. There are some rogue decks that have done well based on the fact that nobody plays them. If, for instance, an enchantment-control "pillow fort" (I hate that phrase btw) deck became widely played, people would pack the back to nature's and whatnot to dismantle the strategy.
This is kind of why a card like Keranos was better in modern than standard. in standard, people might actually have something like a deicide or whatever to kill the indestructible enchantment.
Appreciate it Paul, I think GW or RW will be the way to go, though I have been thinking of doing a modern version of the popular Naya Blitz decks of old standard. Even BW is something I have been considering. I will be working on it that's for sure.
I thought about playing pauper before. I can afford it, and it seems fun.
Some thoughts for your White Weenies: Emeria. (Bring back your horde when you hit 7 plains in play. Ranger of Eos. (All those 1 cost cards love this guy) Wrath of God. (Yes it is weenie but really having a board wiper is important.) Teramorphic Expanse (or if you prefer ETBUntapped Flooded Shoreline + other plains fetchers.) Some less creatures might be better than the glut you have there but if not there are some great newer ones available. Also maybe branch into Boros, Selesnaya or Naya if you feel adventurous.
Thanks for the mention and for the excellent overview of Standard Pauper resources! I'm looking forward to the Sealed League! /bava
I love that we are getting more people interested and writing about pauper. Well done.
I noticed that attitude you mention from several public appearances by WOTC honchos. It seems to be prevalent among them no matter who does the speaking. But I suspect some of that is merely cover and some is the culture of not talking company business out of school.
I've actually talked to WOTC people in person and the company line is: "We know what we're doing." I think that's highly debatable, but that's their position. Criticism is not welcome. Why? "We know what we're doing."
Their second go-to line is: "Be patient." It's easy for them to take a glacial pace to do things because the money just keeps rolling in from suckers who will put up with a sub-standard product just to play online Magic.
Now Hearthstone comes along and it is very popular right now. WOTC's company line on that is: "It's not a threat."
Okay, buddy, just keep on thinking there will never be any threats to the empire. Why do you think they upped the number of Grand Prix tournaments? Star City has a wildly popular open series and WOTC saw the dollar signs.
The only things that ever get their attention are dollar signs.
I think you may have missed AJ's admittedly probably pedantic comment. It isn't that they couldn't. The edge cases even the ones that are 99.99999% unlikely mean that they either always code for that case (and check for it) or they work around it somehow. In this case they decided to be lazy and put it in the hands of the user. IE: It affects everyone equally so it isn't inconveniencing just one set of players and thus is just as "good" as if there were no problem.
I am in no way excusing this. I think it is reprehensible but it isn't the primary issue that bothers most players so it doesn't get much attention.
Good point AJ Impy, but this is one card and one which sees virtually no play. Could not a coder allow us to block if there is a Masako the Humorless on the battlefield? Do you think that one card amongst many thousands of cards (and a card which sees practically no play) should dictate the rule for the 99.99% of other occasions when we are being asked to block despite having no untapped legal blockers?
Actually, Masako the Humorless allows you to block with tapped creatures.
I agree with everything here. I found UR to be the best colors because Splinter/Kiki is the easiest combo in deck design and execution, plus Blue is the best color, and wow is Dack Fayden amazing here with all these mana rocks!
Also had a lot of good experiences with UG. The awesomeness of Blue, the mana dorks + natural order + GSZ + artifact/enchantment hate of green, plus there's always the dream of opening a Time Vault and then late picking a Kiora's Follower. I traditionally loathe playing Green but it's so good in this Cube!
Mono Red Aggro is brutal and usually avoided like the plague. Only drafted it once, but Eidolon + Sulfuric Vortex + Hellrider in the same deck is unstoppable.
EDIT: Also Nissa in Green.. if you don't have sufficient removal those 4/4's are going to ruin your day.
I remember one answer was that it was simpler to not check to see if there were qualified blockers. So in a sense, the programmers deliberately prefer to not "know" about the rules when the rules get in the way of making the program function. Sadly I think this mentality will continually bite us all in the feet until something dramatic happens with the decision makers.
Great article as usual! I agree with all your points.
I wish to add that it is a scandal that for years (and still now) we have been prompted to block when we have no creatures on the board (or no untapped creatures on the board) at the beginning of the Declare Blockers Phase. Do the coders not understand the basic rules of the game? (namely that if you have no untapped creature at the beginning of the Declare Blockers phase, it is IMPOSSIBLE to block). No flash creature or instant can change that.
This bug is a serious [redacted] nuisance, timewaster, and has led to skipping turns accidentally. (And yes WoTC have been notified for a long time.
It's all Santa's people.
That's good news! We'll work on the details for next week's article (email me with your plan).
You're right about Library of Alexandria. It's crazy how it sometimes is passed more than once. Today I took it 4th or 5th pick! That is insane, it shouldn't happen. Obviously there are decks that want some cards more. Maybe your deck with Voltaic Key and Tezzeret with a lot of card draw needs Time Vault more than Library. Some artifact decks need Workshop more than Library. But most of the time, you can't really pass it.
Tribal decks at high noon. Have your second bring a shovel.
Also, sod it. I'll sponsor the achievements myself this year. No lower limit, 5 tickets a quarter, 5 for best of year, awarded quarterly. They're a fun challenge and I know at least one person was looking forward to going for them.
I wish that there was more stuff for someone like me, who likes playing duels, best of three, high level of competition etc, but don't have the free time for daily events.
I'm not sure what that would be, or how they'd accomplish that, but it would be cool.
I guess I'll get back into playing two-mans until i win enough packs to draft, draft, sell the cards, use the tix to enter more 2-mans... that's what I used to do.
I don't know how many people are playing MTGO, but Hearthstone already reached to 20 million players during October 2014. And I guess, this number will increase by time as even some of mtg pro are also streaming hearthstone.
I hope Wizards will take this serious and improve V4 to decent levels.
It's on brah. I got your number.
I understand that but my point was the software should handle it like many other games do, many feel like I do. By the way I am fine conceding in vintage when you have lost, what bothers me is we finally fire a 2hg edh game and round 6 when it is getting interested someone just quits because of something small like a mana leak on their commander.
You're welcome to try, M4vis. :D