Alt PDC 1.08: The Format, The Decks, The Winners

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On Saturday, January 26 at 7:00 pm, Alt PDC ran the second Auction of the People (AOTP) event of its brief history. This time, unlike in AOTP's prior appearance at Alt PDC 1.05, the decks used were not submitted by the PDC community. Rather, all 13 decks used in Alt PDC 1.08 were created by a single player: Chris Millar of magicthegathering.com.

When Mr. Millar took it upon himself to create something entirely new by using exaclty four of every common in Lorwyn to create thirteen roughly balanced Pauper decks, and to write an entire article about those decks, multiple pdcmagic.com forum members prompty pointed out what a great auction format these decks would make. Given the recent success of Alt PDC's first Auction of the People, the hosts of Alt PDC pounced on this idea. The Alt PDC hosts thank Polyjak, WoCoNation, Baron_Sengir6989, SypherSun, and Carinon for suggesting this format.

Hoping to bring the exciting Pauper Magic format to a wider audience, the Alt PDC hosts decided to email Chris Millar himself. We were extremely flattered when Mr. Millar generously agreed to participate in our prospective tournament and even expressed a willingness to devote an article to discussion of the event. His (far more professional) article on these proceedings should be posted later this week.

The moral of this story? It's simple; if you want something special, you have to put yourself out there. Take risks! Give it a shot! You never know what good might come out of it.

Given the thirteen-deck pool for Alt PDC 1.08, we had a tough decision to make regarding registrations. We could accept all comers and run incomplete pods, disturbing the delicate supply-and-demand balance of Auction of the people. We could limit attendance to twelve, likely cutting out a number of potential participants. We could leave decks out, distrubing the beautiful four-of-every-common symmetry of the pool. Or we could run uneven pods, using every deck but creating an unfair situation for a prospective joint Top 8. After substantial internal debate, Alt PDC's hosts agreed to run with multiple pods of twelve, with pre-registration and a side event available for players who could not be accomodated in an Auction pod. We figured that pre-registration would soften the blow by letting everyone know where things stood well in advance, and a side event would avoid denying anyone the ability to play altogether. As it turned out, despite a handful of late entrants and several no-shows, we managed to accomodate every interested, on-time player.

So the big day finally arrived, and twenty four players showed up to join Chris Millar in three rounds of Swiss competition, with a Top 8 to follow.

Despite a significant delay due to late arrivals, the Auction ran quite smoothly. As soon as the Swiss rounds commenced, however, many players realized the flaws in their auction strategies. Sadly, overbidding for a handful of popular decks ran rampant at Alt PDC 1.08.

UB Faeries is a successful Standard deck, and the Alt PDC list was arguably little-changed from the Standard version. It must be good, right? Well, Alt PDC players certainly thought so, bidding it down to an average starting point of 5.5 cards and 21.5 life. Now, the deck was obviously far from hopeless, given its one Top 8 appearance, but its aggregate record of 2-4 shows that it was badly overbid at the very least.

RG Giants, a popular draft archetype that was similarly hyped by Chris Millar, was an even bigger flop at 1-4 overall. It was bid all the way down to average starting totals of 6 cards and 17.5 life.

Several other decks that were bid down to 6 cards met similar fates.

Many players who are new to PDC fail to realize how Pauper Magic reshapes many of the usual principles of winning Magic. Even established Pauper players sometimes make the mistake, often out of laziness, of simply assuming that was is good in other formats is good in Pauper. Having made this mistake, these players copy, lemming-like, whatever they have seen succeeding in regular Magic, or whatever a columnist -- say, Chris Millar -- suggests (understandably, based on his extremely limited Pauper experience, by looking to decks successful in regular Magic) ought to be good. Having spent no time testing, these players will march merrily off of cliffs because it's what the players in front of them are doing.

Here are the Auction results from Alt PDC 1.08:

Pod 1

• KingRitz -- UW Merfolk (8/23)


• Lawnmower Elf -- BG Elves (8/23)


• GravespwnGoddess -- UB Faeries (6/18)


• lathspel -- BR Elementals (7/18)


• 53N531 -- Mono-U Merfolk (6/24)


• Bulldog333 -- 4-Color Elementals (7/14)


• cp70 -- Mono-G Elves (7/21)


• jamuraa -- RW Giants (6/21)


• mrjgiles -- BG Treefolk (8/21)


• R3b3lw4rr10r -- RW Changelings (7/24)


• RaiserUK -- RG Giants (6/15)


• TheUsualSuspect -- Wb Kithkin (8/25)

Pod 2

• _houseofcards -- BR Elementals(7/23)


• Cadaeic314 -- Mono-U Merfolk (8/25)


• Shadezz0fHades -- Mono-G Elves (7/20)


• plainstrider -- BR Goblins (7/19)


• BlueWurm -- RW Changelings (7/16)


• arachnid1313 -- BG Treefolk (7/18)


• benbw -- BG Elves (6/20)


• coolbartbr -- UW Merfolk (6/19)


• NanofChaos -- RG Giants (6/20)


• riealan -- Wb Kithkin (6/23)


• rickwins1971 -- 4-Color Elementals (8/20)

Let's look at just how decks with different starting card and life totals did both in Alt PDC 1.08 and in the earlier Alt PDC 1.06.

In Alt PDC 1.05:

• Decks with 5 cards went 2-2


• Decks with 6 cards went 3-5


• Decks with 7 cards went 4-6


• Decks with 8 cards went 8-4


• Decks with under 15 starting life went 0-1


• Decks with 15-20 starting life went 12-8


• Decks with 21-25 starting life went 5-8

In Alt PDC 1.08:

• Decks with 5 cards went 0-2


• Decks with 6 cards went 7-15


• Decks with 7 cards went 13-16


• Decks with 8 cards went 20-7


• Decks with under 15 starting life went 1-2


• Decks with 15-20 starting life went 16-20


• Decks with 21-25 starting life went 23-18

Cards appear to have been undervalued, whereas life seems to have been valued accurately, taking both events together. It may be that too many players in Alt PDC 1.08 were rather inflexible. We heard many participants commenting in advance that they had figured out the deck that they wanted. It seemed like the bidding went accordingly, with several long two-player bidding wars for what was apparently "the deck" for each of the competing players. Your humble reporter, on the other hand, went in with a "top 6" list and a commitment not to go to six cards except for UW Merfolk (the best deck in our testing). If you're going below 15 life or 7 cards for a deck, you had better be really sure that it's worth it.

That said, certain decks like UB Faeries and RG Giants underperformed even other decks at similar bid points. Why would two decks with such potential and success in other format flop so badly in Alt PDC?

Other than simple overbidding, here are two additional theories:

1. Pauper Magic is a creature format -- There is no true Wrath of God effect at common. As such, Pauper players are used to running the most efficient spot removal and using it with care. With so many Pauper decks creature-oriented, the control decks all come prepared to stop creatures as soon as they hit; no waiting for the turn 4 reset button here. Relying too heavily on a single, vulnerable creature is usually a really bad idea in this format. Elvish Handservant is great, but it does less against decks that all have 4-of answers. At the same time, decks built to smash up traditional control decks find few targets to hit in Pauper. UB Faeries strikes us as falling into this category. In regular Standard, it's dangerously quick, runs several powerful anti-removal spells, and gives critter control only the small nod of Sower of Temptation (noteworthy by its absence in Pauper).
2. Chris Millar Did A Good Job -- Coming back to the whole "overbidding" idea, maybe these heavily bid decks just weren't that strong to begin with. After all, Mr. Millar is known to have said that he aimed to balance the House of Commons decks as much as possible. Comparatively, the Alphabet decks from Alt PDC 1.05 were all over the place; it's hard to balance a "Q" deck with a "S" deck. Is it any surprise, then, that people who payed through the nose in Alt PDC 1.08 rather than taking a deck of comparable power on the cheap largely failed, while some of the heavy bidders in Alt PDC 1.05 turned out okay?

If you want to avoid falling into the traps that ensnared many players in Alt PDC 1.08, the solution is quite simple: Test, test, test!

Even though Pauper players cannot assume that everything true in regular Magic will hold true in Pauper Magic, there is much the different formats can teach us about one another.

Pauper Magic has a lot to say about how one should test, metagame, and tune decks; and given the low cost of entry, Pauper allows all players, from newbies to veterans, to do full metagame testing with a number of archetypes without totally draining their bank accounts. Of course, Pauper also hones play skill like any other competitive format. Furthermore, despite its differences, Pauper still retains much in common with low-power formats like Block Constructed and Draft.

What did your humble reporter take away from his Alt PDC 1.08 experience? Well, double-mulligans hurt (obviously). Try not to start your games down two cards. Judge of Currents really shouldn't be tabling in drafts. Maybe it isn't these days, but when Lorwyn came out these guys would just go around and around. Wellgabber Apothecary, a card we've never paid any attention to before, should perhaps go 13th rather than 15th in draft; it's still weak, but it's a sideboard house against removal-poor fat creature decks. Streambed Aquitects can be used to turn off Elvish Branchbender (a cute trick; thanks Cadaeic314). Goblins deserve a little more respect than we had given them. Kithkin draft decks aren't truly amazing even if you somehow put every build-around-me Kithkin common together. None of these lessons may be especially profound, but we're glad to have learned them, just the same.

Moving further into the events, your humble reporter's notes are sadly sparse. Hosting, auctioneering, handing out cards, and playing the slowest deck in the pool turns out not to be conducive to comprehensive reporting. That said, we do recall a few interesting notes.

• Players were assigned to one of the two twelve-person pods at random, and play was in-pod until the joint Top 8, so sadly most players never had a shot to challenge Chris Millar.
• Interestingly, although Chris Millar got a bargain on his RB Elementals (7/23 versus 7/18 in the other pod), the other RB Elementals deck was the one to show up in the Top 8. The same phenomenon showed up with RW Changelings. RB Goblins, which couldn't even get picked at 8/25 in one pool, went to the Top 4 at 7/19 out of the other pool.
• Both pools saw players losing track of the decks and players remaining... The hosts managed to keep nearly flawless notes (more on this below) even as they hosted and auctioneered, but many players didn't bother. This led to situations such as the one at the end of our pod, where the two eventual finalist and TheUsualSuspect got to pick among four decks, three of which made the Top 4.
• Sadly for TheUsualSuspect, he guessed wrong and DCI Reporter seems to hate him. After quickly starting 1-0 with the solid (in our testing), aggressive Wb Kithkin deck at 8 cards/25 life, TheUsualSuspect ran smack into Lawnmower Elf's board-stalling, 23-life BG Elves monster. Then, sitting at 1-1, TheUsualSuspect's impeccable tiebreakers led to him getting paired up to face your humble reporter with his board-stalling, 23-life, lifegaining UW Merfolk terror. With the two worst possible matchups for his aggressive weenies, TheUsualSuspect simply could not overcome either of the two eventual finalists, leaving with one of the most hard-luck 1-2 finishes this humble reporter has witnessed.
• Earlier, your humble reporter had found himself in a furious bidding war for the one deck he would go to 6 cards for: UW Merfolk. Asked for a list of remaining decks, he rattled them off only to be informed that UW Merfolk was still left -- the deck KingRitz was bidding furiously for was actually Mono-U Merfolk. This turned out quite fortunate, as the bidding war removed one of the last remaining aggressive bidders and the timely deck update request saved KingRitz from a deck in which he had no interest.
• In the other pod, UW Merfolk actually did end up at 6 cards, as KingRitz's testing partner Coolbartbr had seen the power of life-gaining, damage-preventing weenies and insisted on grabbing the fishy little guys. Impressively, Coolbartbr went 2-1 and was a lock for the Top 8. Sadly, he dropped in part because of the unappetizing prospect of a down-two-cards mirror match ahead of him.

Late arrivals and no-shows pushed the event late, and a winner was not crowned until after 2 am EST.

The Top 8 bracket looked like this:

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plainstrider (RB Goblins, 7/19),
lathspel (RB Elementals, 7/18),
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KingRitz (UW Merfolk, 8/23),
BlueWurm (RW Changelings, 7/16),
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Lawnmower Elf (BG Elves, 8/23),
GravespwnGoddess (UB Faeries, 6/18),
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Cadaeic314 (Mono-U Merfolk, 8/25),
rickwins1971 (4-Color Elementals, 8/20),
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The Top 4 was:

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plainstrider,
KingRitz,
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Lawnmower Elf,
Cadaeic314,
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Plainstrider's RB Goblins had as good a shot as any against KingRitz's UW Merfolk machine, given the amount of removal Plainstrider could play and recur, but timely defensive bounce and counters eventually allowed KingRitz to hold on to his key board control elements and prevail 2-0.

Cadaeic's Islandwalking team managed to evade Lawnmower Elf's swarm of (what else?) Elves once, but Lawnmower's little green army proved too much to handle in the other two games.

The Finals were:

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KingRitz,
Lawnmower Elf,
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In the finals, KingRitz's Merfolk twice flooded mercilessly, but Lawnmower Elf's Elves repeatedly failed to produce sufficiently aggressive hands to take advantage. Again and again, the underrated Judge of Currents backed by Stonybrook Angler and the even more surprising Wellgabber Apothecary put KingRitz's life totals far out of reach. In both games, Plover Knights eventually dropped in to seal victory.

And the winner is... KingRitz!!!

Power Rankings (Through Alt PDC 1.09):
Note: Power Rankings are used for Alt PDC Worlds seeding. They are a pure measure of achievement, on a 0-to-10 scale, rewarding only appearances in the elimination rounds.

The Top Five:

1. White_djinn - 5.39
Congratulations, White_djinn! With a win and two second-place finishes in just three tries, you are the top dog in this week's power rankings!
2. KingRitz - 5.32
Through sheer force of quantity, your humble reporter sneaks into second place. Your humble reporter only makes the Top 8 just over half the time, but he's a formidable elimination-round opponent.
3. Boin - 4.71
Boin was #1 on this list just two events ago. Then he showed up late for Alt PDC 1.08 and skipped Alt PDC 1.09 altogether, while KingRitz and White_Djinn each got another win. Still, he's a close third and it remains anyone's game.
4. ZechMaples - 3.67
ZechMaples hasn't been heard from since Alt PDC 1.03. We have no idea where he's gone, but we miss his two-great-finishes-in-two-tries dominance.
5. GravespwnGoddess - 3.32
Sneaking in at the #5 spot, GravespwnGoddess has a win, a second, and a Top 8 finish in five tries. Not half bad for the guy whose initials are "gg."

And the Next Five:

6. StiLLiRise - 2.75
7. Lawnmower Elf - 2.20
8. Shadezz0fHades - 2.10
9. karakusk - 1.83
10. Cadaeic314 - 1.69

Season Points (Through Alt PDC 1.09):
Note: Season Points are used to determine the sixteen invitations to Alt PDC Worlds. They are primarily a measure of participation, awarding at least one point for every game played.

1. KingRitz - 62
2. Cadaeic314 - 42
3. Boin - 31
4. GravespwnGoddess - 27
5. StiLLiRise - 25
6. R3b3lw4rr10r - 24
7. Shadezz0fHades - 22
8. White_djinn - 20
9. arachnid1313 - 19
10. coolbartbr - 19
11. ZechMaples - 17
12. jamuraa - 16
13. HWolverine83 - 14
14. jtamaro - 14
t-15. Baron_Sengir6989 - 13
t-15. BlueWurm - 13
t-15. Krosanbeast9359 - 13

--------------------Alt PDC Season 1 Worlds Cut--------------------

18. Colakim3 - 11
19. Lawnmower Elf - 11
20. LostSymphonies - 11
21. mrjgiles - 11
22. karakusk - 10
23. PredatorGR - 10
24. nick220997 - 9
25. plainstrider - 9
26. ecupiratefan69 - 8
27. RobE - 8
28. hurriboy - 7
29. NanofChaos - 7
30. KLinke - 6
31. lathspel - 6
32. Polyjak - 6
33. rickwins1971 - 6
34. ShardFenix - 6
35. WoCoNation - 6
36. hater_666 - 5
37. Nate316 - 5
38. redleg - 5
39. _houseofcards - 4
40. arhanta - 4
41. benbw - 4
42. cp70 - 4
43. fissionessence - 4
44. Iberian Wolf - 4
45. khirareq - 4
46. Lysandar - 4
47. riealan - 4
48. TheUsualSuspect - 4
49. ChronicHeaves - 3
50. majorob - 3
51. OSUAvenger - 3
52. RaiserUK - 3
53. subliminal man2 - 3
54. taunton_cider_elf - 3
55. 53N531 - 2
56. BweeBwee - 2
57. capt_ludo - 2
58. hokusai22 - 2
59. inlovingmemory - 2
60. sadisteck - 2
61. stiffdiddypinky - 2
62. TheTestament - 2
63. zaxx81 - 2
64. Bulldog333 - 1
65. kaityson36 - 1
66. VTC - 0

Meanwhile, we hate to do this, but we also have a list of warnings to announce after the events of Alt PDC 1.08.

Warnings

ChronicHeaves - Warning: No-show after pre-registration for Alt PDC 1.08
eMo eMu - Warning: No-show after pre-registration for Alt PDC 1.08
kerch2007 - Warning: No-show after pre-registration for Alt PDC 1.08
ShardFenix - Warning: No-show after pre-registration for Alt PDC 1.08

Really, guys, we're disappointed. Please don't no-show in future events.

Well, that's all we have for today; thanks for stopping in!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!