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TPDC Season 9 Worlds Preview

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

[url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6][img]http://www.pdcmagic.com/artwork/formats/clas-lit.gif[/img][/url]

[url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6]PDC Classic[/url] has a long, illustrious, and storied tradition. It is the least accessible and the most hallowed of our formats. For some of us, it represents a mysterious, inscrutable, even daunting foray into the murky past of this game of Magic we all love. For others of us, the Classic format is synonymous with PDC itself.
With WotC’s impending [url=http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1114475]sanctioning of Pauper Classic[/url], PDC’s most venerable format is going to be cast into the spotlight like never before. Lots of speculation about the impact of “official status” on our own community and our own events has been taking place here in the PDCMagic.com forums, and only time will tell what comes of all the noise.
Before any of that, however, we PDC Paupers have our own Classic events to make some noise about — namely, the [url=http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1116727]Season 9 Worlds Championship[/url] of Tuesday night’s TPDC event, organized by [b]Lathspel[/b], and the following Saturday’s [url=http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1116439]Season 9 Worlds Championship[/url] of the Classic PDC event, hosted by [b]LulThyme[/b] (taking over for [b]Evu[/b] who is retiring from the role of Saturday’s main coordinator).
Heading into this huge week for Classic players, let’s take a look back at the Classic landscape for the last four months. For this article, we’ll start with TPDC.

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Posted in Classic | 7 Comments »

STANDARD EVOLUTIONS

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

[url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=4][img]http://www.pdcmagic.com/artwork/formats/stan-lit.gif[/img][/url]

On this Thanksgiving week in the United States, we pause to reflect upon the things that make us truly grateful. We express our gratitude for the things, the opportunities, and the people that enrich our lives. And we dissect the Pauper Standard metagame, looking for clues or ideas about strategies with which to rip the format wide open.
In this article, I will give you some Thanksgiving week food for thought about how the metagame has evolved in the past four weeks. I’ll publish the wisdom of [b]ChronicHeaves[/b] in the form of an interview I conducted with him. And lastly, I’ll compile a list of the ten most influential cards in Standard right now.
So go grab a gravy boat and a ladle and sit back as we nibble on some Standard knowledge together.
Oh, and there’s a link to [b]Podcast #6[/b] inside.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

EXTENDED PODCAST #1

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Yo. I created a podcast about Extended. It’s a cursory overview of the format as we’ve known it. I surveyed all the 1st place decks since the inception of FutEx and I explain them in this podcast. I also recommend a few directions players might take in their efforts to crush the hegemony of Orzhov and MUTC.
In the future, if there is a demand for more Extended content, I will tackle more substantive subjects. I will also take requests. Please add them to the comments of this article.
The link is in the extended entry (how fitting), so click away:

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Posted in Extended | 1 Comment »

PODCAST #4

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

The NEW #4 Podcast, and all future Podcasts, will be linked from the [url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2418]PODCAST TABLE OF CONTENTS[/url]:
[url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2418]http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2418[/url]
Check it out, Paupers. And then post a comment here or there, or send a PM or an e-mail, to give us some feedback! We love it!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

RECORDED LIVE FROM THE SPDC 7.02 FINALS

Friday, November 7th, 2008

I was really tired after I lost in the semifinals, and I should have gone straight to bed, but I wanted to try narrating a finals match at the request of some.
Surely it would be more interesting with more commentators, but I’m curious to what degree something like this appeals to the average Pauper out there.
What kinds of information (especially the stuff I didn’t think of as I was watching this match tonight) would be good in future live match coverage?
Download after the “jump” then come back and let me know!

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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Extended Overview

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008


When I decided to do some research on the recent Extended metagame for this overview article, I had no idea that I would actually be stepping into the Twilight Zone. That’s exactly what happened, though. The familiar top decks from the early days of the format had vanished. Instead, I found a new cadre of top contenders cropping up. On the eve of XPDC’s first foray into the newly whole PDC Extended format, I wanted to explore this format that has strayed so far from its early days. Take a look with me, gentle Pauper.

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Posted in Extended | 1 Comment »

Standard Rotation III

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008


Perhaps never in the illustrious history of PDC has a Standard rotation been anticipated so eagerly by so many Paupers. True, this is only our third such rotation – but it is a critical and historical one. The pendulum of power is swinging – quite rapidly, in fact – from a world populated by hugely swingy control cards like Aven Riftwatcher, Mystical Teachings, and Tendrils of Corruption. When [i]Time Spiral[/i] and [i]Coldsnap[/i] fade into our memory (and the newly whole PDC Extended format), what we’ll be left with is a fast-paced, aggressive format dominated by – are you ready for this? – auras.

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Posted in Standard | 1 Comment »

HPDC is in the House!

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008


The newest weekly PDC event, a GMT-friendly Block PDC tourney on Thursdays, has arrived. Its host, Shokra, wants YOU to attend! It’s called HPDC.
The event thread on Gleemax is here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1078675

Posted in Block Constructed | No Comments »

AROUND THE BLOCK #5: Arboretum of Despair

Friday, July 18th, 2008

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[b]“Trust in wood, for wood is good.” -hurriboy[/b]

The last two BPDC events have had attendance in the upper twenties — 28 and 24, respectively. This hearkens back to the earliest days of the event, when the hype factor was at an all-time high. Nowadays, with Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block already the largest Block environment ever, and poised to become even larger and richer next season with the introduction of [i]Eventide[/i], I think people are attending BPDC just because they like the format!
And what’s not to like? In a world where Blind Hunter and Aven Riftwatcher rule the day (Extended and Standard, respectively), it’s nice to see a format where the lifegain is so poor as to give mono-red a fighting chance. More than a fighting chance, really, as that archetype is the only one with two gold medals (:1st: :1st:) to its name. White weenie, aided by a scrumptious aura called Steel of the Godhead, helped [b]Rickwins1971[/b] rick a gold medal and trophy of his own at BPDC 3.03.
But the news of this past week at BPDC 3.04 was the triumph of a new kind of deck, a deck with plans for a late game. A deck with great care and attention to the metagame. A deck filled with strong cards and ways to get those cards back after they’ve been used up. A deck… filled with treefolk.
[img]http://www.pdcmagic.com/artwork/icons/hurriboy.gif[/img]

[trophy]BPDC 3.04[/trophy]

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Posted in Block Constructed | 12 Comments »

AROUND THE BLOCK #4 – BPDC 3.01 – SHADOWMOOR KICKOFF

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

[url=http://www.pdcmagic.com/forums/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=20][img]http://www.pdcmagic.com/artwork/formats/bloc-lit.gif[/img][/url]

Monday evening, sixteen Paupers answered [i]Shadowmoor[/i]‘s call, lining up along the walls of the BPDCCOM Conference Center. (Sixteen is quite a bit below the 28 present for BPDC 1.01′s [i]Kamigawa[/i] kickoff, but I’ll chalk it up to the incredible popularity of that favorite of blocks…) [b]SypherSun[/b] warned me before registration even began that new match tables and sideboarding had been lagging, but little did we know that the BPDCCOM Conference Center, and indeed the entire framework of MTGO v3, seemed to be under assault from a wrecking ball. Or so it felt. However, the patient and even-tempered among us waited through the ridiculous lag to eventually crown a champion of BPDC 3.01 — [b]Boin[/b], piloting “Warrior Sligh.”
[img]http://www.pdcmagic.com/artwork/icons/boin.gif[/img]

[trophy]BPDC 3.01[/trophy]

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Posted in Block Constructed | 2 Comments »

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