"Why Standard Pauper? Why not?"

"Why Standard Pauper? Why not?"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

So why would you want to play Standard Pauper? I asked myself the very same question as I was preparing for my duty the following day.The answers came to me one by one:

#Pauper is Cheap - Budget wise you could have a pretty competitive deck which may cost way lesser than the Protective Sleeves that you would be putting them in.Way lower.People always have concerns that they won't be able to play Fun Magic because they won't be able to afford the expensive stuff. No need to sweat for that. Many people have remained in Magic because of Standard Pauper , you could still be competitive without it costing an arm and a leg.

#Pauper is Accessible - Unlike Standard or EDH decks where certain cards would reach astronomical prices and simply be hard to find because of the normal order of supply and demand Standard Pauper offers a stark contrast. Essential Pauper Pieces could always be found in bargain bins of your local magic store!!!

And when you don't have a store near you some players who open packs could just give you the cards.Some of them don't want the extra cards when someone would have them. I would take those cards gladly.  

#Pauper tests creativity - Any format could test your deck building skills but pauper is very different because the card pool is really limited. Sticking with common cards from the standard pool may seem like a tempation for stagnation but there are literally dozens of decks that are waiting to be made. Choose a theme . choose a guild. There is one deck sure to fit you.

I once thought that there is a risk for the Standard Pauper scene to be stagnant because of the dominance of Ethereal Armor decks however recent events suggest that this is not the case because there is a new deck champion every week!

#Pauper Mass Removal - Non- Existent! - If you are the kind of magic player who loves playing with creatures a lot then this is a great format for you. There are a tons of powerful common creatures to choose from and the great thing about it is that they can stay on the board long enough for you to smash face with them. Not a single Supreme Verdict in sight.

"Oh no you don't..."

#Pauper Concepts could be Upgraded/Low graded -I remembered joining my first Standard Pauper tournament with a toned down version of my Mono Black Infect. It was so much fun that I ended with a 4-0 record. You could always take a standard winning deck and try to change the pieces a bit. In my case , I did a Mono Black Devotion deck that had 3 Gray Merchants of Asphodel as the finisher. My friend Ed Tanyag piloted it to the top and I was mighty proud of that. Some of the decks that you can brew as pauper can later be upgraded with more powerful pieces should you decide to enter Standard tournament play.

#Pauper decks are a nice way to introduce people to magic. - If you ever wanted to have someone know the game of magic ,  pauper is one way to go. You could even let people borrow the deck and not really mind since these are cards that could easily be replaced. People who are also introduced to this concept first also tend to look at commons and then rares in the future. 

#Pauper is fun - Well , normally Standard Pauper is a Side Event and is less stressing than the Main one. This environment that has no pressure and a lot of creatures roaming around provide an atmosphere of smashing face. Kinda like in boxing where there are more hits than running around. In one event the Standard Pauper players were even noisier than the Standard players. The reason was that it is more fun to raise life damage when you are not able to control all the creatures on the board. 

My brother once told me that with all the cards there was really nothing that I threw away.(My hoarding tendecies are still under control by the way). EDH made me think of how to use trash rares that nobody used. Standard Pauper made me use all those cards lying around that were feeling unwanted after a Pre-Release or one of my COmmon card Raids in the mall. My advise is to start with the cards you have lying around. You might be surpised with the powerful things that you would be able to find.