Curious if anyone here has or does play this format 'seriously'? I find that despite it's limitations (bad mana and no sideboard) it makes for more intersting games than other budget formats (Pauaper and standard pauper).
I'll post more about it if anyone is interested in talking about it, but I don't want to make a longer post if nobody plays it.
There is actually a fairly lively Planeswalker Format community, and I rarely have trouble getting games.
As you mentioned, it really is the best way to play on the cheap. The problem with Pauper is that I find the gameplay gets pretty stake after a while because in general, common cards are fairly simple. This is especially true with Standard Pauper which tends to get solved quickly.
However, the problem with playing PW Format 'seriously' is that you are running against the intentions for the format. A lot of players only have a few packs and are new to magic, so playing them with your tuned PW format deck that is culled from 4 of every PW pack can be a waste of everyone's time. That being said, I only play top decks (Tier 1 and Tier 2), and I usually find suitable opponents for most of my games.
For serious 1v1, the biggest problem with the format is RDW. I have tried as hard as I could for over a year to find a deck that has game vs. fast RDW and yet still plays comparatively well versus the field. After a lot of frustration, I have given up. The format is defined by (1) horrible mana, (2) no sideboard, and (3) no real metagame and a wide-open field. These are the perfect conditions for fast RDW. And the kicker is that the RDW card pool is somewhere between Modern and Legacy level. The deck frequently kills on Turn 3, and is capable of winning on turn 4 through disruption with alarming frequency. Fast RDW (mostly burn, with enough goblins for grenades) is simply the best deck as far as I can tell. A slower, more Goblin-oriented deck centered around Krenko is also one of the best decks in the field.
For non-Red decks, I'd round out the top 5 with Green Combo (centered around Momentous fall shenanigans) and mono-white tokens. Mono Black vampires is also strong. Basically, mono-colored, proactive decks are hard to beat in a format with such bad mana, no sideboard, but a very deep card pool with high quality for most colors.
There is a lively multiplayer scene as well as some 2HG games. Golgari dominates 2HG, and multiplayer. Black has many cards that take advantage of having multiple opponents, and Green has very good multiplayer cards for the free-for-alls, and Golgari Gold cards are excellent support for the black cards in 2HG.
Still, my favorite deck in 1v1 is a version of Caw-Blade that I put together. It sometimes hiccups on colored mana, but is relatively smooth for a two-color deck. More importantly, it creates very intersting game states and makes for fun games. But it is also very strong, and can play against anything--it is a top 10 deck in power level, and can even win games versus RDW (though it is definitely a dog overall). It does well vs. Green Combo and decently vs. White Tokens and Vamps.
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I'll post more about it if anyone is interested in talking about it, but I don't want to make a longer post if nobody plays it.
A shame cuz I agree its a cheap way to play and quite good games.
As you mentioned, it really is the best way to play on the cheap. The problem with Pauper is that I find the gameplay gets pretty stake after a while because in general, common cards are fairly simple. This is especially true with Standard Pauper which tends to get solved quickly.
However, the problem with playing PW Format 'seriously' is that you are running against the intentions for the format. A lot of players only have a few packs and are new to magic, so playing them with your tuned PW format deck that is culled from 4 of every PW pack can be a waste of everyone's time. That being said, I only play top decks (Tier 1 and Tier 2), and I usually find suitable opponents for most of my games.
For serious 1v1, the biggest problem with the format is RDW. I have tried as hard as I could for over a year to find a deck that has game vs. fast RDW and yet still plays comparatively well versus the field. After a lot of frustration, I have given up. The format is defined by (1) horrible mana, (2) no sideboard, and (3) no real metagame and a wide-open field. These are the perfect conditions for fast RDW. And the kicker is that the RDW card pool is somewhere between Modern and Legacy level. The deck frequently kills on Turn 3, and is capable of winning on turn 4 through disruption with alarming frequency. Fast RDW (mostly burn, with enough goblins for grenades) is simply the best deck as far as I can tell. A slower, more Goblin-oriented deck centered around Krenko is also one of the best decks in the field.
For non-Red decks, I'd round out the top 5 with Green Combo (centered around Momentous fall shenanigans) and mono-white tokens. Mono Black vampires is also strong. Basically, mono-colored, proactive decks are hard to beat in a format with such bad mana, no sideboard, but a very deep card pool with high quality for most colors.
There is a lively multiplayer scene as well as some 2HG games. Golgari dominates 2HG, and multiplayer. Black has many cards that take advantage of having multiple opponents, and Green has very good multiplayer cards for the free-for-alls, and Golgari Gold cards are excellent support for the black cards in 2HG.
Still, my favorite deck in 1v1 is a version of Caw-Blade that I put together. It sometimes hiccups on colored mana, but is relatively smooth for a two-color deck. More importantly, it creates very intersting game states and makes for fun games. But it is also very strong, and can play against anything--it is a top 10 deck in power level, and can even win games versus RDW (though it is definitely a dog overall). It does well vs. Green Combo and decently vs. White Tokens and Vamps.