Normally when writing about eternal formats I write about Legacy or Modern but there is another eternal format that most people forget exists: Pauper. For those of you unfamiliar with Pauper it is a format where you can only play with cards that have been printed as a common (minus a ban list obviously). It’s great for people who want to play a really fun format that is also fairly cheap. The format has been seeing a lot of love lately thanks to MTGO. Recently a few of my friends have really gotten into Pauper and I wanted to share this eternal format that is a little bit more friendly to your wallet.
You would be surprised by how many of your traditional Modern and Legacy staples are actually commons and legal to play in Pauper. All the great cantrips such as Ponder and Brainstorm are commons as well as some great counterspells like Daze and Mana Leak. The format is significantly more powerful than I ever anticipated. There are a ton of Pauper decks that are similar to Modern/Legacy decks including Tron, Elves, Delver, Infect, Burn, Slivers and Affinity. These decks are extremely similar to their Modern/Legacy counterparts which I did not expect when I was sitting down to learn about the format. The format seems borderline addicted to card draw in ways I didn’t even imagine possible, if you scroll through a few decklists you’ll quickly understand why I say that.
The ban list is very short and self-explanatory (and sorry to disappoint but it does include Treasure Cruise). Cloudpost is banned, however, the Tron lands are not so there can still be some big, stompy fun in this format. In spite of Invigorate being banned Infect is still a thing thanks to Glistener Elf, Mutagenic Growth, Vines of Vastwood and Groundwell. The rest of the ban list includes Empty the Warrens and Grapeshot (but don’t worry there is a creature storm deck to those of you who love the archetype), Temporal Fissure, Frantic Search and Cranial Plating. In spite of Cranial Plating’s ban Affinity is still extremely powerful, especially since the artifact lands are legal and played quite extensively. More importantly Affinity has Atog which feels fairly broken with cards such as Ichor Wellspring.
Most of the Pauper decks cost less than 100 tixs which is great and Burn only costs 15 tix so the format is very accessible. There are Pauper leagues on MTGO and there are always events running so if you are willing to suffer through using MTGO then there is a format you can play that is accessible in every way. Some stores have also begun offering Pauper tournaments and are definitely something worth looking into if you’re interested. The format is so cheap literally anyone can get into it. Even the paper decks don’t cost more than $100 and can once again can cost as little as $15. So many people reach out to me talking about how they are slowly saving up so that one day they will be able to play Legacy or Modern and that they can’t wait, so in the meantime sleeve up a Pauper deck and get some practice. While the format is definitely different from Legacy and Modern there is still quite a bit of overlap and it’s a great way to get some practice with older cards without breaking the bank!
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH or Standard if she’s desperate.