Pauper

Pauper format is a Magic Online-specific constructed format of Magic: The Gathering, in which only common cards are allowed. The restriction to common cards found in Pauper format can easily be combined with other formats, such as Two-Headed Giant, Modern, or Block Constructed.

Pauper Magic is often confused with Peasant Magic, which allows up to five cards of uncommon rarity to be included in each player's library.

Banned & Restricted

At the moment (18th January 2016) nine cards are banned in Pauper tournaments:

• Cranial Plating
• Frantic Search
• Empty the Warrens
• Grapeshot
• Invigorate
• Cloudpost
• Temporal Fissure
• Treasure Cruise
• Cloud of Faeries

No cards are restricted in Pauper tournaments.

Community

On MTGO, one active community of players of Pauper Magic comprise the Pauper Deck Challenge or PDC. Their combined chat room is PDC, and is a central meeting spot for the format.

Paper Pauper

Since Pauper is a Magic Online specific format, it does not extend to physical cards. Therefore the term Paper Pauper is used to distinguish it from its MTGO counterpart.

Paper Pauper has also no official banlist. However due to the active community many Magic player started play Pauper with their physical cards applying the Online Banlist to their deck construction.

The restriction that only common cards are allowed is surprisingly difficult to apply to earlier sets, because the so called C1 commons are effectively as rare as uncommons, but are printed on the common sheet. Gatherer lists these cards as common, while Magiccards Info lists them as uncommon.

Tolarian Community College advises to go with the Gatherer legality and extend the online banlist by the following cards:

• Goblin Grenade
• High Tide
• Hymn to Tourach
• Merchant Scroll
• Sinkhole

Current Pauper Events

• QPDC, Monday Nights, Classic
• TPDC, Tuesday Nights, Classic
• SPDC, Thursday Nights, Standard
• Mini-PDC, Saturday Mornings, Classic
• Euro-PDC, Saturday Afternoons, Classic
• 4PDC, Saturday Mornings, Standard

External links

• Wizards of the Coast (November 08, 2008). "Only the Commons, All the Fun". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• PauperMagic.com — Homepage of the Pauper Deck Challenge.
• PDCMagic.com — A very comprehensive website maintained by the PDC community.