So tired of playing Standard? Modern? Extended (does that shit still exists?)? Legacy? Want to get into back into a "competitive" format to sharpen your skills and move away from the "carefree" type of play that's in EDH/Commander? Pauper is a good alternative for you!
As the term dictates Pauper format is a format that holds nothing but commons! If the card has been printed as a common, then it's legal. However, like every format there is a banned list.
Cranial Plating
An awesome artifact equipment that costs 2 colorless to play! It gives +1/+0 for each artifact you control to the equipped creature and cost a measly 1 colorless to equip.
Furthermore, it also cost {B}{B} to attach it to a creature you control at instant speed! Ridiculous.
Why is it banned? Since you're only allowed to play common cards, banning Cranial Plating isn't a bad idea. The fact that the artifact lands are common makes it ridiculous when you decide to play the Affinity archetype. Especially when you're now limited to responses to Cranial Plating due to rarity restrictions in other colors.
Just like in Legacy, Franctic Search is also banned in Pauper. Do I really have to explain why? Storm is already powerful enough in Pauper with the wide variety of spells they have at their disposal. So letting them having a free spell with card draw just makes it too broken.
Draw two cards then choose and discard two cards. Card Draw, something storm needs en masse since they need to dig deep for their finisher or other useful spells to increase mana and their storm count. That's not the problem though. Untap up to three lands? There's the crux of the matter.
Untapping up to three lands when the spell itself costs naught but {2}{U} (converted mana cost of three) makes it count as a free spell with no drawback at all!
Let's not really get into the semantics about their legibility in being banned. They just are because they are extremely powerful with no drawbacks at all. I honestly don't see any.
Anyway back to the matter at hand!
Pauper can only contain cards that have been printed as a common in any set. It's a fun format that tests your skills in deckbuilding and playing around only common cards. You have a wide selection of cards that are either: hard to cast, hard to get the full benefits of, pretty situational, or just plain crap!
Obviously there are exceptions to this. Aside from netdecking (read as look at a deck online, build it, then play it without even knowing how to play the damn thing - yes I loathe netdeckers -), WotC has a weird sense of how the set their rarity on some cards. Let's take a look at a few shall we?
The go-to guys for pro-colors. White weenies can see a lot of play because some of the decks take a few turns to set up. If you can smash your opponents with brute force before they set up, they're pretty much dead no? The Guardian of the Guildpact is a good choice to put in a deck because most decks are mono-colored. Being pro-monocolored helps a lot in either dealing damage or serving as an undamageable blocker.
Squadron Hawk was broken when it was in Standard and it still is. With the ability to search through your Library and removing up to three more of these annoyances, you get rid of cards you do not want to draw into late game. The fact that it's also a flier is pretty decent as aggro decks will have to find a way around it if they don't run fliers.
I find it a shoe-in if you're doing white weenies. An able flier that gets rid of your cards is pretty neet in my opinion!
These two cards I despise. I loathe them with an utmost passion. Being a storm player, I take pride in doing my solitaire on turn 3, turn 4 or sometimes even turn 2. However, if I see one of these fuckers (pardon the language) on the board I usually end up scooping. The Benevolent Unicorn more-so than the Suture Priest. Grapeshot becomes useless with that stupid Unicorn out and Suture Priest renders Empty the Warrens into a death trap!
Let's move onto some blue cards!
Bouncing 2 Islands back into your hand to draw 2 cards? Pretty neat and is considered a free spell as it doesn't spend any mana you have floating in your pool! It nets you 2 cards and ups your count by 1. Also gives you land discard if you decide to play Compulsive Research
We can't look at blue without looking at counterspells now can we? The cards we see above are pretty much what they do. Taxing your opponent's spell so they either tap out to play another spell or countering because they have no mana to pay for it is always good in my book. Memory Lapse will make them lose a turn if they aren't playing anything that let's them draw cards obviously.
Counterspell is... well... counterspell. A counterpsell for creature that is pretty much sought out for is Exclude. Not only does it counter a creature, but it cantrips as well. Very nifty against aggro decks!
Cloud of Faeries is a legit card as it either cycles for something or you get to cheat off mana acceleration with the ravnica bounce lands set. Ninja of the Deep Hours let's you re-use Come into Play abilities and draws you a card. It's not bad at all. Mulldrifter: our frisky elemental that can be evoked or hard cast for it's ability of drawing you two cards. Not only that, it's a flying body for either blocking or dealing damage. Delver of Secrets... It's used in Legacy... 'nuff said no?
Capsize is a very awesome card. Pretty much a shoe-in in control decks as it can serve as a lock-down finisher. Yes, even in pauper Capsize serves as a lock-down finished. Annoying as hell.
If not bouncing your bounce land is a pretty legit call to do especially when you're short on mana. Other annoyances is bouncing back anything of value you play out. That BuyBack {3} has been the bane of multiple people's existence in EDH. I know since I'm one of the jackass that does that gay Stasis + Orb of Dream thing!
Echoing Truth is a very good answer to Warren Storm. Why? Cause those tokens are good as gone giving you the game as the Storm Players will just scoop and concede. He/She won't be getting back after storming a count of X where X is usually an amount of 20 or more. After all, there isn't much of a board wipe in Pauper. Echoing Truth happens to be one of them (situational though).
Very, very, very sad day for Warren Storm players when they get this to the face! Automatic shoe in for sideboard card!
Moving on to those disrupt cards. Black is known to do what it's best to do, especially in Pauper!
Hymn to Tourach: one of the best disrupt cards ever to be printed as a common. Not only does it make your opponent discard two cards, he/she has to discard at random. Something nobody ever likes doing! Sinkhole, planning on building a BG land destruction deck? Sinkhole is a common folks!
Honestly, if I ever see a mono-black deck that doesn't at least run a 2-of of one of these, I shall question the dudes sanity. Corrupt -yes it was a common in Urza's- and Tendrils of Corruption both do the same thing in all honesty with a few net differences. I do prefer Tendrils since it costs less, but Corrupt is also an option if you don't want to run Tendrils for some reason... Note that Tendrils will still give you life equal to the amount of swamps you control even if the damage was prevented, unlike Corrupt...
Rejoice storm players! Dark and Cabal Ritual are yours to command and cast! Both being commons and adding a ton of mana to your mana pool, these two cards are automatic shoe-in for Grixis Storm players!
Who ever said Black never had much in terms of quick aggro? Carnophage is a classic 2/2 for {B} on turn 1. The downside is that you lose 1 life during your upkeep, or you tap it.
The downside isn't really that bad as you can swarm your opponent to a low-life before you even start seeing a dent in yours from this drawback.
White-Black weenies anyone?
Remember when I said that Pauper has a few board wipes? Well Crypt Rats is one of them. X deals the spot to both creatures and players. So it wipes the board of those pesky goblins and it also deals damage to your opponent. Mono black control doesn't seem so bad now does it?
You lose life, but it's not much of a problem. That's why Tendrils are played in monoblack decks, especially control. These rats are ridiculous as a board wipe and -to me- an automatic shoe-in!
Damn... it's already 5:00 AM as I'm writing this... it's been long, but we're almost done! Time for Red spells!
Mono-red burn is pretty legit with all these beautiful burn spells. If you can burn your opponent before they can kill you off, then you're on the roll. Dealing 20 damage isn't that difficult with all these beauties!
Need mana for storm or just need mana in general? If you're playing red, you have ample enough of cards that provides you the necessary amount of mana to cast that one or few spells you have lined up to burn through your opponent or set up something earlier on!
Rancor... what's there to say about Rancor except saying that it's freaking Rancor?!?!?! I find that it should be an automatic include if you're running weenies and green. Why? It's F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G Rancor! The +2/+0 and Trample is ridiculous for {G}!
Infect just became legit folks. Especially with all those early turn one drops such as Glistener Elf!
Sakura-Tribe Elder (Steve) explains itself pretty well. By the way, why is it called Steve? Crop Rotation, on the other hand, requires a bit more of an explanation for those who are not aware of it.
Crop Rotation is good... Not only is it good, it's ridiculously good. Just because you have to sacrifice a land doesn't make it bad, no it makes it freaking awesome! Like good-good awesome. Crop Rotation for {G} lets you look for any land! Any land! If you're playing the 8-post archetype, this is a total automatic include in my opinion!
If you thought elves were ridiculous with Heritage Druid, it doesn't matter if they don't have it in Pauper. Quirion Ranger and Priest of Titania does enough mana generation to do your turn 3 Ulamog Crusher!
No matter how you look at it, Coiling Oracle is a +1 no matter what it reveals. If it's a land, it comes into play, if not then it goes to your hand. For a turn 2 drop it's a very decent card. It's also an Elf so if you're splashing Blue and you're running Elves, then this card is a +1 for Titania's ability!
Terminate: one of the only destroy creature card without any restriction like Doom Blade! Good card against any aggro players!
Manamorphose... broken common card and usually an auto-include in storm decks. Why? It's a free spell! {1}{G/R} add two color of any combination to your mana pool + draw a card? That is beyond awesome!
You a storm player? Then this is pretty much self explanatory. Both Chromatics filters your unwanted colored mana for something that you require. Missing that one blue but you have eight black floating? Then filter it out with a Star or Sphere! The Lotus Petal is obviously an auto-include as it is a free spell that gives you mana upon sacrificing it!
Once Ulamog's Crusher hits the field, it is usually game for the opposing player if he/she can't deal with it. Annihilator 2 is destructive in Pauper, especially if you can bring this out Turn 3! By Turn 4 you're most likely destroying your opponent's board completely!
For those people that ramp like crazy, this card is usually an auto-include due to the fact that you can easily bring it out before turn 8!
Cloudpost and Glimmerpost are both Locus lands that gives you a lot of mana or a lot of life. 8-post is an archetype that is pretty good in Pauper. With you ramping like crazy and gaining enough life to avoid instant death, you can be sure you'll have a chance to go at it with your opponent! That turn 4-5 Ulamog isn't farfetched now is it?
That's pretty much it for Pauper! I gave a pretty decent list of what you can focus on getting first for your first deck! For veteran players, what else would you suggest as cards aside from up here? Have any disagreements? Make it known! Discussions about MtG cards are always a good thing!!!
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