What Is Pauper in MTG? The Commons-Only Format Explained

Pauper is a Magic: The Gathering format where every card in a deck must have been released at common rarity. Decks follow the usual constructed rules: at least 60 cards, up to a 15-card sideboard and no more than four copies of a card. Pauper has its own banned list, kept by Wizards of the Coast.

How Pauper deck rules work

Pauper deck rules match most constructed formats, with one extra filter on rarity. Wizards’ Pauper page lists them:

The 60-card minimum and four-copy limit are familiar from other constructed formats. The difference is the card pool: Pauper draws on commons from the whole history of the game. The rest of the format list is in Magic formats explained.

How a card’s rarity counts in Pauper

A card’s rarity counts in Pauper if any common version of it exists. Wizards’ rule is that if a common version of a card was ever released in a Magic paper product or on Magic: The Gathering Online, any version of that card is legal. A card first printed as an uncommon and later reprinted at common is therefore legal, and so is a foil or alternate-art copy of it.

Two more points from the same page:

• Promo cards. A common promo card is legal only if the card itself meets the common-release rule.
• Lands. Land cards count when printed with both a common set symbol and the L rarity code.

The Pauper banned list

The Pauper banned list names cards that cannot be played in Pauper even though they meet the common rule. Being a common does not make a card legal on its own: a card on the list cannot be played, whatever its rarity.

Wizards keeps the list on its Banned and Restricted page, next to the lists for the other formats, and it changes over time. Check it before you build or bring a deck to an event.

Cheap ways to start a Pauper deck from sealed packs

Starting a Pauper deck from sealed packs works because every booster is mostly commons. Wizards’ breakdown of a Reality Fracture Play Booster shows how many:

• 14 Magic cards per pack
• 5 or 6 commons in the common slots
• 1 slot that is a common in 23% of packs and an uncommon in most others
• 1 traditional foil of any rarity, a common in 49.5% of packs
• 1 land slot that is a common dual land in more than half of packs

A Play Booster box holds 30 packs, which adds up to at least 150 commons from the common slots alone. Those commons can be the core of a Pauper deck, with the set’s archetypes as a starting point.

Drafting first, then building a Pauper deck

Drafting is a way to open packs, play right away and keep the commons for a Pauper deck afterward. A Draft Night box suits a small group: Wizards lists the Reality Fracture version as 12 Play Boosters, one Collector Booster, 90 basic lands, tokens and a draft insert, built for four players.

After the draft, each player keeps the cards they picked. Pool the commons, sort them by color and look for the ones that won games. How a draft runs, from opening packs to building a 40-card deck, is in how to draft Magic.

Pauper compared with Modern and Pioneer

Pauper sits beside Modern and Pioneer as a constructed format with 60-card decks and a banned list. Modern and Pioneer limit which sets a card can come from but allow every rarity; Pauper accepts a card from any Magic set or product, as long as it was released at common in paper or on Magic Online. The two larger formats are compared in Modern vs Pioneer.