A Comprehensive Guide to Pauper Playables: 2025 Update

Posted on December 24, 2025

I'm back once again to revisit my Comprehensive Guide to Pauper Playables series! For years, I'd see people continuously ask for lists of format staples across the internet. This can serve players in multiple ways. Maybe they can seek out some fresh tech for a deck they hadn't considered previously but without sifting through seas of chaff along the way. Or perhaps they want to brew something new entirely but don't know where to start.

This list was born out of that need to provide an evergreen resource for players of all skill levels to easily access. The original article series happened in 2020 with me returning for a long overdue update in 2023. I've since revamped how I make these pieces and so I continue to do so every year since! This provides a visual look at the new cards being added to the list and then provides an updated text list later on for players to look through as well as copy/paste elsewhere for personal use.

If you'd like to read the previous articles in this series, you can find them here:

2020 Part 1: White and Blue

2020 Part 2: Black and Red

2020 Part 3: Green and Multicolored

2020 Part 4: Colorless, Lands, and a small list of cards not on Magic Online at time of writing

2020 Part 5: Complete Text List

2023 Update

2024 Update

This time I'm mainly only adding in the last year's worth of releases. You may notice that this year's list looks a bit smaller than the last few. This is for a couple reasons.

The 2023 update list came after a few years without an update, so there was a little more to work with. Additionally last year had one extra release (depending on how you look at it) and one of those was Modern Horizons 3. Since Modern Horizons releases tend to offer a disproportionately high number of playables, that means those years naturally tend to have a lot more playables. With nothing of that caliber this year, it shouldn't be super surprising that there are fewer playables from this year.

Now let's look at the criteria for how I'm pulling these cards. Once again, this will look very familiar if you read the last few versions of this, as it's working off the same general template.

This year I've pulled from Innistrad Remastered and Aetherdrift onwards.

I've also gone through and cross-checked every major archetype with my prior lists to add in older cards that weren't previously included. I've also checked discussion from prior pieces to see if anything was noted as being missed.

The most recent sets may not be fully represented just yet, with it being unclear the level of impact cards from Avatar: the Last Airbender will have long-term. This is especially true with this set due to the possibility of the learn mechanic returning in Secrets of Strixhaven in 2026.

Finally, this is a list aimed at 60-card Constructed Pauper. I'm not taking into account the likes of Pauper Commander, Pauper Cube, and Arena Pauper for the sake of this list, though there's likely a good amount of crossover.

Additionally, here's some of the criteria I'm looking for when it comes to pulling these cards. This helps to provide a list with the most relevant options for competitive play:

Has shown up in a proven, tier deck.

Is a popular favorite among lower tier decks.

May have fallen out of favor but was still good at one point making it worth mentioning.
- I do want to note that enough time has passed that some options may not be as good as they once were. I was not able to revisit the text list to remove stuff, but plan to do so for the 2026 update.

Is a newer card from the last few releases that may not have had its time to shine.

Is a card that is close to breaking out, but hasn't found a home yet.

Banned cards are excluded. Cards that were included on previous lists will be removed if they've been banned since the release of that article.

Now, before I get into the list, I'd like to call out a few notables.

First of all: banned cards get removed from the lists when they're banned. As such, welcome back to Prophetic Prism! The card was removed for the 2023 update following the 2022 ban. I'll also give a shoutout to High Tide for its unban stint, however it won't be on this list because it's rebanned and, as Gavin Verhey noted in a previous update, it's likely gone for good.

I also added a single card to the "not available on MTGO" list. While this has remained pretty static, Rust turned out to be a more relevant card than most would've figured several years back thanks to its utility in Spy Combo decks.

A good example of cards that may have potential but haven't proven themselves would be something like the dual lands from Avatar: the Last Airbender. This is basically a re-do - and finishing - of the Streets of New Capenna dual land cycle. As some of those do have a history of seeing play in the past, it stands to reason that these cards might see play as well should the opportunity arise to do so. The same is true for the Marvel's Spider-Man duals which mirror the ones from Strixhaven: School of Mages with surveil instead of scry.

Similarly, while I'm not including them in the actual list proper, I do want to give a small shout-out to the towns in Final Fantasy. At this time, these lands are worse than most duals the format has to offer. However, if towns become a thing in other sets down the line the way gates have, those absolutely have the chance to increase their utility later on. Only one is worth using at this time, and only because it has a comparable non-town option that already saw plenty of play. If we eventually see a fully-realized town support package in a set, then I'll add them to a future list.

With all of that out of the way, here's this year's updates! Following the visual of the cards being added, you'll be able to find the full text list at the bottom portion of the article. I hope you find it a great help with your Pauper gameplay!

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Gold

Colorless/Artifacts

Lands

Cards Not on Magic Online

Full Text List

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