Pauper is an awesome format that's famous for its accessibility. After all, it's a format made up entirely of commons, so that's not only going to make it easy to put together and play... right?

Despite Pauper's reputation for being quite budget friendly - to the point that I own over a dozen paper decks myself - there are still quite a number of cards that could really use reprints. Many of these cards are ones that had only a single printing long ago, haven't had a printing in years, or are just inaccessible for some other reason. This creates a bit of a barrier for players looking to get into the format.

Given this, I'm going to be writing a small series of articles that will be released over time that will be taking a look at several cards that need reprints. These could be to make the cards more affordable or even just to make them more accessible. After all, there are cards that are cheap, but might've only had one real printing around 25-30 years ago that makes them difficult to come across.

Today, I'm going to be focusing in on ten cards that need reprints from early Magic. In this case, I'm talking about sets released prior to Eighth Edition. Many of these releases had significantly lower print runs compared to today's standards so card availability may be low. As such I'm going to be focusing on the cards that lack real meaningful reprints.

For this criteria, the following do not qualify as what I would consider "meaningful reprints:"

• Commander decks (unless printed in several)
• Secret Lairs
• Mystery Boosters
• The List
• Special Guests
• Select bonus sheets (Final Fantasy, Marvel)
• Jumpstart
• Promos

What I do count as meaningful reprints are when cards show up in Standard releases, a bonus sheet card in each of those packs, or a special ancillary release like Battlebond or a Masters set. Generally, I'm looking for ones that had reprints within the last decade - preferably closer to current times. After all, a reprint card from, say, Modern Masters 2013 may not be as accessible by today's standards.

With that, let's get into talking about some sweet Pauper cards!

Honorable Mention: Obsidian Acolyte and Crimson Acolyte

With every one of these articles, I'm planning on including generally one or two honorable mentions. These are generally cards that somewhat fit the role of what I'm seeking to hit with these lists, but maybe don't quite make the mark.

That's what makes the wombo combo of Obsidian Acolyte and Crimson Acolyte excellent choices. No one would argue these Invasion classics could stand for more printings. After all, they're used in multiple decks and haven't seen a single reprint since their original release 25 years ago. However, they're usually just sideboard cards that only show up in a handful of decks. More would be fantastic, and would make copies easier to get for people looking to get into the format with something simpler like White Weenies or Slivers.

10. Moment's Peace

Moment's Peace is perhaps the best Fog spell in Pauper. It's been a staple of Flicker Tron decks since pretty much the early days of the format and is also played, naturally, in Turbo Fog lists as well. There's a real strength in getting to not only Fog once, but twice off of a single card, which allows you to slow games to a crawl and stall your opponents out. However, it's only seen a couple of extremely minor reprints thanks to Secret Lair and a funny inclusion in Mystery Booster 2. None of these are that substantial, though, which makes it excellent reprint fodder.

9. Land Grant

Ah Land Grant, my old nemesis. As a well-known Pauper Elves pilot, I get asked all the time about this card, to which I repeatedly find myself telling them to not play with it. After all, it's not great to tell your opponents exactly what you're going to do.

Despite my distaste for the card in this sense, it's been a mainstay of combo strategies since back in the Grapeshot Storm days. Now it's being used in modern day Balustrade Spy combo decks. With only one real printing in Mercadian Masques and a single reprint in Mystery Booster 2, it's a card that really needs more in the wild to play with.

8. Tangle

Moment's Peace may be the better Fog spell for the context of Pauper, but it was originally printed at common. That means there's at least a decent amount in the wild. Comparatively, Tangle was originally printed as an uncommon and was only downshifted due to a printing in the Magic Online exclusive set Vintage Masters.

Because of this - as well as the card's utility in Commander - it's become fairly pricey. A reprint in Mystery Booster 2 and the Spider-Man Source Material bonus sheet are helping, but they only go so far in getting more copies in players' hands.

7. Cabal Ritual

Cabal Ritual is another multi-format all-star. Not only does it see play in Pauper, but it's also a mainstay of Commander, Cube, and even Legacy. Because of this, coupled with it only receiving a handful of printings, it's an extremely expensive card. Even the cheapest copies still sit around the $15 mark! While it's not the most urgent card for Pauper, as it's only really used in Cycle Storm lists, it's still expensive enough of a card that sees play that it could seriously use a real reprint.

6. Ancestral Mask

Bogles has been an absolute mainstay of the Pauper format for as long as I can remember. The deck's namesake hexproof creatures and the majority of its core aura package have been legal for well over a decade now. Despite the consistent play of the deck, one of the deck's most critical cards - Ancestral Mask - can still be pretty hard to come by

Unlike many cards on this list, this one has had some decent reprints like in Eternal Masters as well as some smaller supplemental releases. The problem here is that Eternal Masters was nearly a decade ago now, and this card absolutely could use another major reprint by now. Give it a good home in a set somewhere and give Bogles players everywhere a reason to rejoice.

5. Thermokarst (and Icequake)

One of the more interesting decks to emerge over the past few years has been the various Gruul Ramp decks. Thanks to innovations like Boarding Party, Annoyed Altisaur (no longer played much), Jewel Thief, Writhing Chrysalis, and more, this deck has become a fan favorite. It's hindered, though, by the lack of printings of some of the cards in the Ponza variants of the deck. Thermokarst (and its similar cousin Icequake) hails from Ice Age and hasn't seen a single reprint, which is definitely very needed given how low accessibility is going to be for cards that old - especially since this was first printed at uncommon, not common!

4. Merchant Scroll

Merchant Scroll is a great example of something like Mystery Booster 2 being a huge boon for card accessibility, but not being quite enough. This card hadn't seen a single non-promo reprint since Eighth Edition and it desperately needed one thanks to the rising popularity of Commander. Who could've seen, though, that High Tide would be unbanned and the need for more copies would instantly jump through the roof?! Even with Tide's ultimate fate still being up in the air, it's safe to say that more copies would benefit the entire Magic ecosystem - not just Pauper.

3. Prismatic Strands

This is the third and final Fog effect on this list, but it's easily the most played one by a significant amount. While Moment's Peace is perhaps the best of them, Prismatic Strands is much more widely played. Any deck that runs White creatures is practically obligated to run it, making it in high demand with extremely short supply. More copies would go a very long way - particularly for those who likely need multiple playsets for their decks.

2. Mental Note

Hailing from the same set as Prismatic Strands - Judgement - Mental Note is much more narrow. As it happens, though, the archetype it's used in is one of the most powerful in the format right now. Tolarian Terror decks of all shapes and sizes rely on the cantrip to fill their graveyards and make it easy to cast your big threats. Even with a printing in Mystery Booster 2 and the upcoming Dandan Secret Lair, this could really stand to have a much bigger reprint the way Thought Scour has received them.

1. Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust has remained consistently one of the most asked for reprints of all time, at least in regards to Pauper. This card has only ever had two printings: one in The Dark and one in Fifth Edition. That's nothing and has made the card inaccessible to many. It's even worse than you might think given that The Dark was only printed in English and Italian, meaning many Pauper-playing locales only got access to one real printing at best.

The card is an easy four of in many sideboards, which has both brought the card's price sky high and made it very difficult to obtain. It's been repeatedly requested to the point that Wizards employees have stated publicly that they're trying to find a home for it so it can get a proper printing. Until then, all we can do is hope that it'll come sooner than later, because it's easily the number one reprint we need right now in Pauper.

Paige Smith

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