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I'm back once again to talk all about some more Pauper cards that could really stand to see some more reprints! Pauper is a super rich and deep format that goes all the way back to Alpha. As an Eternal format, though, many cards can be fairly inaccessible due to age and a lack of reprints. As such, I want to take a look at several cards that could really use a strong reprint!
I've already written two other articles on this topic, which you can check out here:
In those articles I leaned into cards that were either expensive or desperately needed a serious reprint for the livelihood of tournament play. This time I'm looking at something a bit different: roleplayers and accessibility reprints. Most of the cards on this list are cheap and maybe a bit narrow in use, which make them easy to afford.
Despite this, they might have accessibility issues, such as being so old and having so few printings that stores simply don't have enough copies to go around. Sure, you can go around online and find them, but good luck finding them at your local stores. Even looking around right here on CoolStuffInc at the time of writing, several are out of stock or barely have any copies available. Good luck seeing regular restocks of those cards!
As such, I'm looking once again at sets that predate Eighth Edition and examining what cards could really use a meaningful reprint. 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. A card reprinted in Modern Masters 2013 or similar may not be quite as available as it was then, after all.
Without that, let's jump in and look at a bunch of classic roleplayers of the Pauper format!
Honorable Mention: Sigil of Sleep
Generally speaking, Sigil of Sleep isn't a card that shows up very much in Pauper. In fact, I could only find a small handful of lists where it appeared. Despite this, for those rare times it does show up, it could really stand to get some more copies into the wild. Thanks to some real power in Commander - especially with the recent printing of Vivi Ornitier - copies of the card are quite pricey and difficult to come by. In fact, it's probably the most expensive card on this list by a lot, but it's so niche that I'm ultimately relegating it to the honorable mention. Still, more copies would be fantastic.
10. Sunken City/Curfew
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I couldn't decide with this slot so I'm pulling a bit of double duty here. Both of these are old sideboard cards that have a history of showing up in Blue decks from time to time. Sunken City is great at buffing your board as a Faeries player. Similarly, Curfew provides Faeries decks with a solid way to interact with Bogles decks while bouncing back utility creatures like Spellstutter Sprite.
Both have very low numbers out there in the wild, though both had two printings - albeit one larger printing and one smaller. Neither is a serious card the format desperately needs, but they can be important enough in the right points in time that reprints would go a long way for the purpose of accessibility.
9. Serene Heart (and Patrician's Scorn)
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Let's kick off this list properly with a real sideboard roleplayer: Serene Heart. Players use this card in metas where Bogles is really popular so they can strike against it heavily. There's two reasons why this one should get a reprint. First, it's only ever been printed in Mirage, meaning it wasn't printed in strong quantities by today's standards. Additionally, the text as printed on the card makes it difficult to parse, so an updated version with Oracle text would go an extremely long way.
Also, it's cheating a little since it's technically a different era of releases, but I'm mentioning Patrician's Scorn for similar reasons. They effectively do similar things and both could stand to use reprints due to low available quantities.
8. Envelop
Over the past year or so, Envelop has become a popular sideboard card for a variety of Blue decks. There's just one thing: it's only ever been printed once in Judgment. With how much play it's been seeing lately, it could really stand to get more copies out into the wild. It's also probably one of the easier cards on this list to reprint given how simple of a counterspell it is, even if it is a little narrow.
7. Tinder Wall
I've put Tinder Wall a bit lower on this list because unlike most of the cards on this list, this one has seen a fairly recent reprint in Mystery Booster 2. Because of the way those cards are distributed, though, it's still not really major enough to get plenty of copies into players' hands. That's especially important because the card has seen play in various Storm (or Storm-like) combo decks, Spy Walls, and occasionally classic Walls Combo decks. With such a presence in the meta, getting more copies out there goes quite a long way.
6. Deftblade Elite
Now here's where we start getting into some weirder stuff. Deftblade Elite uses an interesting mechanic only ever used in one set: Legions. As such, it's hard to find a good home to stick a reprint for this, but that one release - as well as a printing on The List - has been all we've gotten of the card. Given how players enjoy playing Heroic decks, regardless of if they're good or not, getting more copies can make the deck more accessible than it already is.
5. Goblin Caves
During the era of Kuldotha Rebirth and Kuldotha Red, Goblin Caves became a minor sideboard player for a bit to help the deck be more resilient against board wipes. Now the deck has been banned, but goblin-heavy decks still exist in the format. While this is certainly a bit more of a niche card than most cards on this list, the fact remains that it was printed in only one set: The Dark. That makes it extremely inaccessible to many, meaning a reprint could help tremendously on the accessibility front.
4. Mask of Law and Grace
With the intense rise in Red Aggro and Black Midrange decks over the past few years, decks like Bogles and Heroic have taken to utilizing this strange little aura. Only ever printed once in Urza's Destiny, it's another card that once again has interesting Commander applications that make it all the more scarce for Pauper players. Getting more copies into the ecosystem would go a long way to helping everyone, and not just the ones slinging commons competitively.
3. Raze
You know what Red decks like to do from time to time? Blow up lands. There's no shortage of ways to do this with cards like Molten Rain and the ever classic Stone Rain existing in the format, but they can be a bit costly at 3 mana. Enter Raze, a card that lets you destroy lands with pinpoint accuracy at the cost of one of your own lands. Since Red Aggro decks tend to have a surplus of lands, this isn't an issue, but what is an issue is the fact that the card has only ever been printed once in Urza's Saga. Given the age and the high numbers this card shows up in, giving it a proper reprint in the right setting can be huge.
2. Spinning Darkness
For quite some time, Spinning Darkness was notoriously bugged on Magic Online, causing all kinds of issues. This led to no one playing it for a long time and kept it pretty easy to acquire despite its age. Since then, the bugs have been fixed and the card now shows up a modest amount in a number of decks. Because of the issues with "graveyard order matters," though, the card has never once seen a reprint with copies only existing from Weatherlight. While it remains a difficult card to reprint, getting more copies into players hands would be tremendous.
1. Holy Light
Unlike Goblin Caves - a super narrow card - Holy Light sees play in the sideboards of a decent number of decks. All of them rely heavily on White creatures, which makes it especially good in a deck like White Weenies, which has proven to be a consistent fan favorite in the format. Like Goblin Caves, Holy Light was printed in one set: The Dark. However, this card is typically played using multiple copies, making it far more in need of a reprint. It might be an affordable card, but that matters little if you can't even find copies. Give it the reprint it deserves and put more copies in the hands of players everywhere!
Paige Smith
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