Brief Explanation

Longer Explanation

Pauper Magic is a format with a simple elegance. In an attempt to make deck making decisions interesting, only commons are allowed. All other rules are still followed – 60 card minimum deck size, no more than four of each card other than basic land, etc.

A question that always gets asked is about cards that were both common and another commonality, like Rukh Egg. Could you play a rare Rukh Egg from your collection? Yes. As long as the card was printed as a common in a real life set, then it can be played in Pauper.

We also have some issues with commonality. You'd think that "use only cards that have been common" would be simple, but it's not. A lot of card databases, including Wizards' own Gatherer, have the improper rarity listed for cards. For example, Maze of Ith was printed as a common, but with a low number in the common slots. It is listed as an uncommon in Gatherer. It was not, it was in a common slot. Another example is Mishra's Factory. In real life, three of the pictures were printed as uncommon and one, the spring picture, was printed as a common. Yet, Gatherer lists them as rare and uncommon respectively. Can you play these commons? It's an excellent question your group will need to address. I'd recommend agreeing to some standard. You could use actual printings, Gatherer despite its errors, an online database, or whatever. As long as you have a standard, you'll be fine.

While the deck building rule may seem simple, the result is a much different format. Gone are cards that draw you a massive amount of cards, destroy a lot of things at once, and more. Gone are the heavy hitters, tricky cards, and anything with a silver, gold, or red symbol simply doesn't exist.

Do you like mass creature removal? Gone. There's no Wrath of God or Damnation to keep a creature swarm in check. There's not even Pyroclasm or Infest. Do you like mass card drawing? Gone. From Fact or Fiction to Stroke of Genius, there's not a lot here. Do you like reanimation? Gone. Say goodbye to Animate Dead, Dread Return, and Reanimate. Do you like planeswalkers? They are gone.

That doesn't mean everything is gone. There's enough countermagic to Stitch Together a deck, but you won't have cards like Mind Control or more complex counters like Forbid. Card drawing still has a few entries like Deep Analysis and Compulsive Research.

A major hit is the loss of special lands. With the exception of cards like Rakdos Carnarium, there just aren't that many common lands that will help out your mana. Terramorphic Expanse, the Panoramas, Evolving Wilds, and perhaps Rupture Spire are the extent of useful cards for ensuring you have the right colors to play things. Thus, outside of a two color deck, there really isn't going to be much more you can do with color combinations. A Green/Blue deck can play the Expanse and Wilds as search lands for either a Forest or an Island. Then it can run Simic Growth Chamber. That's not a large amount of mana helping.

Some of the better cards in Magic are common. Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Lightning Bolt, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Counterspell, Sinkhole, Yavimaya Elder and Dark Ritual. There are definitely different ways you can go with a deck.

It's important to understand right from the bat that this is a format that favors the red zone. It wants you to turn creatures sideways and swing. Consider what strategies that don't lose much. Burn has a ton of options. Cheap, aggressive creatures are still all over the place. Giant Growth and similar effects are here and there and everywhere.

Enablers for aggro decks are gone. These are the cards that enabled a quick fire aggro salvo to win. They may have helped the creatures survive, help them reload, or push them in power past the Breaking Point. Cards like creature lords that pump a tribe, Skullclamp, and Glorious Anthem are gone. Yet, in a world without Wrath of God and Baneslayer Angel, are these enablers needed as much?

You still have some good, cheap creature pumping like Bonesplitter and Rancor. These cards favor the attacker.

Sure, aggro decks lose banner cards like Savannah Lions, Elite Vanguard, and more. But they still have lots of cards from Jungle Lion to Kird Ape. Which strategy seems like it lost more – control without Persuasion and Wrath of God; or aggro without Isamauru and Grim Lavamancer?

A good control deck is one that doesn't lean on the bad cards still around for its strategy, but admits defeat and moves on. A good example of a rocking good control deck is counter burn. The burn is great, and you can find some good basic counters. The basics are there for your deck to be quite competent.

Another example is Red/Black. You've got burn, Terror and similar cards, cheap discard options like Hymn to Tourach and Duress; there's a strong strategy here. You are missing classics like Blightning and Void, but you'll manage.

Mono Black Control is historically weak against enchantments and artifacts, but there are very few to worry about here. Gone are some of your best cards, but you still have Drain Life, Consume Spirit, Terror, and discard plus creatures like Liliana's Specter and Gravedigger.

There are a few good defensive creatures, such as walls. You've got Steel Wall for every color. You've also got cards from Cemetery Gate to Angelic Wall to Whip Vine. Even Red has stuff like Wall of Diffusion and AEtherflame Wall.

Non-wall control creatures of some value include Dream Fighter, Ophidian, Scroll Thief, Mulldrifter, Ghitu Slinger, Chainflinger, Master Decoy, Stinkweed Imp and Heavy Ballista. There are tons more, but they just don't have the power of traditional control cards like Masticore, Morphling, or even Rainbow Efreet, Bottle Gnomes and Keiga, the Tide Star.

Combos are difficult to find in Pauper. I'm not sure you are going to find any worth playing that can combo kill a player. The cards tend to be simpler. That's not to say you can't do combo, just that's a bit more difficult. I suspect you could build an Empty the Warrens storm and Grapeshot deck to kill very quickly. With cards like Coal Stoker, Wild Cantor, Pyretic Ritual, Manamorphose, Desperate Ritual, Skirk Prospector, Brightstone Ritual, Rite of Flame, and Seething Song, there is a mana base for a quick storm deck.

That's just one idea that floats to my head. I'm sure there are others out there too. Perhaps you can find a way to pump up Spikeshot Goblin to lethal levels with cards like Howl from Beyond. Maybe there is an all common combo with Furious Assault. (I'd look at the Eldrazi spawn cards for help here). Perhaps add Raid Bombardment to the mix.

Red has a ton of land destruction cards, but they have less value in a format so oriented to the first few turns. There's not that many fragile land bases that can be destroyed by taking out a Vivid Grove, which stops the Reflecting Pool from making every color save the {U} that her Island can make. There's aren't a lot of powerful lands beyond mana in the common slots. There's no Kjeldoran Outpost, no Tolarian Academy, no Cabal Coffers and no Karakas. There is Maze of Ith, but that's about it for crazy lands.

There are other forms of tempo, such as Aether Adept and Man-o'-War or things like Rhystic Study.

I think a fast Black tempo deck with Sinkhole, Hymn to Tourach, Dark Ritual, and Duress might have something. However, remember that if you are going up against a fast aggro deck there may not be a lot of time to set up disruption, and Duress might not do much. Great, you pulled out a Bonesplitter while you are taking damage from multiple creatures each turn.

I think a deadly Pauper deck has gotta be Paffinity (Pauper Affinity). You can get the artifact lands, Frogmite, Myr Enforcer, Cranial Plating, Disciple of the Vault, and more.

Now, having said that, Pauper is an official format in Magic Online, and it has its own banned list with one card – Cranial Plating. Perhaps you'll want to follow that list, and perhaps not. The formats are different. For example, real life Pauper has Hyman to Tourach, but it was printed online as an uncommon, and is not available. Similarly, cards were downgraded in rarity from real life to common, such as Phantom Monster. You would lose cards like Rukh Egg, Maze of Ith, and the many commons never even printed online. Since the formats are different, I recommend that you not follow the online banned list. Also, an online group of Pauper players have restricted the artifact lands for general pauper play. That is an online casual group's rules.

Your group can do what you want, but I'm sure you'll find most cards are easily handled by other cards by the common section of your collection. For example, Paffinity is missing some of the engine cards that made the deck go, such as Skullclamp, Arcbound Ravager, and Master of Etherium. With a simple banning of Cranial Plating, all your deck does is play a 2/2 and a 4/4 cheaply. Well, take a look at cards like Pouncing Jaguar and Werebear. Magic also has answers like Flame Slash. A one mana answer to anything of Myr Enforcer size or less. There are other answers you'll find out there. Meanwhile, how many cards can a dedicated deck like Paffinity spend on stopping you?

Pauper is fun! Everybody has tons of extra commons laying around, and building a deck out of one is easy enough. You might as well do something with them, right?