The Power of Pauper: Common in the New Year
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of The Power of Pauper! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be taking a look at 2025 and what it could mean for Pauper! In addition to that we only had two Challenge events last weekend to look at for the last bit of 2024.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Year Ahead of 2025 - Commons, Commons, Commons!
2024 is all wrapped up, and it was definitely a big year for Pauper. Much of that was because of Modern Horizons 3 being released that caused a great amount of upheaval in the format. But it's a new year and we've got a lot to look forward to in 2025, so let's take a look at some things to come in 2025 and what we can predict for Pauper.
First Half of 2025 - Innistrad Remastered and More
The first half of 2025 hits right off with a bang with the release of Innistrad Remastered at the end of January. These sets are always interesting because reprint sets are opportunities to introduce new cards to Pauper via a downshift printing. In the past, this has either proven to be great (things like Dread Return for example has been positive) or to be too good (Monastery Swiftspear, Peregrine Drake, etc.). Either way, it's worth keeping an eye on this set's spoiler season for that reason. Another great thing about sets like this is the additional frame treatments that get put out, from borderless treatments to the retro frame treatment. It's cool to get more ways to bling out your Pauper deck.
The other sets of the first half of 2025 are all Standard sets: Aetherdrift, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and Final Fantasy. Of these I think the two big ones to watch that could be good for Pauper is Tarkir and Final Fantasy. The original Tarkir block introduced cards like Treasure Cruise (which is now banned) to Pauper so it's very possible a return to the plane could mean some interesting Commons. The other set to watch is the Universes Beyond Final Fantasy set. UB sets in general have always added some interesting cards to Pauper, and primarily the biggest additions for those came through Lord of the Rings in 2023. That being said, this is a Standard legal set, so many of the Commons won't be quite as pushed as a direct to Modern set would be, so it's possible the number of playables from FF are not quite as high as we would think. Personally though, I still expect a bit of a banger from that set to appear.
Second Half of 2025 - More UB, and Edge of Eternities
A good majority of the second half of 2025 is very unknown, but we do know two of the sets. One is Edge of Eternities, another Standard legal Magic IP set. The chances of getting playables in that set are as good as any Standard set really, and since stuff like Bloomburrow and Duskmourn did give us some reasonable cards here or there, there's a good shot there's something.
The other UB set we know about is Spider-Man, the first of the Marvel tie-in's for MTG. Again, UB sets can often have strong cards to push the playability, but it is still a Standard set. I have to expect that we might see something from Spider-Man though. It's SPIDER-MAN!
One thing we don't know yet about 2025 is whether or not there will be any other big reprint sets of the year besides Innistrad Remastered. This is the thing I would keep an eye on. If there's another big set like a Commander Masters in the future this year that they just haven't announced yet, then it's wholly possible that could introduce a bunch of downshifted reprints that are excellent cards.
Either way, 2025 looks very exciting for Pauper, and I hope the format continues to grow throughout the year, because it is a lot of fun!
Pauper Challenge 32 12/27/2024
The first of the two Challenges last week was the Friday event. According to the MTGO website this event had 51 players in it.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Blue Faeries | 1st | BuddyTheFrog |
| Burn | 2nd | SpockVidaLoka |
| Burn | 3rd | MisterTwin |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | Jose Guillermo |
| Burn | 5th | FranBenitez91 |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Burn | 7th | _rash_ |
| Jund Broodscale | 8th | EiJunCHN |
Quite a bit of Burn in this Top 8, with half of the Top 8 just being that deck. At the end of the event though it was Mono Blue Faeries that won.
Brinebarrow Intruder is a slick card honestly, especially when you put it back in your hand with a Ninjutsu ability to replay and get its effect again. Faeries seems like a really fun deck at the moment. Might be one I might have to build for my battle box.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Pretty straightforward list. It's certainly interesting to see cards like Wrenn's Resolve back. but I do think those effects are really strong and can be very good in this deck as they have in the past. Multiple Chain Lightning is gas to see.
Pauper Challenge 32 12/29/2024
The only other Challenge last week was the Sunday event. According to the MTGO website this event had 60 players in it.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Affinity | 1st | PedraStone |
| Jund Broodscale | 2nd | Terminus0 |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | SpockVidaLoka |
| Golgari Broodscale | 4th | Beicodegeia |
| Dimir Control | 5th | Oceansoul92 |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 6th | Brivenix |
| Mono White Aggro | 7th | Bong0411 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | outZEROo |
Lot more varied Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Grixis Affinity that won.
Nice looking list. I love Toxin Analysis personally as a Pauper card. It's such a sweet and unique effect, especially if you can nail it to something like Krark-Clan Shaman. Wiping the board for one activation and all that lifelink is so good.
In Second Place we had Jund Broodscale.
I think what really keeps Broodscale from being so incredibly dominant in Pauper at the moment is the fact that there's so many micro-variations of the deck and not really one agreed upon "this is the deck", and I like seeing that out of these kinds of decks. All the little variations play out very differently too, as this version also gets to cram in the Cleansing Wildfire + Bridge lands package as well as its normal core.
Around the Web
- Kalikaiz has a video on Pauper Ruby Storm. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda has a video on 8Rat! Check it out here.
- TeasdaleMTG has a video on Mono Green Pili Pala. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
As League results are now spread out across the week, let's dig in and find something spicy!
Glintblade is really cool.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Pauper!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGPauper Discord Server.
Until next time!
