An Introduction to
the Pauper Format
I first started playing pauper in late 2008, while trying to
grind on MTGO with Nathan Ward to get tix. I remember the entry to most formats
seeming rather unreasonable to me at the time (and why wouldn't it, when
thoughtseize was 3 to 6 times the normal IRL price, and Pernicious Deed was 80
tix). If you don’t know, event tickets (commonly referred to as TIX) are the
common form of currency in the MTGO economy. MTGO Pauper decks in the open
pauper format (also known as pauper classic or pauper vintage ) typically can
run much closer to a tier two standard deck somewhere in the 60-80 tix price
range. Paper pauper vintage on the other hand isn't as back breaking or hard on
the bank with the most expensive commons being things like lotus petal and
cloudpost, you can probably build every tier 1 deck in the format for under
60-80 dollars depending on prices and how much stuff you can just auto find in
the nickel and dime bins. But, variance is important! And, that’s why the pauper online community
PDCmagic.com hosts several different types of events; Classic (Vintage),
Modern, Block, and Standard. As well as variant formats such as pauper sealed,
pauper cube, pauper commander, Two-headed Giant Pauper Sealed, and pauper
draft. Coming of the hot win streak in the pauper standard in Oakland, I wanted
to give you some more insight about the wonderful world of pauper standard and
the rewards playing gives you!
Pauper in general is a format of basic valuation, strong
technical play, and critical decision-making. If you’re not sure about this,
just remember, that most of the cards you play in a draft match, on average,
happen to be COMMONS! Determining the most synergistic and efficient commons to
play together almost makes pauper seem closer to a sealed deck challenge, but
the other problem is, that most of the cards you play, are awful, counter
spells aren't as cool, oh, yeah, and there aren't any board sweepers. Not that
that should deter you, but it certainly is a talking point for why pauper is
such a difficult format to play very well over the course of several matches in
a tournament setting. Card evaluation is very important, and sideboard cards
certainly look much different than in a normal constructed deck. A side boarded
beckon apparition can literally be game winning if it hits an archaeomancer target
or an EOT think twice. So what makes pauper in general special?
1. The value of pre-existing card selection and ease of
acquisition
Players who love playing Standard and Draft get to see more
value out of the cards they draft or pick up from limited pools, or even need
for standard decks by getting to turn these commons into the vital staples of
the pauper standard format. Building your first pauper standard deck isn’t too
hard either, you probably already have most of the format sitting in your
commons junk pile
2. Playtesting is fun
Because of 1, 2 is fairly obvious, you can play the deck in
real time against a host of other decks at a practice tournament or with your
friends and really get a feel for how you like the deck. Most of the time we
proxy what we don’t have or a list we are considering, but there is always a
gratifying feeling of being able to immediately reach to the collection swap
out a card or build a deck on the spot and test a different match up. And, no
cards need to get proxied on along the way.
3. Metagaming card choices are tricky and can either prove
disastrous or genius, miser cards are also fun and provide variety to linear
strategies.
Most of the time when you meta a tournament you play either
Deck ABC or Deck XYZ, you still get to do the same thing here, and tune your
sideboard appropriately, but decks are often based around a small selection of
cards, lists aren't typically “tight” they are “tight” in so far as to what you
the player like to see in your list. In reality its more similar to playing a
draft match where you recognize your round one opponent might have artifacts
and enchantment removal for your dudes so you play that miser naturalize in
your main deck (why not right?). The
same choice is available of common creatures, removal, counterspells, etc. the
determination really lies on whether you think a techy one of can win you the
game or if you feel you’ll need more copies of card A as opposed to card B.
Still sounds like regular magic? I can buy that, but just wait until you've
gravepurged 7 dudes back on top of your library (that often can insta-win you
the game by the way).
4. It’s as competitive as you want it to be
Pauper is a format that can be as competitive as you want it
to be. There is a pauper world championships held every year, MTGO runs 2-man,
8-man queues, daily, and primer events for pauper, and the number of unofficial
pauper MTGO tournaments in the casual room seem to be growing with prize payout
up to 7tix for winning the monthly MTGO-Traders sponsored PDC-League
tournaments. You can also just come play pauper matches for fun as you like.
5. Pauper offers a wonderful way to introduce the world of
constructed magic to newer players.
I've actually been thinking about this for years ever since
I started playing pauper myself. The issue is, unless you have a community you
already know, or can spend quite a bit of money, it’s hard to really dive into
magic and see if the different types of formats catch your fancy. Drafts run
anywhere from 10-14 dollars, depending on the shop you frequent, and most
constructed decks in standard can carry a hefty price tag, modern is starting
to look like legacy, legacy approaching 2 to 3 times legacy from 9 years ago,
and vintage… well, lets not talk about vintage. Building on a budget can be
hard, especially if you aren't a well-seasoned magic veteran with an eye and
knack for that kind of thing. But, in pauper standard, modern, vintage, most
anyone can build any deck they like. Since most players have collections
consisting of cards from the standard sets they can very easily jump into the
standard pauper scene with their homebrews, and net-decks alike very quickly
and get a taste of some spell slinging action before jumping headfirst into the
more common constructed formats. When I first came back to magic, someone
suggested I play Legacy, to which I was later told by friends, that you play
legacy after you've been playing magic for a long time and want to just enjoy
variant formats, however, after you’ve been playing magic for 20 years and have
hella money, you still might not want to play vintage. Pauper attracts players of all kinds and
skill levels and has something to offer everyone, especially the beginner who
can use it to quickly become accustomed to the grind of tournament play, the
art of deck construction, and the general theory of magic. For the seasoned
veteran it provides a different perspective on constructed formats,
re-solidifies core values of card quality and selection, and provides a
differing challenge in shoring up ones technical and correctness of plays. I
make the analogy here to playing with a wooden tennis racket in the age of high
tech carbon fiber tennis rackets. Anyone can start learning on a wooden racket,
but to master a wooden racket is to learn the game twice, and challenge
your-self to playing at a high level even with subpar tools.
Let us know what you think in the comments below or on the MTGNorCal, or War Torn Front Facebook pages.
Thor's second article and my biweekly article are scheduled for later this week, so keep an eye out. Till then loyal readers.
