Top 10 Strongest Cards in the Pauper Format 

Yup, and we love it

Not just that; many cards on this list have never been reprinted above common. Part of what makes Pauper fun is how design philosophy in what makes a common has shifted over mtg history. The best way I've heard it described is "Pauper is using Vintage answers on Draft threats." You get to use some of the most powerful spells of all time, just because they happened to be common back before wotc decided they were too good for common.

Rarity isn't supposed to determine how good a card is. It's supposed to determine how many copies you can find in a limited pool. There are many cards like the rituals that are absolutely busted in constructed, but aren't that busted in their limited environments, so those are fine at common. At least this is what it was supposed to be until it turned into exactly what you said when wizards realized a few years ago that they can essentially print money for themselves if they make all of the best cards on Arena rares and mythics for no reason. That's why so many good cards that never had any reason to be rare before have been upshifted to rare or mythic on Arena. That's not why the system was started, though.

Commons are supposed to be playable though, they are not really anomalies

@@XCodes @Joseph Blattert Ideally (or according to WotC card R&D for a long time now), rare cards shouldn't be more powerful than uncommons and commons. Certainly, there are trash rares and powerful commons. But, in general and in practice, I just can't agree with that. Rarity does correlate _in general_ with a card's power level. After all, if it didn't, then Pauper should not have a lower power level and slower pace as a format than others, such as Pioneer, Modern, Commander, etc. This is besides that Pauper is Eternal and not Singleton and thus has, in its own way, less restrictions than those formats. And it's not just now, in this weird "Turn on the money printer!" age driven by Hasbro. As an old school player, we chased rares back then for their power too. I remember when Mahamoti Djinn and Serra Angel ruled the skies- and those were good, straightforward, efficient spells too, and never printed at Common. Consider the history of Counterspell and Lightning Bolt as well. Yes, they were printed at Common as the simplest, most representative spells of their colors. But Lightning Bolt, after 4th Ed. (1995) was not reprinted in Standard until Core 2010 and 2011 (2009, 2010), and not again since. Counterspell hasn't been reprinted in Standard since 7th Ed. It's pretty telling also that in the new non-Standard supplemental sets, Lightning Bolt sometimes is printed as an Uncommon, and Counterspell can go up to a rare. While WotC won't be banning or restricting either from Pauper any time soon, it's pretty telling that they sometimes consider them as higher rarity than how they were originally. Joseph Blattert- well, Pauper _is_ a constructed format. (P.S. WotC solidly saying Counterspell is too good at UU is a funny thing on its own. But that's a different topic/story for another day. Suffice to say that after they replaced Counterspell with Cancel (1UU), WotC has since been undermining this policy and basically saying that Cancel is too weak at its cost while Counterspell is too strong at its cost.)

big miss

Counterspell is better usually. "No" is more powerful than "Yes" 3:)

I was shocked to not see Ephemerate. 60% of my loses in Pauper are directly due to that card.

Rancor and vines are pretty stronk if were trying to make a case for green haha! Flipping delver on turn 2 definitely puts the pressure on!

You’re really overselling it imo. 4cmc is really high in pauper for a card that doesn’t discount itself and fully relies on your opponent, and it only really works against decks that can’t easily build tall. Terror won’t really mind losing 1 life every swing for example.

Banned cards can't be used so they have no influence. "Strongest in x format" means strongest playable cards for most lists. There's tons of lists made by this page so good chance they'll do "another top 10 pauper" list. Slightly clickbaity title on their end but it's still fun to watch.

yeah. as long as it has at least 1 common printing, its alllowed. however the art he used in the video is more iconic

There are rarity shifts over time. One of the most common being older, expensive staples getting a reprinting with an upshifted rarity. However, there are several times that older cards that have been powercrept do get down shifted in rarity and become legal in pauper.

Imo, the big rarity bump in MTG is the "splashiness" of a card's effects. Because typically, lower rarity cards have more streamlined and simple effects, while higher rarity ones have special and (typically) more powerful effects. It's why Lightning Bolt, one of the most consistently good cards in the game, is almost always common. Can't get more simple than just doing 3 damage to something for 1 mana. Meanwhile rare and mythic cards have more grand effects that are much more in-depth than just "I throw damage at your face". I like this system cause it means all rarity cards are usable in some way, but higher rarity ones tend to get you more bang for your buck. But it keeps lower rarity cards usable as well

Non-YGO player here. Clarifications: 1. What do you mean by "rarity bump"? You mean a card being reprinted at a different rarity than its original or older version? It's been done, both less rare to more rare, and more rare to less rare. 2. Pauper format is simply cards that were ever printed at Common. Ever. (Only exception are those in the restricted and banned lists.) So an Uncommon card that originally was Common can be played. If an Uncommon or rarer card today is reprinted at Common in the future, it becomes legal for Pauper then. So... Yeah, I guess rarity bump doesn't matter for MTG's Pauper format.

Rarity downgrades are not nearly as common in magic, they DO happen usually when modern or commander focused sets come out but in YuGiOh it happens constantly.

@@khryogenic Rarity shift also occurs to improve the draft environment on the set the cards get reprinted.

Kardur Doomscourge, Lagrella the Magpie, Talrand Sky Summoner, Rasaad yn Bashir, Yargle and Multani, Yargle Glutton of Urborg, Bruenor Battlehammer, Sosuke son of seshiro, Killian Ink Duelist, Alena Kessig Trapper, Bladewing the risen, Halana Kessig Ranger, Abomination of Llanowar, Maja bretagard protector, grumgally the generous, Renata called to the hunt, Fynn the fang bearer, Stangg, Danitha capashan paragon, Morite of the frost, mr Orfeo the boulder, rograkh son of rohgahh, Ramirez (either version), umezawa and Araumi of the dead tide

Master Duel had an event where you could only use N/R cards. It resulted in a ton of XYZ decks being used iirc.

@@CaptainJLinebeck Tier 0 Pauper decks? XD

Yeah. Mostly in combo decks.

Yea wow, that's another one that belongs. Kor skyfisher was a big stretch and I sense a little bias for it making it on his list lol.

Yes. It may not be on this list, but it's definitely an honorable mention. While scarcity is a big factor in a card's secondary market price, I've a strong feeling high prices for Commons can be indicative of how powerful they are- and this certainly applies in Pauper. And Lotus Petal is *_NOT_* cheap.

@Javier Patag Lotus petal pretty much sees play in any format it is legal in. It's not just pauper that gives it the $25 price tag

@@khub5660 Yeah, I know. But I'm pretty sure its value in Pauper adds to its price tag.

Oblivion Ring is basically common exile. Ephemerate too I think. But really. Counterspell is basically the best card.

Ephemerate should def be top 5. As for green… maybe Weather the Storm or Mutagenic Growth.

They should be in the honorable mentions at least. It's just that the Pauper card pool is now so big (with Magic being 30 years old!) that there are more viable ways to go for speed or aggro. But the cards you mentioned are used in combo decks.

Think of it this way. Say you have a card with "when this card enters the battlefield" or "this card is casted". You return it to hand with kor. Cast it again. Regain the trigger from it. If multiple kor than multiple set ups for this idea. You do not save mana for future turns unless you have some kind of bank card to do. There's only a few and they aren't across all colors. I think 5 color has 1. Black has 1. And green has like 2. There could be more idk though. If you don't use tapped mana without bank cards between turn phases you just lose it until you can untap those lands. In other words saving mana is only good for responses. Most decks gain nothing saving it for nothing. Might as well set up bounce combos

@@XCodes oh, that's interesting

@@demonkingt Yeah, I was just saying that a creature similar to Kor in LoR exists, and I was surprised Kor is good since the LoR equivalent is worse than most alternatives. I kinda figured mtg would have other similar, better alternatives to Kor when it comes to Bouncing. I guess not

@@byeguyssry formatwise it's probably just the best cost effective version versus what the decks built around it does. Higher cost doesn't mean better card since more resources to play plus they start to splinter into specific types weirdly as you go up in some scenarios. Alot of those don't even have any thing statewise or bonus effect wise to make up for it either so smaller quicker versions to spam out. Yes a bigger body is nice but there's better big bodies to use since as things get bigger more justification needed. Sorry if I'm rambling half awake trying to make sure I was fully informative lol

@@demonkingt Thanks lol

No,only commons. But a card only has to be printed as a common once to be legal in pauper even if the printed version is not common

Rhystic is great in edh; not so much in pauper the format.

@Matthew Utech so after some research I see why, however I've only played pauper/Commander not 1v1. So the value goes up with more opponents

Fiend requires a deck built specifically for it. Swiftspear goes in a lot more decks and is much more widely playable. Keep in mind triggering off of any noncreature is huge.

It's super powerful, both in mono red kuldotha/prowess and in boros/mardu synth, which are at least tier 2 decks

You missed the Legends legendaries that got downshifted to common.

Oubliette infamous? I disagree. Ask any Pauper player about the cards they first think of in the format and Oubliette isn’t gonna come to mind. Way, way, way more cards are more relevant then, now, and overall

Oubliette is famous, but it's not clutch. Of all the cards in Arabian Nights, it's the only card that is hypothetically good in the set as the game is played now without being outright bannable. Juzam Djinn in Old School is kept in check by Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel; you can use Preacher or Control Magic to really punish Djinn exceptionally. It's totally a certain kind of fun to flex $ in any format but Juzam isn't necessary to Old School decks. Bazaar, Library, of course I know they exist but they are totes ban worthy don't pretend not lol. Shahrazad ban worthy. Suleiman not as good as Preacher Ali from Cairo not great anymore. Kird Ape has honestly been power crept where you would use it in places like Modern. ErhnamGeddon is outdated. Oubliette is wierd because it's good for basically conventional, fair reasons in a set that is warped by Old Design Philosophy and Ban Magnets lol. However, although it's probably the best design from AN from that POV, it's not essential for good Pauper decks unless you're going for a nostalgic aesthetic for extra flex. Oubliette is unique and well known. Lightning Bolt and Counterspell are cool for all reasons Oubliette is, but on top, they are good in all the ways Oubliette isn't quite as good. Bolt and Counterspell are therefore by far more iconic. City of Brass got power crept by Cavern of Souls and has felt less special ever since. But Oubliette is honestly playable which is unusual for old cards that are clearly fair and not worth completely banning. Oubliette is worth reprinting yet went many years not reprinted. That's what made it special.

Not nearly as powerful compared to other formats due to no fetchlands

I'd disagree. Giant Growth and Dark Ritual were both good and fair in their time. Those times have just changed now. That said, Ancestral Recall was never at all fair and Healing Salve was never particularly good.

Agreed. Lightning Bolt existed in Standard for ages & was just fine. Hell, even after a decade away from the game, I came back during Scars block, only to find Bolt was still legal in that new format. But shortly after Scars Block (Innistrad I think?), Modern came into existence, and since then Bolt has been treated like it'd be impossible to bring back to Standard.

@@jrunestad4508 IMHO for "balanced versions": Dark Ritual's should also cost 3 life, Healing Salve's should grant both effects instead of choosing one and Ancestral Recall's should return 3 cards from hand to top of the deck after drawing (yes, a -1 Brainstorm).

@@FranciscoJG Eh. I don't know about that. That makes Healing Salve probably playable, but it also no longer really fits in the boon cycle anymore, makes Dark Ritual generally unplayable in the relatively fair agro-ish strategies we mostly used it in the early days and relegates it to basically only being playable in the sort of glass cannon combo decks that broke it and have high potential to become an absolute cancer in a format (like Storm) and makes Ancestral Recall basically unplayable without lots of shuffle effects available, which there really weren't a lot of at the time. Dark Ritual needed no fixing at the time since the fast mana already cost you in card resources and you could run out of steam and quickly fall behind once the initial surge of fury was spent. It was only later mechanics that made it kinda busted instead of just situational and a little risky on getting hit with a potential two for one. Opponent going Swamp, Ritual, Hypnotic Specter, "Go." turn one was definitely a very bad start to a game but certainly not insurmountable or "fix" worthy. Likewise, Brainstorm was also probably a fixed enough Ancestral for the time it was printed. It became more powerful but still mostly fair later after the slow fetch lands came out a year or two later but got way more powerful with the fast fetch lands MANY years later. To be honest, even with the slow fetches, Impulse at twice the CMC often felt like the better 4 of at the time since it dug deeper, didn't rely on other cards to be good and couldn't really screw you like Brainstorm could. I think Ritual and Brainstorm could both potentially be perfectly fair cards in some (but certainly not all or even most) standard environments in the future because in the past they've both been fair before other cards made them unfair.

​@@corey2232We are now in the world of bad answers and good creatures, rather than good answers and bad creatures.

Good luck pushing through Grixis Affinity's card advantage and interaction.