Welcome to the Pauper Union, a site that creates content about Magic the Gathering with a focus on the Pauper and Pauper Commander formats. If you’re interested in registering your chapter in the Union – aka being added to the list – head over to the contact page and shoot us an email.

What is Pauper?

Pauper is a 60-card eternal constructed format in Magic the Gathering that uses cards only printed at common rarity. Reprints of cards can change the format, cards can sometimes be “down-shifted” into the format – meaning if a card is originally printed a un-common or higher and ever gets reprinted at common rarity, any version of that card is now legal. It also means that if a card gets reprinted at a higher rarity, it is still valid.

Because Pauper is restricted to Commons, that means it can be more accessible than other Magic the Gathering formats. It is often less impacted by power creep and chase cards, rewarding creativity in deck brewing and good in-game decision making. The extensive (and growing) card pool allows for wide and varied archetypes to emerge

The player-created format started decades ago, but became a Wizards official format in June of 2019 and getting an official format panel in 2022 to help solidify the format. For more information on the format, you can check the Wizards official page: https://magic.wizards.com/en/formats/pauper

Is Pauper Popular?

Pauper is an ever-growing scene, backed by a passionate global community, thriving on innovation instead of bankroll. Some of Magic the Gathering’s most popular creators such as Tolarian Community College drawing attention to and champion for format by making videos explaining and featuring gameplay.

Not only that, but the formats largest organized tournament Paupergeddon is growing year over year, and in 2025 the summer event saw 1100+ players, including Magic the Gathering’s own Gavin Verhey. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLtEDc2NqR1

Are there other variations of Pauper?

Yes! There is also Pauper Commander, playing off arguably the most popular format of Magic that currently exists. The most common (see what we did there?) version of this uses any uncommon creature as your commander – it does not need to be legendary.

We have also heard of other formats that still use the regular rules for picking your Commander, but the rest of the 99 must only consist of common cards.

Why does Pauper Union exist?

It’s true that with more prominent people in the Magic the Gathering scene speaking up about the format, we are a small voice – but we are passionate. After returning to Magic after a long hiatus, we found that trying to keep up with Standard or the new-to-us Commander formats were quickly out of our price range, but Pauper on the other-hand, would allow us to reminisce about our earliest days of playing magic.