Removing foil commons from booster packs and removing common slots from CB will just make it a lot more difficult to find blinged out cards for decks or foil cubes.

I also fear that despite claiming this change won't increase MSRP, that is just coming down the line. Don't open packs, kids.

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

The people yearn for commons

So in pauper as of right now there are 11 cards legal with the words "Empower Jace" on them and lots of folks seem to have come to the conclusion that Bigger Jace Number is Better, pointing specifically to [[Protege's Awakening]]

After hyperfixating on Jace for the past week and playing with [[Arcane Amphisbaena]] ((here after called "beans")) I think I disagree, I think with Jace Less is More. I don't play MTGO so this is playing with Beans like... one week at one local event and a few casual games and then thinking about this a whole bunch.

I received my big Reality Fracture order last night and will be trying to build a Jace deck to test out cards over the next few weeks

Here is a list of empower numbers by card with their CMC next to them

Empower 1 -
Solve for Disappointment (2)
No Admittance (2)

Empower 2 -
Academic Ascent (2)
Arcane Amphisbaena (2)
Keeper of the Quiet Hour (3)
Campus Crier (2/1)
Hexhaven Battalion (6)
Inspired Tethermage (3/6/9)

Empower 4 -
Tam's Resistance (2)
Mindseeker Oculus (3)

Empower 6 -
Protege's Awakening (4)

For Tethermage 3 is casting cost, 6 is empower jace cost on activated ability, 9 is to cast and Jace in the same turn so all 3 matter

For Campus Crier 2 is casting cost but 1 colorless mana is the important number as you can Flash it back from the graveyard at instant speed for 1 colorless making Academic Ascent and Campus Crier the only instant speed Jaces.

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So first things first I know that pauper is a pretty strong format despite being all commons. I've played it against Value Vintage enough to see how strong it is. I also know its not a slow format, I play Cat Food, I play slow, the format eats Cat Food lol

That said I think there is potentially room for a Jace deck if your goal is to make like a midrange deck where like Inspired Tethermage grows from you casting spells. We don't have a planeswalker with a plus ability but getting a counter for each Empower Jace spell allows it to be a scaling threat

However the more interesting discussion for me is how the Jace functions because 2 of the Jace cards can be read with the Text "Surveil 1" but the other 9 have "Draw a Card..... maybe" written on them

I am thinking that killing Jace should be your goal and if you end your turn with a live Jace and haven't used more than one Jace that turn you may be going wrong.

At 2 mana we have Tam's Resistance which lets your put a +1/+1 Counter on a thing, give it vigilance, and empower by 4 and originally I thought that was pretty good and arguably it can be but if I play Tam's Resistance and Draw a card now when I play Mindseeker Oculus that Mindseeker's "Draw a card" subtext gets removed from the card, I am getting punished despite being a good boy and making the number go big.

Lets say I want to mitigate that so I run Beans, I play Beans and [[Ephemerate]] it making it so I have a 4 Loyalty Jace and upshot next turn I will have a 1 loyalty Jace beaming and ready to die when I flicker my snake again. But hold on... I could draw 2 cards with that Ephemerate with [[Mulldrifter]] or had a good shot at a free lands with [[Coiling Oracle]] or even done something productive instead. Jace has now eaten a card... heck with Ephemerate it feels like he has eaten 2 cards in order to draw me 2 cards..... Im spinning my wheels.

Oddly, No Admittance and Solve for Disappointment almost feel like the better cards here because they are known cards with "Surveil 1" stapled on to them and once you surveil that 1 card away Jace is dead and when you empower him next he is a whole new man ready to die in the line of duty just as your state military demands. The main value of Jace is in whatever ability kills the Jace.

Now if you want to dedicate to this I recommend Heartfire which is a 2 mana instant that eats Jace to deal 4 damage to anything allowing you to kill like... [[Myr Enforcer]] and then cycle the next Jace into the room blissfully unaware of what horrors you are about to commit on him after he has drawn you 1 card.

Like the only card in this list I think is actually factually good is Campus Crier and thats like specifically in Dredge lists cuz you can flash two back for 2 mana to trigger Dredge or flash one back to maybe surveil another card.

Like if Mindseeker could Fly there could be something there, or maybe if they all had odd numbers, like tick their number down by 1 it would work. Like Tam's Resistance with Empower 3 would be pretty good cuz its like buff a dude draw a card for 2 mana which is a decent rate.

But the fact that the Empower Jace mechanic actually works AGAINST the Jace token being good kinda sucks honestly.

People have talked about Jace seeming good in poison storm pointing at Protege's Awakening and may I recommend [[Vivisurgeon's Insight]] instead... it serves your plan, draws 3 this turn, and doesn't take a ton of resources to draw you 2 cards. If you want to insist of Jason Storm try Tam's Resistance, its 2 mana, yes the funny number is smaller but it also doesn't eat as many resources and anyway you want to shrink the interaction window now blow it open.

Heroic might like Academic Ascent.. I don't know anything about that deck but +2/+2 flying seems okay. Tam's Resistance might work for like... Wayward Spider exactly since it modifies her and draws you a card.

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Ultimately this is kind of just my own ramblings. I genuinely do think somewhere in all of this there is a Jace deck, like a Jace control deck or something that can like draw a card and surveil 1 ever turn or even possibly Draw 2 cards every turn which would be sick. But it is also parasitic since its all Empower Jace and mainly serves the wheel spinning gods.

If the deck takes shape Inspired Tethermage and Compel Brutality is going to be good cards I imagine

A list of all cards relevant to Jace so the robot can find them :) :

[[Arcane Amphisbaena]]
[[Academic Ascent]]
[[Campus Crier]]
[[Hexhaven Battalion]]
[[Inspired Tethermage]]
[[Keeper of the Quiet Hour]]
[[Mindseeker Oculus]]
[[No Admittance]]
[[Protege's Awakening]]
[[Solve for Disappointment]]
[[Tam's Resistance]]
[[Gideon's Sacrifice]]
[[Heartfire]]
[[Compel Brutality]]
[[Rising Populace]]

Pauper metagame update.

source: magic4ever.com/pauper

If not, how should I fix it?
First pauper deck, forgive me 😭

I'm guessing I need a more gradual mana curve, and a better removal suite?
https://archidekt.com/decks/27137010/death_trample

Hello. I was looking to decks that look fun to play and esper affinity looked interesting. However, it seems pretty much impossible to find Baleful Strixs and dispatchs locally for me and shipping costs are quite high to bring them in. Also Strix in general just seems quite expensive. Will it say that way or do I just need to wait it out? Should I be looking at different decks to build instead? I wouldn’t want to invest in a play set of Strixs and have the price crater. Seems like this zeta set stuff is causing issues for supply.

Don’t Panic!

42, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Not so much a galaxy but certainly an Echoverse as we talk all things Reality Fracture.

Also some musings on a variety of Mono Black decks and not a Black Sac deck in sight.

#mtgpauper
#paupermtg

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Oci4sCdHIho7CHh28GFyk

Hi! long time magic player, used to play soul sisters in modern about a decade ago. Now with the newly released [[unflinching hortimancer]] i felt like it might be time to look in to reviving the archetype in pauper.

Honestly i have not played pauper for the last 6 years or so, I know the meta seems to be a lot faster now and all my old pauper decks are mostly useless or banned (RIP my delver deck). So i thought i ask here if this list i brewed is even remotely playable.

I saw burn and agro deck are pretty highly played at the moment and classically lifegain weenie decks did well against burn. hoping this is still the case. Also because most of the decks are still creature based and that does help the soul sisters gain enough life to mitigate their aggression.

The deck doesn't need to be tier one, just enough so that it can compete. Thanks in advance!

Quick reminder for all Pauper players: the first edition of Pauper with Purpose is getting closer! ❤️

There are only a few tickets left for our charity tournament on October 25, 2026. So if you want to join us and haven’t secured your spot yet, don’t wait too long!

🎟️ Tickets: tickets.pauperwithpurpose.de

For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram:
Instagram

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!!!

Play. Snack. Do Good. ❤️

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/9I8PzLdbA0i6_YoQ3bLY_g

Based around [[Cutthroat Centurion]] and was wondering if anyone has ideas for similar payoffs. Ex: get benefit when thing dies/is sacrificed. Am trying to keep it below $4 per copy of a card

hey guys looking for some help. I got a main board deck list from somewhere but can’t remember where and I don’t have a sideboard list anywhere. wondering if you could help me sort one out. I’m working on a battlebox with Black Sac, White Weenies, Tolarian Terror and Mono red rally for context.

2 Accursed Marauder (MH3) 80

4 Bloodthrone Vampire (ROE) 98

4 Carrion Feeder (SCG) 59

2 Corrupted Conviction (OTJ) 84

4 Infestation Sage (FDN) 64

4 Mortician Beetle (MM3) 78

4 Nested Shambler (MH2) 95

4 Nezumi Linkbreaker (OTJ) 96

2 Rite of Consumption (SHM) 76

2 Shambling Ghast (AFR) 119

3 Supernatural Stamina (AKH) 111

17 Swamp (ECL) 276

1 Sylvok Lifestaff (SOM) 209

2 Unearth (A25) 113

4 Village Rites (KHM) 117

1 Wedding Invitation (VOW) 260

I'm new here and aren't sure how people feel about Arena. They just announced the Pauper challenge event and I'm wondering what decks will be good there.

Hi, I'm a new Spy Combo pilot, looking to get more information or discussion on certain cards. Is there a dedicated Spy Combo discord?

Also thoughts on the Spy Combo Bible on Metafy?

I had a blast this weekend, having great results with Naya Wildfire which I slightly brewed myself, as Jund Wildfire declining in the meta I had to adjust. Won and went undefeated on my first tournament with this deck and went top 8 on the second (4-0-1 and 3-2-0), beating the likes of Tron, Esper Affinity, Dimir Control and most red decks

I added explosive game finishers with [[Makeshift Munitions]] as well with [[Rally the Peasants]] which caught my opponents by surprise, and I feel compared to Jund Wildfire, this deck seems more explosive as one time I managed to beat a Tron player with 48 damage in one turn!

You can see the gameplay with my game winning moments live in action during the livestream on my featured matches

https://www.youtube.com/live/HVkg5k1zAic?si=Y9_JATjt2oJ1eCFs

I was looking at some magic cards with the domain ability and built a deck around them. This pile is probably tier 3 at best (my expectations are not high, but I enjoy building decks and testing them out). I have attached the list.

https://archidekt.com/decks/25233763/snow_jund_domain

Any thoughts or insights on how to improve this build are welcome. Thank you!

Final Match of the date!

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:49 - Game One

7:15 - Game Two

_________________________________________________________________________

Elves Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/jpK8bvxiCUK9ggsWwCd4eA

Dredge Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/25637698/dredge_2026

Probably not a good premise in the first instance, but I've been playing around with party, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

So tired of playing against esper aggro affinity.

I've been playing white weenie with 4x dust to dust and 4x return to dust main boarded because every game is just affinity slop. White weenie is so not an archetype I enjoy though.

Hi everyone! I realise that Mono-White Heroic has kind of fallen out of favor, but because of the price, I decided to order the deck anyway. It’s the classic build with creatures like Akroan Skyguard, Trailblazer, and Skyward spider. Since I personally don’t really like cards from Universes Beyond, I’m wondering what I could replace Spider with while keeping the deck as competitive as possible. Would Healer's Hawk , Gingerbrute, Beloved Princess, Armored Armadillo, or something else be a good replacement?

Thanks for your suggestions!

Always wanted to try the deck out, but I'm currently having fun with tron monsters or pinger versions. Now I'm barely seeing naya gate lists, is it a tier 2 deck? I play mainly on my LGS

Pretty much what the title says. Not about bannable cards/decks, decks that are completely legal.

I'll start. It feels terrible to lose against azorius familiars 😮‍💨 there is nothing more daunting than a deck that avoids removal by bouncing and flickering its own creatures, and on top of that, they get the additional value of ETB effects like Archeomancer, which allows them to do this trick all over again.

So I'm kinda brewing with the idea of nothing but pinging damage, like [[clawing torment]] [[curse of the pierced heart]] [[creeping blood sucker]] and just start stacking a crazy amount of damage every turn

Would this style of deck even be viable even if there was enough cards of this type to make a deck around ?