Pauper has always been a bit of an anomaly when it comes to MTG formats. Like Commander, it started out as a casual fan format before later obtaining official status. Also like Commander, it’s never really been the subject of a major competitive event. It sits in a kind of strange purgatory between serious and kitchen table Magic that’s hard to pin down. It seems it may stay this way, too. In a recent post, MTG Head Designer Mark Rosewater made it clear that a Pauper Pro Tour is very unlikely to happen.
For those who love grinding the format on MTGO, this is a bitter pill to swallow. It means the odd Treasure Chest is all you can really expect for putting in the time to master the format. Though this is bad news for some, the underlying mechanics of the decision do indicate that it could be the right choice. Putting a new format on the Pro Tour isn’t something to be done lightly, after all.
No Pauper Pro Tour For MTG?
This reveal came via a Blogatog post from Mark Rosewater yesterday. In it, he responded to a question from Zombsidian about the possibility of a Pauper Pro Tour for MTG.
“Zombsidian: Pauper Pro Tour when?
Mark Rosewater: Making the pros break casual formats is never a good idea.”
This isn’t an outright ‘no,’ but it’s about as close to one as you can get. Rosewater asserts a couple of key points here. Firstly, Pauper is fundamentally a casual format. Secondly, encouraging players to ‘break’ the format, or push it to its limits, is a bad move on Wizards’ part.
The first point there is up for debate. While Pauper has never been the main focus of a Grand Prix or Pro Tour before, it does have a consistent competitive scene. Pauper Leagues fire daily on MTGO, and Challenges run regularly as well. these events have built up a well-developed metagame for the format over time, one which continues to draw in new deckbuilders with each new set.
In light of this information, Rosewater’s other point makes less sense than it seems to on the surface. It’s true that adding competitive incentives to a format will push players toward optimal lists. It’s also true that those who play the format right now, in Leagues and Challenges, are running those optimal lists anyway.
Pauper isn’t some wild-and-free landscape of novelty decks and meme cards. Its top strategies, the likes of Burn and Affinity, have meta shares comparable to the best decks in Standard and Modern. If anything they’re even more entrenched, given Pauper’s eternal status and high-powered older cards.
For this reason, I don’t find Rosewater’s argument against a Pauper Pro Tour particularly convincing. That said, it does appear that he, and by extension Wizards, is set on the decision based on this answer.
A Dangerous Game
All things considered, it could be for the best that Pauper never becomes an official MTG Pro Tour format. While it does have a rich meta that can support play on that level, there are many implications that come with elevating it to competitive standing.
Firstly, and perhaps most crucially for many players, are the financial implications. Competitive demand is the biggest driver of secondary market price spikes for MTG. As soon as players are able to earn good money playing Pauper on paper, prices on staples for the format will skyrocket.
Given that many of the most played cards in Pauper are bulk commons, this doesn’t sound like a big deal. A lot of the cards in the format are old, however, and have very limited printings. Think of the Red Elemental Blasts and Tortured Existences of the world. If Pauper hits the Pro Tour, we could easily see cards like this become $30 commons overnight.
This flies directly in the face of Pauper’s status as a budget-friendly format. Right now it lacks the financial barrier that every other format, Standard included, imposes upon players. On the Pro Tour, this would likely no longer be the case.
The other key element to consider here is the confusion around Pauper legality. In the past, there were essentially two Pauper formats since some cards were printed as commons on MTGO but not on paper. The two were merged in 2019, but in 2025 there’s also Arena to consider.
Like MTGO, Arena has exclusive sets that mix up card rarities for Limited balance reasons. Unlike MTGO these changes don’t impact Pauper, or at least not yet. If Pauper is to become a mainstream format capable of holding a Pro Tour, wrinkles like this would really need to be ironed out.
Potential Upsides
Conversely, holding a Pauper Pro Tour could also be an excellent move for MTG. As this year’s Spotlight Series events highlight, Wizards is making a real push to build up competitive Magic again at the moment. Unfortunately, the formats they’re pushing all have significant problems.
Standard has been stale for a while now, with Aggro and Midrange being the only truly viable strategies since the middle of last year. Modern got a huge shake-up in December, but it looks like things are quickly regressing to a Boros Energy hellscape once again. Pauper would provide a welcome alternative at the top tables, at least while new players experimented.
With so many new players entering the format it’s likely we’d see more innovation in Pauper, too. It may be an eternal format, but recent bangers like Experimental Synthesizer and Basking Broodscale prove that there’s still plenty of room for new decks. With the extra push that a Pro Tour provides, Pauper could experience a renaissance that cements it as a premiere MTG format for years to come. The overall low cost of the format would only make this more likely, even if a few older cards do spike.
Rosewater’s argument about Pauper’s casual spirit being warped by ascending to a competitive level makes some sense. Personally, however, I think not rolling the dice here is a mistake. Pauper is one of Magic’s oldest, most beloved, and most accessible formats. Give players the chance to play it at the highest level, and the sky really is the limit. The common-only nature of the format may not sell packs like Standard or Modern, but the dynamic gameplay and diverse meta will remind players of why they fell in love with Magic in the first place.
