Top 5 Commons: A Pauper Perspective
by Kendra Duff (@Tinstreet_EGG)
While Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate is a Commander focused set, it also gave us some very nifty tech for a format that I personally believe deserves more love than it gets, PAUPER! Pauper can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. As the name implies you can get away with spending the bare minimum, the average cost of a deck is around $40-$50, which is considerably cheaper than any other format. The great thing about Pauper is that there is no rotation and it doesn’t require a specific buy in. You don’t need the most recent cards and you didn’t miss your chance by not buying a specific set. Pauper is an eternal format, meaning you can use whichever cards you like as long as somewhere in Magic’s history they were printed at Common rarity. Today we take a look at 5 Common Battle for Baldur’s Gate cards that got tons of love at Pre-release but have essentially dropped from use. Do they have what it takes to make it in Pauper? Let’s find out…
Honourable Mention:
Before we dive in, I feel that Deadly Dispute deserves and honourable mention.
This common from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms shot up in price so fast due to it being such a great card in just about every format from Standard to Pauper to Commander.
A Village Rites with an upside has a place in every black deck.
5. You Meet in a Tavern – I am personally incredibly excited for this reprint and downshift. When the card was revealed in AFG I remember looking at its second option: Start a Brawl and being disappointed that it wasn’t printed at Common. Well, who says dreams don’t come true?
This offers a huge upgrade for Elf decks as it’s essentially a 4 mana Lead the Stampede and serves as a mini Overrun in its role as an extra wincon. It’s first option Form a Party also offers some pretty cool card advantage. Overall, it’s a flexible card that could be utilized in any of the green decks in the current meta.
4. Kenku Artificer – People have been so hyped about this guy. The main objective is to play an Indestructible Artifact Land, play Kenku Artificer, then animate said land into a 3/3 Flying Indestructible land and beat opponent’s face.
This poses significant risks. I’m a bit nervous to animate my lands in a meta filled with Snaps and Edit effects where you could potentially go down a land permanently or have to play a tapped land again. Though I must admit Ephemerate-ing Kenku Artificer to animate several lands does seem very enticing.