Pauper EDH

I'm interested in trying out a new format and was wondering if anyone else would be interested. Pauper EDH would use the same rules as normal EDH but all cards other than the general would of course be commons. There are very few common legendary creatures available and those are terrible. A normal general would be able to be used but in the pauper spirit and for fairness in general I think it would be wise to come up with a banned list of the most powerful(and usually the most expensive) legendary creatures. The banned list would be a tiny fraction of all available legendary creatures and the pool of general's would still be gargantuan. I came across this idea when I discovered that the vast majority of legendary creatures are actually less than a dollar on any respectable bot and since you only need one for EDH this could be basically a pauper format. If anyone is interested and puts together a deck I've got one ready so PM me anytime. Also interested in getting together a banned list so if anyone has any ideas post them here.

I think John is your man for this i know he has played a number of EDH games with a basically pauper deck with a cheap ( less than 1 dollar i believe) commander, .
So maybe try looking him up for a match whenever you're both online.
Regards
Harry

I'll play you. I have a pauper commander deck with a common commander. I have a budget deck with non-commons in it. I personally dislike the idea of a non-common commander in a pauper deck, and don't want anything to do with it.

Are you against a non common commander just in principle, as it is not truly pauper? Because honestly the common legendary creatures are worthless in my opinion. If there was a banned list containing the "broken" legendaries, broken only in terms of their power in an all common deck, then I think it would be a really fun and inexpensive format.

Yeah I think the lack of decent common commanders are the reason why the use of a cost limited commander in an otherwise pauper deck was being debated on PDCMagic.com . http://forums.pdcmagic.com/viewtopic.php?t=4548
The above URL will get you to the pages relevant i think they bear some reading at least
Regards
Harry
PS. The only problem i can see with a cost limited non common commander is if any of them are really useful the drop in avialability will force up the price above the suggested 1 tix limit making your commander illegal

If you're interested in a pauper EDH league, AltPDC is starting one in a couple weeks, hopefully. Updates on that should be coming soon.

zoomzilla wrote:

Are you against a non common commander just in principle, as it is not truly pauper? Because honestly the common legendary creatures are worthless in my opinion. If there was a banned list containing the "broken" legendaries, broken only in terms of their power in an all common deck, then I think it would be a really fun and inexpensive format.

You could call it principle. I just find it ridiculous that you'd allow, for example, the planar chaos dragons like Vorosh the Hunter. It is certain to get played as soon as you make 6 mana. It's a flying 6/6, which in it's own right is a lot better than the nearest pauper equivalent (errant ephemeron), and given the circumstances is almost guaranteed to get to activate it's ability and become even huger. I chose Vorosh since it's not even one of the best generals, Numot and Teneb from the same set are even more stupid. And they're not even the most format changing generals that the spikes of this world are certain to bring, just look at Anowon, Maralen, Reaper King, Kaervek, Seizan, Meloku. It's going to be a race to make a general and just win.
You can call the pauper generals worthless, but really at the heart of it, pauper is all about that. If you want to play normal magic then do that, don't try and break pauper.

The point of EDH is for the general to be relavant to the game. Pauper commanders aren't. Otherwise, we should just play 100cs with 4 players.

I'm not saying you're wrong JMason. I agree with a fundamental attitude towards pauper, but the general is what makes this unique, and keeping everything cost effective. A general should matter.

I personally dislike pauper EDH, and in theory, the format would be god-aweful for my type of player, but there's a lot of people behind it, so I'm behind it, and I know you are too =)

There is some kinky sort of pauper "affair" going on with using rares, but I think it's what adds the interesting twist into the format that makes it appealing.

I defintely think this format has HUGE potential as 1v1. So maybe in 2011 we can hope.

I think Wildman is right about the cost being driven up which is why cost isn't so important as a banned list of cards that are absolutely too powerful for this format. I've only glanced at the list of legendaries in making my deck so I dont know which ones would even qualify for the banned list but I'm sure many of the one's mentioned by Jmason would be on that list. Maybe that would drive away some players, maybe not. And Jmason, you say that it would just be a race to make a general and win, but I think the meta would demand that you design a more control type deck to counteract the general. I've always been amazed that there are so many good common removal cards that could do away with most generals. Maybe it's not true pauper, maybe it should be called peasant EDH or some other catchy derivative.

P.S. I just took a look at the link provided by Wildman and I wasnt aware that this discussion had already taken place elsewhere. The list on there is top notch. I wonder how many purchases of any given card it would take to actually drive the price above 1 tix.

Actually none of this is about cost. Most of the rare generals on the list cost between .15tix and .3 tix, which is not dissimilar to the cost of playable commons. Heck, I own commons that cost 6 tix (Yavimaya Elder) and even 9 tix(Daze). Bulk rares cost around 10 for 1 tix. You could probably build a NO COMMONS deck for less than a pauper deck with decent playable commons.

Pauper comander with a rare general is some kind of bastard child that isn't anything. You'd get far more fun from a budget normal commander deck.

I love the idea of Pauper EDH. I think, however, if you insist on all common commander the turnout will be very low (i'll play regardless). On the other hand there should be a heavy ban list if we allow other than common commanders. Like JMason said it's not always about cost because of the ridiculous prices of some commons these days; but i think if we start with banning any other than common commander with cost greater than 1 tix we could look at what we have and go from there. This is one of those things that will take some effort to decide whats legal and whats not.

Actually Belphagor, take a look at the link by Wildman. It includes all available commanders under 1 tix. It's still a huge list and I dont know which, if any, would make for completely unbalanced gameplay but it's a great start. If you put together a deck PM me sometime and I'll play. I've got one ready to go.

I put one together just a few hours ago. I'm thinking this tourny needs to be a Go. I'll even commit to donate a weekly door prize if the pdc gods that be will make it so.

Well the EDH league isn't really a tourney, but a league. There will be some weekly meeting times of course. I'm stilling waiting on a few people to do their end of the bargain before I can even do anything else with it.

NecroSavant543 wrote:

Well the EDH league isn't really a tourney

It should be