A series of purchases made on Magic Online less than 24 hours before the recent announcement of changes to The Zeta Set’s Pauper legality has raised suspicions of possible insider trading on the secondary market. According to GoatBots, a single account acquired 143 copies of Baleful Strix, 70 copies of Dispatch and 56 copies of Vandalblast shortly before all three cards were included in the announcement.The activity prompted GoatBots, one of the largest networks of card-buying and selling bots on Magic Online, to accuse someone of “insider information” and suggest possible involvement by the Pauper Format Panel (PFP). Cards Realm contacted the company to understand what prompted the accusation, what information was available about the purchases, and what supported the connection to the group responsible for overseeing the format.GoatBots post published on September 5 / Reproduction: XMax, a GoatBots representative, said that all 269 cards were purchased by a single account in a series of transactions carried out in rapid succession and that the account did not buy any other cards at the time. In his view, the combination of the three cards, the quantities, and how close the purchases were to the announcement indicates that the buyer already knew about the change in legality.GoatBots did not, however, provide evidence directly linking the buyer to the PFP. When questioned by Cards Realm, Max said he had no proof of such a connection and did not know how any advance information might have reached the account. The suspicion of panel involvement is based on the company’s interpretation of the purchasing behavior and of who might have known about the announcement in advance.GoatBots says a single account bought 269 cards before the announcementAccording to Max, the first transactions to draw his attention involved Baleful Strix. The account acquired 143 copies of the card at a time when it had already been decided that the card would not be legal in Pauper. At first, the GoatBots representative thought the player might have missed an earlier piece of information and still believed Strix would be legal in the format.The quantity, however, stood out from the activity the company had observed. Other users had also bought Baleful Strix in the preceding days, while its availability was still uncertain, but in smaller quantities. According to Max, no other account bought those cards during the same period as the transactions later reported by the company.After the announcement was published, Max reviewed the account’s transactions and found that it had also purchased 70 copies of Dispatch and 56 of Vandalblast. The three cards totaled 269 copies, with no other purchases made by the same account during that sequence.The purchases were split across multiple transactions because GoatBots limits the number of copies of each version of a card that can be acquired in a single trade. In Baleful Strix's case, the different printings available on Magic Online allow dozens of copies to be purchased in one transaction. According to Max, the trades took place in rapid succession and less than 24 hours before the announcement.Asked about the transaction records and the exact times of the purchases, Max said he did not consider the precise figures relevant to assessing the episode and noted that approximate card prices from that period can be checked through GoatBots’ history. The quantities and the interval between the purchases and the announcement are therefore information supplied by the company based on its own records.Account used a username associated with a known Pauper playerThe identity used by the account also contributed to GoatBots’ suspicions. Max said he searched the username on MTGGoldfish and found public records associated with a player known in the Pauper scene. The connection caught his attention because the username appeared to be associated with an active Pauper player.Max did not provide the username to Cards Realm and said he is not willing to disclose it at this time. As a result, Cards Realm could not independently verify the association described by GoatBots.. The information alone also does not establish that the purchases were made by the player publicly associated with the username. Max himself said he does not know who owns the account.Pattern of purchases prompted insider trading accusationFor GoatBots, the strongest indication of possible advance knowledge lies in the transactions as a whole. Max considers it unlikely that the combination was the result of a successful speculative bet. In his response to Cards Realm, he compared the episode with activity observed by GoatBots in 2019, shortly before the announcement of Pioneer.At the time, the company also reported large-volume purchases of cards before information capable of affecting their prices became public.GoatBots post from October 2019 reporting suspicious purchases made before the announcement of the Pioneer format / Reproduction: XThe nature of the transactions is consistent with suspicions of possible advance knowledge, but it does not establish the buyer’s motivation or whether the purchases were made with prior access to the announcement’s contents.Speculation of this kind is part of Magic’s secondary market. Expectations of unbans and format changes can lead to large-volume purchases before official announcements. Cases such as speculation surrounding the unbanning of Stoneforge Mystic and Splinter Twin in Modern also show that this type of activity is not unprecedented in Magic’s historyMax said that, if he had doubts about whether insider information was involved, he would not have published the accusation. In his assessment, the current case stands out because of the coincidence between the three cards selected, the volume purchased, and the short time before the information was released.GoatBots says it has no evidence linking purchases to the PFPGoatBots’ original post went beyond suspicion of the buyer, stating that someone involved with the Pauper Format Panel was profiting from insider information. The company also considered the possibility that someone with access to the announcement’s contents had passed the information on to another person.Cards Realm asked Max what connected the purchases to the panel. In response, he said he had no proof or evidence of such a connection. In the representative’s view, the transaction pattern indicates that someone had insider information and, consequently, either had some kind of connection to the PFP or received the information from someone who had access to it.Max also mentioned the possibility that the person responsible for the account was a friend of a panel member, but described that theory as speculation. He said he does not know who controls the account and has no information about how the buyer might have obtained advance knowledge.The purchases reported by GoatBots raise suspicions about what the buyer may have known, but do not identify the source of any potential advance information.PFP has not yet commented on the caseThe possibility that the purchases were made with advance knowledge also raises questions about the mechanisms used to protect information capable of affecting the secondary market. Decisions about card legality can cause immediate price changes, creating a potential advantage for anyone who has access to the contents before other players.Cards Realm contacted Gavin Verhey and Alexandre Weber, members of the Pauper Format Panel. Weber said he had consulted the group about the case and would get back to Cards Realm once he received a response. Verhey had not responded by the time this article was published. Cards Realm will update the article if the PFP comments at a later date.
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