Pauper: The Most Powerful Cards of All Time

Free spells, absurd abilities, emblems, control. Pauper is a rich format, home to incredible cards that are exceptionally powerful all on their own. Even when they require some sort of setup, some of them have been so powerful and impactful that we had to decide between playing them or building an entire deck to beat them.

In this article, we'll go over the cards that most impacted and still impact Pauper to this day and remember what they did to this format.

Lightning Bolt

Mana Bolt. This is an expression that can describe a good portion of this format really well. Lightning Bolt is one of the, if not the most iconic Pauper card of all time.

Widely played in many builds, this is the most important red card in the format and still sees play to this day. We'll hardly ever see another card like this being released again, and that, on its own, already shows how powerful it is.

Snuff Out

Currently, removals are just as powerful or even better than creatures in Pauper. Snuff Out is a great example of that.

This removal, despite being conditional, never goes out of style simply because it is absurdly powerful. It lets us remove a threat already on turn 1 or answer with two and even three removals at once. That's why it is so strong and why we don't even need a fully black deck to use it effectively. One of the main reasons it is so popular is the blue decks that don't play much more than 4 Swamps to go along with it.

Ephemerate

ETB effects are also incredibly impactful. In fact, a card changing the game as soon as it enters play is one of the best things a creature can do. Ephemerate takes this to the next level, as it lets you take advantage of insane abilities and "lock" the game with Archaeomancers, Ardent Elementalists, and Mnemonic Walls.

What sets it apart from similar cards is its Rebound ability, which lets us use it on the following turn without paying its cost. To this day, players bring up this card when they discuss future bans.

Deadly Dispute

This card, which was recently banned, is often called Pauper's Ancestral Recall. It is also more than just a simple card draw.

The Treasure it creates is extra mana you can spend on that same turn, and with Ichor Wellsprings and Chromatic Stars, it used to be the perfect card draw engine. Dispute put you several turns ahead of your opponent, and it was so strong that very few decks didn't use it.

Artifacts

Artifacts have also left their mark on Pauper. Arcum's Astrolabe and Bonder's Ornament were the most memorable, each in their own way.

Astrolabe dominated the format in its time and inspired many absurd strategies, whereas Bonder's was one of the main cards in the pre-MH2 Pauper era. It was widely popular in Tron and many other decks that could get a lot of value from it.

Indestructible artifact lands have also impacted Pauper quite a bit since they got here and are still seeing play even now. Either in Affinity or Cleansing Wildfire lists, Bridges have changed Pauper entirely. They even made cards like Dust to Dust popular, and they never saw play before.

Tron Lands

Urza's trio has been in Pauper since the early days. Nowadays, it is once again seeing play because Prophetic Prism has returned. This card is great in strategies that use many colors, and we can get a lot out of it with these Tron Lands.

Urza's trio is one of the best ramps this format has had since the very beginning. It gives you 7 mana as early as turn 3 and lets you play incredibly powerful spells quite fast regardless of their color. Without a question, Urza's Lands have been exceptional in Pauper and can hardly be replaced.

Monastery Swiftspear

Monastery Swiftspear is probably the most impactful creature in the history of Pauper. It initially came as a downshift in Double Masters and was considered a strong addition straight away, but many doubted its potential in red decks.

Then, it quickly became the core of Mono-Red Aggro and reigned supreme in the format for a long time. This deck was so popular that any deck that didn't play half a sideboard to deal with it couldn't survive. Even then you might still have struggled against this list.

Initiative Cards

Initiative was first introduced in Battle for Baldur's Gate. It came to Pauper through some creature cards that featured this mechanic (Trailblazer's Torch also works with Initiative but didn't see as much play as the other cards) and straight away impacted Pauper because of the absurd amount of value Undercity creates. Vicious Battlerager, Stirring Bard, and Aarakocra Sneak soon became the most popular cards ever and started seeing play in all black, blue, and red decks in the format.

An archetype centered entirely around this mechanic also came up. The main idea behind it was to get as much out of the Initiative as fast as possible and be as redundant as possible by playing numerous creatures with it. It didn't take long for this deck to start distorting the meta completely, and then a mass ban on nearly all of these cards pushed this mechanic out of the format almost entirely.

Monarch

Just like Initiative, Monarch also impacted Pauper considerably, though on a much smaller scale. Various decks started playing this mechanic, and many games were decided through it, as it creates a huge amount of value for whoever plays it.

Drawing an extra card every turn will always be extremely powerful in Pauper, even if nowadays this mechanic has become a lot less relevant.

We Need to Talk About Blue

Considered by many the most powerful color in the format, blue has been at the center of many historical marks in Pauper. An entire era was even named after this color. Blue Monday was the day marked by the triple Gush, Daze, and Gitaxian Probe ban, cards that made Pauper completely unbalanced. Later on, Mystic Sanctuary and Fall From Favor were added to the Blue Hall of Fame.

Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, and Peregrine Drake have also become too strong for the format. Tolarian Terror, Murmuring Mystic, Spellstutter Sprite, and even the iconic blue cantrips (Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain) always come up whenever we discuss future bans. Recently, Pauper also welcomed High Tide, which was unbanned and became valid for the first time in history. It impacted the format straight away, though a bit more timidly than other cards.

The truth is that blue has extremely powerful resources that other colors simply don't have, and, with the right colors, it can become quite oppressive.

Storm Cards

Now, let's see, arguably, the most powerful cards of all time in Pauper, which all have Storm. This mechanic is so strong that it has practically been exterminated from Pauper. It inspired a few decks that can win on turn 1 without even giving the opponent a chance to do anything.

Chatterstorm and Galvanic Relay are the most recent examples, both from MH2. They originated a meta centered mostly around three decks, but, in truth, it was Storm vs. Everything Else. After Chatterstorm was banned, another deck centered around Galvanic Relay took over the format, this time with a different yet equally strong win condition.

Currently, there are only two cards with this mechanic in Pauper: Reaping the Graves and Weather the Storm. Both are powerful staples in the format and see play in many decks.

Many powerful cards have gone through or remain in Pauper, but I believe I noted the most iconic and mighty cards in the history of the format.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!