Pauper & Peasant
Introduction
Pauper and Peasant formats are two formats often confused by players because they are two budget and competitive formats whose rules involve the rarity of Magic cards, however they differ on several important points :
The Peasant format allows 5 uncos per deck while the pauper format only allows commons.
The Ban Lists of the two formats are different even when restricted to commons.
The Pauper is an official format while the Peasant is an unofficial format.
Common cards from Arena edition are not legal in Pauper but are legal in Peasant. (see below).
Cross-History of the two formats :
2001: Creation of the Peasant format.
2002: Creation of the Pauper format.
2005: First Peasant tournament in France.
2008: The Pauper becomes an official MTGO format.
2011: Creation of the mtg.peasant.com website
2014: The Gatherer becomes the benchmark for card rarity in Peasant and virtual editions become allowed.
2014: First Peasant French Cup bringing together 56 players.
2015: Reunification of the different Peasant communities around a single Ban List.
2015: First Paupergeddon in Italy bringing together 40 players.
2019: Official MTGO Pauper and Unofficial Paper Pauper rules are unified by WotC.
2020: Creation of the peasant-magic.com website.
2022: Creation of the Pauper Format Panel, a group of Pauper players relayed between players and WotC.
FAQ :
Why does the peasant format allow 5 uncos?
The purpose of including uncos in the format was to bring more complexities into the metagame, in particular by allowing the creation of decks whose functioning is centered around a card which for reasons of power is often unco. The number of 5 meanwhile was chosen to force players to play at least two different uncos per deck and force a reflection on their number. This peculiarity of the peasant format also offers players a completely new deckbuilding constraint compared to the official formats.
Why is the peasant so popular in France?
The Peasant format was established in France from 2005 long before the pauper became official or gained popularity around the world. Le peasant has had the support since 2006 of Magicville, a very popular French website with the creation of a forum entirely dedicated to the peasant format, which has allowed the format to prosper. Even today the peasant format brings together more players in France than the pauper does, in particular through its main event: The French Cup.
Why does the Ban List Peasant restricted to commons not correspond to the Ban List Pauper?
This option considered in the past has been the subject of much debate and some announcements by the committee. It was finally discarded in 2018 both so that the Peasant format would not have a Ban List dependent on another format, but also to allow the Peasant format to evolve in a different direction. Indeed even if the construction rules of the Pauper and the Peasant are similar, the metagames of these two formats can be quite different depending on the period and certain bans necessary in one of the two formats will not necessarily be necessary in the other.
Why is it Glimmerpost which is banned in peasant and not Cloudpost as in Pauper?
In pauper as in peasant, cloudpost and glimmerpost cannot be authorized simultaneously. It was chosen to keep Cloudpost as a peasant so as not to close the door to potential future decks. Indeed, unlike Glimmerpost, Cloudpost remains potentially playable alone.