Pauper Intelligence History

Reality Fracture is scheduled for Magic Online at 10 a.m. PT today. MTGO lists can start replacing early-access speculation with real adoption evidence before tabletop release.

This format was part of the play context.

Exile Twinned Vision with Wrenn's Resolve, then cast it from exile to draw two. A Familiar or Anarchomancer makes it cost only {U/R}; from hand it draws one.

This format was part of the play context.

Baleful Strix has moved from legality hype into Pauper results. Recent Esper and multicolor value shells placed with four copies, but that does not make every paper printing scarce.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Denisevich took the September 22 Pauper Challenge with Mardu Synthesizer at 7-1. The list leaned on the familiar Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher value engine alongside four Refurbished Familiar, giving the archetype a fresh trophy rather than just another League appearance.

This format was part of the play context.

Grixis Affinity followed a third-place Pauper Challenge finish with second place in the 64-player September 21 Challenge, and another pilot posted a same-day 5-0. The deck is converting repeatedly, not just appearing in one result dump.

This format was part of the play context.

Golgari Gardens did more than sneak one list into the Pauper Super Qualifier. __Noob__ won at 11-1, John1111 finished third, and two more copies landed in the top 18.

This format was part of the play context.

Reality Fracture is moving from spoiler talk into actual format testing. Fresh videos from Aspiringspike, Eisenherz, sprat3k, and Kitchen Table Pauper are separately evaluating the set for Modern, cEDH, and Pauper just days before prerelease.

This format was part of the play context.

Bogles is on a real Pauper run. PedraStone has three Challenge trophies in five days, and two more pilots posted 5-0 League results on September 21.

This format was part of the play context.

Baleful Strix is still getting real Pauper play and market attention, but it is not one clean price story. One Bloomburrow Commander nonfoil moved about 17% from September 9 to September 17, while other printings show large marketplace disagreements, so exact version matters more than the headline number.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Baleful Strix did not stop at a price spike. Esper Affinity using four Strixes, four Dispatches, and two Cut Downs just won a 42-player paper tournament, with the same 75 also finishing third, giving the Zeta cards their clearest competitive result yet.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Baleful Strix and Cut Down really did move after The Zeta Set made them Pauper legal, but the first wave of scarcity is already becoming more complicated. Cut Down sold through a large amount of cheap supply and Baleful Strix repriced across many printings, while early paper events show the cards seeing play without immediately taking over the format.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Baleful Strix's Pauper spike has spread into a long list of older reprints instead of staying confined to one cheap version. Europe still has 1,669 copies across 21 versions, so the card is repricing broadly without becoming a one-print scarcity story.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Cut Down's TCGplayer-linked benchmark has climbed to $1.60, up 310.3% over seven days, but CardTrader currently surfaces #89 from $0.65 and still has no CT Market Price for the exact printing. Cardmarket still has 261 Dominaria United copies, so Pauper legality has produced a real repricing without one settled global price or a broad shortage.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Baleful Strix is legal in tabletop Pauper today after hundreds of cheap U.S. copies reportedly sold following the Zeta ruling. The move is real, but the current sources still disagree on price and Wizards has already warned that Strix could be revisited on October 12.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Pauper players cleared hundreds of cheap U.S. Baleful Strix copies after the Zeta legality change, pushing the cheapest FINAL FANTASY Near Mint copy to about $6.05. Europe has not moved the same way yet, with nearly one thousand FINAL FANTASY copies still starting below €1 and more than five thousand Baleful Strix copies available across all versions.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Baleful Strix, Vandalblast, Dispatch, Cut Down, and six other Zeta downshifts enter tabletop Pauper on September 7, but Narcomoeba and Price of Progress are banned before they ever get a legal weekend. Magic Online does not get the new card pool until September 23, so paper and digital Pauper will temporarily disagree.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

The Zeta Set sold out, but Wizards still does not have every order cleanly reconciled. Some buyers reached checkout without receiving confirmation, others received duplicate confirmations, and Wizards is still separating successful orders from failed ones before anyone can treat the sellout as a known physical supply count.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Chrome Mox, Urborg, and other expensive reprints are in Zeta, but every $19.92 pack contains only seven random cards. Wizards has now published the rarity and treatment odds, so the real supply question is how many packs sell and how often each chase card actually reaches the market.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Zeta puts cards such as Chrome Mox and Urborg into $19.92 seven-card packs instead of a fixed Secret Lair list. Each pack has one rare or mythic plus a wildcard, so the set adds real future reprint supply without guaranteeing that any buyer actually opens the expensive cards.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.

Giant's Boulder is TCGplayer's top seller, but the card is nowhere close to disappearing: Cardmarket still has 6,403 copies of the only printing. Pauper and Standard players are finding real uses for the one-mana artifact, making this confirmed demand with extremely deep supply.

This format was part of the play context.

Version-specific: compare the exact set, collector number, finish, treatment, and product source before trusting the move.