A most singular change has come upon the Pauper company, and it arrived not by gradual counsel but by a swift turning of the wind. Only a week past, the Wizards did pronounce that certain commons of the Zeta set should have no place in Pauper’s lists. Now, with equal quick decision, that sentence has been set aside, and ten of twelve such cards stand welcomed into the format’s bosom.
Wizards Speaks on the First Ruling
The original ruling was plain enough in its severity: no card moved to common rarity within Zeta would be legal for Pauper. Gavin Verhey, who bears the title of Principal Game Designer and speaks for both Wizards and the Pauper Format Panel, has since offered explanation. He confesses that in the usual course, such a change reflects deliberate design, a calculated bestowing of power. But with Zeta, he insists, no such intention existed—neither Wizards nor the Panel ever meant these twelve to enter Pauper’s company at all.
Players Make Their Voices Heard
Yet a format, Verhey reminds us, is not the sole property of its makers. Pauper belongs, he says, to the community that plays it, and that community spoke with uncommon force. The outcry following last week’s ruling against these cards was not faint murmuring but a loud demand for their admission, tempered only by the players’ own acknowledgment that swift remedy must follow should any card prove ruinous to the format’s health.
Ten Welcomed, Two Refused
So it is that ten of the twelve commons appearing for the first time in Secret Lair: The Zeta Set shall be granted legality in Pauper, though held upon a very short tether indeed—any sign of trouble shall bring immediate action.
Two cards remain barred from the gate.
Narcomoeba and Price of Progress have been singled out for refusal, Wizards declaring that each would fold with dreadful ease into archetypes already possessed of formidable strength. To loose either into Pauper’s arrangement would be to hand fearful advantage to strategies requiring no further aid.
Monday, September 7 Draws Near
The change is not immediate mischief but a matter of calendar. Beginning Monday, September 7, the ten approved commons shall enter Pauper’s legal ranks in due form, free for use in sanctioned play. Wizards has published a fuller statement upon the matter, for those eager to know more particulars.
What comes forth from this affair is a portrait of a format caught between design intention and the community’s will, and of a governing body willing, at least this once, to bend before the latter. Whether the ten admitted cards prove a blessing or a burden to Pauper’s order remains a question only the coming months of play can answer.
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