As one of my recent articles stated, Pauper will be the next format to get a league. We will be adding this league with the November 25 downtime! It will continue have the same entry options, prizes, and structure as the Standard and Modern leagues that exist now. You can see the bottom of this post for full details.



Along with this change, we will be removing the Pauper 8-player queues and daily events. The 2-player queues will remain available.

Why remove these events? We believe that leagues are the best way to have a multiple-match experience, with little wait times between matches and the ability to play those matches over time at your convenience. We believe Pauper players in a league rather than in the 8-player queues and daily events offerings will also improve the experience for those players as well as increase the league’s size so better and faster matchmaking occurs.

Why are we keeping the 2-player queue? It has a very low entry option, and it doesn’t lock you in a deck for multiple matches, so it’s great for easy testing to see what deck you like or if you have your deck configured quite right, which is an experience leagues don’t provide.

Increasingly, we plan to move in the direction of offering less queue and scheduled event experiences and shifting more play to leagues generally, not just for Pauper. These changes on November 25 make Pauper the leader for this shift. We will also be looking at expanding which league structures are offered as we proceed step by step down this path.

That doesn’t mean there is no room for scheduled events as we know some players prefer to compete in larger events with a lot of prizes for players who finish very well. The Power Nine Challenge event was very impressive for Vintage, and we are looking into offering a similar for Pauper and Legacy as well, though there is nothing to announce at this time.

Here are the full details:

League Start: Wednesday, November 25, after the downtime

League Closes: Monday, January 26 at 10am Pacific

League Ends: Wednesday, January 28 at 4am Pacific

Location: Play Lobby -> Constructed -> Leagues

Entry Options:

8 Event Tickets



80 Play Points



Size: There is a minimum of 32 players, and a maximum of 2000 players.

Structure: Up to five matches

Format: Pauper

Prizes:

5 wins: 2 Battle for Zendikar boosters, 150 Play Points, 3 Qualifier Points



2 boosters, 150 Play Points, 3 Qualifier Points 4 wins: 1 Battle for Zendikar booster, 120 Play Points, 1 Qualifier Point



1 booster, 120 Play Points, 1 Qualifier Point 3 wins: 80 Play Points



80 Play Points 2 wins: 40 Play Points



40 Play Points 1 win: 20 Play Points



20 Play Points 0 wins: 10 Play Points



Pauper fans, I hope you all enjoy the league!

- Lee