The holidays are over and it is time to get our next league event going. I hope you guys enjoyed a merry Yule and are ready for some Magic mayhem.

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Now let’s talk about our next league!

Community League #8: Format and Rules

I thought it would be fun to try something different for this league, and I’m not sure what could be more different than Pauper Commander. Commander, also known as EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) is a singleton format with 100-card lists and a “Commander” card to lead your armies.

About the Format

Build decks using the “Commander” format in MTGO. Here are the official rules and banlist for Commander and a link with additional information on the format. Commander uses the Vintage card pool. We are playing 1v1 so Duel Commander bans apply as well.

These Commanders are banned: [c]Derevi, Empyrial Tactician[/c], [c]Edric, Spymaster of Trest[/c], [c]Erayo, Soratami Ascendant[/c], [c]Oloro, Ageless Ascetic[/c], [c]Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary[/c], [c]Zur the Enchanter[/c].

Pauper Commander, the way we will play it, differs from regular Commander in that while your Commander may be of any rarity all of the other cards in your deck must be commons. We will not be using the Pauper banned list for this event.

We will be enforcing the “printed as a common in an online set” restriction, however, which means no [c]Sinkhole[/c], no [c]Desert[/c], and no [c]Hymn to Tourach[/c]. Basically set your rarity filter in your MTGO collections page to “Common” and go from there.

This is a singleton format. The only cards you can have more than one copy of in your lists are basic lands and [c]Shadowborn Apostle[/c]s. We will be playing matches (best 2 games out of 3) and 1v1.

Registration is open now and closes in on Friday, January 22.

To sign up, provide your MTGO username, your real name (or preferred pseudonym), and your time zone down in the comments below.

I will post the first pairings on January 22 and will also send out an email with contact information. I try very hard NOT to send people lots of emails. It is up to you to keep track on the site and get in touch with your opponents promptly. After that, you will have to check the site for your next pairings, which will go up on Friday each week. It will be up to each participant to contact their opponent by email to set up their match for the week. Don’t wait for your opponents contact you; be proactive!

For this event I am going to be very strict concerning players that don’t communicate well. If your opponent says they are having a hard time getting in touch with you, and you don’t respond to my follow-up email in a timely fashion, your opponent will get the win for that week and you may be removed from the event. Check your email, respond to your email, email your opponents, email me. Short notes are fine, but KEEP IN TOUCH!

We will play 4-5 weeks of Swiss and then cut to top 8 with the goal to finish the league by the end of February.

League Rules

1. Pauper Commander uses the Vintage card pool and while your Commander may be any rarity all of the rest of the cards in your deck must be considered “common” in MTGO.

2. Duels will be 1v1 and fought in matches best 2 out of 3. You get 3 points for a match win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. A BYE counts as a win. Set your match timers for 40 minutes.

3. We will use Challonge to track this event since it worked well last time. It is the responsibility of the winner to report their win. Report by the end of Thursday each week.

4. Communicate early and often. I will only send out the one email with all your contact information. Don’t lose it! Get in touch by email (it is much more effective than waiting around on MTGO). If no one communicates with each other or with me, that week’s pairing will be considered a draw and one or both players may be removed from the league. If one person is attempting to communicate and the other person is not, they should let me know. I will attempt to solve issues when I can, but when that doesn’t work out, the person who is trying to communicate will always get the win. Don’t wait until the last minute.

5. After the initial email all official league announcements will happen here on the site. You can always stay up to date with the link on the home page or by keeping tabs on the Events page. You can also get updates by liking us on Facebook or following me on Twitter @bava_mtg.

6. We’ll play 4-5 weeks of Swiss and then cut to Top 8. The league will end by February 28.

7. You can drop at any time. Please let me know if you’d like to drop before the next week’s pairings go up. You will always be welcomed back into subsequent league events.

8. Chat about the league or share lists over in our forums.

9. Contact me if you have any questions.

League Prizes

MagicGatheringStrat is proud to list Cardhoarder as an official sponsor of all our events going forward. Cardhoarder has been serving the MTGO community since 2005, and with new ownership since 2014 has shown renewed vigor to improve the way they serve their customers and create innovation in the MTGO community.

I have personally switched all of my singles purchases for MTGO from MTGOTraders to Cardhoarder and have had a top-notch experience. I highly recommend them. Shop online or use their bots by searching for #cardhoarder in the Trade screen.



Thank you to Cardhoarder for sponsoring this event.

Buy MTGO singles at Cardhoarder.com or through their bot network.

We are happy to welcome additional sponsors or donations to the prize pool. If you’re interested, please get in touch.

The winner of this event will receive 35 bot credits from Cardhoarder.

Second place will receive 15 bot credits from Cardhoarder.

In addition, the best-ranking patron in the league will receive 10 tickets from me personally. This will be in addition to any prizes already won by placing first or second in the event.

The winning patron will have to have been in good standing for at least one month, so go sign up now if you haven’t already!

I will double the prize payouts (with tickets) if we reach Patreon support of $300 by the end of January and maintain it through the end of the event.

Sign up below

To sign up, provide your MTGO username, your real name (or preferred pseudonym), and your time zone down in the comments below.