Magic designers want to support Pauper and Premodern — but there’s a catch

Younger Magic: The Gathering players might not remember the origins of the game’s most popular format, Commander. It began in a small local gaming community in Alaska (or, as others claim, in an article published in The Duelist) as Elder Dragon Highlander, as it was originally called. It was a different way of playing Magic that involved using a larger-than-usual deck of single-copy cards. Thanks to Sheldon Menery, a competitive Magic judge and an important figure on the international Magic Pro Tour, the format attracted more attention and, notably, that of Wizards of the Coast. Fast-forward to 2011, and the first official Magic Commander products appeared.

Nowadays, Commander is a staple of the Magic landscape and arguably the most popular way of playing the game. Looking outside the formats officially sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast, the contest for the most popular is probably between Pauper and Premodern. While they’re radically different, both have attracted a loyal community of casual and competitive players over the years. Of course, many have been wondering if this popularity has attracted Wizards of the Coast’s attention, specifically if Pauper or Premodern will ever go the way that Commander did and receive official support in some fashion.

Speaking with Magic lead designer Mark Rosewater and principal designer Gavin Verhey during MagicCon: Amsterdam 2026, as someone who enjoys playing both Pauper and Premodern, I just had to ask them the question: Will Wizards ever legitimize these formats?

In Pauper, the humblest Magic card can be a powerhouse

The rules for Pauper are simple: Cards are legal if they have ever been printed at a common rarity at any point in the history of Magic, no matter the product. For everything else, the format follows the standard 60-card constructed rules. The flagship Pauper event, Paupergeddon, gathered 1,069 players in Lucca, Italy. Because all of the cards used are commons, Pauper is more accessible price-wise than just about every other format, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a low-powered way to play the game.

Some of the strongest common Magic cards in history — like Counterspell, Brainstorm, and Lightning Bolt — are legal in Pauper, along with the infamous artifact lands from Mirrodin. Some Pauper decks can close the game on turn three with powerful combos or unchecked aggression, while others accrue an absurd amount of resources through card draw.

Pauper also has the advantage of already having one foot in the door in terms of being an official format. It’s officially recognized by Wizards of the Coast (while it’s not part of the competitive circuit), which issues bans regularly. The Pauper Format Panel, founded by Gavin Verhey in 2022, discusses the state of the format and provides advice and recommendations.

“It’s one of my favorite ways to play Magic,” Verhey told Polygon. “It has become an official format in Magic terms, but speaking of large qualifying-level events, or official precon decks, that’s harder to say. But I would love that. I’d love to be able to just give players a full deck to get started. And the format is super diverse. So if you never played it, go give it a try, and maybe someday we’ll get there.”

Premodern is the ultimate nostalgia format

Image: Wizards of the Coast/Jesper Myrfords

If you’ve played Magic long enough, there’s a good chance that you often look back to the past with rose-tinted glasses. This is normal in a game that keeps evolving and publishing new products at a very fast rate. Among the few Magic formats that are built entirely around that nostalgia feeling, one has been gathering steam recently: Premodern.

Created in 2012 by Martin Berlin, Premodern sits at the intersection between the Old School and Modern formats. It includes all the sets from Fourth Edition to Scourge, and it has a dedicated banlist. The idea of Premodern is to give a home to iconic cards that don’t see play in other formats, but over time, it has grown and assumed a strong identity. If your first experiences with Magic date back to the late 1990s or early 2000s (too late to find a random Black Lotus in your collection!), then Premodern will likely push the right buttons for you. One notable aspect is that many tournaments (but not all of them) allow for the use of proxy cards to accommodate the high prices of the format’s best cards, which have started going even higher since Premodern became more famous after being featured on Magic: The Gathering Online.

Premodern doesn’t have any official ties with Wizards of the Coast, and it also sits in a trickier spot than Pauper, due to some Premodern cards being on the infamous Restricted List. If there is a person who knows whether there is a path for Premodern to become an official format, that’s Mark Rosewater. “We like to enable players to do the things they enjoy,” Rosewater said during our MagicCon interview. “And the real question is: ‘Is there anything we can do as a company that furthers the format?’ Unfortunately, it’s hard for us to do anything for Premodern. We can’t give you more cards.”

Image: Wizards of the Coast

This is the issue with formats that are based on a “locked” card pool. The only way that Wizards has to contribute to it would be through reprints, and that’s a tricky point. “Not that we don’t want to promote it, or we don’t want people to play it,” Rosewater said. “Maybe we could do some reprints. And we are actively looking for the best ways to get more reprints out there. But there are a lot of challenges. Reprints are a resource that we have to divide between lots and lots of products, so it’s hard to do one product that’s 100% reprints.”

What about making a new product that’s in the spirit of Premodern? There’s always the possibility to print a new set that goes all-in on nostalgia, both in terms of visuals and card design. “Let’s say we made new cards for Premodern,” Rosewater said. “Doesn’t that fly in the face of what Premodern is? The whole point is to represent a slice of history. Even if we try to design things in the spirit of what that time was, I don’t know if that violates the mere essence of what the format is.”

Will Pauper or Premodern become official Magic formats?

While Pauper is already technically an official format in terms of product support, players will have to keep waiting and show up to Pauper events to convince Wizards that there’s enough demand for them. Regarding Premodern, Rosewater teased that there are some dedicated reprints coming, and that the company is at least aware of the popularity of the format, but Premodern’s “fixed” nature makes it hard for Wizards to do something concrete for it.