Competitive Magic: The Gathering often gets a bad rap due to the high costs that decks tend to demand. While formats like Modern and Legacy feature tight and engaging gameplay, numerous high preforming deck prices can be hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

However, the Pauper format is specifically designed to ail these financial burdens, being a format comprised entirely of cards that have been printed at the common rarity. While some may initially disregard the format due to notions that the format may be a watered down version of Magic, Pauper remains a competitive format that shares a great deal in common with Legacy.

As there’s no better time to get into Pauper than the present, we’re going to evaluate ten affordable Pauper decks that can be built for under one-hundred dollars, so you can start playing Pauper!

10 Mono-Red Burn

Pauper’s iteration of mono-red burn is as streamlined as they come, and has a great deal of similarities with burn decks found in both Modern and Legacy.

As Pauper legal cards only are required to have been printed at the common rarity at least once, incredibly powerful burn spells such as the iconic Lightning Bolt are used in the deck. Furthermore, there are numerous other burn spells for one red mana such as Rift Bolt that can function as additional copies of Bolt.

To top it all off,  the deck even runs Fireblast, a burn spell that can close out a game by dealing four damage to any target for zero mana as long as its controller sacrifices two mountains.

9 Tron

“Urzatron” or “Tron” for short is a deck archetype synonymous with competitive Magic. A strategy that utilizes Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Tower, and Urza’s Powerplant in order to create large sums of mana. This mana can be used to produce impactful and costly threats as early as turn three.

As these “Urza lands” are each legal in Pauper, Tron is a strong contender within the format’s meta.

8 Affinity

Affinity is an immensely powerful ability that reduces the mana cost of cards possessing the ability by the number of artifacts controlled by that spell’s owner.

Pauper Affinity is an extremely fine tuned deck that is capable of using the impressive “Artifact Lands” that were so powerful in Affinity-based strategies that they were banned out of Modern.

Stockpiling numerous spells with Affinity such as Frogmite and Myr Enforcer, these cards can often be cast without their controllers needing to pay a single mana. Paired with Atogs that can convert artifacts into immediate damage, you Affinity becomes one of the most dominant decks in Pauper.

7 Dimir Delver

An incredibly versatile option for a Pauper Control deck, Dimir Delver utilizes numerous strong removal options alongside two of the most iconic creatures in the format: Delver of Secrets and Gurmag Angler.

Both Delver of Secrets and Gurmag Angler each have the capabilities of being large threats in their own right, and can each hypothetically be cast for a single mana. Pairing potent and undercosted creatures with effective control options makes this deck both flexible and adaptable.

6 Elves

Perhaps the strongest tribal deck in Pauper, the Pauper iteration of Elves is able to deliver tight and classic elf gameplay reminiscent of that within Modern.

Using numerous elves that tap for additional mana and elves that can increase the power of those in one’s ranks, Pauper elves make great use of the card Distant Melody. Distant Melody is a sorcery that allows its controller to chose a creature type, then drawing an amount of cards equal to the number of creatures of that type they control. When working in conjunction with the massive amount of mana elves can produce, Distant Melody can allow an elf player to cast an overwealming drove of elves in a single turn.

5 Mono-Black Control

Mono-black decks are a cornerstone of the Pauper format, utilizing a blend of creatures, instants, and sorceries to deny opponents of their creatures whilst slowly draining them of their health.

Between cards like Chittering Rats and Gray Merchant of Asphodel, mono-black control decks are capable of draining the life from opponents at astonishing rates. Additionally, there have been a plethora of effective black removal spells printed at the common rarity, allowing for cards such as Defile and Victim of Night to be used to take out any major threats that an opponent may employ.

4 Bogles

Utilizing affordable creatures that are nearly impossible to remove due to their hexproof, Bogles decks suit up these resilient creatures with potent auras.

Bogle decks are hard for nearly any other deck to deal with, as Slippery Bogle, Gladecover Scout, and Silhana Ledgewalker provide redundancy that allows the deck to always have access to targets for their auras.

When it comes to these auras, Bogles has access to cards such as Rancor which can constantly steamroll opponents creatures with +2/+0 and trample, and Ethereal Armor which provides the equipped creature with +1/+1 for each enchantment under its owner’s control.

3 Stompy

Few strategies are as iconic as those found within mono-green Stompy decks. Stompy decks are aggressive creature-focused lists that seek to turn their creatures sideways and continuously attack their opponents.

Pauper happens to be the home of an exceptionally powerful Stompy deck that uses many creatures that pass the “vanilla test” with flying colors, entering the battlefield with stats that outweigh their mana costs. Paired with powerful cards such as the previously mentioned Rancor, and Stompy is a relentlessly aggressive deck for those who love to attack with creatures.

2 Pestilence

As the name would suggest, Pestilence decks are built around the card pestilence, which allows its controller to pay any amount of mana in order to deal that much damage to each creature and each player.

As the effect of Pestilence is universal and often repeated, Pestilence decks contain significant amounts of life-gain, ensuring that the Pestilence player will have life to spare, while their opponent succumbs to the damage it deals.

1 Mono-White Heroic

Heroic is a mechanic that provides a creature targeted by a spell or ability with an immediate benefit, often in the form of +1/+1 counters.

Mono-White Heroic is an excellent option for those seeking to play an aggressive and affordable pauper deck. Using Lagonna-Band Trailblazer and Akroan Skyguard, the deck is capable of attacking early whilst growing its smaller threats over the course of a game due to their useful heroic triggers.

NEXT: Ranked: The Most Useless Red Commanders In Magic: The Gathering