Commander Variants

Barrins Codex Card Art

Magic has many formats—and ways to tweak them. Commander is one of the most popular formats, and today I look at two variants of it: Pauper and Peasant Commander.

"Pauper" and "Peasant" are terms used in Magic when players restrict the eligible card pool in a given format to cards printed at common (pauper) or uncommon (peasant) rarity. The goals are to 1) make it more affordable/accessible, and 2) force players to explore options by playing less powerful cards they would otherwise ignore. 

In regular Commander, you have:

- 1 legendary creature (any rarity) that is your Commander and sets the color identity for the deck

- 99 other cards (any rarities)

- 40 life

For peasant and pauper variants, there are no official rules so variations on the below exist, but I present common options here:

Peasant Commander:

- 1 legendary creature (any rarity) that is your Commander and sets the color identity for the deck

- 99 other cards (up to 15 uncommons; the rest commons)

- start with 40 life

Pauper Commander:

- 1 legendary creature (common or uncommon only) that is your Commander and sets the color identity for the deck

- 99 other cards (commons only)

- start with 30 life

I've blended the two to make my own variant (let's call it "Yeoman" Commander):

- 1 legendary creature (uncommon only) that is your Commander and sets the color identity for the deck

- 99 other cards (uncommons or commons only; no limit to uncommons)

- start with 40 life

- thematic (instead of functional) focus

A note on rarity: any card that was every printed at uncommon or common can be considered. Rarity shifts happen in Magic, so what is now (or once was) a rare may have changed.

My recent mission has been making two-color Yeoman Commander decks in all 10 color combinations. Restricting the card pool to commons and uncommons has been a fun experience. Here are the eligible commanders for each color combo, with numbers afterwards showing the current options as of this writing:

- WU (23)

- UB (30)

- BR (29)

- RG (27)

- WB (20)

- WR (23)

- WG (28)

- UR (20)

- UG (19)

- BG (18)

Check out this (and other) format variations—or dream up your own. Tweaking the game, even mildly, can have some unexpected and fun results.