Editor’s Note: The December 4 banned and restricted announcement has been released.
Pioneer and Modern won’t be the only Magic: The Gathering formats to see changes on Monday. Gavin Verhey, Principal Magic Designer at Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and member of the Pauper Format Panel, posted on X that Pauper will also have a ban list update.
Verhey noted that in addition to the update to the ban list for Pauper, there will also be a Good Morning Magic video on YouTube and an article on Daily MTG that breaks down the decisions in more detail.
While the Pauper Format Panel weighs in on the health of the format periodically, usually in video form on the Good Morning Magic channel, it has been a while since the last Pauper bannings. The last update to the Pauper ban list came in September of 2022 when four creatures featuring the initiative mechanic (Aarakocra Sneak, Stirring Bard, Underdark Explorer, and Vicious Battlerager) were removed from the format.
The Pauper ban list update will join Pioneer and Modern as formats that will see a significant shakeup on Monday following the Weekly MTG stream that confirmed changes were coming to the two popular non-rotating formats.