Common Ground MtG Pauper Podcast
A Magic The Gathering podcast focused on the best (and our favorite) format: Pauper! Tune in every Thursday for metagame updates, tournament reports, lots of laughter, and interviews with members of the Pauper community!
Hosted by Cameron Schindler, Thomas Gunn, and James "Hippo" Hieronimus.
Episodes
120 episodes
Common Ground 119: Paupergeddon and Win-A-Dual Tournament Reviews
Welcome back Pauper fam! Paupergeddon Spring edition has come and gone and we have some really sweet decklists to look through! We also recap our experience at Game Knight's (#sponsored) Win-A-Dual tournament this past weekend, featuring a swee...
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Episode 119
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1:40:04
Common Ground 118: Shoebox Stories & Picking the Right Pauper Deck
Welcome back Pauper fam! Cameron and Hippo just got back from Shoebox and have some shenanigans and Cube stories to share with us!* There have also been some shenanigans afoot with these new Turtles cards and some combos have started to emerge....
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Episode 118
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1:29:47
Common Ground 117: Lessons from Limited with Sam Snodgrass
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we invite our friend and Limited crusher Sam Snodgrass onto the show. Known as snodz on MTGO, Sam has consistently been at the top of the draft trophy leaderboard for the better part of a year and had a deep r...
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Episode 117
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1:28:25
Common Ground 116: Returning to the Gardens - Control in Pauper 2.0
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we return to the control archetype to go over some updates to the more long-form decks of the format and how they line up against the metagame that exists today. Gardens has seen a resurgence online as Rally o...
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Episode 116
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1:16:10
Common Ground 115: Teenage Mutant Pauper Turtles
Welcome back Pauper fam! It's TMNT spoiler time and even though we're not the biggest fans of this set, there are still plenty of cool Pauper cards to discuss. Will pizzas take over the meta? Is Cast Down stock at an all-time low? We chat about...
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Episode 115
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1:31:37
Common Ground 114: A Menu of Metagames - Pauper Data Analysis with Ryan Adams
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we're joined by our friend Ryan Adams to discuss how to assess different metagames in Pauper using data analysis in new and creative ways. It's not just about winrate and matchups; how granular can we get when...
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Episode 114
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1:42:00
Common Ground 113: Organizing Your Local Pauper League with Ethan from Pauper PNW
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week Cameron and Thomas sit down with Ethan from Pauper Pacific Northwest (Pauper PNW) to chat about how we've each worked to build up our local Pauper scenes and how Pauper PNW has built out the Cascadia Pauper Ci...
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Episode 113
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1:20:51
Common Ground 112: Spying Some Great Results at the 3rd Common Ground Cup Pauper $2k featuring Champion Michael Modena
Welcome back Pauper fam! The 3rd Common Ground Cup is in the books and y'all showed up in a BIG way to make it the best one yet! 80 Pauper players came to do battle and win their share of $2000. Between handling coverage, watching the action, a...
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Episode 112
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1:32:31
Common Ground 111: CGCup 3 Pre-Show Episode featuring Tristan Aita (SoIMBAGallade)
Welcome back Pauper fam! It's Common Ground Cup time once again and we're all very excited to bring you another great event! We invited our friend Tristan Aita (SoIMBAGallade on MTGO) to join us in the commentary booth this time around so he jo...
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Episode 111
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1:34:14
Common Ground 110: Diving Into Pauper as a New Player with Jonathan Collins AKA Brute
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we sat down with local friend and Discord regular Jonathan Collins (aka Brute) for a laidback discussion and storytime episode, mostly centered around Jonathan's first constructed Magic experience being compet...
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Episode 110
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1:16:10
Common Ground 109: there are plenty of playable pauper cards in lorwyn eclipsed
Welcome back Pauper fam! It's once again time for a new set and the bois have picked out a small selection of commons that they think might find some amount of shine in the Pauper format. Lorwyn Eclipsed looks to be a beautiful and flavorful se...
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Episode 109
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1:12:53
Common Ground 108: New Year, New Pauper?
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we're solidly into 2026 which means it's time to take stock of the Pauper format to see where we're starting things off this time around. Menaces of the last year remain at the very top of the metagame but the...
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Episode 108
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1:21:51
Common Ground 107: Ringing in the New Year with a Pauper Mailbag
Welcome back Pauper fam! Happy New Year! To celebrate 2026 y'all showed up big time with plenty of questions for us to answer, so much so that we'll have to do another one in the near future! We hope your year is full of joy and we're incredibl...
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Episode 107
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1:12:07
Common Ground 106: 2025 Pauper Review with Kalikaiz
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we invite Jake AKA Kalikaiz AKA saidenraiken on MTGO to join us once again for an end of the year review of the Pauper format, detailing the cards that stood out from each set release and how the format shifte...
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Episode 106
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1:50:31
Common Ground 105: Mirror Matches in Pauper
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week the boys answer an email prompt (thank you Skye!) and dive into the dynamics of mirror matches, both in terms of general heuristics and for a number of specific Pauper archetypes. We hope you enjoy this in-dep...
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Episode 105
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1:45:21
Common Ground 104: Eternally Grateful for Paupergeddon
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week Cameron and Hippo dissect the results from last weekend's Paupergeddon at the European Eternal Weekend. It was a diverse metagame with some splashy results and overall we think a good place for the meta to be ...
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Episode 104
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51:25
Common Ground 103: How Hasbro's Direction Led to Pauper's Renaissance with Zach Geraets
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week Cameron and Thomas sat down with returning guest (and Common Ground Cup 2 Champion) Zach Geraets to discuss how Hasbro and WotC's relationship with Magic and design has changed over the last few years and what...
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Episode 103
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1:48:08
Common Ground 102: Is Pauper Still "Legacy Light"? with Carson Bispels
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we sit down with our good friend and local Legacy advocate Carson Bispels to chat about the age-old Pauper label of "Legacy Light". It's a great conversation about card and gameplay comparisons, plus insight o...
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Episode 102
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1:27:27
Common Ground 101: The Tide Goes Out, plus Avatar Spoilers
Welcome back Pauper fam! Well, the dust has settled and the PFP has decided that High Tide should return to the banlist. We spend the first half of this week's show discussing this decision and the reasoning explained in Gavin's article. The re...
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Episode 101
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1:13:31
Common Ground 100: 100 Things We Love About Pauper
Welcome back Pauper fam! For the big 100th episode we wanted to celebrate Pauper with 100 of our favorite interactions and things we love about the format. There are so many cool things to do in Pauper and one of them also happens to be strolli...
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Episode 100
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1:52:53
Common Ground 99: The Bant Terror Episode
Welcome back Pauper fam! It's finally time. You've all been wondering it and now we have the decklists to prove that Bant Terror can be more than just a meme! All three co-hosts brewed their own lists with some spicy includes. As much as this i...
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Episode 99
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57:14
Common Ground 98: CubeCon 2025
Welcome back Pauper fam! Or should we say, Cube fam? It's that time of year again: The CubeCon 2025 Recap Episode! This time around we had SEVEN people in the room to record and Thomas was the only one who wasn't in Madison last weekend! There ...
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Episode 98
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3:06:33
Common Ground 97: What's Paupin'? Checking In with the Post-SpooderMan Pauper Metagame
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we take a look at the Pauper format in broad terms to discuss the current top decks, why new or returning decks are seeing success, and the impact that the SpiderMan cards have had on the format. It's a more l...
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Episode 97
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1:05:08
Common Ground 96: The Boomer Cube! CubeCon Primer with Ana Paterson
Welcome back Pauper fam! It's time for another Cube episode! This week, we invited our dear friend Ana Paterson onto the show to talk about her cube "The Vintage Cube Retirement Home" (aka The Boomer Cube) which has been selected for the main e...
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Episode 96
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1:39:49
Common Ground 95: Wild Hippo Alert at MagicCon Atlanta
Welcome back Pauper fam! Hippo has returned from Atlanta to tell us all about his adventures at MagicCon! Several friends (and one alum!) of the pod did very well in the Pauper Cup, congratulations to all! Cameron also updates us on his first t...
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Episode 95
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1:08:55