2025 was a fantastic year for MTG Pauper here at the shop in Livonia, Michigan. We’d like to begin by thanking everybody who played and/or worked behind the scenes to make the Pauper Championship Series & 2025 Pauper Invitational a success.
We are also pleased to announce the RIW Championship Series & Invitational will return in 2026 with some exciting new changes, more events, more opportunities to score points, and even BIGGER prizes!
Before we jump into the 2025 Invitational Recap let’s first take a quick moment to explain what the RIW Pauper Invitational Championship Series is and how it works for new players interested in joining the Series in 2026.
All of our 2026 MTG Pauper Tournaments (Weekly and Major Events) award “RIW Pauper Points” (in addition to other prizing), we tally and track everybody’s point totals all year until December when the Top 16 point leaders all qualify for the RIW Pauper Invitational Tournament. Additionally, all players who earn at least 1 point over the course of the year qualify to play in a Free Entry Pauper Event on Pauper Invitational Weekend in December.
Basically, earning RIW Pauper Points throughout the year nets a player bonus rewards on Invitational Weekend next December.
Where and when are the 2026 RIW Pauper Championship Series events taking place?
You can join the game and play in the series at RIW Hobbies & Games all year round!
RIW HOBBIES & GAMES
29571 FIVE MILE ROAD
LIVONIA, MICHIGAN
48154
We host a weekly Pauper Tournament EVERY Wednesday evening starting at 6PM. As a show of thanks for all the Pauper Community support in 2025, RIW is sweetening the pot, both in terms of prize payout and opportunities to earn Pauper Points, every week.
In addition to Weekly Weds Night Pauper, the RIW Pauper Championship Series will also feature eight additional Major Events to be held on the following dates:
Similarly to how we’ve reworked the point payouts for the weekly events, we’ve also rebalanced and scaled how points are awarded in the Major events for next year.
Last, but certainly not least, let’s talk about what’s on the line for next year’s 2026 RIW Pauper Championship Series Invitational and let’s start with a $5000 cash prize pool for Top 16. Here’s the breakdown:
Let’s also not forget that players who earn at least one point over the year are invited to join in the Pauper action on Invitational Day (December 5th) in the form of a Free-to-Play Pauper Event where players receive a pack for each round they win.
Basically, we took all of the best elements of the 2025 RIW Pauper Championship Series & Invitational and are running them back! We also listened to player feedback about things that could be improved or built upon and have tried our best to take those suggestions into advisement in order to make 2026 the best MTG Pauper Experience possible for the players of all levels of experience.
2025 RIW PAUPER INVITATIONAL RECAP
We ran our 1st annual Pauper Invitational last weekend and it was a fantastic day of expert level Pauper gameplay.
After a full year of Tournaments, and after all the dust had settled on the 2025 Pauper Season, here’s how the leaderboard looked heading into Invitational Weekend:
Invitational Participants and Decklists
1. Nick Norman, 31 Points
Golgari Gardens
More than double the points of the next highest player…? Nick put together a heck of a year playing Pauper and was the undeniable frontrunner to win the Invitational this year with his signature deck, Gardens.
2. Josh Bouse, 14 Points
Jund Wildfire
Weeklies matter! Josh was the player with the most 4-0s in weeklies with a total of 10! Not only that, Josh was also well known for always playing different decks to get those wins including Gruul Monsters, Caw Gates, Mono Blue Faeries and Dredge.
3. Jason Golembiewski, 13 Points
Mono Black Sacrifice
Jason is always keeping everyone on their toes with his twists on decks. Every deck he plays takes a lot of game actions and buries his opponents with the value his decks produce. It came as no surprise that a player as detailed as Jason made a run to make it to the Invitational.
4. Bryan Goethals, 12 points
X Land Spy
Bryan has been a mainstay of our weekly events all season and it was fantastic to see him clinch a spot in the invitational by WINNING the last major event of the 2025 season. Bryan played a few decks throughout the year but it seems like his twist on Spy worked well for him over the last couple of months of the season.
5. Jonah Potter, 12 Points
Mono Red Pingers
Mono Red Pingers??? Jonah was seen at events always playing Mono Blue Terror so the change to Pingers for the Invitational came as a surprise. With a win and a Top 16 finish Jonah was sure to take advantage of the NRG partnership to punch his ticket to the Invitational.
6. Michael Antrim, 12 Points
Turbo Fog
Did somebody order a “Fog Machine…?”
Michael has long been an Eternal expert and mainstay of the weekly Pauper events here at the shop. Much to the dismay of opponents who prefer a quick match – Antrim brought the deck that he’s best known for playing: TURBO FOG!!!
7. Aaron Ziaja, 11 Points
Rally Red
Much like mentioned above about Bryan Goethals, Aaron was a late addition to the leaderboard by stringing together a few 4-0s at weeklies and making it to the finals of the last event. Aaron has come a long way in his time playing at RIW by picking a deck and fine tuning it to the local meta. Aaron took the Rally Red deck and made it his own with things like mainboard Sylvok Lifestaff for the mirror.
8. Nicholas Sobczak, 10 Points
Rally Red
It doesn’t matter the format, Nicholas is one of the most accomplished Red Mages in the midwest… No shocker to see him sleeve up Mountains and make a deep run in the main event.
9. Raja Sulaiman, 10 Points
Dimir Control 
Raja has racked up quite a collection of high level finishes on the NRG and Professional Circuit and cemented his reputation as one of the strongest and most accomplished Magicians in the midwest.
One Shot → Bullseye! Raja earned his invite by winning the second Major event of 2025 and decided to run back the deck that got him there, Dimir Control (with one of his favorite cards, Augur of Bolas).
10. Bobby Fine, 9 Points
Azorius Familiars
Bobby started his run to the Invitational with a Top 8 finish at our PEDH event in July. After getting points and hearing about the series he made the drive from the Indianapolis area to participate in our remaining larger events. It was nice to see someone from out of town make such an effort to participate and Bobby fit right in with everyone else at these events.
11. Christopher Shavers, 8 Points
Dimir Faeries
Much like Raja, Chris punched his ticket by participating and finishing in the finals of a single event. Prior to this year you would see Chris every week playing his Dimir Terror deck. Glad that he could make it out to participate even if he can’t make it out to all the weeklies.
12. Ethan Kolby, 8 Points
Grixis Affinity
Ethan is a member of the Midwest MTG Discord, a Discord created for players to collaborate and compete in all forms of competitive Magic so it makes sense that he made the finals on the NRG side event in Lansing to make his way into the Invitational. He played Grixis at that event and decided to run it back for the Invitational.
13. Michael Russo, 8 Points
White Weenie
Russo has been a fixture and influential player in the RIW Metagame all season long and it was great to see him earn a spot in the Top 16 playing his signature deck, White Weenie.
14. Nikolas Frost, 8 Points
Simic Petitioners
Nick is known to play interesting brews at weeklies. Usually at larger events you will see Nick playing meta decks but he has proven you can play a mix of brews and meta decks and still make your way to the “big leagues”.
15. Cameron Sumner, 6 Points
Altar Tron
Cam was one of our two players that got invites passed down after some other participants could not attend. Although the invite was passed down the invite was well deserved. Cam has been finishing well in Pauper events basically as long as RIW has been hosting them.
16. Dustyn Nogueria, 6 Points
4 Land Spy
Dustyn was the second player to accept a passed down invite. He punched his ticket by getting a Top 4 finish in our first major event and a Top 8 finish in the NRG Team Trios event. Although he mentioned he went 1-5 in the Pauper seat at that NRG event Dustyn is a formidable opponent yielding from the “Great White North” and can be seen doing well at NRG events as well as events in the Canadian MTG circuits.
Notably, congratulations to Nick Norman who put together an absolutely dominant performance all year long and earned the distinction of becoming the 2025 Point Leader!
In addition to his other Invitational prizes, Nick also took home the RIW Pauper Point Leader Card which grants him Free Entry to EVERY weekly Pauper event held at RIW Hobbies & Games in 2026 – a tradition that will continue for the upcoming 2026 season.
It was quite a varied field. The 16 players who qualified played a total of 14 different decks! It really speaks to the quality and diversity of the Pauper format right now that so many different archetypes were selected by an extremely experienced field of Pauper competitors.
The only two archetypes that were selected by overlapping participants were Rally Red and Spy Combo (which, SPOILER ALERT! were the two archetypes that ended up meeting in the finals of the tournament…).
RIW PAUPER INVITATIONAL METAGAME BREAKDOWN
2x Spy, 13%
2x Rally Red, 13%
1x Azorius Familiars, 6%
1x Golgari Gardens, 6%
1x Jund Wildfire, 6%
1x Dimir Control , 6%
1x Mono Black Sacrifice, 6%
1x Dimir Faeries, 6%
1x Mono Red Pinger, 6%
1x Grixis Affinity, 6%
1x Simic Petitioners, 6%
1x White Weenie, 6%
1x Turbo Fog, 6%
1x Altar Tron, 6%
After 5 rounds of Swiss, we cut to a Top 8 Playoff.
There was no shortage of Pauper skill or experience in this Top 8. All of these players had a tremendous year in 2025 and capped it off with a Top 8 spot and a chance to take home the Invitational Championship.
Here’s how it played out…
When the smoke had cleared, and the final spell was slung, it was Dustyn who emerged victorious from the Feature Match Studio as the 2025 RIW Pauper Championship Series Invitational Champion!!!
Congratulations to Dustyn for becoming our first Pauper Invitational Champion and to all of the Invitational participants on their outstanding Pauper play all season long.
Additionally, we are also looking forward to streaming the Pauper Championship Series on Twitch in 2026. If you can’t join us for in store play, be sure to check out the action at twitch.tv/riwhobbies every Wednesday at 6PM as well as on the aforementioned dates for our Major Pauper events throughout the year.
“I’d like to thank the players and staff behind the scenes for a fun and exciting year of Pauper here at RIW Hobbies & Games. Congratulations to everybody who qualified for the 2025 Invitational and to our first annual Pauper Champion, Dustyn Nogueria. The leaderboard resets January 1st, we’ve increased the prizes and opportunities to score points, and are looking forward to seeing you all for another great year of Pauper in 2026I”
–Pam Willoughby, Owner RIW Hobbies & Games
