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Peasant in StandardBy VXF on March 14th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 10 CommentsIntroduction
Grimclaw Bats > Jitte. No really. Before we dive right into today's Peasant deck, let's have a look again at just how different Peasant decks are to Standard decks. Comparison between Peasant and Standard: Standard: any cards in the two most recent blocks and the most recent core set can be used. An exception to this rule is any cards that are banned by the DCI. Most tournament worthy cards are usually quite expensive, ranging from $5-$20 per card. Peasant in standard: same rules apply as Standard, with the following extra rules: 1. No rares are allowed in the deck. 2. Up to 4 uncommons are allowed per deck. 3. The rest must all be commons. The rarity is determined by the most recent legal set in the Standard environment that the card belongs to. For example, Gifts of Estate can be used as it is an uncommon in 9th edition, even though prior to 9th, it was a rare in Portal 1. Deck types in Peasant: Keep in mind that while Standard decks can have a range of strategies (aggro, combo etc), strategies are severely limited for Peasant decks, mostly because you are not able to use most game-swinging cards (restricting control eg Wrath) and also cards with interesting abilities (restricting combo eg. Enduring Ideal). Think of Peasant magic as a more concentrated form of drafting, without the occasional bomb but with more efficient limited staple cards. Because most Peasant decks can't depend on game-winning single cards, it really becomes a race against your opponent to see if you can kill him before he builds up enough defenses. While this strategy isn't particularly effective in Blue, White or Green, Black and Red both have the creatures and the support cards to follow this strategy quite well. Which leads us to our first deck:
Card Analysis: Beatdown + mini Dimir Machinations Creatures that have a second ability: 4 Bile Urchin 4 Thoughtpicker Witch 4 Ravenous Rats 2 Raving Oni-Slave Bile Urchin is a quick one-two damage before your opponent even gets started. Even if they manage to kill it, it can still sacrifice for one more point of life. Thoughpicker Witch is awesome when you have one or two spare mana and creatures in play that have big targets on their backs. Especially useful against control decks when they try to wipe the board. Ravenous Rats discards. Enough said. Raving Oni-Slave might not have a particularly good ability, but its 3/3 body is beefy and not easily killed. Just to play it safe, we're using 2 instead of a playset of 4. There's nothing worse than drawing two to three in your opening hand and having your opponent deal you 6 damage every time they kill ONE. Creatures with evasion: 4 Mourning Thrull 4 Nezumi Cutthroat 4 Foul Imp 4 Daggerclaw ImpCan't take on your opponent's beefy creatures? Not to worry! Flying and fear are great ways to get around ground stalls, because the longer the game goes the harder it becomes for you to win. Mourning Thrull is excellent when you're trying to race your opponent, especially if you're lucky enough to put an unholy strength on it  Though the Cutthroats and Daggerclaws can't block, the nature of this deck makes blocking largely irrelevant, as you're trying to push through as much damage as you can in the shortest amount of time possible. Foul imp is just a solid flying beater, and it's just fortunate that it was moved to the common slot in 9th Edition.Utility cards: 4 Unholy Strength 4 Last GaspYour opponents might be laughing at you when you play that Mourning Thrull turn two, but they'll be laughing on the other side of their faces when you enchant the Thrull with two Unholy Strengths on turn three and swing the life total by 10 points (+5 for you, -5 for them). Eat your heart out Kokusho, you overpriced, underplayed legless lizard. The reason for this is because your opponent doesn't see your small creatures as threats, prefering to wait until something big comes along and then takes care of that. Also, they would NEVER, EVER think you would be stupid enough to play Auras, and that's going to be their downfall. Last Gasp is there to take out anything small but with powerful abilities or to reduce the damage to you by a big creature. It also clears the way for your ground creatures when your opponent start to play ground creatures. Sideboard cards: 4 Cry of Contrition 4 Distress 3 Death Denied 4 Necromancer's Magemark Discard is always good against the slower control decks, and both distress and cry of contrition are cheap enough to be played early when you opponent hasn't dropped his/her hand onto the table. Cry of Contrition is good because since you'll be playing cheap creatures anyway, you might as well play this the turn after and haunt your creature (or even your opponent's creature to discourage them from attacking). Death Denied is your all purpose graveyard retrieval, getting you all the creatures you need in the late game. And while we're using both Auras AND graveyard retrieval, we might as well use Necromancer's Magemark, which functions as both. Strategies Aggro decks: Evasion is your friend. Charge in hard and fast and don't look back. The longer you linger they faster you will die. Put your Unholy Strengths on the evasion creatures and charge in! Don't be afraid to drop all your creatures, especially if they aren't playing burn. Hold that Last Gasp until just before you attack or just after they've attacked. Be careful with the Raving Oni-Slaves if your opponent is playing burn. Sideboard: OUT - 2 Raving Oni-slave IN - 2 Death Denied Control, meet Discard. Discard, Control. Combo Decks: Discard is your savior. Cry of Contrition and Distress are both invaluable to your efforts of disrupting your opponent's game plans. Whenever possible, cast Cry of Contrition before Distress, and try to keep a few creatures and a Thoughtpicker Witch in play when you cast it. This way, during your opponent's draw phase, sacrifice the haunted creature (with the Witch) to make them discard the card they just drew (assuming no cards in hand before draw phase) and also set up their next draw by removing the best card out of the top two. At least one Death Denied should be sideboarded IN, just in case your opponent sideboards mass removal second game. Sideboard: OUT - 4 Daggerclaw Imp 2 Raving Oni-Slave 4 Last Gasp IN - 4 Cry of Contrition 4 Distress 2 Death Denied Control Decks: This is where the deck has its toughest battle, but like some old person said before, "It ain't over 'till it's over." IF they are playing White at ALL, you can be sure they're running Wrath of God, and as such you should limit your creatures in play to at most two-three, depending on whether those creatures have evasion or not. Blue shouldn't be too hard to deal with if you can get a few creatures out early game, but if you don't have 3 creatures by turn 3, then you might be in trouble. Keep in mind that while Blue is slow, it's entirely possible for them to utilize bounce spells to reduce your tempo. Black is difficult if they play creature destruction (which of course they will), but that said the lack of mass destruction (Hideous Laughter and Night of Soul's Betrayal are not sideboard staple cards) gives you a chance to squeeze in just enough damage to take them out. Watch out for Kokusho, the Evening Star though. If you are brave enough, you could try Brainspoil sideboard against Kokusho and other dragon legends, but it's a big risk and hardly worth the five mana you'd pay for the it. Sideboard: OUT - 4 Daggerclaw Imp 2 Raving Oni-Slave 4 Last Gasp 4 Unholy Strength 1 Bile Urchin IN - 4 Cry of Contrition 4 Distress 3 Death Denied 4 Necromancer's Magemark Don't kid yourself, depending on your matchup, you will need EVERY SINGLE CARD in your sideboard. Answer removal with Death Denied and Necromancer's Magemark, and disrupt them with all the discard you can muster. Don't tap out when casting Thoughtpicker Witch, as you'll want the extra mana just in case one (or more) of your creatures dies. It's times like these that you'll be glad to have so many evasion creatures, because as soon as you opponent drops a big creature you'll be racing to the finish, as there is really no way for you to deal with something like Rumbling Slum. Outside of Peasant The decks I've provided above are following the strict guidelines that are required in Peasant Magic decks, however if you wish to add or make changes to suit Standard better, here is a list of the cards that I would recommend trying: Bring in the Beef:Hunted Horror Takenuma Bleeder Skull Collector Ogre MarauderHunted Horror is really an underrated card, and since you're playing an underrated deck anyway, there's no reason not to run it! Seriously though, it's a two mana 7/7. If you could give it flying or fear or something then it would be quite effective. Takenuma Bleeder is your alternative to Daggerclaw Imp. It might not fly, but a 3/3 body for 3 mana is pretty nice. Skull Collector is decent since most of your other creatures are small enough to cast around, and it also has regeneration, which works well if you're using Auras. Finally, Ogre Marauder is good as an evasion creature and the 3 power is significant enough for your opponents to take notice. Metagame Dependent:Festering Goblin Plagued Rusalka Hand of CrueltyIf your area plays a lot of aggro/weenies, then Festering Goblin/Plagued Rusalka can replace Bile Urchin/Thoughpicker Witch respectively. You could also mix and match, though Goblin/Rusalka allows you to kill X/2s and X/3s on a regular basis. Hand of Cruelty both has protection against popular removal (Faith's Fetters, Lightning Helix, Mortify) and evasion against White creatures, not to mention Bushido, making it a tough creature to beat. Don't like Auras:Manriki-Gusari ShukoDon't like Auras? That's ok, because these equipment are just as efficient as, if not more than, Unholy Strength and Necromancer's Magemark. Shuko is your cheap, all-purpose strength enhancer, useful for attacking and blocking. Manriki-Gusari is useful for not just boosting creature power/toughness, but also for destroying other equipment as well (I'm looking at you, Umezawa's Jitte). More Disruption:Blackmail Hypnotic SpecterNeed more discard against those U/x counter/control decks? How's Blackmail to up the number to 12 in total? (4xCry, Distress AND Blackmail). Hypnotic Specter, while a little inefficient, is worth its we in cards once it starts attacking and your opponent starts discarding at random. Efficiency in Rogue:Will-o'-the-Wisp Dark Confidant Ravenous Rats' older cousin went to the city to become a professional screamer. Special mention: Shrieking Grotesque If you just happen to have a few Caves of Koilos or Godless Shrines lying around, like everyone does , then there is no reason not to run this enhanced version of Ravenous Rats with evasion.Conclusion So there you have it. One MonoBlack Suicide deck sure to give your friends fits of laughter, followed by shock, frustration, anger and ultimately, DESPAIR. I've had lots of fun writing this article, and I hope you have just as much fun making this deck and beating people with it. Until next time, never, EVER underestimate a second turn Mourning Thrull. Thanks to Yang for helping me playtest. By VXF on March 14th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 10 Comments |
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