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Why play Peasant Magic? Why play Magic: the Gathering at all? Fun, of course.

Peasant Magic is a really fun format to get into. It captures the core of what Magic: the Gathering is more than any other format; you can feel the distinction between the colors, as each color does what it does best. There are some decks that stray but in general the decks are very flavorful from a color-pie perspective. This is because commons represent the simplest and most basic aspects of each colors, while the rares tend to deviate and push the curve. A few older cards skew these representations as things have shifted over the years, of course, but for the most part this is true.

For those of you who do not know the rules, the basics are that you must have at least fifty-five common cards and no more than five uncommon cards. There can be absolutely positively no rares. That's pretty much it. (There is a variant that allows only common cards.)

What's that, you said? Yes, that's right - you can use commons and uncommons from Unglued, Starter, and Portal. There are a couple of exceptions, however:

Strip Mine is considered to be Uncommon.

The following cards are banned regardless of their status:
Jeweled Bird, Timmerian Fiends, Bronze Tablet, Brain Freeze, Ali From Cairo, Bazaar of Baghdad, Berserk, Candelabra of Tawnos, Diamond Valley, Juzam Djinn, Library of Alexandria, Mana Drain, and Mishra's Workshop

This is because Peasant Magic is supposed to be for poor old peasants who can't afford the hundred-dollar bill for a Mana Drain. Yes, that's right - it's banned because it's expensive. What's that, you said? Yes, you can play with your Skullclamps again, but nobody will like you for it... especially after you beat them to death...

This format was originally designed by Rob Baranowski, when he and his friends decided to make decks without rares to be in scale with their humble collections. Rob Baranowski is accredited with Peasant Magic's invention, and has obtained other player's interests as well. In 2001, the first big tournament was held at GenCon. After a couple years of growing interest, the PEZ-Council was formed in late 2003. The "official" site can be found at http://www.geocities.com/peasantmagic/rules.htm. Their purpose was to keep the format in good condition, and to produce the banned and restricted list (as shown above). This keeps cards that are too expensive or too broken from ruining the format (case in point: Brain Freeze or Library of Alexandria).

Now, it's hard to determine a metagame per se with Peasant Magic because there aren't many tournaments. However, you will notice that some decks are more powerful than others. There are some decks that have latent power, however. Among these are Affinity (no, it never goes away), Sligh, White Weenie, Black Control and Aggro Control, and High Tide combo (if you don't know, you'll find out today!).

This is by no means an exhaustive list. The beauty of Peasant Magic is there isn't net decking (and by "isn't net decking," I mean "not as much net decking"). There have been very few Peasant Magic tournaments anywhere - and those that have happened are not well reported. The only exception to this is the Master of Peasant Magic Events held at GenCon on a regular basis, and some at Origins. It is not a defined format and still has lots of room for creativity and innovation. Perhaps you have seen the Cephalid Breakfast Peasant deck that is being cooked up right now? Well, if you haven't, I'm not going to ruin it for you before it's unveiled in its final form.

I have provided a fairly long list of very powerful decks that obey the Peasant Magic rules. While early Peasant Magic allowed any card as long as it was ever printed as a common, the current site states that it's the most common among rarities. When in doubt, use the lower rarity. I have adhered to these rules as closely as possible. However, considering that there are approximately three billion cards, I may have missed an uncommon or two. Some of these are personal decks I've built, archetypes I've faced consistently, and a couple of them are tuned from other deck builders (who will be accredited). I'll go through major decks in each color, including stereotypical archetypes of each. Let's go through each classification one by one, beginning with the aggro decks.

I think it's pretty common for the first color to associate with aggro is to be red - so let's start there. This is goblin aggro.

Goblin Aggro
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Mogg Conscripts
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkies
3 Akki Avalanchers
2 Sparksmith
2 Goblin Patrol
1 Goblin Recruiter uncommon
1 Goblin Warchief uncommon
3 Imperial Recruiter uncommon
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Goblin Grenade
2 Goblin Shrine
16 Mountain
2 Desert

This deck is extremely quick. Imperial Recruiter is a pretty hot card from red, which pretty much gets you Goblin Recruiter to make the rest of your drops high-quality from there on out. Be careful not to mana screw yourself with this.

The idea is simple: Pound in the damage, then finish it up with Goblin Grenade. I would have liked to have found a spot for Goblin Tutor, Anarchy, and Reckless Charge. With the inclusion of Goblin Tutor, throw in a couple Great Furnaces or Goblin Replica to tutor for if it comes to that.

A strong argument can be made to replace the uncommon goblins with Skullclamps. Forget setting up exactly what you'll draw - just draw a lot and you'll find it. I think this can go either way, but I prefer more goblins. Remember what Goblin Piledriver always says? Throw enough goblins at a problem and it should go away. (At the very least, there'll be fewer goblins.)

We have a lot of decks to cover, so let's keep going. Note those two Deserts; more on that later!

White Weenie
4 Soul Warden
2 Crimson Acolyte
2 Obsidian Acolyte
4 Soltari Foot Soldier
4 Knight of the Hokey Pokey
4 Youthful Knight
4 Order of Leitbur
4 Soltari Trooper
2 Mother of Runes uncommon
3 Swords to Plowshares uncommon
1 Festival of Trokin
1 Peach Garden Oath
3 Bonesplitter
2 Empyrial Armor
19 Plains
1 Desert

If you're playing white, you're playing Soul Warden. While this is not as fast as goblin aggro, its ability to hose both black and red keep it in as a competitor. This deck has a ton of options for you to alter and I have made a couple controversial choices. I've chosen Festival of Trokin and Peach Garden Oath over Congregate due to mana costs - and I've chosen both over Prismatic Strands, because the life gain will usually be as much as the damage prevented. The argument can be made both ways.

Knight of Valor and Mesa Chicken are both strong creatures to include. Disenchant makes the board. Standard Bearer is another option to keep removal off of your guys - and when coupled with one of the Acolytes or Mother, he makes things very difficult for your opponent (just make sure he is targetable when they announce the spell, but not when it resolves).

Along these same lines, probably the most powerful card that is not included is Cho-Manno's Blessing. The white fliers (in the form of Lantern Kami, Suntail Hawk, Freewind Falcon, and Duskrider Falcon), provide evasion and more protection from red/black.

A very strong argument can be made for the five uncommon slots. Replace the two Mother of Runes and three Swords to Plowshares with four Enlightened Tutors and a Land Tax. This gives you massive cards in hand to help strengthen Empyrial Armor, as well as ways to find both. Circles of Protection are great in the sideboard - and note that Story Circle counts as an uncommon thanks to Mercadian Masques.

My choice of Bonesplitter over more Empyrial Armors is also controversial, but I would rather not keep my hand size up unless I'm going with the Land Tax version.

Note that Desert; more on that later. Moving right along...

Affinity
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
4 Atog
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Somber Hoverguard
2 Qumulox uncommon
3 Phyrexian Walker
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Cranial Plating
4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Shrapnel Blast uncommon
4 Thoughtcast
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Island
3 Mountain
1 Darksteel Citadel

I considered using Myr Servitor and Arcbound Worker, but they got cut for more power. The Bonesplitter and the Tooth of Chiss-Goria were also considered, as was a fourth Phyrexian Walker.

In the end, something had to be cut. The hardest thing to cut would probably be Skullclamp and Aether Spellbomb/Pyrite Spellbomb. I decided on Chromatic Sphere over Pyrite Spellbomb to help with the hard mana problems this deck has. I chose Qumulox over Skullclamp in order to abuse the arguably more broken equipment in this deck: Cranial Plating. With Ornithopter being uncommon and Blinkmoth Nexus a rare, I wanted at least six good fliers.

Be careful with an all-in Atog against black. I very much wanted to include Fling for this reason, but couldn't find the space.

(Note that Desert - whoops... - The Ferrett)

Stompy
4 M'tenda Lion
4 Jungle Lion
4 Ghazban Ogre
4 Wild Dogs
4 Rogue Elephant
4 Skyshroud Ridgeback
4 Scryb Sprites
2 Treetop Scout
4 Naf's Asp
4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
4 Seal of Strength
4 Lotus Petal
4 Land Grant
6 Forest

This deck does not actually have a single uncommon in it. Elvish Lyrist and Elvish Scrapper are good in the sideboard, as are Hidden Gibbons and Hidden Guerrillas.

The argument for Briar Shield over Seal of Strength could be made - but Seal of Strength helps save our guys from removal. Ghazban Ogress has serious potential, but is hard to determine who controls her and could cause arguments. Rushwood Legate would be a powerhouse against decks packing blue.

Giant Growth and Seal of Strength are really the keys here. They are used to save your guys from removal; be very careful of leading with Ghazban Ogre or Wild Dogs if they have any sort of direct damage.

Fat Green
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Three Visits
4 Nature's Lore
4 Phyrexian War Beast
4 Penumbra Bobcat
4 Blastoderm
4 Genju of the Cedars uncommon
4 Thresher Beast
4 Fangren Hunter
19 Forest
1 Treetop Village uncommon

This is a very typical deck to build - green mana acceleration and green fat creatures - and it's more of a demonstration than anything. While this deck curves out really well and brings some beats, it is just too slow. The creatures were picked to dodge removal by being recurring, untargetable, or have toughness 4 or higher. The elves let you drop three-drops on turn 2. The Nature's Lore and Three Visits are both Rampant Growth variants that only fetch Forests (which is good enough for us, right?) but puts them into play untapped.

This is not a bad deck - it just has problems keeping up with the faster decks. It was hard to make room for Rancor or Blanchwood Armor - and Sylvan Library would be a good addition to this deck as well. River Boa and Yavimaya Wurm just didn't fit our curve so well. The Treetop Village is powerful, but it could be left out because of the comes-into-play-tapped clause - this deck's slow already. Only the five-drops really keep you from chump blocking a lot.

Black Aggro-Control
4 Hypnotic Specter uncommon
3 Skittering Skirge
4 Vile Bile
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Marauder
4 Dark Ritual
4 Paralyze
1 Spinning Darkness
3 Vicious Hunger
2 Unholy Strength
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Duress
1 Ostracize
1 The Rack uncommon
19 Swamp

This is really just black aggro, but with some disruption and evasion; it is considerably more control-oriented classic aggro decks of the past. Erg Raiders and Order of the Ebon Hand are notable exceptions; Erg Raiders was taken out for Vile Bile. Mesa Chicken was a possible contender in the White Weenie deck above, but this time Vile Bile has made it main deck. Silver-bordered sets are legal - and this guy is a quality creature for his casting cost. You can probably have your opponent lose at least two life from his ability, and his power/toughness ratio is respectable.

Ostracize is good due to the amount of creature decks in Peasant, where Duress isn't the powerhouse it is in other formats. Phyrexian War Beast is good, but it makes better sideboard material against white's protection. Carnophage is a very strong early contender, but didn't make the cut. Undying Beast (from the Portal sets) is a good recurring threat, but I didn't feel it was needed. Pestilence makes a great way to clear the board, but comes at too high a cost; Faceless Butcher makes for some decent removal with a small body, but was taken out for more favorable options.

MBC (Mono-Black Control)
4 Crypt Rats
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Demonic Tutor uncommon
3 Spinning Darkness
4 Rend Flesh
4 Drain Life
4 Consume Spirit
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Wall of Shadows
1 Cabal Coffers uncommon
2 Barren Moor
21 Swamp

Ah, Mono-Black Control. How we love you!

The first thing you may see missing is Sinkhole. While this is amazing disruption, I didn't feel right putting it in here since it's so expensive. The argument could be made for one or two Ostracizes instead of one or two Duresses, but I feel you can deal with most creatures already while the Duress will take the things you can't deal with. Skeletal Scrying and Brush with Death are typical Demonic Tutor targets, but left out for other consistency. The argument can be made for one less Demonic Tutor and one more Cabal Coffers. Diabolic Edict is also missing, due to a favorable amount of removal.

The only creature in this deck is Crypt Rats. Crypt Rats is about as good as it gets for mass removal in Peasant, and it really does shine. The goal is to win through a big Drain Life or Consume Spirit. Don't be afraid to use these early on to remove creatures if it buys you many turns. Don't forget that you will be padding your life total and you have eight X spells as well as four Demonic Tutors. The two Barren Moor is questionable as in it does not help your Cabal Coffers but can be cycled later when unneeded to help find more kill.

This is one of my favorite Peasant decks, because of the abundant popularity of weenie decks. It is difficult for control decks to compete in Peasant - but this one does its job.

Mono Red Control... BURN
1 Browbeat uncommon
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Kindle
4 Flame Burst
4 Fireblast
3 Guerrilla Tactics
4 Lava Spike
4 Glacial Ray
4 Isochron Scepter uncommon
14 Mountain
4 Forgotten Cave
2 Desert

This is just straightforward burn.

There are a couple of easy-to-make changes that no one would make fun of you for doing; one is to take out Browbeat for Anarchy. This gives you a chance against White Weenie. The other is to take out Glacial Ray and Lava Spike for Bloodfire Dwarf (Tremor on a stick), or maybe Flaring Plain and Shock. The Lava Spike isn't terrible on its own, but it's far from good. You really need to make your burn last as long as possible, so a little bit of splicing will help you with some card advantage.

The Isochron Scepter really makes this deck work. Unfortunately, it is really vulnerable to a lot of different plans and is very easy to be disrupted. Fortunately, it is straightforward and easy to play without sacrificing too much power. The Forgotten Caves are there just because you have got to find that Isochron Scepter as quick as possible to have real game.

Red/Blue Control (Pingers)
4 Quicksilver Dagger
4 Arcane Teachings
2 Fire Whip
4 Number Crunch
4 Counterspell
4 Horseshoe Crab
4 Wall of Earth
4 Wall of Diffusion
4 Yotian Soldier
2 Fact or Fiction uncommon
3 Pemmin's Aura uncommon
13 Islands
9 Mountains

The game plan here should be obvious: The idea is to get one of the three Tim enchantments onto Horseshoe Crab, or to get a wall with Pemmin's Aura and either Quicksilver Dagger, Arcane Teachings or Fire Whip onto it. This is a high-risk, high-reward system.

As with any creature enchantment, you set yourself up for card disadvantage. You do have Counterspell backup - but once you get set up you are in the position to make up any lost card advantage and make short work of your opponent. Ophidian was considered to help with card draw but was decided against to maintain the core of the deck. Force Spike could easily replace Number Crunch. Snap, Impulse and Brainstorm were all considerations but couldn't find room. There are two Fact or Fictions to help find what you need. This deck is easily disrupted, but it can also quickly over whelm an opponent.

U/B Edict-Control
1 Metathran Soldier
1 Escape Artist
2 Wei Scout
3 Sadistic Glee
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Cruel Edict
4 Imperial Edict
4 Chainer's Edict uncommon
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
3 Exclude
4 Stormscape Familiar
10 Swamp
10 Island
2 Desert

This is not a well-tuned deck, but more of a rough concept of to what a deck in this style looks like. This is not a strong control archetype when compared to mono black control, which utilizes the raw power of Cabal Coffers. Things got a little out of hand building this deck when I realized in Magic terms that Edict is defined "as opponent sacrifices a creature for 1B." When I realized I could run sixteen of these effects, I decided to see what I could do with that. This dodges protection from black and untargetability. The game plan is to keep your opponents creature-light, while you have a couple of unblockable creatures go to town. One Sadistic Glee and it will quickly become a short clock for your opponent.

Mono-White Control
4 Soul Warden
4 Crimson Acolyte
4 Obsidian Acolyte
4 Soltari Foot Soldier
4 Soltari Trooper
4 Soltari Visionary
4 Auramancer
3 Charm School uncommon
2 Enlightened Tutor uncommon
4 Empyrial Armor
4 Congregate
18 Plains
2 Desert

It is difficult to go into multiple colors in Peasant, and most decks end up mono-color. This deck, however, is built around one card: Charm School. This card will win you games. With three Charm Schools and two Enlightened Tutors (as well as four Auramancers) to get them back, your opponent should have a hard time dealing you damage. If an opponent gets rid of the Charm School for one turn, your four Congregates and four Soul Wardens should keep you from being at an alpha-strike life total. Your shadows and Empyrial Armor should deliver the beatdown.

If you are playing red or black, the Acolytes will be indispensable in that game. They will also have a very hard time dealing with your Charm School.

Now lets move onto a bizarre section of Peasant... combo. Even with only commons and uncommons, we have enough variety in Peasant to make combo viable and powerful. Lets start off with one of my own design that is not competitive, but shows you how much space for creativity Peasant Magic has:

3 Toymaker uncommon
4 Urza's Contact Lenses
2 Enlightened Tutor uncommon
4 Serum Visions
4 Trinket Mage
4 Frantic Search
4 Impulse
4 Psionic Gift
4 Hermetic Study
3 Counterspell
4 Parapet
11 Islands
1 Seat of the Synod
7 Plains
1 Ancient Den

This is how the combo works: Have Urza's Contact Lenses, Toymaker, and Parapet in play. Use the Toymaker to make Urza's Contact Lenses a creature. (You need to have Parapet in play so that the Urza's Contact Lenses becomes a 0/1 creature instead of a 0/0 creature.) Now cast Psionic Gift or Hermetic Study on Urza's Contact Lenses. Now clap clap clap, ping ping ping, as much damage as you can clap.

Enlightened Tutor finds you Toymaker and Parapet (or even the Contact Lenses, Psionic Gift, or Hermetic Study if it comes to it). Trinket Mage can fetch the Contact Lenses or an artifact land. Serum Visions, Impulse, and Frantic Search all help you dig for what you need to find. This is difficult to put together, but it's a fun combo.

Lets move to a more powerful combo:

Elf-Ball
4 Fireball
4 Disintegrate
4 Channel uncommon
4 Seeker of Skybreak
2 Wellwisher
1 Orcish Lumberjack
1 Elvish Guidance uncommon
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Quirion Elves
4 Priests of Titania
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
10 Mountain
10 Forest

The idea seems simple, no? In case you didn't get it, the idea is to make a ton of mana and Fireball or Disintegrate for twenty. This can be done surprisingly fast. This deck does, however, do very poorly against control if they have a lot of removal or counters. Moving along with combo...

Peasant Life
4 Spirit en-Kor
4 Nomads en-Kor
4 Daru Spiritualist
4 Task Force
1 Fling
3 Congregate
4 About Face
4 Transmutation
4 Worthy Cause
1 Animal Boneyard
4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Barbed Sextant
12 Plains
4 Mountain
4 Swamp

This is to show you how decks can come from other formats and be adapted into Peasant. This is a recreation of the extended Life.dec. We have the Nomads en-Kor, Daru Spiritualist, and Task Force coming in for us at the common level. We replace the traditional Shaman en-Kor with the more expensive (but thankfully common) Spirit en-Kor.

We don't have any sacrifice options at the common level, so we have to use up our uncommon slots devoted to that with four Worthy Causes and a Animal Boneyard.

We are using three colors in a Peasant deck here, which is extremely risky. I've selected four Chromatic Spheres and three Barbed Sextants to help fix colors and to cycle through the deck. We can't use any search, so instead we fill up the deck with the best redundancy we can. We put in four Congregates to help keep us alive to get the combo together. We have four About Faces and four Transmutations so that we can give our Daru Spiritualist and our Task Force an arbitrarily large amount of power. If we can't get through an attack, then Fling will do fine.

If we can get infinite life, we should be fine - unless we're facing another combo deck. But isn't that how this deck works in Extended, too?

Let's get to the real heart of combo, shall we? Real Ultimate Power, in the form of Pros-Tide. And there are two lists for this one!

David Seiler
4 High Tide
4 Snap
4 Frantic Search
4 Opt
4 Impulse
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Prosperity uncommon
3 Cloud of Faeries
2 Peregrine Drake uncommon
3 Counterspell
1 Feldon's Cane uncommon
2 Capsize
22 Island

First of note is that Feldon's Cane was printed once as a common, but was most often printed as uncommon. By the rules I'm following, that means this decklist needs to be altered. However, the entire combo is uncommon, making this very difficult.

This deck is probably the most difficult for novices. Basically, you get a bunch of mana, then Prosperity your opponent into decking himself. What? Prosperity affects both players? So it does - but we have a Feldon's Cane. We don't do one big Prosperity, but several medium ones, and we use our Feldon's Cane in the middle to make our deck bigger than our opponents, so we can deck them.

With a High Tide or two, you can either make a lot of mana by casting Snap, Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, and Frantic Search, then cast as big as Prosperity as possible leaving four mana or so open so you can use the cards you drew to generate more mana. Hopefully you drew another Prosperity and you keep doing this. Before your last Prosperity for the win, use your Feldon's Cane, which you have hopefully found by now.

I'm sure you've noticed the word "hope" written more than once here. Like any combo, it can fizzle - but it is extremely powerful and fast. Alternatively, if you have say, four Islands in play, cast two High Tides, tap two islands, play Peregrine Drake, untap four islands, play Capsize with buyback on the Peregrine Drake, then play the Peregrine Drake. Now, you have all those untapped Islands, and three mana, and a Peregrine Drake and a Capsize in hand. Yes, you have infinite (or arbitrarily large) mana to do what you'd like (like using your Capsize with buyback on all of your opponent's stuff!).

This combo is very card-intensive, but we have some very powerful card searchers: Frantic Search, Impulse, and Opt are very good at digging - not to mention that most powerful of commons, the Merchant Scroll. Lets show off the second decklist:

Erik Weissman
4 Disrupt
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Impulse
4 Snap
4 Opt
4 Brainstorm
4 High Tide
4 Prosperity uncommon
4 Frantic Search
1 Feldon's Cane uncommon
1 Mystical Tutor uncommon
2 Merchant Scroll
20 Islands

Now I like this deck much better. We can replace the Mystical Tutor with a third Merchant Scroll to fit our uncommon purposes. This also adds a fourth Prosperity, which makes our fizzle rate go down, and gives us Brainstorm and another Cloud of Faeries.

This version has done away with the infinite mana combo, as it is unnecessary to have infinite mana when you can generate enough to win. Disrupt is the key here to keeping away common Peasant Magic spells like Fireblast, Duress, and Counterspell.

There are other versions of this deck that float around, but you get the idea: High Tide, lots of mana, broken stuff = win. Another popular version I've seen is foregoing Prosperity, using the infinite mana route, and using Magma Mine for the win.

On The Subject Of Desert, And Other Defining Cards:
Notice how many decks play Desert? I love this card. While it shows up an awful lot, I would not say it's broken. Why? It can’t make colored mana.

In Peasant Magic, a land producing colorless is a much larger drawback than it is in other formats. We have a very limited amount of common cards that can fix mana; the best one we have is probably Chromatic Sphere, which really isn’t too bad. But Desert is a colorless source of damage (this is important against white decks in Peasant) and offering that colorless damage to the other colors (namely, blue) gives these decks some great creature control in a creature-dominated format. (Watch out - there might be some secret Camel tech!)

Another land that borders on broken is Maze of Ith. Now, in one print run the Maze of Ith was printed on the commons sheet, but by my standards I’m counting it as an uncommon. Even so, as an uncommon it well deserves any slots it takes up for controlling creatures.

Unfortunately, it is hard to run too many Mazes of Ith and Deserts in the same deck. However, these cards are great for this format, because they combat other powerful cards in the format. Other such powerful cards include the mighty Soul Warden. At 1 for a 1/1, it is hard to argue with her power/toughness ratio; throw on a huge ability, especially in a creature-dominated format, and you have a winner.

If she was uncommon, would she find slots over Mother of Runes? I think she might. Mother of Runes is similar in power and has the "Can I run her? Well, why am I not running her, then?" philosophy - but I want to stick to just the commons.

One card which I did not showcase is Armadillo Cloak. This card is very powerful and changes games if it can’t be dealt with quickly. Its father, Rancor, is still a step up from there. Taking away the card disadvantage side of creature enchantments, giving two extra power for one mana, and trample... why the hell is this card so damn good? This is widely regarded as one of the most powerful commons that has ever been printed.

Hymn to Tourach is another power card in that if you are playing black, you are probably playing Hymn to Tourach. Two mana for two discarded cards is a good deal - one that you are happy to be on the delivering side of - but throw in that small "at random" clause and you have a powerhouse. Just taking a look through the deck lists here and you may see some more examples (*cough*Empyrial Armor*cough*) around.

Let's take a second to look at a few cards which I didn’t find a home for, but which you may or may not be aware of:

Chaos Confetti: Practice doing this enough and you could be devastating. Especially with the lack of quality mass removal in this format.

Denied!: With a bit of knowledge and some guessing, this card could be very powerful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t counter late-game cards. (And you don't see too many late games in Peasant Magic...)

Hurloon Wrangler: Really good evasion, but a bit expensive for what our red decks want.

Number Crunch: Quality bounce.

Framed!: Choose all of your lands from the same artist (John Avon is a great choice) and this has the potential to be broken.

Mind Knives: It has that great "discard at random" clause - but we might as well just Duress. Although the Mind Knives never miss! And hell, they’re knives... for the mind. That’s killer.

Cloud Pirates: This, alongside Flying Men, gives us some good 1/1 flyers for one. Although the Flying Men have nostalgic value, the Cloud Pirates have coolness value. Because, they’re, well... pirates. Of the clouds. See Mind Knives above.

Omen: This is actually pretty good. I don’t think it beats Impulse or Frantic Search, but is considerable.

Symbol of Unsummoning: I prefer Number Crunch, but a cantripping bounce is nice.

Chorus of Woe: This packs a pretty decent punch for what you can pay for, and can often finish off an opponent.

Undying Beast: For the power/toughness and the recurring threat, this isn’t too bad. It just wasn’t aggressive enough. This would be great against control, but... we don’t have those worries.

Cruel Edict/Imperial Edict- More Edicts at a common level.

Alaborn Grenadier: Two mana for 2/2 Vigilance. This is decent, but with all the Empyrial Armors, this becomes pretty good.

Imperial Recruiter: This guy did find a home in my deck (over Skullclamp... gasp!) because his ability is amazing. This ability is fair as a three-mana sorcery, but put it on a body and I’ll take it.

Peach Garden Oath/Festival of Trokin: These are comparable to Congregate and cost a quarter the mana.

Nature’s Lore/Three Visits: These are comparable to Rampant Growth but fetch forests into play untapped.

Lurking Nightstalker: Attacking for three and costing two is good, but this guy lost out to the shadow creatures. But... with everyone running evasion? How good is it?

Shu Cavalry/Wei Strike Force/Wu Light Cavalry: Horsemanship; this is the next evasion. There are a lot of decks running shadow creatures, and going up against an unprepared field you will do well with yours. If other people join in the shadow fun, well... it's back to step one. These guys can block and can attack without being blocked. Do you expect your opponents to be playing with horsemanship? Did you expect you to be playing with horsemanship? Exactly.

Check out some older card lists, the Unglued and Unhinged spoiler, as well as the Portal expansions. You might find something really useful.

Now look at all of those decks. As an overview, let's see what we brought up.

• In red, we have your classic goblin aggro deck as well as the straightforward burn deck.
• Green gave us an old-school Stompy deck, as well as a big fat green deck.
• Black gave us aggro control, using evasion alongside creature removal and hand disruption to get in for the win. Black also gave us mono-black control, which uses creature removal and then wins with a big Drain Life.
• White gave us a weenie deck that hoses other colors using protection and life gain.
• Blue gave us a deck that revolves around crazy instants and card drawing to do broken things.

Now, tell me - isn't that what the colors are really about? Sure, I brought up a variety of decks that fit somewhere in between. Some decks are much better than others, but each deck has been shown for a purpose. Whether it be so you could see why big fat green isn't great (not bad, not great) or how powerful red aggro and mono black control can be. It gives you an idea of the power cards in the format (Soul Warden, Merchant Scroll, Desert, and so forth). I just love how each deck represents its colors. This format is fun because the decks are fun to play. All aspects of Magic are fairly represented within this realm of commons and uncommons.

Of course, there are some decks I didn't show you. This is for one of the following two reasons:

• I thought the deck didn't provide more meaningful material than a deck I did showcase or
• I don't know everything (don't tell anybody; they still think I do...)

For determining decks, I used what the current site cites as the rules. The most common rarity among printings is what would be determined, when a tie I rounded down. This means I neglected some staples, such as the Maze of Ith (which was supposedly on the commons print sheet once). I use what Gatherer says about rarities instead. This will create some variance in deck lists.

Before you complain about rarities, go check it out first and see. If you think I missed something powerful, feel free to let me know.

I hope you found something informative somewhere in the thousands of words above - whether that "something" is inspiration to start playing Peasant Magic with your friends, or just a cheap budget deck to build that is competitive. Peasant Magic is a great way to get some new decks to play with by bringing a deck list to your local card store and just digging up some commons. It can add some variety to your decks, as well as expose you to some other archetypes.

But most of all, I hope that in some small way what you've read will increase the amount of fun you have playing Magic. Send me those deck lists as well! Perhaps we can establish a Peasant Magic metagame of sorts right here at StarCityGames.com.

-Da3vid Downing-