Mono-Black Peasant

10.25.04  Hey all, and welcome back to the Deck Garage. Onslaught, Legions, and Scourge are now officially gone from Type II, and Champions of Kamigawa are in the mix. It looks like an interesting environment, and I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.

This week, however, I decided to go with a more casual deck. It is part of one of my favorite formats – Peasant Magic. For those who don’t know, Peasant Magic is a format in which you are allowed to play no rares, five uncommons, and any number of commons. Anyways, here’s the e-mail I received…

O.K. This is a deck that I built months ago and haven't changed it very much, most because it hardly ever loses, even against casual decks (slivers and dragons even). It is for a peasant tournament with twenty people entered into it. There is a $75 cash prize for first and a $25 cash prize for second. And although it rarely loses, there is always room for improvement. In my area, I see a lot of tribal decks, which, the only deck this deck has too much trouble with, are zombie decks. So I'm sure I'll see a few of them at the tournament. I've done my homework with this one...

Deck List
Creatures:16
4 Grimclaw Bats
4 Looming Shade
4 Dross Golem
4 Pewter Golem
Non-creature Artifacts:2
2 Loxodon Warhammer (U)
Enchantments:2
2 Pestilence (U)
Sorceries/Instants:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Consume Spirit
4 Terror
2 Drain Life
2 Howl from Beyond
Sideboard:15
4 Endless Scream
4 Dark Banishing
2 Pestilence
2 Drain Life
2 Howl from Beyond
1 Loxodon Warhammer

Deck Stats
Size:60 cards
Sideboard Size:15 cards
Type 1 Legal
Type 1.5 Legal
Type 2 Illegal
Extended Illegal
Land Amount:24(40%)
Creature Amount:16(27%)
Enchantments:2(3%)
Non-creature Artifacts:2(3%)
Instant/Sorceries:16(27%)
Black Cards:26(43%)
Colorless/Land:34(57%)
Sideboard Stats
Enchantments:6(40%)
Artifacts:1(7%)
Instants/Sorceries:8(53%)
Black Cards:14(93%)
Colorless/Land:1(7%)
Total cost at my local card shop:$21.25

A few of the combos in this deck are: Any creature with the Warhammer (Bats won't lose you life when you pump them and give you 4 life per attack, Shades give you 4 + whatever mana you spend on them life with each attack (great with the trample too), Dross have evasion, Pewter will have tample and regenerate which works great with the extra power), Howl from Beyond with Dross (works great with evasion, Warhammer enhances this combo further), Pestilence with Dross works great (Nuke feald and play Dross for free, you will control the only creature at the time and not lose the pestilence). There are other combos, but you can figure them out for yourself because I am tired of typing.
Thanks for listening, and please get back to me soon, Leafy


I’m impressed with the amount of work Leafy has done here. Major props for all of the explanation.

The first thing I would like to do is get rid of Consume Spirit and Drain Life. They are decent enough cards, but this deck’s best attribute seems like it is speed.

-4 Consume Spirit
-2 Drain Life

Losing Consume Spirit and Drain Life does cause a small problem to arise, though. Grimclaw Bats ask for a loss of life to pump, and that might not be a good thing with no way to gain it back. Thus, instead of the Bats, I suggest Skittering Skirge. He’s larger for the cost, there is no loss of life, and his drawback is almost nonexistent if played correctly.

-4 Grimclaw Bats
+4 Skittering Skirge

A second problem arose when I got rid of Consume Spirit and Drain Life – this deck lost some of its removal! Thus, I think Diabolic Edict would be a good call. It’s cheap, it’s nontargeting, and it’s common – meaning it fits in this deck!

+4 Diabolic Edict

My next target is Dross Golem. Leafy pointed out that he is in the deck due to evasion. Instead of the Golem, though, why not try out Dauthi Slayer? He has Shadow, making him completely unblockable except by other creatures with Shadow. While the Golem can be stopped, the Dauthi-man will likely punch through every time.

-4 Dross Golem
+4 Dauthi Slayer

As I wrote this article, I kept staring at Looming Shade, knowing that there had to be something better. After a long wait, I finally came up with it: Order of the Ebon Hand. It’s only two black mana to play, it pumps, it has protection from white, *and* you can pay a lone black mana to give it first strike. I think this is an all-around better card than Looming Shade, so…

-4 Looming Shade
+4 Order of the Ebon Hand

As one of the last changes to the deck, I can’t let Leafy go without the best discard spell ever printed. For two black mana, who wouldn’t like to make their opponent discard two cards completely at random?

+4 Hymn to Tourach

Checking out the sideboard on Leafy’s deck, I can agree with the Pestilence, but I’m not so big on the remainder.

The first card I want to add to sideboard is Perish. I’m a bit upset that I can’t include a third copy of Loxodon Warhammer, but I think three Perish would be a greater benefit to the deck.

-1 Loxodon Warhammer
-2 Drain Life
+3 Perish

Next, I think Dark Banishing is a good card, but I also think Rend Flesh is a better card. Why limit yourself to just four colors? You can destroy black creatures with Rend Flesh; you just have to watch out for spirits.

-4 Dark Banishing
+4 Rend Flesh

Leafy might also be concerned about control-style match-ups. Thus, I’d like to stick in the second-best discard spell ever printed: Duress.

-4 Endless Scream
+4 Duress

I think that about wraps up work on this decklist. Here’s the final copy…

CREATURES (16):
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
4 Skittering Skirge
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Pewter Golem

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (22):
4 Dark Ritual
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Howl from Beyond
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Loxodon Warhammer (U)
2 Pestilence
4 Terror

LANDS (22):
4 Barren Moor
18 Swamp

SIDEBOARD (15):
4 Duress
2 Pestilence
3 Perish
4 Rend Flesh
2 Howl from Beyond

I hope that helps, Leafy, and good luck in your Peasant Magic tourney!

I’ll see y’all next week.

-Paul Hagan


 

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