Subject: Peasant RG Land Destruction-Pat Barclay Hello, my name is Peyton M. “Pat” Barclay, and I’m a scrub. I don’t claim to be a great, or even good, Magic player. But the more I play, the more I learn. So maybe you’ll find something worthwhile in the following deck of mine. As always, I welcome comments, questions, suggestions, criticisms to peytonbarclay@yahoo.com. This is an all-commons deck I built that fits within the guidelines of Peasant Magic. I’m sure it could be improved with the addition of the 5 allowed uncommons, as well as benefit from a sideboard. Red-Green Land Destruction 4 Raze R At the time you play Raze, sac a land. Destroy target land 4 Tremble 1R Each player sacrifices a land 4 Solfatara 2R TP can’t play any land cards this turn. DAC beginning of next turn’s upkeep 4 Turf Wound 2R TP can’t play land cards this turn. DAC. 4 Stone Rain 2R Destroy target land 4 Earth Rift 3R estroy target land. Flashback 5RR 4 Crop Rotation G When you play this, sac a land. Search your lib for a land and PIP, shuffle. 4 Harvest Wurm 1G 3/2 CIP: Return basic land card to your hand or bury Harvest Wurm. 4 Cartographer 2G 2/2 CIP: You may return target land card from GYH. 4 Thresher Beast 3GG 4/4 Whenever blocked, defending player sacs a land. 4 Sandstone Needle CIP tapped with 2 depletion counters. T, remove depletion counter: Add RR. If there are no depletion counters on Sandstone Needle, sacrifice it. 8 Mountain 12 Forest Abbreviations used above: DAC=Draw a card TP=target player PIP=put it into play CIP=Comes into play GYH=graveyard to your hand T=Tap Yes, I know this deck has 64 cards. I must have thought it necessary. At any rate, there are 24 spells that either destroy land or prevent your opponent from playing one. Some green creatures provide some utility as well as being the kill cards. The idea is to start denying/destroying land on turn two, keep control by preventing your opponent the ability to put enough land to cast much of anything (if anything at all), until you eventually have enough mana advantage to both play a creature and deny/destroy land in the same turn. Two things are pretty essential to this deck...getting a Sandstone Needle out on the first turn, and playing first whenever possible. With a Sandstone Needle out on the first turn, you should be able to drop a basic land on turn two, produce three mana and begin destroying your opponent’s land. If you played first, and can destroy their first land drop on your second turn, chances are there isn’t much they will be able to cast with no more than one land on the table at any time. If your opponent ever gets two lands out, the possibility of them being able to cast a real threat increases exponentially. If you can keep up the early pressure, it shouldn’t take too many turns until you have control of the board and can keep your opponent locked down. In terms of getting the Sandstone Needle out on turn one, look to play Forest-Crop Rotation if you didn’t draw a Needle. Failing that, Mountain-Raze can buy you another turn to topdeck the Forest/Needle/Rotation you need. Be cautious, though of playing Raze too early; it works much better when you have enough land out that you can afford to sacrifice one. The same can be said for Tremble...if possible, wait to play it until you can afford to sacrifice a land. And don’t sacrifice all your mountains...you’ll normally need to keep one around after the first three turns to assure you can produce one red mana to keep casting land denial/destruction spells when that first Needle goes to the grave. Play Solfatara and Turf Wound during your opponent’s upkeep step. These cards are nice since they allow you to draw a card to replace them. Stone Rain is the standard red land destruction spell. All three of these spells cost 2R, so they should be castable by your second turn if you got a Needle out on turn one. Play Solfatara and Turf Wound first, since you’ll get to draw that extra card which could be just the one you need to keep the ball rolling. Earth Rift costs 4 mana, but can be cast again from the graveyard for the flashback cost. That cost may seem high, but once you have a couple of Needles on the table, seven mana is well worth shutting your opponent down for another turn. Cartographer is in the deck to return Needles from the graveyard to your hand. Harvest Wurm can return basic lands to your hand sent to the grave by Rotation, Raze, and Tremble. Wait for the right time to cast these spells, when you have enough mana to both get them into play and cast a land destruction/denial spell. Keeping your opponent from getting more than one land out is of primary importance. You can always cast the creatures later when you have a larger mana advantage. Thresher Beast is more of a finisher. If you have played the deck right, your opponent will have great difficulty dealing with a 4/4 that can only be blocked if another precious land is sacrificed. You need to play this as a control deck. A weenie that your opponent sneaks out that deals 1 or 2 damage a turn is less to worry about than keeping their land drops pinned down. By turn 8 or so, you should have enough of a mana advantage to be able to cast a creature to deal with the weenie. Take the little bit of damage in the meantime, and in the long run you should prevail. Especially with Solfatara and Turf Wound, your opponent will have to start discarding spells to keep their hand size at the maximum of seven, and enough land destruction after awhile will leave their hand empty of land as well.