From: Joseph Anderson Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 3:22 PM Subject: White Peasant Deck Since I participated in that famous first Peasant Tournament, I thought I'd send you a deck list and analysis. It's long, which i means two things: I put a lot of thought into it and like to hear myself think. I hope you decide to post it. Your hero, Joe Anderson "Hundred Plus" At GenCon 2001, I competed in my first tournament: Peasant Magic tournament. I didn't know much about tournaments back then, so I was very happy to enter a laid back format where I didn't have to buy any new cards. Going into the tournament, I knew I was going to be facing a lot of burn, a lot of green weenie, and perhaps suicide black. I couldn't imagine an effective blue or white deck until I recalled the Runes. My goal was then to gain a lot of life, get the appropriate Rune out, and beat them with an unblockable and/or unkillable creature. My tournament deck looked like this: "Tight White Life" 3 Congregate 3 Rune of Protection: Black 4 Rune of Protection: Red 3 Rune of Protection: Green 2 Scent of Jasmine 3 Swords to Plowshares 1 Benalish Trapper 4 Coalition Honor Guard 2 Devout Witness 2 Order of Leitbur 2 Radiant's Dragoons 1 Sanctum Custodian 1 Soltari Priest 4 Soul Warden 1 Thermal Glider 2 Troubled Healer 21 Plains Now, there were a lot of problem, but I still ended up in the top 8. For example, the land count is too low. It is a Red Hate deck, and it eventually lost to a green creature deck because I didn't have enough land to cast spells and prevent damage. I ended up playing a blue deck (!) that eventually ran out of counterspells and smashing two unfortunate Sligh players before my life-gaining rampage was ended. Here is a card by card analysis of what worked and what didn't work: Congregate - Great against creature decks and not bad against Sligh either. The blue deck I played had his annoying habit of dealing one damage a turn with Cloud of Faeries, so gaining just 6 life from the Congregate would set the blue player back. It's hard to get the four mana for it unless your opponent is not the type to attack into a Rune to make you tap out. Try to force a stalemate creaturewise so your opponent can't attack with everything lest they lose creatures. Rune of Protection: Black. I never faced a black deck, so this was always cycled. I don't know how good it would have been against a suicide black deck. The one black deck I did see worked by pumping just one of its creatures with Sinister Strength or the like. Obviously, this a great answer to a 5/3 Carnophage if you can get to it. Rune of Protection: Red Everytime I drew this against a Sligh player, I won. At least one should be in every white deck in Peasant Magic. Just remember not to tap out when they've tapped out. They've got Fireblast. You don't have Scars of the Veteran. Rune of Protection: Green The worst of the Runes in my deck. Green has removal for it in Druid Lyrist or the like. Plus, the sheer number of creatures green has makes you incapable of preventing damage and playing spells effectively. Unlike the other two RoPs, this RoP didn't guarantee a win. Scent of Jasmine After looking at my burn deck I was going to make, I looked at Scent of Jasmine and saw it was just better. I never emptied my hand fast enough for this to be a bad draw. If it was in my opening hand against Burn, I didn't even need the red RoP. In my opening hand against other decks, it was so-so. It's a hard card to write about since it all depends on what else is in your hand and how fast you want to play it. Swords to Plowshares. Hard to argue with. Gets rid of the Tims that kill your creatures, the elf that was just given a Wild Might or Rancor, and the Carnophage that was just given a Sinister Strength. Usually card advantage against green and black, sometimes you'll even see a Fire Whip in a Sligh deck. Often against Sligh, the Mogg Fanatic is the thing to hit so the Soul Warden and friends can come out. Benalish Trapper. I only owned one of these going into the tournament and had no Master Decoys. They're solid. Stops a fatty, requires two Tims, trades evenly for Mogg Fanatic or taps them down so the Mogg Flunkies can't do anything. Usually gets burned or Terrored… Coalition Honor Guard … Unless one of these guys are out! Man, do they wreck burn! (like the rest of my deck was designed to do, I know) Against Burn. Read: Counter target fireblast or two other burn spells. Against Green, Read: Stop Seals of Strength, avoid opposing combat tricks for the rest of the game. Against Black, Read: suck up a kill spell and make them hold their pumpers. Against Blue, Read: Stop the Timming madness (or suck a counterspell). He's expensive, and four is probably too many because multiples aren't very impressive. A good draw in any match except the mirror. Devout Witness: I put this one in since I feared one of my opponents would come up with a RoP: White. That didn't happen. I never had any good targets for her ability (no, Seal of Strength is NOT a good target). It does stop Black Vise, the Rack, Sinister Strength, and others, but none of these are worth two cards. Clear, which cycles and destroys an enchantment, might be better, but if I did the tournament again, I would remove these two ladies and put in a couple more Benalish Trappers. Order of Leitbur: Ah, finally, a card that kills your opponent. Obviously, this guy wins against black. Order of the Ebon Hand sucks against you since you've got RoP Black. Once he's out against Black or Blue control (assuming Honor Guard is out), the game is in your favor. Radiant's Dragoons: Really expensive Scent of Jasmine and blocker. Don't play them in your deck. They're good against burn because they put you way up and block everything. Use Mother of Runes instead. They suck a burn spell and can block green fatties just as well for one mana (one mana is better than eight). Sanctum Custodian: Better than Hallowed Healer. He kills an elf and prevents some damage. In combination, they kill bears and prevent damage. I should have been running four of these; I just didn't own them. Get him out as soon as you draw him so he can start saving you. Soltari Priest: Puts Sligh and green on Ten Turn clock. Also blocks and kills the Dauthi and Thalakos and lives if you've got our friend the Sanctum Custodian. Thermal Glider: Puts Sligh and green on Ten Turn clock. Also blocks the Cloud of Faeries if you've got Sanctum Custodian. Troubled Healer: It's Zuran Orb, and it really throws off your opponents' combat math. However, you may need a good amount of land though to make the deck work, especially if you're playing Rune Green. Your opponent won't see it this way most of the time. Who wants to trade a creature for a Plains? Plains: 21 is probably not enough. Play 24. Don't play Drifting Meadow. A land usually isn't a bad draw. After the tournament, I decided this was probably better: "Hundred Plus" 3 RoP: Red 3 RoP: Black 4 Soul Warden 3 Scent of Jasmine 2 Coalition Honor Guard 1 Thermal Glider 1 Soltari Priest 2 Order of Leitbur 2 Troubled Healer 4 Sanctum Custodian 3 Swords to Plowshares 2 Beloved Chaplain (good early blocker, late game finisher) 3 Congregate 3 Benalish Trapper 24 Plains That's the deck. I hope someone likes it enough to rebuild it, use it, win, e-mail me asking me my address, and mail me half their winnings. Here's the e-mail: elrond@uchicago.edu Best of luck on your peasantry! Your hero, Joe Anderson