Peasant Magic - A Complete Review

Okay, so it’s not quite as powerful as the standard build, for a deck with no rares it is pretty darn interesting and it really showcases a bit of creative ingenuity. The deck works once Goblin Bombardment is on the table with Angelic Renewal and Auramancer. Simply sack the Auramancer to the Goblin Bombardment, deal 1, Sacrifice Angelic Renewal to return Auramancer to play, pay 1W, play Angelic Renewal, rinse and repeat. That gives you an extra blocker each turn and turns 2 mana into 1 damage. Not too bad for a deck that costs little more than a starter deck.

If that example hasn’t convinced you that PEZ isn’t all about massive weenie horde decks that require zero ingenuity then maybe this will; At GenCon there is a 90% chance I will be playing a deck that doesn’t win with creatures and there is also a chance that said deck will, in fact, feature not a single creature main deck or sideboard. Like I said, there is an awful lot of room for creativity. Or I may play Draw-Go. Or maybe I’ll just stick with Sligh. Or White Weenie. Or. . . I never was good at making choices :)

I will soon present you with a color by color list of the most common decks, with at least 2 deck lists per color, but first I want to go over some of the things you want to keep in mind when building your deck. First, if your deck can’t beat Sligh have fun but don’t expect to win. The natural consequence of the above item is that if your deck can’t beat White Weenie have fun but don’t expect to win. Third, get creative with cards you haven’t seen in a while, especially lands and artifacts. Some of the most powerful cards in PEZ are colorless and this list includes Strip Mine (counts as a common), Desert (common), Mishra’s Factory (common), Maze of Ith (common), Fountain of Youth (common), Phyrexian War Machine (common), and Serrated Arrows (common). Fourth, many of the decks turn to enchantments for support; most commonly this includes CoP’s(common), Empyrial Armor (common), Fire Whip (common), Arcane Teachings (common), Quicksilver Dagger (common), Pestilence (common), Sigil of Sleep (common), Elephant Guide (uncommon), Seton’s Desire (common), Squee’s Embrace (common), etc. The consequence of items three and four is that you will have to be able to deal with these types of cards! Last but not least, this format is fast, very fast. Most games are decided by turn 6 if not sooner and most decks’ mana curves top out at 3 or 4.

Anyway, with that in mind lets move onto a color by color breakdown of the format and the decks. 

Granted, this version lacks the aggression that the majority of the Origins winners showed. I have to credit that to my personal bias in deck building. Hopefully I’m not leading you, the reader, astray. If I am, it’s your fault, there is no rule saying that an internet writer knows more than you do. For your information, the Origin builds contained a few more creatures including Erg Raiders (nice because the are good against Desert) as well as both the Skittering Skirge and Skittering Horror that I would have liked to include here.

Anyway, this deck contains a few sources of hand disruption which can be key, especially against some Burn decks, but is generally weak in a format where most decks will be top decking after turn 4 anyway. It also contains 8 removal spells and 2 mass removal spells, these are also potent in creature dominated formats and I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable with an additional 4 slots or more devoted to these types of cards. The Slayer is a nod to beating White Weenie as is the War Beast which has the additional advantage of being immune from the format’s standard burn spell, Lightning Bolt.

A second, and to my mind more interesting, Black builds eschews the use of creatures in favor of control. As I indicated before, I have not settled on a deck for GenCon but a version of this deck is one of my top choices.

There are actually a lot of variations of this deck floating around and right now I’m leaning toward a version with Cabal Coffers and Cemetery Gate but you can see some of those discussions if you visit the yahoo group. Also, after reading reports from Origins I’m taking a hard look at Stench of Decay and so far I have been pleasantly surprised.

With the exception of the lands and four other cards, every card in this deck is creature control. There are few decks that can deal with that type of barrage especially with the amount of life gain this deck packs as back-up. Obviously, this combination is strong against Sligh but the untargeted removal and Serrated Arrows makes the deck just as strong against White Weenie as well. It is significantly slower than other decks in the field but doesn’t suffer greatly from this handicap since it stabilizes early . An additional benefit of this deck is that all your opponents creature removal and enchantment removal is wasted against this deck. A definite bonus. 

The first striking thing about the deck is the absence of a fifth Uncommon. The problem arose when I wasn’t sure what the best card for the slot was, but the deck is just an idea deck so who says it needs to be perfect (also, who says you need 5 uncommons to win, the original version of White Life showcased below started as an all commons deck and plays well that way). While this deck isn’t as aggressive as a blue build can get, it tries to gain advantage from every card played. The Hapless Researcher is an interesting card since he provides a perfect blocker and is not likely to get burned. Plus you can use his card cycling ability any time. The Seer has a similar situation but also provides nice evasion and synergy with the Wormfang Drake, as do all the other creatures in the deck. The creatures alone won’t win the battle but with a few well timed Aether Bursts, Capsizes, and Wash Outs there is a good chance they can fight their way ahead.

This deck shows some of the current thought about what goes into Blue control for PEZ. First, the lands are key to Blue’s ability to deal with a creature onslaught, since many decks are creature based this is an important element of control. Many decks would also add 4 Mishra’s Factory as these cards provide mana as well as additional blockers. Second the deck features Force Spike. The ability to gain even a one turn reprieve early in the game is often the difference between winning and losing with Blue. While there are many better counterspells, this one is too important to pass up and it also allows Blue to play a second turn Maze of Ith with a little extra safety. Of course, the stand out counterspell in PEZ has to be Exclude, only it’s high mana cost keeps it from being broken in this format. Last but not least, the deck also features Fountain of Youth, this can be particularly strong against Burn and Sligh decks and can save mid and late game counterspells for other threats.

The deck itself uses Propaganda, and it’s synergy with Maze of Ith, to really lock down creatures.

The creature selection is a tough call. To make it into the deck, creatures first had to be largely immune to burn and removal. The Wayward Soul pass the test best but at 2 toughness I could suffer trouble from Desert. The Killer Whale gets around the Desert issue because of their high toughness, which also helps against Burn (at 5 toughness this lower powered threat beat out both the Cloud Djinn and Air Elemental). Even this may prove to be a problem if a Maze of Ith hits the table since my only answer is Capsize. While I believe that creatures will normally be my best bet, I would have to consider Millstone for this spot as much as I don’t like that kind of strategy even in control. Too much can go wrong in a game that long especially with only a single win condition (assuming I drop the Wayward Soul for additional counter or bounce protection).

This is probably the single most elegant and most talked about PEZ deck ever. A true combo deck in every sense of the word. So much has been written about this deck and the stages of it’s evolution from my first, very ugly build, are well documented on www.pojo.com, www.card-shark.com, and the yahoo group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peasantmagic/ (BTW, these are all great PEZ resources and both Pojo and Card Shark are great web sites too). I will avoid getting into it other than by saying that some of the PEZ players I respect the most had a major hand in making what you see before you and this is a true testament to what PEZ is all about: community and creativity.

Anyway, for those who don’t see how this deck wins, the combo goes as follows: 4 Islands in play, play 2 High Tide by tapping 2 Islands (1 mana floating), tap 2 Islands (7 mana floating), play Peregrine Drake (2 mana floating) - untap 4 Islands, Tap 4 Islands (14 mana floating), play Capsize with buyback on the Drake (8 mana floating), Play the Drake (3 mana floating), repeat. Each time you repeat the sequence an additional 3 mana is added to your pool. At this point you can play Whispers of the Muse (or find it with Merchant Scroll) to find the Magma Mine, pump the Mine to infinite damage, and win with a colorless mana source. Failing that, you can stall out the game by going for a Capsize lock.

The deck has two weaknesses. First the combo is card intensive which is why there are 21 search cards. Second, the deck is shafted by instant speed removal, a distinct weakness in this environment. Still, the deck is strong and wins most games just as fast as any aggressive deck would.

As you can tell by the number of decks I have listed I have a soft spot for Blue. It is also a testament to the fact that players have yet to find a truly competitive Blue build that there is such a degree of diversity in the ‘standard’ builds. I have faith that the time will come when Blue can hold it’s own in this format. Until then we all have to keep trying. 

This type of build is nice since the lands provide extra creatures which the deck itself lacks. There is also enough acceleration to get a quick Blastoderm, to rev up your lands, or to cast a game ending Hurricane. What this deck lacks is the creature base that most Stompy decks love and it also skips some really nice three cost drops - Jorael’s Centaur and Simian Grunts. I know this is not the optimal Stompy build (since it is another build that is weak against Strip Mine), but it is an interesting one that is a lot of fun to play around with. Stompy is such a strong and well known archetype, that changes little in the PEZ format, I simply don’t feel obligated to spend much time with it.

The deck I’m more likely to play, if I go Green, is one of the creature-less decks I promised you before. I know that Green is an unlikely color for a creature-less deck but hold off your judgement for just a little while yet. Also, although I hadn’t intended to post multicolor decks under in this part of the article I feel that the heart of this deck is Green, so I’m posting it here. Ahh the joys of being a writer and the editor ;)

The obvious downside to this deck is that games take forever, for that reason alone it may not be tournament worthy. However, this deck is like the Tick, neigh invulnerable, especially with CoP’s, Pay No Heed, and life gain in the SB. The funny thing is that the deck’s biggest vulnerability is to Blue Control. How is that for strange. Anyway, the idea is to stave off attacks with the fog effects until you can draw into a Constant Mists. At that point, the game is pretty much won although straight Burn can be a problem before sideboarding. Land Tax helps replenish the lands you lose to Constant Mists and also thins the deck. Overall, a very strange but very powerful build meant to take advantage of the creature oriented metagame. 

This deck explores one of the ways to beat White; simply put, be too fast for their CoP’s and Pro. Red creatures to make any difference. With a perfect draw this deck can have a 2nd turn kill. More commonly, this deck will win by turn 4. The downside, of course, is that if your opponent can stop you and can find an answer to your burn spells, it’s game over. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you must play as aggressively as possible. That means you want to be sacrificing your creatures to the Raider or to a Goblin Bomb early. Just ignore, as much as possible, what your opponent is doing. Board position doesn’t matter. Your life total doesn’t matter. Go for the throat. I can feel my adrenaline kicking in just thinking about it.

Now a note about Reckless Charge: it’s good. It’s really good and you should seriously consider this card for all of your Red PEZ builds. After all, Haste for 1 isn’t bad nor is +3 power for 1. The fact that it does both and can be played from the graveyard is, as some say, some good.

Okay, after all the times I have mentioned it in the past, I will make another note of it - this is not strictly a Sligh build. The mana curve is off, still that’s what everyone calls it so I will just follow along and be a sheep for once in my life. While this deck may not be substantially different from the deck above it does play differently. The wins here will come around turn 6, but the deck has more staying power and more versatility than the Geeba Speed deck. In addition, this deck packs 8 main deck solutions to White Weenie and 4 Mishra’s Factories in the sideboard mean that you don’t have to fear the White match up.

These two examples cover, within a few cards, most of the Red decks you will face. There are, however, a few key card choices I should discuss.

The first card choice involves Arcane Teachings. Many deck builders would favor extra burn or some 3 or 4 cost creatures in place of these 3 card slots. If you fit that mold more power to you. Other players, who want to add versatility to their decks, will see the advantages of Arcane Teachings but will prefer Fire Whip. Fire Whip is better than Teachings because it’s quicker (both because of a lower casting cost and the ability to sacrifice it for an additional point) but Arcane Teachings has the advantage of making your creatures bigger. The first implication is that you can mow through blockers and decrease your opponent’s clock better with Teachings. The other, and more sinister, advantage is in the metagame. +2 on the backside pushes your Raiders, War Beasts, and Flunkies above 4 toughness. That means they can’t be bolted. Think about it.

The second rough spot in Red decks surrounds the uncommon slots. Really there are a few ‘best’ choices. I prefer Barbarian Ring as it’s additional burn and it comes from a colorless source. With those two advantages, the issue is closed for me. However, other very smart (maybe smarter) and very successful players (probably more successful) have had better luck with other cards. The first card is Browbeat. With the speed and direct damage of Red 5 damage can’t be easily shrugged off and the alternative, drawing 3 cards, is often enough to save a deck from stalling in mid-game. The downside, in my eyes, is that CoP’s make Browbeat ineffective and I feel Red should be looking to beat the White matchup. I also feel that the spot is better filled with direct aggression. A third candidate for the spot is, surprisingly, Death Spark. With the predilection to death and sacrifice that is inborn in your goblin hordes this spell will see play over and over again. My thought on this is that I want to win before I have a chance to play a spell over and over again. Still its a strong choice with a history of success at last years Gen Con. The final viable option, in my eyes (though I may be missing something), is Wildfire Emissary. The downside is that he brings your mana curve up. However, he is vicious against White and he does have 4 on the backside which serves him well in the mirror match.

You may have noticed that Ball Lightning was not one of the uncommons I listed. In a format where most decks play Desert, many play Maze of Ith, and 3 of the 4 most common colors have instant speed removal I just don’t feel that this card is optimal. Sure its great and it is a classic but take a hard look at the metagame before you include these guys in your deck. 

While some of my card choices would be slightly different, this deck gives a good feel for what the average White Weenie build looks like (although this version is more color neutral and not designed to punish either Black or Red builds) . Most of the White Weenie decks are looking just to beat down with an Empyrial Armored attacker as soon as possible, preferably one that doesn’t tap to attack or that has evasion. These decks need for support cards but the Swords to Plowshares, Cho-Manno’s Blessing, Congregate, and Prismatic Strands are all power houses no matter how you look at them. In fact, all three have potential to swing a game if played at the right time. The real stand out cards of the deck, however, are Soul Warden (all white decks should play 4 main deck) and Standard Bearer. Standard Bearer in particular is powerful against every single color. It stops all creature enchantments and pump so an early Standard Bearer can hose both White Weenie and Stompy. It also deals well with the direct damage of Red and Black Removal. Trust me, include 4 in your decks as well. Also, look at both Holy Light and Devout Harpist (my personal favorite) as other strong choices and for additional cheap removal check out Kirtar’s Desire.

Just as Red had some interesting alternate uncommon choices, White has some as well. However, the norm for White decks is presented above, the alternate choices offered here are just my own musings. One option is to include 4 main deck Story Circles. By adding a few main deck Tragic Poets, a deck built like this may well be able to survive almost anything would certainly pay dividends to the player as long as he was able to avoid being lynched by his opponents. My personal preference, however, is to play 3 Enlightened Tutor backed with a Story Circle and a Land Tax. The Tutor ensures an early Empyrial Armor, or if one is available already you can pull a Land Tax to maximize the beat down power of the game’s best enchantment, or if all is lost you can pull a Story Circle to give yourself breathing room.

This deck can also be built with the alternate uncommon choice of 4 Story Circle and perform very well. Unlike the White Weenie deck above, this deck seeks to extend the game for as long as possible and only wins after a few of the creatures have been Blessed and can than sneak through the opposing forces and nip away at their life total. This deck really shouldn’t have any problems moving ahead with it’s plan to ignore the opponent’s strikes considering that the creatures alone (not including the effect of the Soul Wardens) could gain you as much as 84 life. Coalition Honor Guard and Maze of Ith are other good additions to this deck and provides an additional level of protection.

This style of deck has been proved effective by Johnny Lai who has piloted it to multiple top 8 finishes. Just as the previous deck showcased a different style of play and an alternate method of winning with White Weenie, this deck does the same. Instead of looking for an Empyrial Armor or stalling the game and going for a slow win, this deck builds up a large force and then goes for a crippling assault after casting Army of Allah. An interesting change for the deck would be the substitution of some of the uncommon slots with Sol Ring to accelerate the deck even more.

This deck is one of the few in PEZ with a possible turn 2 kill that is actually likely to come up more than once in a tournament. In addition, this deck has excellent staying power as the Nomads and pumpable toughness creatures can stop most attackers without breaking a sweat. Add to this the fact that Worthy Cause can shoot you to infinite (unbounded) life while you wait for your infinite damage combo to come up. Basically, this deck can be a powerhouse and the only thing holding it back is inconsistency, although the deck is built to help smooth this out as much as possible. For those who don’t see the infinite damage or life gain (not that this is a new combo by any means) I offer the following hint; The En-kors’ ability is targeted. As an additional note, the Standard Bearer can be easily replaced with a number of other strong card choices including Soul Warden, Mogg Fanatic, Cho-Manno’s Blessing, Lotus Petal, and Prismatic Strands (do you see a trend here with some of White’s card choices?). This is one of the more common rogue builds that you should be prepared for.

Of all my multi-color PEZ builds, this is by far my favorite and one of the most fun. The entire deck revolves around threshold, flashback, and the graveyard. Mulch, Book Burning, and the Mongrel help to fill the graveyard specifically searching for Roar of the Wurm. Mulch also serves double duty by helping to smooth out the mana flow as do the Werebears and the Quirion Elves. Also to keep opponents on their toes there is enough burn and aggression to keep the deck competitive if the main strategy stalls out.

This deck, or at least the GW with Armadillo Cloak part, is one of the more common multi-color builds you should expect to see. After all, Armadillo Cloak is one of the most powerful enchantments ever made and since it’s a common it’s perfect to build a PEZ deck around. This version looks to enchant the Phantom creatures with toughness boosters as soon as possible which makes them vulnerable to only a handful of cards in the format (Swords to Plowshares, Stench of Decay, Holy Light, etc.). The Enlightened Tutors help to make the combo happen early. The Elves help to accelerate the deck and the en-Kor are there to provide additional invulnerable blockers. An alternate build for Cloak decks is to incorporate as many ‘doesn’t tap to attack’ creatures as possible.

This deck is similar to the White Life deck I discussed above. The difference is that this deck relies on bounce tricks and deck manipulation to gain an advantage. This is a very find deck with a lot of potential, especially when you need to make a comeback. Overall very fun as long as it’s played carefully and with thought. Perhaps not the best beginners deck although most players shouldn’t have a problem with the tricks and strategies.