Season V.3: 28th of December 2012

Apparantly people like to play (Peasant) Magic in between the holidays! 17 people attended last friday's tournament, awesomesauce!

Rob de Jonge took the evening in a 4-0 sweep piloting Black Fish, congratulations! It is often times true that an aggressive deck exploits the weaknesses in the opponent's plays or draws. Black Fish, however, is the kind of deck that not only exploits those moments, but creates them! This power comes at a price though, as the deck is quite suicidal

The top 6 of this tournament is complemented by more disruption in UB Rack, one pure aggro deck (Boros) and three decks I would label as 'combo', reanimator being the most obvious of the three. Elves in my opinion is not a pure aggro deck as most of its critters have a supporting role. You might thignk Desmond's UR Tempo is an aggro deck, but as of this moment I label it as combo... I mean if you can manage a turn three kill with nothing but a kiln fiend you are 'comboing out' right?

As a sidenote: Due to several requests to have all decklists available here I will simply post all of them from next month on (reason for not doing that this months is that a significant number of decklists have gone AWOL). But this means that starting next year you will have all the more decks to study for do's, don'ts and perhaps that one card you hadn't considered just yet

Enjoy these last 2012 decklists, see you in 2013!

Rank

Player (click * to see decklist)

Deck

Colors

P/W/D

1.

Rob de Jonge *

Black Fish

4/4/0

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 4 Phyrexian Rager 2 Liliana's Specter 1 Shriekmaw (U) 2 Crypt Rats 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi Spells 4 Dark Ritual 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Sinkhole 4 Sign in Blood 4 Geth's Verdict 2 Snuff Out Lands 4 Mishra's Factory 19 Swamp Sideboard 1 Grim Harvest 4 Rancid Earth 2 Crypt Rats 3 Relic of Progenitus 1 Snuff Out 4 Duress

2.

Jasper Boelens *

Black Unicorns

4/3/0

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 3 Sea Gate Oracle 1 Ravenous Rats 3 Mesmeric Fiend 3 Trinket Mage Spells 1 Executioner's Capsule 3 Doom Blade 1 Nameless Inversion 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Raven's Crime 4 The Rack (U) 2 Disfigure 2 Echoing Decay 1 Bonesplitter 1 Funeral Charm 1 Engineered Plague (U) Lands 3 Evolving Wilds 2 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vault of Whispers 11 Snow-Covered Swamp 5 Snow-Covered Island Sideboard 4 Duress 1 Echoing Decay 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Desert 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Dispel

3.

Desmond Scholtens *

UR Tempo

4/3/0

Creatures 4 Illusory Angel (U) 4 Kiln Fiend 4 Keldon Marauders 4 Delver of Secrets Spells 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Ponder 4 Gush 4 Manamorphose 4 Snap 1 Force of Will (U) 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Lotus Petal Lands 2 Izzet Guildgate 6 Mountain 8 Island Sideboard 4 Electrickery 4 Apostle's Blessing 3 Smash to Smithereens 2 Echoing Truth 1 Dispel 1 Spell Pierce

4.

Martijn Beljaars *

Boros

4/3/0

Creatures 4 Kiln Fiend 4 Kor Skyfisher 2 Aven Riftwatcher 4 Gore-House Chainwalker 4 Keldon Marauders 2 Porcelain Legionaire Spells 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Chain Lightning 3 Lightning Helix (U) 2 Isochron Scepter (U) 4 Galvanic Blast 3 Incinerate Lands 4 Great Furnace 4 Ancient Den 4 Terramorphic Expanse 5 Mountain 3 Plains Sideboard 2 Prismatic Strands 2 Standard Bearer 2 Hallow 4 Pyroblast 3 Crimson Acolyte 2 Smash to Smithereens

5.

Martijn Labohm *

Reanimator

4/3/0

Creatures 4 Hapless Researcher 4 Owl Familiar 4 Ulamog's Crusher 2 Pathrazer of Ulamog (U) Spells 4 Lotus Petal 4 Careful Study 4 Duress 1 Ponder 4 Preordain 3 Reanimate (U) 4 Exhume 3 Dragon Breath Lands 10 Island 9 Swamp Sideboard 3 Coffin Purge 4 Spell Pierce 2 Daze 4 Echoing Truth 2 Faerie Macabre

6.

Mathijs Hoogeveen *

Elves

4/3/0

Creatures 4 Priest of Titania 4 Nettle Sentinel 4 Viridian Joiner 4 Timberwatch Elf 4 Birchlore Rangers 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Fyndhorn Elves 2 Lys Alana Huntmaster 2 Taunting Elf 3 Quirion Ranger Spells 2 Lotus Petal 4 Rancor 4 Manamorphose 4 Umbral Mantle (U) Distant Melody Lands 10 Forest Sideboard 4 Wellwisher 1 Spider Spawning (U) 1 Taunting Elf 2 Naturalize 3 Kaervek's Torch 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Scattershot Archer

Untouched gems in Peasant: Qasali Pridemage

Hello fellow players, interested in Peasant magic! I'm planning on putting a series of articles on the blog about strong cards in Peasant Magic that rarely see play. Why is it with some cards that we can see the potential but they never end up in our decks? This time let's look at Qasali Pridemage.

What do we see? It's a 2/2 Cat Wizard for GW. That's a bear. It has Exalted and for one colourless you can sacrifice him to destroy an artifact or enchantment. I think we can be quick to conclude that it is a strong card: a bear that boosts solitary attackers and holds an answer to opposing enchantments and artifacts.

So, why didn't we see a single Pridemage in any Peasant decklist for ages? I think the answer lies in the fact that there wasn't a deck in which he could fit. GW decks weren't good enough because they weren't able to cope with decks like Faeries, Blink or Storm. GW decks fight fair combats where other decks pack things like Hymn to Tourach, Mulldrifter or Spellstutter Sprite. Now I'm not saying that those cards are unfair, but they are powerful and put the opponent on a disadvantage in an aggressive way. They do 2 for 1 and most GW cards don't. The Pridemage is a support card that can fix certain problems, but it won't put you on cardadvantage and isn't a part of your winning combo.

But I think it is still possible to build a quite competitive GW deck with Qasali Pridemage. Martijn Beljaars played Midnight Presence on the Peasant tournament of october. Possibly maindeck and certainly in the sidboard he could have played some Pridemages. Let me inspire you to look further into GW.

Deck (click deck to see decklist)

Colors

GW Beats

Creatures 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Icatian Javelineers 4 Qasali Pridemage 4 Steward of Valeron 4 Kor Skyfisher 3 Watchwolf (U) 4 Centaur Healer Spells 2 Vines of Vastwood 3 Armadillo Cloak 4 Journey to Nowhere 2 Swords to Plowshares(U) Lands 4 Selesnya Guildgate 10 Forest 8 Plains

This deck is pretty straight forward and play decisions are not too difficult. It has got a few reactive cards in Vines of Vastwood and Swords to Plowshares, other than these it's just play creatures and put them sideways.

Something with a little more perseverance:

Deck (click deck to see decklist)

Colors

GW Populate

Creatures 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Qasali Pridemage 4 Centaur Healer 2 Sensor Splicer Spells 4 Elephant Ambush 3 Beast Attack (U) 4 Rootborn Defenses 4 Journey to Nowhere 2 Swords to Plowshares (U) 2 Rancor Lands 4 Selesnya Guildgate 11 Forest 8 Plains

These are just example decks in which Qasali Pridemage fits. I'm sure you can do better than this and I'm looking forward to see some reactions!

Hope you enjoyed, see you next time,

Johan