Zeta is here! We all thought the new banlist would be the biggest change since last time, but nooo! Our dear friends at Wizards of the Coast decided to downshift a whole batch of powerful (and some less powerful) cards for the sake of capitalism! This even prompted an emergency update to the fresh banlist, because Narcomoeba at common and Doomsday at uncommon were deemed a little bit too dangerous to exist in the format. That still leaves us with a smattering of impactful new tools. While the Zeta set contains a couple of interesting cards new at uncommon, Raffine, Scheming Seer chief among them, its biggest contribution to Peasant will undoubtedly be the downshift of several powerful uncommons to common. While the cap at 5 uncommons made several of these cards unattractive before, they are now very useful tools. I feel the most notable new commons are Baleful Strix, Cut Down, Dispatch, Price of Progress, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Vandalblast, and four of these saw play tonight!
Now on to the tournament itself! For the first time since we rebooted the format, yours truly managed to clinch the 4-0! Sweet victory! I must confess that it is a win with a small blemish, since I discovered I had accidentally not sided out two uncommons when adjusting my deck last minute at half past midnight the day before the tournament. Je m'excuse! I was very relieved I didn't draw the cards in question during my games against Stefan, and quickly corrected this error when I realized what had happened after the game. To be honest, I fully expected my only points to come from the bye, since this deck was slapped together so last minute. However, while I did get the bye in the first round, the deck delivered some very tense and exciting games in the other three rounds. The Vandalblasts were key in snatching victory against Stefan's very exciting Esper Glitters update, which was running full playsets of both Dispatch and Baleful Strix. He was most impressed by Dispatch, which is essentially an upgraded Swords to Plowshares in his deck. However, I also overheard Arjan noting Baleful Strix was super problematic for the Blue Terror deck, since you have no good removal for the bird, and all your important threats die to it in combat.
Now, someone on the French Discord server noted I should have been running Price of Progress in my sideboard, and I fully agree, but my copies hadn't arrived in time. Other players did run the card though, and proved red is still strong without Painter's Studio and Reckless Bushwhacker. Despite Kuldotha Rebirth being relegated to the sidelines for now, three out of thirteen players arrived with a mono red deck. Madness burn edged out the two pure burn decks, congrats to Johan for claiming second place! The other 3-1 was a masterful four-color combo deck piloted by Arjan. Hawkeye's Bow has been on people's radar since it got released, and even prompted the Pauper Council to ban Seeker of Skybreak, the bow's counterpart in a two card combo. In Peasant both cards are still legal, and what's more, Arjan had five uncommons to make the combo that much more consistent. However, not only does Aphetto Alchemist combo off with the bow like Seeker of Skybreak does, it can also untap artifact lands to generate extra mana while you are looking for your combo! As his fifth uncommon, Arjan played Tinker to tutor for the bow. Great little synergies all around. Congrats on a nice third place!
Alright, I think I rambled on quite enough. This blog post is already late due to a particularly busy schedule and a stubborn cold. Let's get to the decklists already!
Rank
Player
Deck
Colors
P/W/D
01.
Hennink *
UR Tempo
4/4/0
02.
Johan *
Madness Burn
4/3/0
03.
Arjan *
Bow Combo
4/3/0
04.
Stefan *
Esper Glitters
4/2/1
05.
Rob *
Black Initiative
4/2/1
06.
Nathan *
Burn
4/2/1
07.
Melle
Rakdos Reanimator
4/2/0
08.
Martijn B *
Burn
4/2/0
09.
Rutger *
UG Initiative
4/2/0
10.
Ivan *
Blue Terror
4/1/1
11.
Luciano *
Landfall
4/1/1
12.
Niels
???
4/1/0
13.
Reinder *
Ux Tron
4/0/1
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