I think they seem a little too powerful.  Comes into play tapped would seem like a perfect fit though.

Do you thinking Lightning Bolt and Blightning can be sufficient to prevent any planeswalker nuisances?

Regarding the changes you suggested, how about:
-4 Slave of Bolas
+2 Terminate
+2 Lavaclaw Reaches

How about Prophetic Prism as a cantripping mana-fixer, or would it be slow and junky?  Do you think I can squeeze Bituminous Blast into this deck?

EDIT: Would Sarkhan fit or do you think that it would be too expensive/slow?

Hello, I am new to Type 2.  I have played many formats from vintage, to limited, to competitive peasant (lol), but I have never played a game of standard.  I'm trying to make a standard deck to compete at my local card shop.  I hope that I'm going about this deck critique correctly.  If not, I apologize.

To preface the decklist, I would like to describe the local metagame.  I have friends who go to the tournaments so I was able to scope out some expected decks and opponents.  Most of the standard decks aren't exactly "tier 1."  There are a lot of decks with ridiculously high mana curves and unstable mana bases.  However, I've heard that there are experienced players piloting Elves, Vampires, and Burn lurking around.

So, the deck that I have come up with is the following:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Creatures: 20
4 Guul Draz Assassin
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Slavering Nulls
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Vampire Nighthawk

Instants: 4
4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries: 15
4 Blightning
4 Slave of Bolas
2 Duress
2 Marsh Casualties
3 Sign in Blood

Lands: 21
15 Swamp
6 Mountain

Sideboard: 15
4 Deathmark
4 Suffer the Past
2 Duress
1 Sign in Blood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mana Curve:
1 Mana: 10 Spells (25.6%)
2 Mana: 13 Spells (33.3%)
3 Mana: 12 Spells (30.8%)
4 Mana: 0 Spells (0%)
5 Mana: 4 Spells (10.3%)
*Kicker costs unaccounted for*

Color Distribution:
Black Spells: 23 (59.0%)
Red Spells: 8 (20.5%)
Gold Spells: 8 (20.5%)

Deck's Goal:
The goal of this deck is to take early control of the board while gaining card advantage via discard.  The deck is supposed to be quick, but not in the burn deck sense where the main goal is the opponent's life total.  I imagined that the goal of the deck would be to get so far ahead by mid-game that the game is virtually over.

Card Explanations:
Creatures[/U]

Guul Draz Assassin : A quick one-drop that can take early control of the board.
Gatekeeper of Malakir : A solid body with a built-in Diabolic Edict.  It seems like good card advantage, and it enables early board control.
Slavering Nulls : He's not as good as Hypnotic Specter, but he is still an early attacker that disrupts the opponent.
Hypnotic Specter : I consider this card a foundation of the deck.  Its powerful random discard coupled with its evasion makes it a perfect aggro-control creature.
Vampire Nighthawk : This card seems seriously under-costed to me.  It gives me an evasive beater who can hold off fatties (via deathtouch).  The lifelink works nicely to minimize [CARD]Sign in Blood[/CARD]'s cost.

Instants[/U]

Lightning Bolt : An under-costed burn that doubles as board control.  It belongs in any red deck.

Sorceries[/U]

Blightning : A ridiculously powerful spell that takes a chunk of life while gaining card advantage via making the opponent discard.
Slave of Bolas : Nets me one more attacker and the opponent one less blocker for a turn.  I predict that it will also work excellently against all of the fatties running around.
Duress : The deck is very susceptible to board sweepers and lacks enchantment removal.  I figure that duress is an early spells that can get rid of anything threatening.
Marsh Casualties : A powerful, one-sided board sweeper against opposing aggro decks.
Sign in Blood : I felt that the deck needed some form of draw, and after using the Gatherer this seemed to be the best available option.

Comments:
I realize that there are many   costs in the deck.  After adding these cards to the deck, I decided that the best route to take would be to create a black deck with a touch of essential red spells.  For this reason, I am cautious to add any   costs except very significant red spells to the deck.

Regarding the use of only basic lands, I figured that since the deck wants to come out quick that lands that came into play tapped would hinder my game plan.  Is this correct thinking?  Or am I really missing out on some good plays with other lands?

Are there too many 4of's?  Should I try to diversify the deck more?

What archtypes are the biggest threat to such an aggro-control deck?  What cards should I worry about?

I really wanted to play Bituminous Blast, but I couldn't find room for it.  I'm still willing to play it if anyone has suggestions of what I should cut for it.

My sideboard is very much an approximation since I've never actually played the decks at the local tournaments.  I've scouted other sideboards for black and red decks, but am I missing something essential.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Does balance have a place in this deck?  Seems strong against creature strategies since you only run 4.  You have Crucibles to replay the lands too.  Playing Balance then Standstill could be a good play, since you could wipe their board and then make them pay the price for trying to recover from Balance.

Street Wraith seems weak to me.  Your uncommon slots are supposed to be really strong points for your deck.  He's really only a cantip that loads the grave.  I guess with Tortured Existence he's cute, but not worth it imo.  Maybe up the Wonder/Psychatog count?  Maybe 1 Lightning Grieves for your finisher Pyschatog?

Since you're running a dredge deck, you graveyard should get to a decent size most games.  How about Rune Snag over Mana Leak--it'll usually be stronger.

I've found that Ravnica Karoos can really strengthen a two-color Peasant deck.  How about -2 Island -2 Swamp +4 Dimir Aqueduct.  They may seem slow, but they only slow you down the turn you drop them.  They also help when you miss a later land drop.  I think they're worth testing.

Diabolic Edict is very good, but how about some targeted removal?  Rend Flesh is  more than Edict, but it can serve as pinpoint removal (it hits about 99% of all creatures in the format)l.  Maybe -1/2 Edict for +1/2 Rend Flesh.

Brainstorm always seemed underwhelming in Peasant.  What about Accumulated Knowledge?  It generates more card advantage, and using dredge you can quickly cheat it up to 3/4 cards.  I really like AK in this spot.

Overall, I think it is a cool idea.

Alright then, I guess it's settled.  Bridgewater is the closest weekly T1.  I'll have to give them a try when I get the chance.  Thank you guys very much.

Yeah, I've noticed that there are tournaments that are relatively close (worth going to).  However, I want to find a group of weekly type 1 players so I can get back into vintage and get some play testing etc.  I don't want to just show up without any experience or metagame knowledge.  But yeah, hopefully once I get x4 Wasteland x4 Null Rod I'll be all set to get back into vintage.

I live in Coventry, which is in the middle of Rhode Island.

I think I checked out Stillpoint on mapquest before.  It's about 31 miles from my house.  That's only a gallon of gas there and back, so I might have a check it out one weekend maybe.  Their website they didn't hold any type I tournaments, but I saw that they hold FNM which is better than nothing.

Bridgewater is a little further, about 55 miles.  I don't know if I could justify making that trek (especially on Mondays )

Stillpoint is close enough to consider though.  It's only about an hour away.

Hello, I don't post here much but I was wondering if there is a vintage scene anywhere in Rhode Island or close to it~40/50mi.  I've called/visited all of the stores on the community forum over time, and all of them don't have an active vintage scene anymore.  Is there another store which hosts vintage (or even legacy) tournaments on a regular basis?

If anyone knows of some places to play nearby, I'm all ears.  Thanks.

I think you should include Ancestral Recall and four Thoughtcast.  In Affinity, Thoughcast ussually cost only .  Five more draw cards would maybe help the deck draw more control elements earlier.

Recently, a friend and I were confused as to whether certain discarding effects are random or not.

We know, for example, some cards like Hymn to Tourach specifically state that the discarding is random.  However, consider the card Mind Rot:

Mind Rot   
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards.

Does the newer wording simply omit the words "at random" and the discarding is still random OR does the discarding player get to choose the cards that he is discarding since it doesn't specifically state that the cards must be chosen randomly.

I'm not a premium subscriber, or a vintage expert, but I think that blue would become an almost auto-include in every deck (more than it is now).  I think the meta game would be crazy storm builds vs. anti storm builds.  Storm decks can break so many of the restricted spells and when in quantities of 4, I don't think that any deck that isn't specifically built to beat storm would have a chance.

@Schonkreuz: If only more men realized that women like you DO exist. 

Most men feel that they will be shunned if they even mention to women that they play Magic, and I admit I used to be the same exact way.  However, we(men) fail to realize that WOMEN can be open minded too.  I mean, if you can watch the Notebook with your girlfriend only because she's says it's good, why wouldn't your girlfriend TRY playing Magic if you say it's fun.

Oh, and I taught my girlfriend how to play Magic.  She thought it was really fun, except since I'm currently on a Magic break we don't play often.

I've been pondering how to build a deck around/featuring this card for a while:

Pox
Sorcery
BBB
Each player loses a third of his or her life, then discards a third of the cards in his or her hand, then sacrifices a third of the creatures he or she controls, then sacrifices a third of the lands he or she controls. Round up each time.

The deck would definantly have to accommodate the card's effects/mana cost.  I think a deck that turns this symmetrical effect into an advantage would net some good CA from this.  Note the rounding up factor, which means that it will hit 2 lands if they control 4 lands, 3 cards if they have 7, 1 creature if they have 1 etc.  The card may not be viable, but it definantly powerful.  Making the opponent (yes, and you) lose life, discard cards, sacrifice creatures, and sacrifice lands with one card is not something to be taken lightly.  Maybe some sort of suicide or control mono black deck could make use of this card.

And this would be important because you're definantly the first person to to suggest this.

Anyways, I know that sometimes you can find real steals on ebay, but if the bids usually get high why not just order the cards from a cheap website retailer?  I usually shop around 2-4 sites/my local cardshop to find the cheapest deals.

All right, thank you.  I thought it worked like that, but I haven't played competitive magic in a while(not that I plan on playing competitively with these cards) so I'm a little shaky on my stack.

Ok, well I'm unsure if I could manipulate the stack to take advantage of comes into play and leaves play abilities.

Example:

Faceless Butcher
BB2     Creature      2/2

When Faceless Butcher comes into play, remove target creature other than Faceless Butcher from the game.
When Faceless Butcher leaves play, return the removed card to play under its owner's control.

If I was to use echoing truth, can I make the stack look like this?:

play Faceless Butch,
Top
Echoing Truth
Leaves play return creature
Comes into play RFG creature
Bottom

If this is possible, then can it also be done with cards like Momentary Blink replacing Echoing Truth?  Also, coudn't Oblivion Ring replace Faceless Butcher?

Sorry if I made this seem confusing.

Personally, I love Peasant Magic.  Just the format for a budget person like me.  Who doesn't like a format where Blastoderm owns?

I know it's been a while, but over the summer I've played A LOT with this deck.  It's gone through moderate change, but at heart it's still WU control.  Anyways, here's my deck list:

*denotes uncommons

Mana - 22

4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Azorius Chancery
5 Plains
8 Island
1 Sol Ring*

Creatures - 16

2 Plumeveil*
3 Spiketail Drakeling
3 Primal Plasma
4 Man O' War
4 Ophidian

Instants - 13

4 Counterspell
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Judge Unworthy
1 Disenchant
1 Brainstorm

Sorceries - 2

1 Ponder
1 Sunlance

Artifacts - 3

3 Isochron Scepter*

Enchantments - 4

4 Faith's Fetters



Now to elaborate on some card choices.  The first list had a lot of cute tricks in it, but in the end it was all "fluff".  By "fluff", I mean cards that, in terms of peasant magic, didn't really do enough to win.  Momentary Blink and Echoing Truth fall into this category. Momentary Blink had a lot of nice tricks such as blinking Man-O'-War and also had a convenient flashback cost, but in the end it didn't turn the game around and only prolonged it.  Echoing Truth has the same problems, prolonging games but rarely changing them.  By its nature, this deck already stalls out the game.  What is bounced/held off for one turn will eventually get through.  I decided to change these cards that help me establish board control.

Another change was removing Think Twice for Accumulated Knowledge.  My arguments for making this change were as follows:

Times Played-------AK mana/drawn-------Think Twice mana/drawn-------Think Twice + Flashback mana/drawn
1------------------------------2/1----------------------------2/1----------------------------------------5/2
2------------------------------4/3----------------------------4/2---------------------------------------10/4
3------------------------------6/6----------------------------6/3---------------------------------------15/6
4------------------------------8/10--------------------------8/4----------------------------------------20/8

Think Twice was far out-preformed by Accumulated Knowledge.  Think Twice was a nice card to dump extra mana when in the graveyard, but I found that as the deck got better/more efficient, that mana was harder to come by.  Late game AK for 3/4 cards can be a big swing at times and not to mention AK+Scepter for 4 is insane.

Next, it's time to mention Spiketail Drakeling over Spike Hatchling.  First of all, this latest change hasn't been tested yet.  These reasons for the change are purely based on my experience with Hatchling.  With the removal of Serra Angel, I wanted more of a punch.  Swinging for 2 every turn will win the game much faster than swinging for 1.  I realize that BB1 is hard on a two color deck, however, the deck IS primarily blue.  I also noticed that Hatchling's counter effect didn't impact my opponent enough.  Having to pay 1 either was completely noneffective or stalled my opponent for a turn (I know that this can be good).  Drakeling, on the other hand, can counter a spell unless the opponent pays 2.  Dropping one of these guys 3rd turn can force the opponent to either wait 5th turn to cast a 3CC spell or have a spell countered.  Now imagine 2 Drakelings on the board--that basically prevents the opponent from playing bombs like Skullclamp or Blastoderm until either late game when they have a lot of mana or when the Drakelings have been destroyed.

Safehold Elite was eventually cut for Primal Plasma.  Primal Plasma is great for its versatility; it can hold back a large beater by being 1/6 defender, kill weenies at 3/3, or swing for the kill/destroy 1/1 flyings by being a 2/2 flyer.  Although it does cost U3 instead of WW AND loses its synergy with Momentary Blink, it works much better with Judge Unworthy.

Isochron scepter was raised to 3, shifting the focus to locking the opponent with the scepter.  With 2 Isochron Scepter, it was more of a supplementary plan and only saw play every couple of games.  I realized that Scepter is the broken (relatively speaking) card in this deck that makes it viable.  Not to mention, I have more Isochron Scepters when others get destroyed.

The addition of Plumeveil over Serra Angel may seem to be strange, but I feel that Serra Angel really didn't get the job done.  First, this was another change based solely on my experience with Serra Angel and theoretical situations with Plumeveil.  Often times, Serra Angel was destroyed as soon as it hit the table unless I cast it with UU open.  Plumeveil doesn't really warrant being killed RIGHT AWAY (forcing more playing skill from my opponent).  Also, I envision Plumeveil being used like the following:

(W/U)(W/U)(W/U)
Instant: destroy target attacking creature with toughness 4 or lower.  Put a 4/4 Flying, Defender into play.

Plumeveil destroys a creature AND gives me a creature: 2-1 card advantage in my book.

As for mana, this deck starts off SLOW.  That's okay though, as the deck's goal is 3 mana on the third turn.  The ideal first three turns are:

Turn 1:
Play Terramorphic Expanse
Tap, Fetch Island
Turn 2:
Play Azorius Chancery, Return Island to my hand
Turn 3:
Play Island--->WUU open for playing 34/38 cards.

This deck plays a lot on the opponents turn so open mana is ALWAYS a good thing.  Sol Ring merits its uncommon slot as it opens up 3 mana on the second turn and makes first turn Isochron Scepter viable.


I consider this deck my brainchild so that's why I'm most fond of it over my other PEZ decks.  This deck has undergone many changes, and I could post them if anybody is interested on how the deck has reached this point.  The deck has really gotten a lot better and is a blast to play.  Appropriate side boarding could make it even better versus tough matchups.

I would also like to say that playing PEZ magic has greatly improved my playing skills and my friend's playing skills.  Sometimes, it takes playing more than just vintage to appropriately judge a card's power level and build an effective deck.  This deck especially has taught me many lessons in efficiency vs. effectiveness, deck synergy vs. plain goodness, the important and unimportance of card advantage and tempo, the art of playing control, and certain cards become much better with higher playing skills.  I suggest that everybody, even if they at first may think it silly, adopt a second format besides vintage/legacy if they already don't have one.

Tell me what you think of the deck and if/how it could be better.  On-The-Fence issues that I'm thinking of include: fitting a 4th Spiketail Drakeling, maximizing my 3 Judge Unworthy/1 Sunlance slots, becoming as mana-efficient/fast as possible.  Thanks for your feedback!

QTF/Second

I'm not the vintage expert, but the tops seem sort of useless.

Maybe:

-4 Sensei's Diving Stop
+1 Yawgmoth's Will
+1 Necropotence (?cards=good)
+1 Strip Mine
+1 Lotus Petal

And also, why don't you like fetchlands?  They decrease your chances to draw into land later in the game.  I don't see a downside to using fetches in your deck but I could be wrong.

The only difference is that the DCI specifically went out and gutted the super-effecient blue draw/search engine.  These restrictions would seem more sporadic and out-of-nowhere.  We all knew some of the cards that were going to be restricted because flash was using them to own everybody.  Unless some sort of black Bazaar/Workshop deck starts winning 75% of the time and utilizes most/all of said cards, then these restrictions would probably never happen (not to mention DCI wouldn't dare restrict cards like Workshop/Bazaar because of all of the collectors/players with 4ofs).

Well since Brainstorm was recently restricted (My friend and I use the DCI vintage B/R for our peasant matches):

-3 Brainstorm
+1 Ponder (Maybe better because I cannot shuffle my library that well)
+1 Merchant Scroll (fetches instants for scepter)
+1 Think Twice (Replace the drawing effect lost by Brainstorm)

Air Elemental is uncommon, my bad (bought it in the common pile of my local cardshop).

I'm fond of Judge Unworthy; it seems like a good weenie killer/card filterer.  Awes Strike seems like another good option. 

Another thing, why do you not seem fond of Safehold Elite.  I'm just wondering what is wrong with the card?  I thought that it would be like 2 creatures in one card, giving me card advantage when compared to a creature like Blade of the Sixth Pride.

In his article, MaRo stated that the cards won't all be crazy broken.  The cards that are mythic rares are simply cards which seemed, flavor wise, that should be considered 'mythic rare'.


As for being higher in price, I don't think so.  MaRo also stated that since the sets contain less cards,there will be more of each rare.  Having more of each rare, the individual card prices should, if anything, go down.  Not to mention, some card prices are determined by rarity.  When I say rarity, I don't mean common/uncommon/rare as much as sparsity.  Power 9 for example--yes it's broken, but the cards are $1K+ because of the small number of them too.

Overall, I don't feel that there will be much change.  Pulling a 'mythic rare' from a pack will give a magic player the same feeling as if they pulled a foil Thoughseize or Tarmogoyf (ok, this would probably give me a heart attack) from a pack.  Being mainly a retired vintage/current peasant magic player, this has no effect on me.

I actually questioned the brainstorm myself.  Maybe 4 Think Twice and 3 Brainstorm would be better.  I'll see where it goes from there as far as cutting more (which is definitely possible).

My concern with the other suggestions is that I'm worried that the deck would become too blue.  By removing the Serra Angels and the Safehold Elites, the deck could almost be a Mono U control deck.  I do like Primal Plasma and it would work nice with Momentary Blink too, however, besides for shifting the deck to being more U, its CC is 3.  Is there a good white 2-drop that would work better?

The Serra Angels could become Air Elementals to make room for other uncommons.  I believe that the beater has to be bigger than Snapping Drake though.  I simply choose Serra because she can essentially win the game on her own if my control strategy falls apart.  Apart from size, I also thought that the vigilance would be something that set Serra apart.  Having to tap Air Elemental or another beater would open up a bunch of situational problems that I could avoid by using Serra.

Another thing: Should I cut Echoing Truth for Disenchant or Oblivion Ring (or cut Brainstorm?).

I made this thread in order to discuss/improve my W/U Peasant deck. 

For those of you who don't know, peasant magic is a format where only commons and uncommons are allowed--NO RARES!  The maximum number of uncommons allowed in a deck is 5.  My peasant deck, however, contains 6 uncommons because my friend likes to play by 10% uncommon (I don't know where he heard of it but whatever, it's not that big of a difference).

Anyways, here's my deck:

Creatures: 17

2 Serra Angel*Uncommon in Alpha-4th
4 Ophidian
4 Man-o'-War*Common in Visions
4 Safehold Elite
3 Spiketail Hatchling

Artifacts: 2

2 Isochron Scepter*Uncommon

Instants: 18

2 Swords to Plowshares*Uncommon
3 Momentary Blink
4 Counterspell
4 Brainstorm
3 Think Twice
2 Echoing Truth

Enchantments: 4

4 Faith's Feathers

Lands: 19

4 Teramorphic Expanse
9 Island
6 Plains

Mana Curve
         W       U       Artifact       Total
1CC:   2        4           0              6
2CC:   7      12           2             21
3CC:   0        8           0              8
4CC:   4        0           0              4
5CC:   2        0           0              2

White Cards: 15
Blue Cards: 24
Artifacts: 2

I'm not new to magic, but could somebody tell me if my reasoning is correct on this one:

Ratio
15White cards / 39 Total Colored Cards : 24 Blue Cards / 39 Total Colored Cards
15White cards / 41 Total nonland Cards : 24 Blue Cards / 41 Total nonland Cards

15W: 24U rounded to 15W: 25U
So I concluded that my ratio of Plains to Islands should be 3:5.  I doubled this and ended up with 6plains : 10 Islands, but I ended up having to cut an island.

Double Cost Cards: Serra Angel (WW3), Counterspell (UU)

Overall, I feel this deck is low costed and efficient.


This was my basic idea for the deck.  Every instant can be imprinted on the scepter, and for PEZ magic this deck does stupidly good things with Isochron Scepter.  Using Isochron Scepter, I can RFG an oppenent's creature every turn, draw an extra card per turn, imprint Counterspell!, bounce an opponent's creature every turn using either Echoing Truth or momentary blink on Man-o'-War.  I feel that Isochron Scepter could dominate PEZ magic.

Another card that I really liked for this deck was Momentary Blink.  I can use blink to block a relatively large creature (such as Blastoderm) and allow my creature to survive.  Momentary Blink is also good if an opponent tries to bolt my creature.  It gets fun when I blink Man-o'-War and get the added effect of bouncing another creature.  Blink also gives Safehold Elite four lives!! (It's kill as a 2/2, getting bounced off blink as a 1/1, it's second kill as a 2/2, and it's final kill as a 1/1).  All that, and I can pay the flashback cost!

Serra Angel is my beater, plain and simple.  I can't think of any common/uncommon fliers better than Serra.

Teramorphic Expanse-Yay or Nay?  I saw it as the poor man's fetchland.  I does come into play tapped, but it would be an excellent color fixer.  The deck's only first turn play in Brainstorm (first turn StP would be rare in PEZ), so playing it on the first turn is definitely viable.  Should I keep Teramorphic Expanse or add in some Plains/Islands?  Are there other common lands that could help a UW control deck?

Some cards that I really wanted to add were Oblivion Ring and Disenchant.  Oblivion Ring is great spot removal of pretty much any threat.  Disenchant is classic enchantment/artifact removal and could be imprinted on Isochron Scepter.  I guess I'll have to rely on well placed Counterspells is I can't have these guys.


I know it's PEZ magic, but that doesn't mean that I can't put this much thought into the deck!  Any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

You've got tinker but no DSC?  A few others you might want to consider:

The Abyss
Call of the Herd
Maze of Ith
Dark Ritual!
Eater of Days (combos with Smokestack/tangle wire/stifle)

By the way, are these all 1ofs in your cube?

First off, forgive me if I'm kinda newbish on the subject but, you run no basic lands.  I think any early waste effects or non-basic land hosers would completely wreck your mana base.  I know that it really wouldn't work any other way, but I think the vulnerable mana base might present a problem.

Wow thanks for the link, this thing is awesome!  Just one question: how do I input mana costs into the search bar?

Is there any database that I can find cards by typing effects on the card. 

For Example, if I typed in "deals 3 damage to target creature or player", would I get results such as:

Lightning Bolt
Volcanic Hammer

Something like this would be very useful for finding cards without searching through sets and sets.