When considering tri-color decks for the Peasant format in the obvious deck to turn to is Three Deuce. First off this is because most of Three Deuce (like the Original Sligh decks) are common cards. Second, the Deuce in Three Deuce stands for the fact that most of the cards are 2cc. This is important because in order to maintain speed with when running 3 colors decks have to keep the casting cost down. This is even more important when you are forced to run without the benefit of dual-lands. Third, Three Deuce is one of the most dominant non-combo tri-color decks ever constructed. Oh, did I mention it’s also fun to play. The other great thing about Three Deuce (again like the old school Sligh) is that it’s not pure aggression. The deck plays out fairly aggressively but it also has elements of control that allow it’s smaller creatures to compete if the deck can’t steal a quick win.             

                Three Deuce, however, isn’t the only possible tri-color deck for you Peasant fans out there. Why don’t you gasp along with all the others reading out there when I tell you that we will look at a peasant variant of Counter Sliver (more Sliver decks will be posted in the future) and also a combo deck (maybe the first in Peasant magic). Well, hold on tight here come 5 new decks:

 

*Standard Peasant Three Deuce (W/G/r)*

 

4 Lay of the Land

1 Land Grant

 

4 Rancor

 

4 River Boa

4 Soul Warden

4 Goblin Legionaire

4 Mogg Fanatic

2 Skyshroud Elite

4 Granger Guildmage

2 Mother of Runes

 

3 Swords to Plowshares

4 Lightning Bolt

 

7 Plains

8 Forest

5 Mountains

 

This deck comes pretty close to the traditional Three Deuce design so there aren't many surprises and not much to say. It runs heavy on the land for a Deuce deck but this land is needed because there won't be any Dual Lands hitting the table. It also runs more land search cards than normal (or I should say it runs land search) but this is for the same reason.

             The creature component will look very familiar with Goblin Legionaire, Mogg Fanatic, Skyshroud Elite, River Boa, and the Granger Guildmage as regular customers. Soul Warden is added because it's strong in this heavy creature environment and it's ability to be dropped first turn helps lower the mana curve and compensate for land issues. Mother of Runes also makes an appearance because this deck lacks creature protection and you will need to have something otherwise you will find your self coming up short all though the built in creature control will help. The Granger Guildmage could be replaced by Thornscape Apprentice. The Apprentice can control bigger creatures when they hit the board but they tend to slow you down more than the Guildmage. In the end I believe that the Guildmage is much stronger.

             Overall, I'm not sure about this deck design. Card for card it's almost the original, but with the power of burn in the Peasant Magic Environment I think it may come up short. Then again the deck list for Three Deuce looks pretty weak until you play it.

 

*Three Tax (W/g/r)*

 

3 Enlightened Tutor

2 Land Tax

 

4 Empyrial Armor

4 Rancor

 

4 River Boa

3 Defiant Falcon

4 Thermal Glider

2 Devout Harpist

4 Soul Warden

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Soltari Foot Soldier 

1 Crimson Acolyte

 

4 Seal of Fire

 

4 Lotus Petal

1 Mountain

3 Forest

9 Plains

 

             This deck probably looks a little strange. Without dual lands who in their right mind would run a three color deck with only 13 land (Even with dual lands who would want to). With a little closer examination, however, it can be seen that this deck has a strange synergy.

             First, this deck, as indicated by the name, is made possible by the well beloved Land Tax. This card allows you to run fewer land than most decks (That and the fact that the mana curve is

0cc: 4 1cc:27 2cc:8 3cc:8). Land Tax also allows you to run very few of the off color lands. Best of all, it fuels Empyrial Armor. As long as you keep the land in hand and don’t play them, you can easily have a hand of 10 or 11 cards within a turn or two. That means your Soul Warden can wander over and beat your opponent to death in 2 turns if it needs to. Land Tax also thins the library pretty quickly to help you draw the game winning Empyrial Armor.

             Having multiple Land Tax in play is nice, but it really isn’t necessary (at most you can use it 5 times before it’s useless). That is why there are only 2 in the deck. Of course with only 2 of any card in your deck you should never really expect to see it hit the table. That is why there are 3 Enlightened Tutor, another classic White power card. Not only can you fetch the Land Tax but if you already have the Land Tax and want to go for some beats you can fetch the Imperial Armor or pick up Seal of Fire to burn a defending creature to a crisp or yank out Lotus Petal so you can get colored mana without disturbing your Land tax or . . . well you get the idea.

             As far as creatures go you have 26 to choose from. The River Boa is always good but in this deck he is mostly there as a regenerating blocker against Stompy. Don’t be afraid to use him as a beat stick if the opportunity presents itself, just remember that you are short on Forests so his Regeneration ability is a little weaker than normal. The Fanatics are there to remove blockers with Shadow and Flying, most of which have 1 on the backside. The White creatures are pretty self explanatory. Soul Warden produces a life boost and can come out on turn 1. Devout Harpist can also come out early and is your protection against other White decks with Empyrial Armor. The Crimson Acolyte is a nod to the meta-game. The other 11 creatures all have evasion abilities and the Defiant Falcons start a short rebel chain to grab the Thermal Gliders also for use in those duels against Red (Although this means you have 4 lands out and that is about the maximum you want to play with this deck).

             You may think that this deck would be better if it went mono. First of all, while such a deck would be very good indeed (and I may play such a deck, hehehe), it underutilizes the insane power of Land Tax. The other colors also round out your deck. With River Boa you have a strong attacker against Blue decks which have their own Flyers and Shadow creatures and a good blocker against aggressive decks. The Red removal helps in the mirror match to deal with blockers and the Seals are begging to be broken across the face of the Voice of All, a chance they rarely see. You may wish to replace Rancor with Seal of Strength as this is good against the Sligh match up. A Seal of Fire for a Seal of Removal or substitution of Elvish Lyrist may be a good idea in order to  protect against Story Circle,  CoP or Propaganda. A final substitution may be the choice of Thornscape Apprentice or Quirion Ranger over River Boa. Either way, this adds 4 1cc drops. The Apprentice adds  some pretty good blocker removal abilities for your attacking creatures. The Ranger allows for more Land Tax tricks.

             A good draw for the deck would be:

 

Turn 1: Plains, Land Tax

Turn 2: Trigger Land Tax, Plains, Soltari Foot Soldier (hand size 5)

Turn 3: Trigger Land Tax, Lotus Petal, Empyrial Armor, attack for 8 (Hand size 7)

Turn 4: Trigger Land Tax, Attack for 12, Game Over.

 

             While this was a perfect draw, there is flexibility in the deck that should allow you to generate mid/late game wins if necessary although this the early game is where this deck truly belongs. It can run without Land Tax, but not so well. Don’t forget that, at least at GenCon this year, when the No Land Mulligan was in force you could abuse the rule in a very hideous way.

 

*Three Deuce Control (U/G/b)*

 

4 Rancor

3 Sleeper's Robe

 

4 Vodalian Zombie

3 Duathi Horror

4 River Boa

4 Weatherseed Faeries

1 Hunted Wumpus

 

4 Lay of the Land

 

3 Terror

2 Recoil

4 Repulse

1 Rushing River

1 Capsize

 

10 Forest

6 Island

5 Swamp

1 Terminal Moraine

 

Whith no first turn drops and only 17 creatures this deck plays more like a control deck than the usually aggressive Three Deuce set up. Don't be fooled, however. This deck will tend to stabilize much sooner than normal control decks (around turn 4 or 5) and once stabilized this deck goes in for heavy beats.

             The creature selection, as with all Three Deuce designs, is the key to it's strength and flexibility. The Vodalian Zombies are a pretty good pick 2 mana for a 2/2 is always a decent deal but the Protection from Green is huge in this environment. As a matter of fact, the protection theme continues with the Weatherseed Faeries who will show all kinds of Red hate and they fly so they are useful against non-red decks. The River Boa is also good against Red because of it's ability to Regenerate but is also the bane of Blue. Against White, the Horror can sneak through unblocked and against other decks it isn't even an issue. The only real odd ball is Hunted Wumpus. This 6/6 bad boy is cheap and he comes out just about the time you start laying down control through your bounce spells. Whatever your opponent puts out the Wumpus is bigger and you should be able to take care of any thing that is a threat. Blastoderm is another choice for this spot, but the Wumpus is bigger and he will stick around. Traditionally, this spot could be filled with Llanowar Elite, but at 9 mana for the cost plus the kicker they are a little expensive for this deck since you want the extra pressure to start comming as you begin to bounce your way into control. If you want more creatures, I would consider Harvest Mage instead of Lay of the Land, but I feel that the mage is too vulnerable to direct damage.

             You probably noticed the standard 4 Rancor but right below it is the not so standard Sleeper's Robe. Casting one of these on a creature is just too good. With Black an uncommon color in this environment and Artifact scarace (although I think you should see more Phyrexian War Beasts) this card makes your creature unblockable 90% of the time. Better yet you draw a card when he does get through and when this starts happening your deck builds some big time momentum and is well on it's way to the win. There are also 6 other cantrips to get help this deck move better than similar decks and it will need that little speed boost because it is running 3 colors.

             The real threat to this deck comes from direct damage since there are no counterspells. Running Blue, you may think that counterspells would be standard but the decision to leave them out reveals an important part of this deck. Even though this deck does play like a control deck, in the end it is meant to put on the beat down. You can probably win before the direct damage builds up as long as you can keep other permenants off the table. Look to remove creatures first and then look at the rest of the board.

 

*Counter Sliver (U/G/w)*

 

4 Crystalline Sliver

4 Muscle Sliver

2 Talon Sliver

4 Winged Sliver

 

4 Lay of the Land

4 Rampant Growth

 

2 Shackles

1 Story Circle

 

4 Opt

 

2 Counterspell

3 Exlude

4 Arcane Denial

 

8 Forest

5 Plains

9 Island

 

CounterSliver meets peasant magic. This was a hard deck to transform especially because access to dual lands is restricted. In order to compensate for the disturbed mana base, this deck starts with 23 lands(which are still too few). In addition it runs 8 green cards that will allow you to search for the specific land you need, Opt lets you draw a card and move deeper into the library, and both Exclude and Arcane Denial give you that extra draw and the chance to slow down your opponent. For a little more speed when finding the needed lands, I highly suggest playing Crop Rotation instead of Rampant Growth.

             The counterspell component is short for this deck with only 9 counters. This means you will have to use them wisely. The strength of this deck is the utility of the creatures not the counterspells. Once your creatures start coming out they will soon grow and be able to match almost anything else on the table. Keep this in mind when you are counterspelling, you only need to counter really important threats. Also, against Red, remember that once the Crystalline Sliver comes out all of the direct damage will be directed at you so you should really save a few of those counters.

             White is only included to provide the mana for the Crystalline Sliver. There are only 5 other cards that utilize White. The Shackles provide a little creature protection although you may consider going with either Hobble for the card draw. You could also drop the Shackles for more Counterspell, Mana Leak, Repulse, or if dexterous enough Chaos Confetti. Washout doesn’t make the list because by running 3 colors you are likely to do as much damage to yourself as to the enemy. If you are a very aggressive player, consider Empyrial Armor instead of Shackles. Don't reduce the number of plains below 4, however, as you will desperately need that White Mana for the Crystalline Sliver and for a mid or late game Story Circle. The Story Circle will protect you in those very desperate situations but keep in mind that you will never have much mana to power it with.

             In the end, as with all Sliver decks it's the creatures that count. This deck goes slow as it builds but once two or three of the Slivers hit the table everything starts changing real fast. Don't worry if you have a few creatures out but you still have to stay defensive for a little while. As soon as that next Muscle Sliver or Talon Sliver comes out of the deck you are good to go. The Crystalline Sliver is also huge since it means that your Slivers are protected from Red's direct damage and Black and White creature removal.

             The hardest thing for this deck, other than an opponent with too much speed, is Green Stompy. If you can sideboard for that match up take out the Crystalline Sliver in favor of more Counter Spell, Remove Soul, Time Ebb, Repulse, 4 Propaganda, another Talon Sliver, CoP Green, or Empyrial Armor. This last pick may sound odd, but Empyrial Armor allows your creatures to grow as big as the stuff Stompy can throw at you and it is the only chance of a relatively quick win once a Winged Sliver hits the table. If that Red deck has a lot of Direct Damage you may also have some problems. Wait until you can get out the Crystalline Sliver. Once you do, new problems start because, as mentioned before, all that direct damage will start coming your way. you will probably want to have saved the counter magic for this point in the game. Again if you can sideboard, CoP Red will be the most help, as will Blue Elemental Blast (and its cousins), tossing out the Talon Sliver and another card or two for some extra card drawing helps a little as well since those needed cards come out sooner. White and Black only really make this deck worry because of pumped Shadow creatures. Save your counterspells for these guys and Shackle them if you can.

             This deck isn't even close to the original, but don't despair. The Slivers still have a lot to offer in the peasant format.

 

*HermChasm (U/G/W)*

 

4 Crop Rotation

4 Harrow

 

3 Impulse

1 Fact or Fiction

4 Opt

 

4 Soul Warden

4 Troubled Healer

4 Horseshoe Crab

 

4 Hermetic Study

 

4 Congregate

 

4 Glacial Chasm

8 Island

5 Forest

7 Plains

 

             As mentioned in a post I threw up on Yahoo, Crop Rotation is darn good and begging for abuse. This deck is an odd ball in that it attempts to win through a Combo. That's right this Peasant deck is not a creature rush, control, or burn deck. It is a combo deck. Having said that it's not great but the one truth about all combo decks is that they take a long time to come in to their own. That means lots of minds working overtime with a lot of proxies. As you may have guessed, I work 2 jobs, have a girlfriend, duties at home, a D&D campaign to put together, my own games to work on etc. Basically I don't have enough time for all the testing so please take this and run with it.

             Basically, the idea of the deck is to spend a few turns setting up. You will want to gain as much life as quickly as you can or hold a couple of Crop Rotations or Glacial Chasms in your hand.

             As soon as you have done the math you drop the Chasm, and start pinging away with your Crab. Here is an example.

 

Turn 1: Island, Opt

Turn 2: Plains, Soul Warden

Turn 3: (21 life b/c of the Warden) Forest, Harrow (Forest, Island)

Turn 4: Congregate (29 Life)

Turn 5: Horsehoe Crab (26 Life from whatever), Island

Turn 6: Hermetic Study, Crop Rotation, Glacial Chasm, Ping for 2

Turn 7(now invulnerable): (24 Life after upkeep) Ping for 3

Turn 8: (20 Life) Ping for 3

Turn 10: (14 Life) Ping for 3, Crop Rotation, Glacial Chasm

Turn 11: (12 Life) Ping for 3

Turn 12: (8 Life) Ping for 3

Turn 13: (2 Life) Ping for 3*

*notice that I assumed that no more land hit the table nor did any extra creatures after I went Invulnerable. This would not be the case in a real game.

             This was not a best case scenario but it wasn't the worst case either. This deck has potential and is still in the workshop but the basics are down. Crop Rotation is super powered and I expect to see a lot of abuse. I would also expect to see Glacial Chasm pop up in a rogue deck next year at the Con. Watch out!!!

             In the end, Peasant decks will have a hard time playing three colors. It can be done, however, and I expect that with these thoughts out there we will see more tri-color decks and probably even be beaten (or beat someone) with them. Good luck and think hard. There are some good ideas here. Don’t forget to rotate the crops!!!

 

- chaps_man@hotmail.com