Peasent EDH? Count me in!

W

WickedBoy6

Guest
I regular the forums on LoadingReadyRun - A Canadian comedy troupe that does weekly humorous videos, Magic Online drafts for MTGO Academy, and livestreams of videogame play and Magic drafts - and someone on their forum brought this to my attention. Thought you guys might be interested:

Del said:
Anyone into peasant edh? The version played locally is 90 commons, 9 uncommons and an uncommon commander that can be an uncommon creature. Deckbuilding takes forever to finetune, but man, playing a format where there's very few boardwipes and power staples is sometimes so refreshing.
At first, I thought you could only use Legendary uncommons, which out of the 60+, really only narrowed it down to 5 good ones, but he said ANY uncommon creature can be a Commander. Indeed, this definitely has promise, as it keeps costs down, makes people think outside of usual Commander staples, and gives purpose to cards you may not normally play. I'm very interested in this. Anyone else?
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
I regular the forums on LoadingReadyRun - A Canadian comedy troupe that does weekly humorous videos, Magic Online drafts for MTGO Academy, and livestreams of videogame play and Magic drafts - and someone on their forum brought this to my attention. Thought you guys might be interested:
I'm a big fan of LoadingReadyRun. I think I've linked to some of their stuff here a few times. I don't post on their forum though because I don't think I have the time to get sucked into another internet message board.

At first, I thought you could only use Legendary uncommons, which out of the 60+, really only narrowed it down to 5 good ones, but he said ANY uncommon creature can be a Commander. Indeed, this definitely has promise, as it keeps costs down, makes people think outside of usual Commander staples, and gives purpose to cards you may not normally play. I'm very interested in this. Anyone else?
If this thread sticks around for a while, I'll find some time to take a look at how I'd break this format. Commander is, of course, easy to break (if you haven't seen it, the way to break Commander is basically to pick a five-color commander and play combo deck filled with all the best tutors and Hermit Druid synergies, because even though Sway of the Stars is banned, Hermit Druid isn't) and other people have long since done so. But the Peasant constraint completely changes the environment. It might be more game-breaking to actually build a deck around the commander...
 
W

WickedBoy6

Guest
I actually have two Commander ideas that use 5-color Commanders, but for obvious reasons, they won't be combo decks. Well, in the sense that they can win on turn one-ish. First one is Slivers, since I now own one of EVERY Sliver printed! :D Sorry, Atogs, but there's only 13 of you, and one of you is a statue. Hell, the strongest one of you eats the rest of you. At least Slivers help one another.

Hmmm...

*Sends resume to possibly captain the Sliver tribe*

Anyway, the other involves Karona, False God, because I hope, one day, to make a God deck. All 15, including the original weapons, and some God-themed cards. Just because.

But yes, Peasent looks really fun. I'd probably end up making a mono-green beats Commander. There are 386 possible commanders, but honestly, there's only one clear choice:

 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
I actually have two Commander ideas that use 5-color Commanders, but for obvious reasons, they won't be combo decks. Well, in the sense that they can win on turn one-ish.
They won't be winning on turn anything-ish, at least not in civilized company, because they'll be immediately focused and eliminated by everyone else at the table. No mercy for five-color commander decks. Never. Not even a little bit. I don't care if it's some innocent kid that just got Sliver Queen and is excited to play some big sliver-themed deck in a commander game. I'll happily let ten-thousand such players have their dreams crushed to stop one Hermit Druid deck from running a table. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

First one is Slivers, since I now own one of EVERY Sliver printed! :D Sorry, Atogs, but there's only 13 of you, and one of you is a statue. Hell, the strongest one of you eats the rest of you. At least Slivers help one another.
Mythosx did that in our early tribal games, using full playsets of all slivers, although obviously there were fewer slivers back then.

Anyway, the other involves Karona, False God, because I hope, one day, to make a God deck. All 15, including the original weapons, and some God-themed cards. Just because.
I was planning to make a gods tribal deck for one of our tribal games, but since those games are still dead, I've given up on it. I will say that I think it would be easy and should hold up pretty well (it wouldn't be broken, but it could work), although I won't say exactly what my plan was, just in case I ever try to actually use the concept at some point. Of course, that's not for a highlander format...
 
W

WickedBoy6

Guest
Oversoul said:
I'll happily let ten-thousand such players have their dreams crushed to stop one Hermit Druid deck from running a table.
Funny thing is, I don't even think it's that strong. I mean, yeah, I can see the possibilities, but you're grinding your deck - which I always hated doing, even if I was playing a recursion deck - just for a basic, which, in Commander, is drowning in nonbasic. If EVERY 5-color runs Hermit, then consider me against the grain. For my personal preference, I'd NEVER run it.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Funny thing is, I don't even think it's that strong. I mean, yeah, I can see the possibilities, but you're grinding your deck - which I always hated doing, even if I was playing a recursion deck - just for a basic, which, in Commander, is drowning in nonbasic.
Ah, you've never seen it. These decks don't run any basics at all, so there's no "grinding your deck for a basic." The default path to victory is to activate Hermit Druid with one other creature on the board, mill the whole library, take Narcomoeba's trigger, sac all three creatures to flashback Dread Return on Angel of Glory's Rise, then tap a human wizard using the ability of Azami, Lady of Scrolls, which will then trigger Laboratory Maniac's win condition. But it has a lot of other options to back that up. Barring disruption, which isn't normally prevalent in casual Commander games, these decks are quite fast, generally winning on turn 3 or 4. But they can also be very resilient against disruption, recovering from having a spell countered to tutor up something that still allows for a win just one turn later. In "competitive" Commander duels, this is pretty strong, but unless everyone else is a broken deck to the table or multiple players are running highly disruptive decks, it likely isn't enough to stop Hermit Druid anyway. There are other ridiculous Commander decks that I've seen built for sheer brokenness, like hybrid ramp/combo strategies, but many of the other broken archetypes also run five-color commanders just to optimize their access to the best bombs in every color, rarely bothering to actually cast their commanders or use them in any way. I've seen elf-based decks run Karona for her tribal boost. Hermit Druid decks were usually running some commander that gave a hint of a nonexistent theme as a means of tricking people into believing that they were innocuous decks.

If EVERY 5-color runs Hermit, then consider me against the grain. For my personal preference, I'd NEVER run it.
Hermit Druid is just the one the most prevalent one I've seen. It's pretty easy to break Commander if you don't care about being sporting about it. Elf-combo, storm, and five-color broken stuff in general can pull off the same sort of thing. One could probably make a totally obnoxious combo deck that is monoblue or monoblack, but there's not much one can do about that. It's easiest to go broken by just using all five colors.

I don't think you're going against the grain. I suspect that the vast majority of the people using five-color commanders are trying to do so legitimately. My "kill all five-color Commander decks immediately" stance misses that point and ignores the fact that three-color decks (or even two or one-color decks) could still go broken. So why still do it? Well, that gets a bit more complicated. I'll eventually address these issues in an article, but for now...

The real problem here is that in Commander, the rules council stopped banning cards for power level under the rationale that the banned list would become incredibly long. The idea is that everyone who is using Hermit Druid to win games on turn 3 is doing so on purpose, and that this is a casual format and people should just not be jerks, so that card doesn't get banned, but that somehow people will think that a bad card like Biorythm is fun and will play it and accidentally make it work and make it play in a manner that isn't fun, so that card does get banned. Because of this, the list of actually degenerate cards that are banned in the format is really quite short. Even many of the cards that were ostensibly banned for their power rather than because of "fun" are actually less egregious than cards that the format allows. The format also has the inherent color-based deckbuilding restriction, so the only way to have access to a pool of cards with more than three of the five color symbols on them is to play a five-color commander. It doesn't matter which five-color commander if you're just going to win the game on turn 4 anyway. But for most people, Commander really is a casual format and they don't have an interest in doing this. I get it. And with just that, it would be silly to go after the innocuous majority of five-color people just because of the broken minority. Say, remember this thing?



It's fine if you don't. The card had Extended decks based around its capacity to power infinite combos, and some of those were successful in big tournaments, but this was about thirteen years ago. Aluren has also had a very slight presence in Legacy, primarily being noteworthy in that format for its use of ridiculously rare and expensive cards rather than for its negligible tournament presence. I haven't seen anyone try to use Aluren in real life in over a decade, and even back then, it was somewhat obscure. The vast majority of people playing Magic today were not around to witness the old Aluren decks. If I go into a multiplayer game now and find one of my opponents using Aluren, it's quite possible, especially if this is a younger player, that my opponent doesn't know about Aluren's former tenure as an infinite combo engine, and is just using the card because it looks cool or something (Aluren is an obscure $5 rare, so it's not too difficult to pick some up). But even if most people do not remember Aluren as an infinite combo deck (either because they weren't around back then or because it didn't make an impression), I do remember it. So if I see it in a casual multiplayer game now, I'm going to do what I can to stop it. Maybe I'll be the only person in the room who even knows that Aluren was used in this way. This might make my inordinate focus on one opponent baffling to the other players, but I'm fine with that. Five-color commanders are sort of like Aluren in this respect. Yeah, most people might not know about the most broken application, but I'm going to err on the side of murder anyway.
 

turgy22

Nothing Special
What Oversoul is trying to say is that he's the jerk that brings broken combos into casual formats and therefore assumes that everyone else he's playing against has the same idea, so if you ever face him in a casual format, you should try to kill him first.
 
W

WickedBoy6

Guest
Oversoul said:
The default path to victory is to activate Hermit Druid with one other creature on the board, mill the whole library, take Narcomoeba's trigger, sac all three creatures to flashback Dread Return on Angel of Glory's Rise, then tap a human wizard using the ability of Azami, Lady of Scrolls, which will then trigger Laboratory Maniac's win condition.
Eh. I'd rather just summon Iroas, Xenagos, Karametra, Heliod, Purphoros, and Nylea, bring in Karona, then absolutely smash face absolutely. That looks WAY more impressive than getting any sort of combo off. Six gods smashing face in unity of Naya - accidentally, I just love Iroas - for over 50 damage, trampling, vigilant, which can't be blocked by one creature each, can't be damaged - but they can't be killed anyway - with THREE ways to pump. THAT'S impressive.
Oversoul said:
Say, remember this thing?

I actually do. I think only one person I knew back then really used it, though. We were all young, extremely casual, and just liked playing. We didn't TRY to make broken decks - though we all wanted to win - we just liked having fun. Thank you for showing me the linchpin of my Elf Commander Deck, though.

HAHA, kiddingmaybe.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
What Oversoul is trying to say is that he's the jerk that brings broken combos into casual formats and therefore assumes that everyone else he's playing against has the same idea, so if you ever face him in a casual format, you should try to kill him first.
While that's not what I'm trying to say, I guess my track record does indicate exactly that. But I think I've gotten better! :p

I'd still try to kill me first.

Eh. I'd rather just summon Iroas, Xenagos, Karametra, Heliod, Purphoros, and Nylea, bring in Karona, then absolutely smash face absolutely. That looks WAY more impressive than getting any sort of combo off. Six gods smashing face in unity of Naya - accidentally, I just love Iroas - for over 50 damage, trampling, vigilant, which can't be blocked by one creature each, can't be damaged - but they can't be killed anyway - with THREE ways to pump. THAT'S impressive.
The Hermit Druid interactions are infamous because it's just one card that only costs two mana and one to activate. That's potentially winning the game on the second turn. It's not really comparable to god-heavy beatings, which are presumably set up by something else.

I actually do. I think only one person I knew back then really used it, though. We were all young, extremely casual, and just liked playing. We didn't TRY to make broken decks - though we all wanted to win - we just liked having fun. Thank you for showing me the linchpin of my Elf Commander Deck, though.
Elf-based decks don't usually want for mana, but maybe Aluren would be useful with the right composition. It's an interesting idea...
 
W

WickedBoy6

Guest
Oversoul said:
Elf-based decks don't usually want for mana, but maybe Aluren would be useful with the right composition. It's an interesting idea...
While true, I can see SOME usage of it. Massive pumps into Ezuri...um...Green Sun Zenith? Okay, maybe not, but it looks fun.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Pondering a Peasant version of Commander with any uncommon creatures available to serve in the commander slot. So far, I'm thinking...

Imperial Recruiter (but come on)
Goblin Lackey (have a good one drop every game in a goblins deck)
Trinket Mage (there are probably some good combos for this)
Lorescale Coatl
Bloodbraid Elf (cascade into whatever)
Shardless Agent (cascade into whatever)
Cephalid Illusionist (breakfast time)
Aphetto Alchemist (alternative breakfast)
Coretapper (combos?)
Thieving Magpie (control deck)
Psychatog (control deck)
Mother of Runes (duh)
Saprazzan Legate (Anyone playing red? Thanks.)
Cho-Arrim Legate (Anyone playing black? Thanks.)
Deepwood Legate (Anyone playing green? Thanks.)
Rushwood Legate (Anyone playing blue? Thanks.)
Kyren Legate (Anyone playing white? Thanks.)
Young Pyromancer (fill a deck with red instants and sorceries)
Merrow Reejerey (merfolk tribal maybe)
Imperious Perfect (elf tribal)
Gilder Bairn (might have decent combos)
Quillspike (combo potential)
Izzet Guildmage (versatile if the right cards are there to support it)
Gelectrode (possibly more reliable than Izzet Guildmage)
Rhox War Monk (ugh, Bant)
Mulldrifter (if Evoke is any good here)
Shriekmaw (if Evoke is any good here)
Slith Firewalker (the brute force approach)
Slith Predator (possible better than Firewalker here)
Gamekeeper (might have a worthwhile combo)
Voltaic Construct (combos?)
Crypt Rats (Boom!)
Esperzoa (for an artifact-heavy blue deck)
Seasinger (give me your stuff)
Auriok Salvagers (Bomberman?)
 
W

WickedBoy6

Guest
I could see a bigtime draw deck with Lorescale Coatl, Gilder Bairn could be amazing when enchanted with ways to tap, but personally, I gotta go counterburn with either Izzet Guildmage or Gelectrode, and whoever isn't the Commander is still in the deck.
 
Top