Peasant Magic Rules

[nikole957]

yeah, we used to do that at the card shop. The T2 peasant, T1 peasant. Boy I had a peasant affinity that was good (4 ornithopters and 1 Shrapnel Blast). I have an MBC for T1.

I love peasant its fun type of play because you no longer have to deal with game crushing cards.In fact my favorite deck to play is token producers with soulwardens, and essence wardens because in the format if played correctly it cant loose. Infact the only deck in peasant that I Have even met with some problems with is red burn. But I Have in my side bord 3 Plated Pegasus' for that because if you start with the one congrgation at dawn in hand, the game is pritty much over unless they find away to burn them out.

http://forum.tcgplayer.com/images/buttons/quote.gif

[nikole957]

ya, the first time i played i played with an all common deck, because that is what i thought the format was, lol i came in 1ed place at the tronment.

like the idea, i almost have one of these decks. But i made it because of the nice artwork on the cards. But ill need to Remove my mountin vally's an karplusian forests

[purplepat]

These are the standard Peasant Magic rules:

www.geocities.com/peasantmagic/rules.htm

Card rarity

Card rarities are listed on the Wizards of the Coast website, in text files for each expansion. If a card does not have a listed rarity, then it is not allowed in Peasant Magic Tournaments. In general, all card sets listed under Starter Sets, Limited-edition Expansion Sets, and Basic Sets on that page are allowed. From Special sets, only Unglued and Chronicles/Renaissance are generally allowed.

Cards from other Special sets (like World Championship decks or Vangaurd) are allowed if the card was issued is another set with a legal rarity (Common or Uncommon). However, players must use deck protectors if their decks contain cards with different backs.

Card issued with different rarity ratings

If a card is listed with two different rarities in two different editions, use the most common rating for calculating rarity. For example, Wyluli Wolf is Rare in Fifth Edition, but Common in Arabian Nights. For Peasant Master tourneys, Wyluli Wolf is Common.

Exceptions

Strip Mine is officially an uncommon card, even though it had a version that was rated as common. This is a change from the general rule to limit strip mines in tourneys because of power. This rule is in effect at GenCon and Origins during the 2003 tourney season.
Restricted / Banned cards

Cards that are restricted or banned in Type 1, Type 1.5, and other DCI constructed tournaments are allowed in Peasant Magic, with the following exceptions, up to four (4) copies permitted in a deck.
Peasant magic official banned list

The following cards are banned for purposes of peasant magic due to irrational expense and some amount of rule breakage. These cards are not permitted at tournaments using the "official" Peasant Magic rules as determined by the Peasant Council, but may be permitted in other peasant tournaments at the discretion of the head peasant (re: top judge). See tournament notifications for details on specific tourney rules.
Jeweled Bird Timmerian Fiends
Bronze Tablet Brain Freeze
Ali from Cairo Bazaar of Baghdad
Berserk Candelabra of Tawnos
Diamond Valley Juzam Djinn
Library Of Alexandria Mana Drain
Mishra’s Workshop

Unfortunately, the link is no longer valid.

As a semi-avid Peasant player, the format has sort of fallen into disrepair. There used to be a "Peasant Council" that kind of assumed control over the format with the blessings of the creator. But having heard nothing out of these guys for several years now, I'm assuming it went the way of the dodo.

One issue that hasn't been brought up (and might not be a big deal, but it is for me) is that Gatherer rarities on the Wizards site no longer match the original rarities for some of the early sets that did not technically have "rare" cards. Sets like Antiquities, Arabian Nights, and a few others only had common and uncommon cards, and were further distinguished by how many times the card appeared on the common or uncommon sheet printing. Gatherer has taken it upon themselves to change the rarities of some of these cards from common to uncommon, and uncommon to rare!

Original rarities can be found on the lists within this site, which IMO reflects the intent of the format's creator:

http://www.crystalkeep.com/magic/lists/text.php

What this means is that if one uses Gatherer as the arbiter of what rarity a card is, the Peasant player will be robbed of several cards that could have been played as commons or uncommons. Several of these are significant:

Maze of Ith went from common (The Dark) to uncommon
Ball Lightning went from uncommon (The Dark) to rare
Sylvan Library went from uncommon (Legends) to rare
Concordant Crossroads went from uncommon (Chronicles) to rare

I'd recommend that everyone use Crystal Keep's original rarity lists for determining card rarity for Peasant play instead of Gatherer's "revised" rarities.

[xralphyx]

I am thinking about getting into magic by getting a peasant deck (no way can I afford a good deck otherwise), I have a few questions.

Does anyone know of a website that has a list of archetypal peasant decks/decks that have won or done well in tournaments in the past?

Does gen-con still do peasant tournaments (I am in milwaukee, could potentially make the drive)? Is there a list of the winning decks used in that in 2010?

Do card shops often have peasant tournaments?

Any other good info?