As time's gone on, I've found it easier to lump multiple sets' worth of changes into mega-updates for two reasons. First, there's just so much product nowadays and life busy enough that I can't always keep up. Second, I prefer to have time to test new cards and give them 'time to marinate' to see whether I like how they affect the cube before 'officially' adding them in. Time and real-life testing will tell, of course.

This time, I'll keep the post short. There have been plenty of interesting peasant-relevant cards released lately - so many, in fact, that I may have missed some when evaluating for this cube. The power level of uncommon cards has morphed in recent years, which invites a lot of change to the list. That's a good thing!

This update brings upgrades across the board for a variety of archetypes and strategies. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the additions. I finally got to rid the list of low-hanging fruit and supercharge themes with new ones. I'm particularly excited for sacrifice, flavors of flash, and aggro to get meaningful boosts.

WOW - it has been a LONG time. Feels like ages since I've had the opportunity to post a comprehensive update to this cube. I've been busy!

Safe to say - there has been a lot of time (and new sets) for new cards to shake up peasant rarity recently. Many excellent cards have been printed in the past year or so, and have provided a great opportunity to refine strategies in the list, tweak balance, and to showcase some of the new heavy-hitters. There are a lot of changes this time around since this is a culmination of several sets worth of changes at once, so I will summarize here.

The goals behind these changes are twofold:

First, simply put, many great cards got printed or downshifted to peasant rarity. In many cases, there are easy swaps to be made due to power level / fun factor (Commander Masters, for example, was huge for this reason) or extra versatility that makes the cube run more smoothly (Requisition Raid in place of Basri's Solidarity, for example).

Second, new cards have been able to fill in voids from a balance perspective. This enables taking out stinkers to allow for certain archetypes to play better, and for general tweaking based on player feedback and my own opinions about what's performing too well or not well enough. For example, I disliked the sheer volume of 1/1 tokens gumming up board states, so we added more "small" sweepers, damage effects, and sacrifice outlets that also contribute to certain game plans (Frolicking Familiar, Shrouded Shepherd, etc.).

I'll briefly explain details below per color, but hope testers like the changes! Please playtest and leave a comment if you have any recommendations for next time.

White

I'm moving white away from "just make tons of 1/1 tokens and hope that's enough" strategies. The color is still plenty strong and supports a healthy range of archetypes, but there are plenty of new cards here that will boost all the non-token strategies (which I found to be one of the stronger / more annoying types of decks to face). I'm particularly excited about Kirtar's Wrath being a true peasant sweeper for control builds and Cheeky House-Mouse as one of the best Savannah Lion variants ever printed.

Blue

Blue has a few quality-of-life updates that aim to inject some interesting cards that support cube balance and some generically great new adds. I'm adding more tools for hard control and tempo builds at the cost of "generic blink/value" engine cards - these have gotten boring frankly, and the blink decks are strong enough already. I'm taking a chance on the Crab being a secret all-star, excited for Phantom Interference as a new mainstay, and really hoping Frolicking Familiar has what it takes...because the art is Top 5 cutest in all of MtG.

Black

Black's changes are slimmer - the new adds are true upgrades though. Gonti is amazing even in full-powered cubes, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to play him here. Forsaken Miner might be the best aggro card we've ever seen. I'm cutting Syr Konrad not because he's weak, but because tracking all the triggers and constant re-reading the card to know when he activates has gotten in the way of games more than once.

Red

Red's changes are few and simple. Aggro has gotten some new tools lately. 1-mana 2/1's are always welcome, and I'm interested to see if the Coyote over-performs as a hasty threat. I'm still slightly unsure about the Warmonger (4-drop creature options at peasant aren't amazing in terms of finishers) - but we'll see.

Green

Green got some amazing upgrades. It has a new big boy (Crusher), a fantastic downshift from Rishkar, a nearly-strict upgrade from the Explore-merfolk, and a small balance adjustment owing to the details I explained at the beginning of this post.

Multi-Colored

Upgrades here over the last year or so have been amazing. Downshifts thanks to Commander Masters (Judith) alongside some genuinely mythic-level uncommons (Khenra Spellspear) will join the fray this update and give a serious boost to their respective archetypes. I've had a bias for prowess, but will watch it closely to see if it's starting to become too much.

Hello again! WoTC's been pumping out products like there's no tomorrow so it's been challenging to keep up. However, the past couple of sets have been great for peasant rarity! I'm excited to make these few changes to improve a variety of archetypes like aggro, ramp, and blink.

Hoping to get a few draft nights among friends to test these out soon. Till next time!

It's been a while! I've been nearly too busy to cube these past few months. This latest set of changes includes Dominaria United, Double Masters 2022, and the various other supplemental products to date. The Brothers' War is right on my heels, so I'm due for another update soon, but for now, there are a lot of changes I'm excited for.

Generally speaking, these sets helped some archetypes that needed a little more definition, as well as kicked out some more generic cards for very powerful single-color cards with off-color kickers. I like these since kicker plays great in limited to begin with, and it allows people who are smart about mana fixing to get a little extra value out of their spells if they can accommodate the kick.

Specifically, I'm curious to see how these changes boost the and grindy decks, the aggressive decks, and the prowess archetypes. I'm optimistic!

Baldur's Gate time. Just a few small changes to go around for this set. gets a few tweaks to include Githzerai Monk as a better top-end flicker target, and Accorder Paladin returns after a long haitus - turns out I was getting too cute with white 2 drops, and the Paladin provides a ton of up-front power.

Secondly, the adventure dragon cycle is incredibly strong, and I'm happy to bring the and versions to the cube as top-end options for their colors in controlling decks.

Finally, I'll be back soon with Double Masters updates - there are some great rarity downshifts in there that I'm excited to include here.

Till next time!

New Capenna! This set is interesting. I'm a fan of the Noire-mafia style, though Kamigawa still takes the cake for me this year (so far). We're continuing to iterate on some of the cube's themes to ensure they're represented and to replace some cards that are too generic or underperforming in testing.

White gets some of the strongest flicker targets we've seen at peasant in a while. Overseer is essentially a Cloudkin Seer, and Mage's Attendant is the first time we've seen a flicker-payoff that provides 4 power for 3 mana.

Black gets a small tweak to aggro (Cutthroat Contender is a modern-border Carnophage) and Grisly Sigil is a fun card for the sacrifice decks looking for peak mana efficiency. I am trying out Night Clubber since boards tend to get clogged with small creatures in Peasant and Infest-style effects are usually more effective. This swap is especially nice since the creature slots in peasant are fairly weak, so I'm happy to shore up that area with a solid add.

Green finally gets Foundation Breaker out. This effect is great in full-rarity cubes where there are signets and just more targets in general, but here, we really don't need this effect.

Red gets a few great adds. Pugilist is a great top-end red card, and I love Blitz's ability to serve as an aggro finisher or grindy sacrifice-esque engine depending on drafters' needs. Riviteers Requisitioner is one I'm excited for as well; this card is strong enough for full-rarity cubes IMO. Finally, Krenko's command is back in just for the small synergy with Sling-Gang Leiutenant (though it may end up being cut in the future anyway).

For next update, there isn't too much I'm concerned about - the cube's been running smoothly. Here's to hoping the next set has even more toys for peasant!

Kamigawa Neon Dynasty is likely my favorite set in the past few years. It hits a great blend of satisfying gameplay mechanics with an excellent art direction. Luckily, for peasant, this set has also been a home run. There are many new toys for us:

We get flexible cards via the Channel mechanic in Colossal Skyturtle, Mirrorshell Crab, and Touch the Spirit Realm. Control gets some love with Behold the Unspeakable, Aggro gets one of the biggest sleepers in the set with Rabbit Battery, and the remaining colors get sprinkled with various small upgrades for their respective themes (Gravelighter, Moon-circuit Hacker, etc.)

For next set's update, I'll still be paying attention to green's midrange creature suite and see if I can inject some interesting cards to keep the color from feeling too generic. I'm also curious if Okiba Reckoner Raid is a trap - it's a ton of value for one mana, but the tempo delay makes me a bit concerned. Time will tell!

We are back with some updates for VOW! gets a new toy in Wandering Mind (Crackling Drake is proving to be a little too difficult to cast), gets some nice upgrades/downshifts in Hero's Downfall and Fell Stinger, and I'm finally taking action to ban Fall from Favor. That amount of card advantage on top of removal is too strong for , at least in this environment.

Looking forward to the next update, I'll be looking into creature suite around the 3 and 4-CMC mark. There are a lot of generic Eternal Witness & Reclamation Sage-style cards here, and I'm not sure they're all that useful in this format. Considering thinning these effects slightly to introduce more variety into the creature section, but we will see what Kamigawa Neon Dynasty brings.

Keeping an eye on Stormfront Riders, as well as some of my concerns for green's creature suite (from the last update).

Large update! MH2 had a surprisingly large number of excellent peasant cards.

On my mind:

• Number of ramp cards as spells (Kodama's Reach) vs. creatures (Llanowar Visionary)

• Going overkill on late game cards in green (BOTH Eternal Witness and Timeless Witness, cutting green low-cmc creatures, etc.)?

• How necessary are effects like Foundation Breaker / Reclamation Sage in peasant?

• Cuttable: Heirloom Blade (Equipment too generic, effect not very useful), Forbidden Friendship (Krenko's Command instead just for the Sling-Gang Lieutenant synergy?), Tuskguard Captain (weakest of the +1/+1 counter payoffs, would rather support something else in this slot - Springbloom Druid? Something chunkier?), Patron of the Valiant (It's...boring? I feel I've pumped counters/proliferate pretty hard in other ways, and it always looks like a bad Serra Angel. Maybe removing this could open the door for some cool niche cards like Stormfront Riders?)

A few small changes to handle some lingering thoughts from the previous update.

1. Downgrading Swords to Oust in white. I'm fine with getting removal, but want it to be more sorcery-speed compared to and .

2. Adding Explore as a ramp effect that isn't a dead draw late game, and nixing the Alpha as a way to trim green's creature count. (Something I've been wanting to do for a while)

3. The hornbeetle isn't proving to be as good of a payoff as I would've hoped. Turns out it's fragile, and getting tons of +1/+1 counters on your own stuff is its own reward. Swapping it with a 6 drop to help round out green's creature curve (there are very few decent 6 drops in peasant).

Small re-tweaking after April's enormous update. Aiming to smooth out the kinks in to improve its status as the top color for removal. Soft graveyard hate being introduced in Elspeth's Nightmare is welcome since I wanted to add to keep the Duress effect somewhere in the cube. Snuff Out returns since instant-speed removal options are premium. Barter in Blood is the top sacrifice card that also functions in tokens and control shells. Terminate is simple but Angrath's rampage is too weak.

Meanwhile, I wanted to adjust the creature density in and . They already have the highest percentage, plus many of their non-creature cards make creatures. I wanted to scale this back slightly to force players to take unique spells in their colors and avoid 20+ creature pile drafts. This adds the opportunity for a few good substitutions -

1. Palace Jailer is finally banned. He's too good (powerful enough to be a force in fully powered cubes) in a color that shouldn't be drawing that many cards. Encircling Fissure is one of the only one-sided fog effects that plays with the +1/+1 counter guilds. Hope players use this for interesting blowouts.

2. Mild spice being introduced in Path to the World Tree. A decent fixer-card and payoff for drafters that want to dare to go 5-color nonsense. There really isn't anything else like it at peasant rarity, and it's still useful even in the Gx decks, so it deserves a chance to shine as a pet card.

3. Slaughter the strong is downshifted to uncommon and the best "wrath" white gets. I hope it can be used alongside Flickerwisp effects to hide on-board power and gain an advantage or for aggro decks to destroy board with bulky defenders.

A significantly more large-scale update with the goal of slightly reducing raw power in favor of solidifying guild strategies. I want to make substitutions that make it more rewarding to successfully draft archetypes and see color combinations working together, rather than relying on "good stuff" piles. This also should reward more focused drafters that can navigate signals and identify the synergies within the cube. Will probably get more brave with this over time (including narrower cards that work well with one strategy), but starting small. The main targets here are proliferate and sacrifice since they need the most help in stamping their identity in the cube.

Additionally, I'm lumping in small updates for Strixhaven, and polishing up some choices to further push aggro into viability, especially in and color pairs.

White

• Reduce "generically powerful" cards and emphasize +1/+1 counter and token aggro strategies.
• Slightly reduce number of removal slots for more unique effects benefitting white archetypes (shouldn't have more spot removal than ).
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Dryad Militant|Goldmeadow Harrier|
  |Release the Dogs|Midnight Haunting|
  |Basri's Solidarity|Blessed Alliance|
  |Miraculous Recovery|Custodi Squire|
  |Patron of the Valiant|Serra Angel|
  |Seasoned Hallowblade|Accorder Paladin|
  |Fearless Fledgling|Oblivion Ring|
  |Mother of Runes (Unban!)|Council Guardian|
  |Settle Beyond Reality|Conclave Tribunal|
  |Ardenvale Tactician|Vryn Wingmare|
  |Mana Tithe|Niblis of the Urn|

Blue

• Reduce "generically powerful" cards and support more proliferate enablers.
• Ensure new selections also support either skies/blink archetypes or the prowess decks.
• Give control a few unique build-around tools / win conditions.
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Frost Trickster|Frost Lynx|
  |Illusory Ambusher|Serra Sphinx|
  |Brineborn Cutthroat|Nightveil Sprite|
  |Aven Eternal|Eldrazi Skyspawner|
  |Faerie Vandal|Merfolk Looter|
  |Think Twice|Faerie Seer|
  |Repeal|Triton Tactics|
  |Rescuer Sphinx|Nevermaker|
  |Skywise Teachings|Persuasion|

Black

• Replace underperformers without squashing aggro strategies.
• Provide better “sacrifice” effects and token generators to supplement the guild archetype.
• Make sure that reigns supreme in terms of removal in the cube.
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Poison the Cup|Murder|
  |Sling-Gang Lieutenant|Death Denied|
  |Call of the Death-Dweller|Gurmag Angler|
  |Tormented Hero|Dead Weight|
  |Umbral Juke|Snuff Out|
  |Vampiric Rites|Nantuko Husk|
  |Incremental Blight|Terror|

Red

• Reduce number of redundant burn spells in favor for other aggro effects. This will diversify what the color can do while ensuring control decks don’t hog all the red cards to use as removal spells.
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Lava Dart|Sanctuary Smasher|
  |Rigging Runner|Searing Blaze|
  |The Flame of Keld|Rolling Thunder|
  |Claim the Firstborn|Wild Slash|

Green

• Eliminate “generically powerful” cards and replace them with support for the +1/+1 counter and ramp archetypes.
• Slightly reduce removal power in favor of punchy combat tricks / card selection (to boost aggro, etc.)
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Snakeskin Veil|Blossoming Defense|
  |Vastwood Surge|Kodama’s Reach|
  |Emergent Sequence|Prey Upon|
  |Devouring Tendrils|Barkhide Troll|
  |Wild Nacatl|Basking Rootwalla|
  |Fyndhorn Elves|Bond of Fluorishing|
  |Become Immense|Great Oak Guardian (Ban!)|
  |Winding Way|Beast Within|

Colorless

• Doing some housecleaning here by removing frequent last-picks or cards that are past their prime. In particular, giving proliferate a small boost in this section.
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Contagion Clasp|Cogwork Librarian|
  |Bonder’s Ornament|Icy Manipulator|

Multicolored

• Work to eliminate “sacred cow” cards and focus on top picks for the desired guild archetypes. The affected cards should give a noticeable bump to ramp, stompy/aggro, sacrifice, and reanimator.
  | New | Old |
  |---|---|
  |Fall of the Imposter|Appeal//Authority|
  |Quandrix Cultivator|Trygon Predator|
  |Voltaic Brawler|Burning-Tree Emissary|
  |Domri’s Ambush|Rhythm of the Wild|
  |Rip Apart|Boros Charm|
  |Sprite Dragon|Prophetic Bolt|
  |Mayhem Devil|Blightning|
  |Angrath’s Rampage|Terminate|
  |Angel of Despair|Tidehollow Sculler|

Kaldheim is here, and along with it some modest updates. Should have a more fleshed-out update post here soon.

Commander Legends brings a few goodies to Peasant. I'm most excited about Fall from Favor as a powerful control sweeper (something Peasant rarity desperately lacks), and Gilt-Leaf Winnower is an exciting downgrade from rare to add to the Nekrataal-effect suite in black.

ZNR is here, and brings a much smaller set of changes than most sets. Bubble Snare is an easy upgrade over the 3-mana variant Charmed Sleep, and I'm trying Iridescent Hornbeetle as a payoff for G/X +1/+1 counters decks and an alternate angle of attack for Simic proliferate decks. We'll see how it goes!