Overview:

Playing with the idea of a peasant/pauper cube to build with my collection. Limited Magic has been in a really good place in recent years and I'm interested in what a peasant version of the past couple of years would look like.

I decided to start the cube after War of the Spark, at M20, for a couple of reasons:

1. This is approximately when F.I.R.E. design started, which bolstered the power of commons/uncommons and marked a change in how cards should be analyzed for limited.
2. This is also right around the time that Magic Arena left beta, so the cube captures this modern area of Arena drafts & information (though human drafting didn't start for another 6-9 months).
3. This is also about a year after moving away from the block style of set releases. I prefer the single set draft experience, but I do miss the novelty of cross set synergies of block set drafting, and this cube tries to capture some of that.
4. War of the Spark marked the end of the "Jacetice League" story line, making it a convenient starting point story wise.

Archetypes: Archetype Notes:

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White / Blue - Fliers

Your classic Blue White fliers archetype. The fliers archetype builds a naturally evasive deck, so being able to augment your creatures and/or slow down your opponent's game plan can make for an effective strategy when combined with flying creatures. The main thing you should look for are creatures with flying (obviously). Then look for ways to augment them with Equipment (Kor Halberd) or Auras (Curious Inquiry), and ways to interact with your opponent's stuff (Banishing Light, Faebloom Trick, Neutralize). White's lifegain (Dazzling Angel) can also serve to keep you alive long enough to close out a game.

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White / Black - Lifegain

Another classic archetype for the color pair, White Black is all about lifegain. Naturally you'll want two things in a lifegain deck, ways to gain life & and payoffs for gaining life. Look to gain life with creatures with lifelink (Brightblade Stoat), creatures entering the battlefield (Daxos, Blessed by the Sun), creatures dying (Bastion of Remembrance), and food (Savor). Your lifegain payoffs will come in the form of gaining additional life (Angel of Vitality), creatures growing bigger (Bloodthirsty Aerialist), draining life from the opponent (Starscape Cleric), or creating tokens (Cat Collector).

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White / Red - Equipment

At the core you will be looking to play equipment and creatures to carry that equipment. Look for creatures with lots of keywords (Shrike Force), that synergize with equipment (Bladegraft Aspirant), or provide benefits with higher power (Heartfire Immolator). For equipment, look for ones that provide a creature when cast (Ancestral Blade) or are creatures to begin with (Rabbit Battery). Other synergies to look for are creatures with Valiant (Mouse Trapper), ways to auto equip (Blacksmith's Talent), or creatures with evasion/flying (Inspiring Overseer). Boros also likes to have cheap interaction/burn (Burst Lightning) to clear the way and/or finish off the game.

Look for this turn 2 win. Turn 1: Cacophony Scamp, Turn 2: Colossus Hammer + Resolute Strike

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White / Green - Enchantments

Green White are the colors for enchantments. You'll want two things your Green White deck, enchantments and payoffs for your enchantments. Look for the pair of one drops (Optimistic Scavenger, Generous Visitor) to grow your creatures. There are a number of Enchantment Creatures (Spirited Companion, Destiny Spinner) to bolster the number of enchantments for the archetype. There are a wide variety of payoffs for enchantments, like gaining life (Dawnhart Geist), card selection (Nessian Wanderer), making creatures big (Ethereal Armor), or generating tokens (Warchanter Skald). Just be sure to note how your enchantment benefits trigger (ie. on cast vs. on ETB), as they vary from card to card.

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Blue / Black - Mill & Reanimator

Blue Black offers a pair of crowd favorites to play, mill and reanimator. The idea when building this archetype is for mill to be the primary plan with reanimator being the backup. The primary thing you'll want to look for are for repeatable mill engines like Ruin Crab, Sage's Row Denizen, Deepmuck Desperado, Sweet Oblivion, Teferi's Tutelage, Relic Golem, and Syr Konrad, the Grim. Pair these with single use mill cards that also interact with the board (Glacial Grasp, Deal Gone Bad) or provide a bodies that can stall the opponent (Desperate Bloodseeker, Merfolk Windrobber). When milling the opponent doesn't get there then look to mill yourself and reanimate your biggest creatures. Most creatures 6 MV or larger should be good enough to reanimate, but be sure to look out out for ones that can themselves in the graveyard (Waker of Waves, Gloomfang Mauler). Ways to discard (Strix Lookout, Bitter Triumph) also help your reanimation targets from getting stranded in your hand. And don't forget to pick up some reanimation spells (Zombify, Live or Die, etc...).
One of the most important things is to be aware of who is your cards will mill. Some cards only mill the opponent, some only mill you, some do both, and some let you choose. Knowing your deck style will inform who you should mill.

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Blue / Red - Artifacts

I wanted to avoid doing Blue Red spells because it feels like it has just been overdone, so I ended up at artifacts. It ends up playing like a lot of the other "type" themed archetypes, so look for artifacts and payoffs for playing them. There is also a minor sub-archetype for Blue Red which is sacrificing artifacts. In order to hit a critical mass of artifacts, you'll want creatures that are artifacts (Piggy Bank, Chrome Prowler) or are capable of producing artifacts (Spyglass Siren, Plundering Barbarian). Payoffs typically will reward you for playing artifacts (Eye of Malcator), having artifacts on the battlefield (Shambling Suit), or sacrificing artifacts (Sokenzan Smelter).
Note: Crime Novelist goes pretty hard with Treasure. Look for repeatable treasure makers like Storm-Kiln Artist, Collector's Vault, and Enterprising Scallywag.

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Blue / Green - Big Mana

Blue Green is the color pair for ramp and big mana so be on the lookout for ways to ramp and big spells to ramp into. There are a few cards that pay you off for playing big spells (Up the Beanstalk) but generally the big mana spells are the payoff themselves. Look for ramp in the form of creatures (Llanowar Elves, Kelpie Guide), or spells (Glimpse the Core, Cultivate). In order to have spells that are effective both early and late in the game, look for cards that have variable casting costs (Contortionist Troupe), alternate casting costs (This Town Ain't Big Enough), or are adventure spells (Beanstalk Giant). This is the color pair most likely to splash, most often with Red.

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Black / Red - Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the name of the game for Black Red. Look for creatures to sacrifice, ways to sacrifice your creatures, and payoffs for sacrificing. Creatures to sacrifice will come in many forms, like ones that can reanimate themselves (Reassembling Skeleton), die into value (Clockwork Percussionist), come from repeatable sources (Ghoulish Procession), or even your opponent (Claim the Firstborn). Ways to sacrifice your creatures can come from creatures entering (Lord Skitter's Butcher), activated or triggered abilities (Weaponize the Monsters, Vampire Gourmand), or spells (Betrayer's Bargain). Payoffs will let you draw cards (Morbid Opportunist), do damage (Havoc Jester), drain your opponent (Popular Egotist), or grow your creatures (Gixian Infiltrator).
Note: Forsaken Miner loops with sacrifice outlets that target (Popular Egotist, Weaponize the Monsters, Blood Aspirant) for a repeatable source of sacrifice triggers and drain/damage for 3 mana.

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Black / Green - Food

To avoid including another overdone archetype, this time Black Green graveyard, I've opted for Black Green Food. You'll want to look for ways to make food and ways "use" food. Most of the time you will not be paying to sacrifice food and gain life, but instead sacrificing through other means for benefits. There are plenty of ways to generate food, like through creatures (Bakersbane Duo, Mintstrosity), effects on spells (Savor, Welcome to Sweettooth), or repeatable abilities (Witch's Oven, Midnight Snack). Use food to your benefit to drain the opponent (Sweettooth Witch), gain card advantage (Curious Forager), kill creatures (Bog Naughty), or make giants (Giant Opportunity). Most payoffs reward you for sacrificing food, so be sure to include some of black's cards that synergize when sacrificing permanents, like Popular Egotist or Gixian Infiltrator.

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Red / Green - Power Matters

Another classic archetype is used for Red Green and that is Power Matters. Most of the cards that care about power will having at least one creature with power 4 or greater, or if you attacked with creatures with total power 6 or greater. For this archetype you'll want to look for creatures with power 4 or greater, ways to buff your creatures, and payoffs for having big creatures. For creatures that have power 4 or greater, look for some of the MV ≤3 creatures (Slumbering Cerberus, Eager Trufflesnout), but mostly you'll be looking at creatures with MV ≥4. Ways to augment creatures can come in many forms, like through enchantments (Audacity), equipment (Beamtown Beatstick), or counters (Renata, Called to the Hunt). Payoffs take many forms (Boundary Lands Ranger, Ilysian Caryatid, Molten Monstrosity, Garruk's Uprising) but can also just come with casting some beefy dudes.
Some ramp can work in this archetype as it will help you cast your bigger creatures earlier, but too much can hinder it since you are incentivized to play to the board. Pairs with Green Blue very well.

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Other Notes

• While not mentioned in the archetype summaries, the gold cards for each color pair are very important to their respective archetype. I built this cube by starting with what gold cards I wanted for each archetype and then building out the archetypes from there. Be sure to taken gold cards highly once you know what archetype you are in.
• The Catfood combo (Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven) is present in the cube. Very potent and versatile combo that works well in all black decks. It is a sacrifice trigger for Black Red, synergizes with food in Black Green, repeatable source of lifegain in Black White, and an extremely difficult to deal with chump blocker in Black Blue.