Welcome to my Peasant cube! When starting out building this cube back in the early 2010s, I wanted it to be fun, interactive, and accessible for all levels of players. To achieve this, I started from the common/uncommon (aka Peasant) card pool and made several bans for power level and complexity (e.g., Skullclamp, Sol Ring). Over time, I added a small number of rares, predominantly lands, to fill in some gaps. What I love about Peasant cubing is that it feels very much like traditional limited powered way up. Aggro, midrange, control, and to a lesser degree combo are all viable and it rewards good fundamentals in drafting and deckbuilding. Thank you for taking a look!
The Peasant card pool has access to some of the best removal spells, burn spells, and card draw spells from Magic's history, so I have intentionally either powered those down or limited the number of them. Additionally, I tend to lean towards aggressive strategies as a player, so that informs some of the card selections I have made, though I have incorporated the feedback of friends who have other preferences to avoid going too far in that direction. I also try to avoid including functional reprints to maximize variety.
Two major themes show up across all colors in the cube: +1/+1 counters and tokens. I have always enjoyed playing decks that feature one or both of these and over time have found ways to support both throughout the cube. Certainly some colors feature these more than others, but they all feature them to some extent. Given this heavy focus on +1/+1 counters, I try to limit the number of cards that use other types of counters to avoid confusion.
: Blink, Skies, Tapping
I will admit that this color pair is the one I have most struggled to give a clear identity to. Having said that, there are a lot of powerful effects and synergies in this color combination, and all three of the major themes overlap somewhat and play well together.
: Control, Graveyard Value
These two colors, probably more so than any others when paired together, want to slow the game down, control the board, and bury the opponent in value. Part of the graveyard value theme is a small reanimation package, which can be the primary gameplan of a deck, but is often just used to rebuy creatures that died over the course of the game.
: Sacrifice, Aggro
This color combination wants to clear the path for its plethora of cheap, efficient creatures, and can hang in the late game through its many sacrifice outlets and payoffs. While it can play a more controlling game, it often slants more aggressive.
: Ramp, Midrange
When red and green come together in this cube it typically wants to be accelerating out hard to deal with threats and backing them up with burn. It can also sometimes lean heavier on green's ability to ramp to go even bigger. This is also one of the two color pairs that can go infinite, utilizing a sac outlet, a Persist creature, and a +1/+1 counter on enter effect.
: +1/+1 Counters, Tokens
This color pair really leans into the two primary themes of the cube. It wants to make a bunch of tokens, boost them up with counters, and gain value from them. Whereas red/green will sometimes go a little bigger, the most successful white/green decks in this cube tend to lean a bit lower to the ground. It is also the other color combination that can go infinite in a similar manner as red/green: a sac outlet, a Persist creature, and a +1/+1 counter on enter effect.
: Go-Wide Aggro
I've tinkered with other possible strategies for this color combination over time, but I've largely settled on simply leaning into go-wide aggro as the major strategy to support. This is probably the color pair that gets the most value out of one of my favorite cards in the cube for both its disruptive effect and the reach it provides in the late game.
: Spells, Burn
These two strategies are really a spectrum. Most blue/red decks will feature burn and non-burn spells to some degree. The success of the more burn focused decks in this color pair is what led me to power down some of the burn in the cube - it would take opponents from 10+ life to 0 in one turn more often than I was comfortable with. Even with this depowering of the burn, this color combination is still extremely powerful.
: Ramp, ETB Value
This color pair tends to go the biggest of any. It pairs green's land-based ramp with a variety of ways to use those extra lands to ensure the game goes long and then it goes over the top of other strategies. It is highly likely to splash one or more other colors. It can go more aggressive with fliers backed up by bounce spells, but typically it goes big.
: Graveyard Value
The primary strategy for this color pair revolves around getting creatures and other permanents in the graveyard to rebuy or reanimate them later. All of this is backed by some of the most efficient removal spells in the cube.
: Aristocrats, Life Drain
This color combination wants to flood the board with lots of small creatures, tokens or otherwise, and put its opponent in a lose/lose situation - deal with the creatures and pay the price for it, or don't and pay the price for it. Black/white decks typically lean aggressive, but can drag the game out longer and go a bit bigger by leaning on the life drain aspects.
As mentioned at the top, decks in this cube tend to be aggressive, so whether you plan to be aggressive or not you must have a plan for the early game. Mana fixing is somewhat limited, so you should prioritize it highly especially if you want to play more than two colors. While I've laid out some notes on what strategies are supported most heavily in each color pair, there are also a lot of generically powerful cards in each color, so you can probably play whatever strategy you want in most color pairs if the cards are coming to you. I typically want my P1P1 in the draft to be a 2-for-1 of some kind or a premium removal spell; deciding on what to do with those can typically come later.
Making a few tweaks in the interest of adding a little more support for various strategies. Looking forward to trying all the recent changes out this weekend!