CardShark Content - macro (7/25/2001)

With the up and coming Peasant Format tournament planned for GenCon, I thought it was a great time to write up one of my favorite commons decks. If you are unfamiliar with Peasant format, it is basically a full commons only deck, with the exception that it allows 5 uncommon cards to be in your deck.

Every color has a few strong common cards to be exploited. These are usually great starting places when building a deck for commons or peasant format tournaments. I have chosen green and the obvious choices for inclusion are: giant growth, rancor and llanowar elves. Many stompy decks have been built with green commons and they are very strong. The idea for this deck is to take a mana acceleration approach, which is green's other big strength.

The deck started out as an Elf deck that used Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms
	Set: Exodus Cost: 5 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Rarity: R Number: 131 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Text: Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature in play of the same creature type. (For example, if there are three Goblins in play, each of them gets +2/+2.)

as the kill card. This is a very powerful finisher, but one that can not be duplicated in commons format. The big question then is, ´´Why Elves?´´ The simple answer is that they are amazing for accelerating mana and the more detailed answer is ´´Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

´´ and ´´Llanowar Sentinel

Llanowar Sentinel
	Set: Weatherlight Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Artist: Douglas Shuler Power: 2 Toughness: 3 Text: When Llanowar Sentinel comes into play, you may pay 1G to search your library for a Llanowar Sentinel card. Put that card into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

´´. These cards alone are so good that they make you want to run a bunch of elves in your deck. Below is the deck list and I will go into detail about why each card was chosen and how to play the deck.

Peasant Format Elf Deck:

4:Llanowar Elves

Llanowar Elves
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Artist: Anson Maddocks Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: T: Add G to your mana pool. This ability is played as an interrupt.

- 1cc
4:Fyndhorn Elves

Fyndhorn Elves
	Set: Ice Age Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Artist: Justin Hampton Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: T: Add G to your mana pool. Play this ability as an interrupt.

- 1cc
4:Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

- 2cc

4:Wood Elves

Wood Elves
	Set: Exodus Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Number: 130 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: When Wood Elves comes into play, search your library for a forest card and put that forest into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

- 3cc
4:Llanowar Sentinel

Llanowar Sentinel
	Set: Weatherlight Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Artist: Douglas Shuler Power: 2 Toughness: 3 Text: When Llanowar Sentinel comes into play, you may pay 1G to search your library for a Llanowar Sentinel card. Put that card into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

- 3cc

4:River Boa

River Boa
	Set: Classic Sixth Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Snake Rarity: U Number: 249 Artist: Steve White Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Islandwalk (This creature is unblockable if defending player controls an island.) G: Regenerate River Boa.

- 2cc
1:Taunting Elf

Taunting Elf
	Set: Urza's Destiny Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Number: 122 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 0 Toughness: 1 Text: All creatures able to block Taunting Elf do so.

- 1cc
1:Treetop Rangers

Treetop Rangers
	Set: Urza's Saga Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Number: 279 Artist: Carl Critchlow Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Treetop Rangers cannot be blocked except by creatures with flying.

- 3cc

4:Rancor

Rancor
	Set: Urza's Legacy Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Enchant Creature Rarity: C Number: 110 Artist: Kev Walker Text: Enchanted creature gains +2/+0 and trample.When Rancor is put into a graveyard from play, return Rancor to owner's hand.

- 1cc
4:Invigorate

Invigorate
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: C Number: 254 Artist: Dan Frazier Text: If you control a forest, you may have an opponent gain 3 life instead of paying Invigorate's mana cost.Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

- 3cc/0
4:Giant Growth

Giant Growth
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: C Artist: Sandra Everingham Text: Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.

- 1cc

Uncommon Block
3:Overrun

Overrun
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Jeff Miracola Text: All creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

- 5cc
1:Hurricane

Hurricane
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Dameon Willich Text: All players and flying creatures suffer X damage.

- GX
1:Sylvan Messenger

Sylvan Messenger
	Set: Apocalypse Cost: 4 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: U Number: 87 Artist: Heather Hudson Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Trample. When Sylvan Messenger comes into play, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Elf cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.

- 4cc

4:Land Grant

Land Grant
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 255 Artist: D. Alexander Gregory Text: If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying Land Grant's mana cost.Search your library for a forest card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

- 2cc/0
13:Forest

Forest
	Set: Oversize Cards Color: Land Type: Land Rarity: X Artist: Tony Roberts Text: T: Add G to your mana pool.

The deck starts out with 4 Llanowar

Llanowar
	Set: Planechase Cost: 0 Color: Colorless Type: Plane Sub Type: Dominaria Rarity: C Number: 22 Artist: Kev Walker Text: All creatures have "{T}: Add {G}{G} to your mana pool." Whenever you roll {C}, untap all creatures you control.

and 4 Fyndhorn elves. Each of these elves have the ability to TAP and add one green mana to your pool. These both are great turn one plays to excellerate your mana. Next we have the awesome Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

. This card costs 1G and lets you tap it to add one green mana for each Elf in play. Since almost all of your creatures are elves, this can lead to some serious mana acceleration.

The next creature block contains the card Wood Elves

Wood Elves
	Set: Exodus Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Number: 130 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: When Wood Elves comes into play, search your library for a forest card and put that forest into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

. This card costs 2G for a 1/1 weenie, but it also brings a forest from your deck directly into play. This is great for thinning your deck further and also lets you cast another 1cc spell this turn. Next is the Llanowar Sentinel

Llanowar Sentinel
	Set: Weatherlight Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Artist: Douglas Shuler Power: 2 Toughness: 3 Text: When Llanowar Sentinel comes into play, you may pay 1G to search your library for a Llanowar Sentinel card. Put that card into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

, which is the other MVP of the deck after Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

. It is a 2/3 for 2G that has the ability: pay an additional 1G to fetch another Llanowar Sentinel

Llanowar Sentinel
	Set: Weatherlight Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Artist: Douglas Shuler Power: 2 Toughness: 3 Text: When Llanowar Sentinel comes into play, you may pay 1G to search your library for a Llanowar Sentinel card. Put that card into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

directly into play from your deck. I don't have to tell you how good this is!!! With the Priest you can usually get huge amounts of mana and bring all three of this elf's brothers into play at the same time giving you four 2/3 creatures and some serious deck thining.

The final creature block contains four River Boa

River Boa
	Set: Classic Sixth Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Snake Rarity: U Number: 249 Artist: Steve White Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Islandwalk (This creature is unblockable if defending player controls an island.) G: Regenerate River Boa.

s (common in Visions

Visions
	Set: Fourth Edition Cost: 1 Color: White Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: NéNé Thomas Text: Look at the top five cards of any library. You may then shuffle that library.

) which are just too good to pass up. They are cheap with a 1G casting cost, have regeneration for one green and built in Island

Island
	Set: Oversize Cards Color: Land Type: Land Rarity: X Artist: Tony Roberts Text: T: Add U to your mana pool.

walk. This block also has one Taunting Elf

Taunting Elf
	Set: Urza's Destiny Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Number: 122 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 0 Toughness: 1 Text: All creatures able to block Taunting Elf do so.

for a massive combat trick and one Treetop Rangers

Treetop Rangers
	Set: Urza's Saga Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Number: 279 Artist: Carl Critchlow Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Treetop Rangers cannot be blocked except by creatures with flying.

in case you run into some brick walls you cannot get past. The Taunting Elf

Taunting Elf
	Set: Urza's Destiny Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Number: 122 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 0 Toughness: 1 Text: All creatures able to block Taunting Elf do so.

says that any creature able to block it must. You can then pump him to kill off all your opponents creatures (poor man's creature control) or pump your other creatures that get through while your opponents blockers are busy. The Treetop Rangers

Treetop Rangers
	Set: Urza's Saga Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Number: 279 Artist: Carl Critchlow Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Treetop Rangers cannot be blocked except by creatures with flying.

reads that it can only be blocked by flyers. Also, included later is our first uncommon, Sylvan Messenger

Sylvan Messenger
	Set: Apocalypse Cost: 4 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: U Number: 87 Artist: Heather Hudson Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Trample. When Sylvan Messenger comes into play, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Elf cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.

. This is a new Apocalypse

Apocalypse
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Red Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Artist: L. A. Williams Text: Remove all permanents from the game. Discard your hand.

card that lets you look at the top 4 cards of your library and put into your hand any elves, and put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library. This card also gives you a 2/2 creature with trample for 3G. With the huge amounts of mana available to you, you want to have ways to fill your hand because it is easy to cast everything.

The next block of cards is the pumping block. It has four rancor (+2/+0 and trample), four Giant Growth

Giant Growth
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: C Artist: Sandra Everingham Text: Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.

(target creature gets +3/+3) and finally four Invigorate

Invigorate
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: C Number: 254 Artist: Dan Frazier Text: If you control a forest, you may have an opponent gain 3 life instead of paying Invigorate's mana cost.Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

(target creature gets +4/+4 for 2G). Most people understand how to play the rancors. They should be used to give your non-mana producing creatures a +2 on power and some trample beats. The giant growth should not always be used for offense though. This deck's biggest enemy is red... It is so easy to burn off all of your 1/1 creatures, so you should keep giant growths around to save your Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

and other mana producers for a turn or two. This deck thrives when it gets 3-5 elves out, but just plain sucks when it has one. The spell, Invigorate

Invigorate
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: C Number: 254 Artist: Dan Frazier Text: If you control a forest, you may have an opponent gain 3 life instead of paying Invigorate's mana cost.Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

, can be alternately cast for free by having your opponent gain 3 life. Sometimes if you are tapped out and you need to save an elf from a lightning bolt, or want to do a combat trick to kill your opponents creature with your 1/1 elf, this card will come to your rescue.

The uncommon block has 3 Overrun

Overrun
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Jeff Miracola Text: All creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

and 1 Hurricane

Hurricane
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Dameon Willich Text: All players and flying creatures suffer X damage.

. The Hurricane

Hurricane
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Dameon Willich Text: All players and flying creatures suffer X damage.

is for minor flyer control and also as a finishing card for you. This deck sometimes has a chance to deal 8-12 damage in the first 3-4 turns using giant growths and attacking like crazy. If you are in this position and still have the mana around, you can use Hurricane

Hurricane
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Dameon Willich Text: All players and flying creatures suffer X damage.

as a finisher. If you don't, the big finisher of the deck is Overrun

Overrun
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Jeff Miracola Text: All creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

. It costs 3GG and gives ALL of your creatures +3/+3 and trample until end of turn (as a sorcery). Now all your 1/1 elves just got huge. If you are playing a counterspell deck, they will probably counter this, but it doesn't matter because you can beat them to a pulp really slowly with all your 1 cc stuff like Llanowar Elves

Llanowar Elves
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elves Rarity: C Artist: Anson Maddocks Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: T: Add G to your mana pool. This ability is played as an interrupt.

and giant growth. It is very hard for a counterspell deck to counter everything in a deck like this because there is no obvious targets - everything is pretty much as good as everything else and because the mana curve is so low.

Finally we have only 13 lands and four Land Grant

Land Grant
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 255 Artist: D. Alexander Gregory Text: If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying Land Grant's mana cost.Search your library for a forest card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

s (which you can feel free to cast for free). You don't really care if your opponent sees your hand in this kind of deck... you just start accelerating mana and attacking whenever you can and the rest of the game takes care of itself. Land Grant

Land Grant
	Set: Mercadian Masques Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 255 Artist: D. Alexander Gregory Text: If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying Land Grant's mana cost.Search your library for a forest card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

is another great way to thin your deck and you will find that 13 land is plenty and you should be drawing good stuff almost all of the time based on the extensive thining used in this deck.

A sample ideal draw might look like this:
turn 1: forest, llanowar elf -
turn 2: forest, Priests of Titania

Titania
	Set: Vanguard Sub Type: Character Rarity: X Number: 6 Artist: Rebecca Guay Power: +2 Toughness: -5 Text: You may play an additional land each of your turns.

, Llanowar

Llanowar
	Set: Planechase Cost: 0 Color: Colorless Type: Plane Sub Type: Dominaria Rarity: C Number: 22 Artist: Kev Walker Text: All creatures have "{T}: Add {G}{G} to your mana pool." Whenever you roll {C}, untap all creatures you control.

Elf -
Turn 3: forest, Llanowar

Llanowar
	Set: Planechase Cost: 0 Color: Colorless Type: Plane Sub Type: Dominaria Rarity: C Number: 22 Artist: Kev Walker Text: All creatures have "{T}: Add {G}{G} to your mana pool." Whenever you roll {C}, untap all creatures you control.

Sentinal, tap priest for 4 mana and both elves for 6 and get all three brothers -
turn 4: forest, tap elf and 4 forests for Overrun

Overrun
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Jeff Miracola Text: All creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

and attack with 5 creatures for a total of 24 damage (all trample-able).

Not a bad turn 4 kill.

I hope you enjoyed the amazing mana acceleration and thining techniques used in this deck. There are many other elves that could have been used in this deck (like the Skyshroud Sentinel

Skyshroud Sentinel
	Set: Nemesis Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Number: 121 Artist: Randy Gallegos Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: When Skyshroud Sentinel comes into play, you may search your library for up to three Skyshroud Sentinel cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.

or Quirion Sentinel

Quirion Sentinel
	Set: Invasion Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Rarity: C Number: 204 Artist: Heather Hudson Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: When Quirion Sentinel comes into play, add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

), but there were plenty of elves already and the River Boa

River Boa
	Set: Classic Sixth Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Snake Rarity: U Number: 249 Artist: Steve White Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Islandwalk (This creature is unblockable if defending player controls an island.) G: Regenerate River Boa.

is just too strong to ignore. Blastoderm

Blastoderm
	Set: Nemesis Cost: 4 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Beast Rarity: C Number: 102 Artist: Eric Peterson Power: 5 Toughness: 5 Text: Fading 3 (This creature comes into play with three fade counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a fade counter from it. If you can't, sacrifice it.) Blastoderm can't be the target of spells or abilities.

can be substituted in place of River Boa

River Boa
	Set: Classic Sixth Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Snake Rarity: U Number: 249 Artist: Steve White Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Islandwalk (This creature is unblockable if defending player controls an island.) G: Regenerate River Boa.

fairly easily, but it cannot be targeted by most of your pumping spells. Overrun

Overrun
	Set: Tempest Cost: 5 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: Jeff Miracola Text: All creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

will still work though and an 8/8 non targetable trampler is nothing to be ashamed of.

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