It is with gratitude and respect that we extend a heartfelt thank you to Zebigcoconut for his dedication to the Peasant Committee. His work and commitment have been invaluable to the community, helping to develop and refine our format with both rigor and passion.

Although his time on the Committee is coming to an end, his involvement in the Peasant format is far from over. He remains a key figure, especially as the organizer of the largest annual tournament in Chalon-sur-Saône — a must-attend event for all enthusiasts.

Thank you again, Zebigcoconut, for everything you’ve brought to our community and all that you’ll continue to bring. See you soon around a game table!

To help fill the gap left by his departure, Phalangel has joined us. Here’s a message from him as he steps into this new role:

We’re thrilled to welcome Phalangel to the team. No need to worry, dear Peasant friends — you won’t feel too out of place. We’ve simply swapped one Maxime from the Chalon community… for another Maxime from the Chalon community!

This leads to the following change in the format’s deckbuilding rules: 

A new entity has entered the format: the Bureau. It is a group of players motivated to promote the format and expand the player base. Its actions are independent of the Committee. Of course, there are more or less direct links between these two distinct yet complementary entities, whose common goal is to work for the well-being and longevity of Peasant.

We are very pleased that the community is innovating to promote the format, and we hope that you have all already subscribed to the various social media platforms that the Bureau is currently reactivating. 

We are committed to resuming more regular announcements from us after a year that has been more than scarce in communication. We have therefore decided to implement an announcement schedule for the coming years, which is not restrictive; we will reach out to you outside of these dates if necessary.
You can look forward to hearing from us at least every 3 months on the following dates:

• A New Year's announcement between January 31st and February 15th, following the annual Master tournament.

• A Spring announcement between April 30th and May 15th.

• A Summer announcement between July 31st and August 15th, following the GroPez, which will allow us to take the temperature after the last regular event before the CDF and the summer set, which tends to strongly impact the format.

• An announcement between October 31st and November 15th, following the CDF, to provide feedback on the most important tournament of the year and any adjustments that may result from it.

Unless in exceptional cases, we will not modify the banlist outside of these announcements. We want to note that we try to avoid making changes too close to major paper tournaments to maintain fairness among players,

Over the past six months, from the 2024 CDF to today, Kuldotha, Wee Bee, and Broodscale Combo seem to be leading the metagame, with 18, 17, and 17 performances, respectively. Elves and The Rock follow closely behind, each with 13 performances.

Among the dominant archetypes, we can note a few aggro decks (Kuldotha, Red Assault, and Elves), a majority of midrange decks (Wee Bee, The Rock, Affinity, and Madness), and several combo decks (Broodscale, Dredge, Wall, Storm, and Arcane Tide). Heavy control decks are struggling to break through, with only 4 UR lists, 4 Ux Tron, and 2 Smallpox/MonoB Control.

Nevertheless, during this period, around forty different archetypes have performed, totaling 155 performances, compared to about thirty with 134 performances at the same time last year. The results are more spread out: 9 decklists have more than 6 performances, compared to 6 last year. Last year, there was a strong dominance of Ux Tron among control decks, Kuldotha among aggro, and Arcane Tide among combo decks, but the latter was heavily controlled by Ux Tron and UB Faeries, which made it to the top due to their ability to manage Arcane Tide.

The metagame seems to be more open, with greater variety: each archetype is represented by several lists, except for the combo decks, which are still largely dominated by Broodscale.

Peasant in paper format is making a comeback, and we are very happy to see the community relaunching tournaments in the form of qualifiers for the Coupe de France. Don’t hesitate to check out the nearby qualifiers and try organizing one yourself. The nxt one (at the end of April 2025) will be in Saint-Nazaire, and we hope to see many of you there.

The Dutch community is also becoming more active, and we hope this will inspire others to relaunch Peasant in countries where it was historically established.

Kuldotha

This deck is still considered the gatekeeper of the format:

"If you don’t do anything early, you die on turn 4, or even turn 3 with a good draw."

Wraths, now present in many sideboards and even main decks, are largely there to handle it. Still present despite the banning of Experimental Synthesizer last year, it remains less resilient in the late game. A Kuldotha Rebirth followed by a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker can be devastating, but once the board is stabilized, it struggles to recover. We keep an eye on it, but its role as the metronome for the format seems necessary.

Strengths: Fast aggression, ability to punish slow combo or control decks.

Weaknesses: Struggles against Wraths, recurring life gain combined with small creatures. Aesir, played in The Rock, is one of its worst enemies.

Wee Bee

Still dominant, it is nonetheless constrained by its mana base, although the inclusion of previously considered mediocre cards, like Fountainport Bell, has improved this aspect.
The deck shows good synergies:

• Recursive discard

• Recurring creature removal (Tithing Blade, Thraben Charm, Grim Bauble)

• Flying creatures hard to deal with thanks to Omen of the Dead
  However, it is often slowed down by Writhing Chrysalis, which, thanks to its reach, can block and kill Kor Skyfisher and other flying creatures.

Elves

The deck received a huge boost with the printing of Dionus. Thanks to Zomby33, it has won numerous 8-man tournaments and achieved some solid performances in pool play in recent months. But as meta decks have incorporated more Wraths, and players have adjusted their approach to the match-up, the deck has underperformed compared to its representation in the last Pool and in recent 8-mans. The deck is still strong, Dionus should be watched, but for now, it remains out of the ban hammer’s reach.

Broodscale Combo

 A recent archetype, introduced with the printing of the card of the same name. It first performed in Pauper before making its way into Peasant during the 2024 CDF. The deck has improved with Ghost Lantern, played as a 5th or 6th Sadistic Glee, and Demonic Consultation, played as additional Sadistic Glee and Basking Broodscale.
It has many strengths:

• The deck is based on a two-card combo that can be tutored for

• It has discard and protection in the main deck

• It has the ability to bring in Wraths from the sideboard and numerous copies of Last Rites
  In general, it has room to adapt depending on the match-up.
  It is more stable than High Tide or Storm, which require a lot of cards in hand to get going. Writhing Chrysalis has also joined the arsenal, providing a small aggro plan if the combo doesn’t go through. But the deck remains vulnerable—many answers are possible, although a single one is often not enough: targeted creature removal, enchantment removal, or counterspells. However, pressure (especially from Kuldotha) can be sufficient to force it to go off prematurely. It also shows weaknesses against less-represented decks: MonoB Control, UB Faeries, or faster aggro decks like Red Assault and Infect.
  It remains under watch but does not seem to excessively dominate the metagame.

LSD

Finally, the LSD deck is also being watched: it wouldn’t take much for it to be able to consistently kill very early again. But its lack of performance, despite many attempts, suggests that other decks are still able to handle it, especially post-side, despite explosive starts (it can kill on turn 1 with a perfect hand).

The meta is evolving very quickly at the moment, and the limited number of players and paper tournaments makes it difficult to get a full picture.

Despite the lack of frequent official communication, the Committee is closely monitoring the meta's development and will not hesitate to take action should any issues arise.