Introduction

Hi everyone!

I am Manuel, I participated a few days ago in my fifth Peasant French Cup, with Weenie White, after having played since 2021 (except last year) with Channel Cascade, Hunting Storm, Arcane Tide and U Terror at previous editions.

This year I came prepared (surprisingly) with Jund Wildfire and Poison Storm for the two side events, Red Rally for the saturday evening, and of course Weenie White for the main event.

For the event, I came with Vincent (Yamipotter) from Paris, and stayed with the group from Blois/Clermont-Ferrand/Toulon/Tours for the weekend. While they planned a raclette party, I went instead to the tournament on friday and finished 4 / 22 with 10 points.

I really like the socializing part of the Peasant French Cups, as I already know most of the players, some of which I often played online too. Even at the home, we spent most of the time imagining some decklists and how to make them good, which was also fun, thanks to Fabien (ASMPeasant) for the welcome!

Why Weenie White

I paid attention to the metagame for the last year and expected a format very oriented to black and red. During Gro'Pez 2026 tournament, I played Bogles for the same reason as I was looking a deck with lifegain and strong against removals.

White has some of the best interactive spells in common, with access to Thraben Charm and Prismatic Strands main deck, and Standard Bearer and Dust to Dust in sideboard. Since the release of Leonardo, Big Brother, Weenie White gained a lot of speed in its kill turn, while maintaining strong value engines with the Thraben/Novice Inspectors and Kor Skyfisher. The deck was already good before but needed Battle Screech and Guardian's Pledge to kill fast, which could be an issue when facing non-interactive combo decks like Arcane Tide. Such decks are rare in big events which is why I focused on aggro and midrange decks.

With the recent banlist, we saw a multiple U Terror decks with Gush and Dimir decks with Force of Will. The Zeta set also brought Baleful Strix and Dispatch, improving Dimir and Affinity shells, and Price of Progress that mostly redefines how players build manabases and can easily be played in sideboards. With the recent bans for Kuldotha, I did not expect players to try it and rather play R Madness Burn, as Pierre (Pismy)'s deck performed very well during the Gro'Pez.

I expected a lot of netdecking for the event, which is why I looked closely at some recent decklists. This is something I regret in the format, as not many players try to improve or adapt decklists that already perform well. The five R Madness Burn in the top 8 were almost identical.

During the weeks before the tournament, I mostly trained with my different decklists on Endstep against Stefananas, ADrapper2 and Salwen. I was supposed to play with Red Rally at the PauperNATION tournament but I had to cancel my registration. While the deck performs extremely well in goldfish, I was not convinced after advanced tests and especially in interactive matchups. On the other hand, I really like the play patterns of Jund Wildfire and Weenie White and I was amazed with how Weenie White was able to come back from hopeless board states, like against Elves thanks to Prismatic Strands.

Weenie White is an archetype that already performs very well in Pauper, the deck mostly consists of two versions: one with flashback spells and Raffine's Informant, and one with 0-mana creatures, Salt Road Packbeast and Dispatch. As I was looking for a deck able to outvalue opponent decks while being able to race them and being resilient to wrath effects, I went to the flashback version. I have not much experience in the Packbeast version so I did not take the risk of building something completely new and unknown to me.

I already had the deck in paper since the Gro'Pez, I chose to put Swords to Plowshares as uncommons there but I was not very convinced, as spot removals have been less and less strong in Pauper with the format becoming slower, and I expected the same in Peasant. Some decklists were also tried before with Phyrexian Censor and with Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit but did not show strong results. I built from Pauper decklists and looked for strong synergies to put in the deck. Leonardo being a legendary creature, Karakas looked as a strong candidate, being an untapped white land with an ability that goes well with Sneak. Karakas allows to have almost an unblocked Leonardo at every turn and is also a way to protect it from spot removals. As the card is useful in some situations and and we don't want to play two in the same game, running 2 Karakas is enough.

Looking for a strong white legendary creature for Weenie White that synergizes well with Karakas, Momo, Playful Pet, was the perfect candidate. Momo is a 1-mana drop that curves well in the deck and that easily plays with Kor Skyfisher, Leonardo and Karakas. It's 5 abilities are good: being a flyer helps putting pressure and having an unblocked creature, having vigilance helps blocking as well and bouncing it with Karakas and it helps casting Prismatic Strands and Ramosian Rally. It's triggered ability has three modes: the counter is strong for combat tricks as a blocked/blocking creature can become stronger after the blockers, the counter is also usually strong on bodies like Kor Skyfisher, which is why Idyllic Grange is a good card in the deck. The scry effect trades the card advantage given by the inspectors with quality advantage to dig quickly in the cards we are looking for (a land, Battle Screech, Prismatic Strands, Thraben Charm, sideboard cards), scrying also helps reducing dead draws in the late game, and being able to do it every turn is almost like having the monarch in play. Lastly, the food token may help in the last turns to survive a decisive attack, and against burn decks.

The split 2 Guardian's Pledge + 1 Ramosian Rally is common, giving a good balance between strong boosts and quick answers. The fourth Leonardo is to abuse even more interactions with Karakas, which Spider-Man, Web Slinger can't do. I find Thraben Charm always strong in the format, which is why there are 4 copies, while the fourty copy of Prismatic Strands is in the sideboard to have less dead draws against non-interactive decks.

The sideboard is meant to be balanced for multiple matchups, as there is no fixed meta in Peasant especially for big events. Journey to Nowhere adds extra removals for aggro matchups. I also chose to run Obsidian Acolyte for black matchups, Standard Bearer for Glitters Affinity and Elves, Dust to Dust against Affinity, Martyr of Sands against Red Madness (not more copies in order to keep a wide sideboard), a seond Holy Light for UB Faeries/Affinity and only 1 Soul-Guide Lantern to help against U Terror, The Rock, Tron decks, Madness Burn and Dredge Roots. I decided to not play Destroy Evil as I considered I had enough against enchantments with 4 Thraben Charm, and no Palace Sentinels as I don't think I would have much very slow games.

The tournament

Game 1: Pierre V. (Slivers)

2-1

I have the toss on the first game. My opponent has a slow start with Aether Vial turn 1 but only one land. I cast 3 Raffine's Informant, 2 Inspectors and Battle Screech and I swarm.

Second game, he casts three lords one by one and I kill one with Thraben Charm. As I cast a second Thraben Charm at his upkeep in case he has a 1-mana answer, he responds with Prismatic Strands that I did not expect and that completely reshapes the game. I quickly die to the sliver waves that I cannot stop.

The third game is quite long, I find Lunarch Veteran and Battle Screech, reaching 28 life. I turn around opponent's Prismatic Strands as he always keeps 3 mana up. My opponent finds 5 lords, and hits me for 6 per creature for two turns while keeping a white creature in defense for his Prismatic Strands. I have 2 life left, he has 3. I also find a Prismatic Strands, that I sided back in. I slowly kill a few lords with multiple blockers and Momo shenanigans, I heal enough with Battle Screech to survive next attack. I also remove mutliple lords with Journey to Nowhere and Thraben Charm and he protects one from Thraben Charm with Prismatic Strands as he had two in hand. This could have been fatal as he has one turn to find an other Prismatic Strands, which he finds. After the time is over, I have enough creature to survive the next two turns and kill him with flyers.

Game 2: Jérémy B. (Gruul Monsters) Zomby33

0-1

He starts and plays almost nothing for the first three turns. I have a regular start with Momo, Raffine and Inspector. As I expect Volcanic Torrent, I don't overextend with Battle Screech while it would have been lethal next turn. He casts Volcanic Torrent, which I answer by bouncing Momo with Karakas and pumping Raffine's Informant so it survives. He cascades into Kiora. Next turn, I cast Battle Screech, and he casts Writhing Chrysalis + his second Volcanic Torrent, enough to kill the birds and Raffine's Informant. I cast Momo and Leonardo, and he casts Altisaur into Malevolent Rumble, finding more creatures.

The board stabilizes, he has multiple big creatures, a few with reach, and he plays safely to avoid a lethal Guardian's Pledge. I cannot attack either and I take few damages while healing with Lunarch and doing Momo shenanigans, being able to scry 2 on every turn, which even becomes a joke during the game. I don't think my chances of winning are high if I concede so I am mostly hoping on multiple Battle Screech to swarm with my multiple boosts and Leonardo, or to have empty his deck ; a draw game is fine too. As he casts multiple Generous Ent and multiple Avenging Hunter, he loops the full dungeon and draws many cards with Kiora. He still cannot attack as I have Prismatic Strands in the graveyard. I scry bottom most of my draws looking for my key spells but still ends up drawing a few Plains. 

After multiple turns using Kiora's ability as a vigilance trick, he sacrifices it to stop drawing more cards and casts Oliphaunt, Boarding Party and Writhing Chrysalis, that are non-green creatures. With 10 creatures incl. 6 birds on my side and 11 monsters + 8 Eldrazi spawns on his side, he finally attacks as the time is almost over. I cast a defensive Guardian's Pledge + Ramosian Rally and destroy a Writhing Chrysalis, losing 21 life and getting rid of all his Eldrazi Spawns, killing 2 Avenging Hunter, 1 Boarding Party, 1 Oliphaunt and almost 1 Writhing Chrysalis (assigning an extra blocker would have killed it). 

Game 4: Cédric A. (Dimir Control) Zeroxceet

2-1

I start and he keeps a hand stuck with 1 land. He casts two Cut Down, but I quickly have lethal with Battle Screech, Leonardo and Raffine's Informant. I only saw a few cards including Sneaky Snacker so I prefer not to sideboard much.

The second game, I mulligan to 4 and keep multiple value engines. He hardcasts 2 Sneaky Snacker and boosts one with Unexpected Fangs. I cannot keep the pace, being 2 life short from killing him with Leonardo and a boosted Thraben Inspector.

For the last game, I have an aggressive board, helped with Obsidian Acolyte, Nihil Spellbomb and Clue tokens, while he plays and attack with Tolarian Terror and Sneaky Snacker. I play around Daze for the full game. In the end, I have kill him with Leonardo and 3 creatures thanks to Ramosian Rally, against 2 Sneaky Snackers, 1 Baleful Strix and 1 Tolarian Terror.

Game 5: Amédée Le B. (Devourer Affi) Zalto

2-1

I start, he plays a Baleful Strix followed with Tinker on turn 3. I kill Phyrexian Devourer on my next turn with Thraben Charm and I swarm twice with Momo, Raffine's Informant and bird tokens.

On game 2, I have Momo and Karakas early but he casts Tinker into Rust Goliath. I can't have good draws even with multiple scrying while he has strong value engines. I get surprised with Wild Slash when I finally hit Prismatic Strands.

The last game is quite short, as I play an Inspector and Raffine's Informant. He plays Baleful Strix on his turn 2 and I then exile his lands with Dust to Dust, sneaking Leonardo on next turn.

Game 6: Jérémy F. (Madness Burn) MisterHide

0-2

Playing at table 4, we chose to play this final game instead of going for an intentional draw in order to qualify for top 8. This is also a matchup that I trained, Thraben Charm and Prismatic Strands are especially strong in the matchup but I have to be careful about explosive turns and End the Festivities. For the first game, he starts and plays all his blasts to my face. My two Lunarch Veterans survive and make me gain tons of life with Battle Screech. He casts 2 Fiery Inscription and 2 Monastery Swiftspears, being able to loot at each attack. I still lose after multiple chump blocks and attacks (putting him down to 5 life), due to his blasts. I realize after the game that the ringbearer could have been returned to hand with Karakas, which may have make me win the first game. 

Game 2 is very difficult, he blasts my Lunarch Veteran on turn 1 with Lightning Bolt, and I play it back from the graveyard along with a Momo. As I play around End the Festivities and he had discarded a Lava Dart, I bounce my flipped Lunarch Veteran with Kor Skyfisher, setting up for multiple life gain on turn 5. Instead, he casts Fiery Inscription and Monastery Swiftspear then revives two Sneaky Snackers. I don't find my fifth land and I cast Battle Screech with flashback (instead of Lunarch Veteran), threatening lethal next turn with Ramosian Rally even if he kills a creature. On his last turn, he digs with draw spells, having only 3 Mountain, 1 untapped. As I have 15 life, I think he is struggling with his hands and keeping answers. I would not have lethal next turn anyway if I block, as he would kill one attacker with Lava Dart. I decide to not block as I would then lose to his three attackers. He rapidly casts Lightning Bolt, Fireblast and flashbacks Lava Dart, for 14 + 4 damage, just enough to kill me. Jérémy told me afterwards this was his only line and he could not have killed me if I blocked. During the two games, I find none of my 10 answers against Madness Burn.

Game 1: Dorian B. (Elves)

0-2

He casts 3 Lead the Stampede / Winding Way, then resolves a Dionus, Elvish Archdruid, a Wellwisher and a Generous Ent, there is no way I can win this game even with Momo shenanigans and consecutive Prismatic Strands.

I did not take notes for the second game but my notes indicate I got hit for 15 in one turn, and he went back from 10 life to 29 in three turns, which indicates the game was not nice for me. Jaspera Sentinel also helps dealing with my flyers, and I am quickly overloaded if I don't find my answers quickly. Wellwisher is one other threat for me that cannot handle well.

Neral