This week, I want to take a look at some of the most successful decks from the Historic Arena Open. Unfortunately, Wizards stopped releasing the winning deck lists from Day 2, so we are limited by the deck lists players decide to share on social media themselves. If you ever want to make sure we see your successful ladder or tournament deck do well or get it highlighted, you can always tag me on Twitter! Here are some interesting lists.
Historic Mono-Red Aggro by Moctzal
Planeswalker (3)
Creature (16)
Enchantment (4)
This Mono-Red Aggro deck from Moctzal went 6-2 on Day 2, good enough for $1000. This deck is as aggressive as it gets and doesn’t use any Alchemy cards, so you don’t have to be too worried about burning too many extra wild cards to build it. I would like to see a couple more one or two-mana creatures, perhaps Robber of the Rich, to always use the second chapter of Kumano Faces Kakkazan, but other than that the list looks pretty solid to me.
Historic Jeskai Control by Arne Huschenbeth
Companion
Instant (15)
Artifact (1)
Land (26)
Our own Arne Huschenbeth also went 6-2 on the second day with his take on Jeskai Control. This list is heavily leaning on turn three Anger of the Gods and the mana base reflects that. One Mystical Dispute in the main deck is a sign that Arne expected a lot of blue decks in the field on Day 2.
Historic Affinity by Frank Karsten
Planeswalker (3)
Instant (4)
Artifact (17)
Land (22)
Hall of Famer Frank Karsten decided to play an off-meta deck and also got rewarded with a $1,000 finish. His weapon of choice was this Azorius Affinity deck that Jean-Emmanuel Depraz took to the Top 8 of the last Set Championship. You can make an argument that both JED and Frank are top world class players capable of getting good results with pretty much anything, but at this point, this deck is earning enough good results for me to start considering it as a real player in the format.
Historic Rakdos Arcanist by David Royale
Creature (12)
Instant (9)
Artifact (2)
Enchantment (2)
Land (22)
Lastly, I chose this Rakdos Arcanist 8-0 list by David Royale. Ever since the Innistrad set championship, Arcanist has been quietly posting the most consistent results in the format. It dominated the Innistrad Championship despite a lot of main deck graveyard hate that has since slowly moving to everyone’s sideboards, which should make this deck even better of a choice at this moment. I strongly regret not registering Arcanist for the Kamigawa Set Championship personally and it is currently my frontrunner in the format. David even added a little bit of spice to his list with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Cling to Dust in the main deck and Molten Impact and Rekindling Phoenix in the sideboard.
That said and taking into account a few smaller Historic tournaments in the past two weeks, here are our updated Power Rankings!
10. Five-Color Niv
Niv wouldn’t be my first choice, but it keeps being a popular deck on the Arena ladder.
9. Heliod Company
I’ve seen this deck post some decent results lately and it is true that if you don’t expect too many decks with sweepers, it can be a great metagame call against the other creature decks.
8. Jeskai Control
7. Azorius Affinity
6. Azorius Control
5. Azorius Yorion
4. Azorius Auras
With all the recent results, Azorius definitely gets the nod over the Orzhov version.
3. Rakdos Arcanist
My personal favorite Historic deck at the moment. If I had to submit a deck for the New Capenna Set Championship right now, it would be Arcanist.
2. Grixis Phoenix
At this point, I cannot see a good reason to play Phoenix as the old Izzet version. The black splash is pretty much free and Hidetsugu Consumes All is so good against the top deck of the format that you really shouldn’t leave your home without it.
1. Golgari Food
