This upcoming weekend features the Historic Arena Open, so let’s take a look at the updated Power Rankings.
Other than the Neon Dynasty Set Championship, which was by far the most important Historic tournament in some time, I found two other bigger events in the last couple weeks. The first one was the Historic NRG 1k series where Felix Sloo with Food beat Toni Portolan on Arcanist in the finals. The other one was the MTG Arena Zone Set Championship Qualifier where two Food decks faced off in the finals.
Food had 63 and 73 percent win rate in these two events respectively, which definitely sticks out. It is a perfectly safe choice for any upcoming event, although make sure you practice a lot with the deck because there are so many triggers every turn that you can easily run out of time.
This is Felix Sloo’s winning Food deck list, which I can definitely recommend as a starting point.
Companion 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den Deck 4 Trail of Crumbs 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 4 Witch's Oven 4 Cauldron Familiar 1 Forest 4 Deadly Dispute 4 Gilded Goose 4 Painful Bond 2 Fatal Push 4 Ravenous Squirrel 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Darkbore Pathway 4 Blooming Marsh 3 Phyrexian Tower 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Khalni Garden 2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant 2 Swamp 4 The Meathook Massacre 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Bone Shards Sideboard 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den 3 Culling Ritual 4 Thoughtseize 2 Outland Liberator 2 Graf Reaver 1 Arguel's Blood Fast 1 Bone Shards 1 Tormod's Crypt
Personally, I will be submitting Grixis Phoenix, the deck that our team played at the last Set Championship.
Historic Grixis Phoenix by Eli Kassis
Creature (15)
Land (21)
The key to beat the food matchup is the playset of Hidetsugu Consumes All in the sideboard. They’re ahead in Game 1, but in the post-board games you’re a big favorite. If you’re afraid of too much graveyard hate, you can add more planeswalkers into the sideboard. Chandra, Torch of Defiance has been doing an excellent job against decks like Azorius Control or Golgari Food that are trying to exile your graveyard with Rest in Peace and Soul-Guide Lanterns.
These two decks are definitely my top picks for the event. Other than that, Gruul Aggro is an okay choice as always if what you value the most is time and Azorius Control should be your pick if you are well practiced in the format and you like to take things slow. I wouldn’t mind submitting Rakdos Arcanist or Azorius Auras either.
Azorius Control isn’t nearly as popular as I would think, but you can still expect to face it at the “top tables.” There was one deck that had a good win rate in both events out of a low sample size and that was Selesnya Enchantress. If you expect to play against a lot of creature decks, it could be a fine unexpected choice.
Historic Selesnya Enchantress by Satoshi Nakayama
Enchantment (24)
Land (23)
My best advice would be to not overthink it too much. Pick one deck you like and stick with it. Find a sideboard guide, make sure you play enough test games on the ladder to know all the interactions and you’ll be fine, no matter which of the top five or so decks you choose.
The Power Rankings for this week are heavily influenced by the two big tournaments and the percentage of the field those decks took.
10. Azorius Affinity
9. Gruul Aggro
8. Five-Color Niv
7. Selesnya Enchantress
4. Azorius Yorion
3. Rakdos Arcanist
1. Golgari Food
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