Welcome to What We’d Play! With the Historic Arena Open this weekend, many are unsure what they’d play in such a high-profile tournament. That’s where we come in and let you know what we’d play and why we’d play it. Hopefully this last-minute advice aids in your decision making! Be sure to vote for what deck you would play at the end!
Michael Majors — Jeskai Breach
Creatures (17)
- 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
- 4 Diligent Excavator
- 2 Fblthp, the Lost
- 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
- 2 Thassa's Oracle
- 4 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (22)
Spells (15)
This is ever so slightly tweaked from the article I wrote earlier this week. I built up the courage to play that Watery Grave and I’m justifying it with a Timely Reinforcements in my sideboard.
To get the full scoop on why I think Jeskai Breach is one of the best decks in Historic you should click that hyperlink a sentence back, but essentially Historic is a degenerate format that also happens to have Temur Reclamation as one of its strongest decks. Jeskai Breach can compete on raw speed (I’d say it’s about a 4.5 turn-format) while also sporting a ton of resiliency; the ability to play deep games; and Teferi, Time Raveler — one of the best anti-hate cards and pound-for-pound the best card against Temur Reclamation.
You even get a lot of options for interaction out of the sideboard and I’m not really hard-locked into any of it. If you think there’s a better-positioned spell, then go for it.
The deck is operationally dense, and getting a sense of when to make a move or not is the biggest barrier to entry for Jeskai Breach. But seriously, just go beat up Sparky for an hour or two. It’s worth putting in the effort to play this deck this weekend.
Ryan Overturf — Mono-Red Goblins
Creatures (37)
- 4 Goblin Matron
- 4 Goblin Warchief
- 1 Gempalm Incinerator
- 4 Skirk Prospector
- 4 Goblin Chieftain
- 4 Krenko, Mob Boss
- 4 Wily Goblin
- 1 Goblin Chainwhirler
- 3 Goblin Instigator
- 4 Conspicuous Snoop
- 4 Muxus, Goblin Grandee
Lands (5)
Spells (18)
- 18 Mountain
I’ve messed around a little with various Izzet decks in Historic but I’ve hit a lot of walls in deck construction. A friend of mine has been playing Mono-Red Goblins since Jumpstart dropped and his push over the weekend to Top 100 Mythic on the ladder convinced me to give the deck a go. After cruising pretty easily from Silver to Diamond I can confidently say I’ll be playing the deck in the Arena Open this weekend.
The most important thing to understand is that Mono-Red Goblins as a deck exists solely to cast Muxus, Goblin Grandee. Everything else is there to generate mana to cast Muxus or to set up a hasted Krenko, Mob Boss. Goblin Chainwhirler and Goblin Ruinblaster have been nice sideboard cards in matchups where those effects are particularly strong, but generally this deck just powers out Muxus and that’s all that matters.
Until I started playing with the deck I wasn’t sure just how good Muxus was, but it’s far more powerful on average than I ever would have guessed. You don’t even need to worry about getting in early attacks with this deck because Muxus consistently enables a win the turn you cast him or at least hits a Matron to give you another shot next turn. Skirk Prospector also lets you cast your backup Muxus on the same turn with some regularity. Once you find a haste lord and a Krenko it’s almost always lights out.
My favorite thing about playing Mono-Red Goblins is that a lot of opponents approach the matchup as if sweepers are effective, but it’s just too easy to chain Muxus turns for this to be true. Until the game actually ends, every Muxus presents the possibility to win the game. Mono-Red Goblins generates a high volume of free wins on the back of Turn 3 Muxus and I’ve felt like I’ve had a good amount of agency in how I approach playing and sideboarding despite the deck’s linear nature in the harder games.
Shaheen Soorani — Temur Song
Creatures (21)
- 4 Ornithopter
- 4 Chamber Sentry
- 3 Ugin's Conjurant
- 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
- 4 Stonecoil Serpent
- 2 Thassa's Oracle
Lands (17)
Spells (22)
My body is ready for this competitive Historic tournament! I have been hitting the ladder with Temur Song for the last few weeks, making some recent adjustments with the exciting Jumpstart additions. This is still a one-card combo, destroying the opponent upon resolution of Song of Creation. The catch will always be the critical mass of zero-cost spells required for the combo to function.
Some enthusiasts have tried to tweak this deck too much, watering down the total amount of fuel, thus making the combo unattainable. I made that same error, adding both Terrarion and Chromatic Sphere to the list, and paid the price for that test. Even in the sideboarded games, two of the zero-cost spells can be taken out (at most) and that carries some risk with it. The combo is easy to kick off if Song of Creation is cast with five mana but requires some finesse when played with exact mana.
Chromatic Sphere has been amazing in the deck; however, Terrarion had to go. The additional cantrips provided by Chromatic Sphere have allowed me to cut down to nineteen land, also helping the combo not fizzle out during the process. Underworld Breach is now a one-of and that is to ensure a smooth Game 1 victory, but the second copy in the sideboard provides some consistency when there are fewer zero-cost pieces left in the deck. I’m still making a few tweaks here and there, trying to keep it a Turn 3 or 4 kill, while cranking up the consistency. Mulligan aggressively to a Song of Creation or an Emry, Lurker of the Loch with a Chromatic Sphere to dig, and enjoy another Ironworks Combo experience this weekend!
Carmen Handy — Kethis Combo
Creatures (22)
- 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
- 4 Diligent Excavator
- 4 Kethis, the Hidden Hand
- 3 Gilded Goose
- 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
- 1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- 2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- 3 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (10)
Mox Amber is the most broken card in the format, and it’s about time people took notice.
Kethis Combo has been a sleeper pick in Historic for a bit now. The introduction of the Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy package in the deck really pushes its own mana development into a range that can compete in a format with Elvish Archdruid, Skirk Prospector, and Wilderness Reclamation.
As it stands, people in the format as a whole aren’t particularly interested in interacting and are simply trying to grow their own snowball bigger than the opponent’s. Kethis, in this iteration, has the ability to play its own combo while also playing a ton of lights-out hammers in Teferi, Time Raveler and Urza’s Ruinous Blast. The details of the list are still in flux — what four-color deck can’t have better mana, after all? That being said, the fundamentals of the deck are rock-solid, and it’s simply a matter of time before players are lamenting that they didn’t jump on Mox Amber soon enough.
Dom Harvey — Temur Reclamation
Creatures (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (33)
The Warrens are officially Empty. Goblins powered by Muxus, Goblin Grandee has become the flavour of the month in a way that makes the dominance of Nexus of Fate and Burning-Tree Emissary feel like ancient history. It’s comforting to know that one of Magic’s oldest and greatest tribes has still got it!
It’s less comforting to realize that Temur Reclamation is probably the best deck in Historic anyway. Growth Spiral is integral to the Core Set 2021 Standard version’s ability to overwhelm opponents with a fast Wilderness Reclamation on the play and keep pace on the draw; Explore ensures you have that effect twice as often. If the rest of the deck looks identical (apart from slightly better mana), that’s a sign of how strong the Temur Reclamation core is. Now that Nexus of Fate isn’t the best thing you can do with Wilderness Reclamation, it’s easy to go back to this familiar template.
Temur Reclamation is conveniently excellent against the Goblin menace. Sweepers like Storm’s Wrath, Magmaquake, and Flame Sweep clean up a Mogg Infestation while Aether Gust is also useful against the Field of the Dead ramp decks that looked poised to take over again. The rest of the format is reacting to Goblins by loading up on sweepers and other countermeasures that do nothing against Reclamation. The difficulty of dealing with hyper-aggressive decks like Goblins and the end-game inevitability of Field of the Dead at the same time has pushed out control strategies that might be a better foil to Temur Reclamation — Teferi, Time Raveler is refreshingly off the radar?!
Many people argued that Wilderness Reclamation should have banned instead of Nexus of Fate or alongside it — prove them right while you still can.
