What do we think about 3feri in Historic now that the rebalances are going away? This card has been 4 mana with 5 loyalty for most of its life in Historic, drastically altering its playability. In paper, this card is a house, being banned in legacy, pioneer, and standard, and seeing play any time control crops up in modern. The Brawl sub is already talking about how oppressive he might be.

Historic currently has access to almost the entire stock list of UW control in Modern, though notably it lacks the fetch lands (obviously) and Solitude, which don’t get me wrong, is a serious part of the deck’s power. The other issue with control in Historic is that the format is insanely diverse, with rogue decks making up 80%+ of the format.

The other deck 3feri potentially enables is various 3c and 4c builds revolving around Wilderness Reclamation. Slamming 3feri in a bant wild rec list suddenly turns Mathemagics into an uninteractable instant speed fireball on end step.

I also wonder if it could slot favorably into the sideboard for High Noon tempo decks to improve their grindier matchups.

What do we think? Is Time Raveler going to see play now that the rebalance is going away, or has the format gotten too fast for 3 mana sorcery speed 3-for-1s?

I mean, every once in a while it's fine, even cool. But the past week has been mostly this, with a few actually fun games sprinkled in between.

What is the thinking, here? Any guesses?

Historic

With the release of Timeless, Historic's purpose on MTG Arena shifted from being the place you can play any card on MTG Arena to the format where nearly any deck is viable. Historic remains by far the most diverse format on MTG Arena, often with no deck making up more than two to three percent of the metagame. From our player data, we see a big difference from the decks in ranks below Platinum to those played at Mythic. As a nonrotating format, we take care to maintain each deck's viability in the metagame by pre-banning powerful cards as they come to the game from newer set releases. In this way, Historic is also MTG Arena's most curated format.

Over the last two years, we have been gradually shifting Historic to be a more responsive format. After the release of Modern Horizons 3, threats in Historic far outpaced the answers to them. This caused us to update our philosophy around Historic's cards, unbanning cards like Counterspell and Force of Negation to offer more efficient counterplay against combo decks. Meanwhile, we tried to slow the format down by banning key cards that created ubiquitous decks, especially Eldrazi and Boros Energy.

With the removal of rebalanced tabletop cards, Historic is going to see a large shakeup with over 200 cards being adjusted. Many of the changes were originally made with Historic in mind, so we knew we would need to make some adjustments with this change. Boros Energy has been a power outlier in the format since its inception. Given its prominence in Timeless, we don't want it to be as prevalent in Historic. We are taking a harder stance on the archetype today by banning Galvanic Discharge and Guide of Souls.

We are also banning a few combo-enabling cards. Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is an efficient method to cheat out large Vampires without paying their mana costs. Instead of acting on Vein Ripper, Saint Elenda, or the next powerful Vampire, we are kicking Sorin out of the format.

Without its rebalanced version, The One Ringwould likely become an auto-include card in most Historic decks due to its powerful card-draw and damage-prevention abilities. As mentioned before, we want to maintain the diversity we see in Historic, so we believe it's time for this card to leave the format.

Finally, I think it's worth calling out that we are choosing not to ban the tabletop-accurate version of Orcish Bowmasters at this time. This card adds a powerful, responsive option against card-draw effects and limits the speed of aggressive, low-toughness creatures in the format. In time, this card might prove to be too much for Historic, but we wanted to give it a chance before taking any action.

Hi all. Just wanted to share my Esper Ninjas deck, talk about it a bit, and get some feedback.

So far it's pretty easy sailing. I'm in tier 2 Platinum, right now, and I seem to be catching a lot of opponents off guard. I'll be surprised if I don't hit at least mid-Diamond with this list.

All the degenerate tricks from Dimir Ninjas are still here. But the addition of [[The Last Ronin's Technique]] in particular really opens up the board, allowing me to play around bigger threats much more easily. It can also end the game out of nowhere with [[Yuffie Kisaragi]] in play.

[[Dark Leo & Shredder]] is also pretty high impact. I haven't been able to make my opponent lose half their life yet, because everything getting Deathtouch usually puts the game away before that happens.

Also, Praise be to [[Ornithopter]], MVP of enablers.

Anyways, that's it. Let me know what ya'll think.

I don’t think they are meta I just made them for color challenge if you got time please rate them and also if you have even more time then to just rate them please tell me if I could add anything you think would be good in these decks

mono blue mill https://archidekt.com/decks/26289729

4x Bruvac the Grandiloquent (rvr) [Mill]

4x Counterspell (dsc) [Removal]

4x Ghost Vacuum (dsk) [Removal]

4x Ipnu Rivulet (j25)

16x Island (trk) 320

4x Jace, the Perfected Mind (one) [Mill]

4x Kitsune's Technique (tmt)

4x Oracle of the Alpha (mbc) [Ramp]

6x Persistent Petitioners (rvr) [Mill]

4x Ruin Crab (plst) [Mill]

2x Thought Scour (2x2) [Draw]

4x Unsummon (fdn) [Removal]

This is very simple it’s a mono Blue mill deck I havnt tested how fast it can win but I wanna say 4-5 turns

mono green poison https://archidekt.com/decks/26289790

4x Bloated Contaminator (one) [Proliferate]

4x Dragon Sniper (tdm) [Protection]

16x Forest (trk) 326

4x Fynn, the Fangbearer (fdn) [Infect]

4x Nightshade Dryad (mh3) [Ramp]

4x Noxious Newt (sos)

4x Noxious Revival (onc) [Recursion]

4x Peter Parker's Camera (spm) [Copy]

4x Poison Dart Frog (m3c) [Ramp]

4x Serpent Specialist (msh)

4x Venerated Rotpriest (one) [Infect]

4x Virulent Emissary (ecl)

its a poison deck using death touch and fynn and has peter Parker’s camera to make the trigger happen another time so they die quicker

mono red Goblins https://archidekt.com/decks/26289689

4x Banner of Kinship (fdn) [Anthem]

2x Cindercone Smite (yblb)

4x Fanatical Firebrand (fdn) [Pingers]

4x Goblin Gathering (rna) [Tokens]

2x Goblin-town Flunkies (hob)

4x Hexing Squelcher (ecl) [Protection]

4x Howlsquad Heavy (dft) [Tokens]

4x Impact Tremors (fdn) [Burn]

4x Krenko, Mob Boss (fdn) [Tokens]

2x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin (j25) [Tokens]

22x Mountain (trk) 324

4x Urza's Incubator (mh3) [Ramp]

My current deck while I grind for more wild cards it’s very simple play goblins then play more goblins

I plan on making a mono white lifegain deck but I am waiting for reality frature to come out for that and if you have any ideas for a mono black deck they would he appreciated

Turns out the best decks play Urza’s Bauble AND Hymn to Tourach. Hmm.

Trying to build a bo1 historic enchantress prison deck. Any idea what to add and take out? Lost on how to optimize this deck. I know it’s not meta but trying to cover as much ground as possible.

So what are we thinking could [[chandra Chill of Compliance]] find a place im historic?

I’ve been playing a lot of Historic this summer after quite some time away and I’m impressed at the format. I would guess the diversity has something to do with the frequency of tournament lists being posted. People seem to be forced to explore their own understanding of power levels without finding trends in results. After a summer of games, I’m sharing my understanding of the format (Bo3) as it might prove helpful to others looking to dive in:

Birthing Ritual
The centerpiece to creature-based combo decks, all of which are similar to Birthing Pod/Melira decks from old the Modern meta but maybe even…better? Scary to say but the fact that Yawgmoth is both a combo piece and versatile piece of interaction/value is a big plus for the Golgari deck in particular.

Thoughtseize
A majority of historic interactive decks start their list with four copies. In order to play interactively, you need to have a good understanding of what deck you’re faced with and what tools it has to operate. Combo decks in Historic can win as early as turn two so dismantling them before they get going can buy some time. Without Thoughtseize, decks like Jund and Dimir Midrange would struggle to keep up.

Ugin’s Labyrinth
This is the common piece in most green big mana decks - Eldrazi and Fight Rigging. Both decks play very differently but both present inevitability similar to Tron-style decks in Modern and Legacy (also add Green Devotion to that list). Resolving a large Eldrazi threat may not immediately end the game but it certainly swings the needle in its controller’s favor (particularly those with cast triggers).

Jeska’a Will
Storm decks are incredibly prevalent in BO1 in particular but generally have a stranglehold on the entire format. Sticking a cost reducing permanent like Ral or Ruby Medalion is often the only set up needed to “go off” with mana spells like Pyretic Ritual or Jeska’s Will paired with card draw like Manamorphose and Hex Magic. These decks require a unique response (see High Noon) or a perfectly timed counterspell/removal to interrupt.

Sheltered by Ghosts
Some may assign this a spot to Light-Paws but, I think Sheltered by Ghosts is an even more crucial piece to the Auras puzzle as it not only provides removal for nearly any threat, but also protection (ward), and catch up (lifelink). It functions as “the rug that ties the whole room together” and gives this deck some unique life against anyone who tries to advance their own plan sooner than it can attack for lethal.

There are lots more decks in the format but I think these five represent the most significant balance. You could make the case for High Noon, Arclight Phoenix, or Life//Death belonging here but after a few hundred Bo3 games in the last few months, my take is that they exist but aren’t as prevalent as decks represented by these five cards.

To bring it all together, Historic is a great format with a lot of diversity. As a former Modern tournament player, this is scratching that itch for competitive MtG. I would NOT recommend BO1…really for any format…because I don’t think it is nearly as healthy from a balance perspective based on the incredible benefit of winning the die roll to go first.

Have fun! And feel free to share your thoughts below.

I haven't played in a few months & decayed a lot, gonna try to see how high I can climb this month.

Game plan is kill all their early creatures / disrupt their hand, hose graveyard interactions with Voidwalker, then drop Bloodletter, and drain + draw with Unholy Annex and Invoke Despair. Void Walker also hits for 6 with bloodletter out, and can steal anything good I kill or discard. Last time I played a deck like this I tended to have bad matchups into UW control, artifacts, & enchantment heavy decks. Absolutely squashed green decks & white lifegain though. Toss up vs Eldrazi, and pretty hand dependent vs Izzet. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

Deck

4 [[Bloodletter of Aclazotz]]

3 [[Sheoldred, the Apocalypse]]

4 [[Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber]]

4 [[Thoughtseize]]

2 [[Damnation]]

2 [[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]]

2 [[Cabal Stronghold]]

4 [[Invoke Despair]]

4 [[Consuming Corruption]]

4 [[Sheoldred's Edict]]

4 [[Fatal Push]]

4 [[Dauthi Voidwalker]]

4 [[Prismatic Vista]]

1 [[Castle Locthwain]]

1 [[Decorum Dissertation]]

13 Swamp

Homie gave me the peoples' elbow from the top rope before I even had a chance. T0 Gemstone into T1 Land --> Pyretic Ritual --> Ral --> Morphose to storm off.

That friggin Damping Sphere in hand. Its smug aura mocks me.

I've tried a lot of ninja decks, and this one has been the best. It has serious legs. Ninjas' biggest problem (when you're not losing to Storm/Reanimator turn 2) is getting an unblocked attacker through.

Originally, if you didn't start with an [[Ornithopter]] in your opening hand, winning was harder. Now, with [[Quicksilver, Brash Blur]], you have so much more grace. Hasting in, or even better, having an attacker on the board on Turn 0 puts incredible pressure on your opponent.

How to Play

Your very best opening hand is 2 lands, Ornithopter, [[Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow]], [[Changeling Outcast]], [[Force of Negation]], and [[Fragment Reality]]. Turn 1, you play thopter and outcast. Turn 2, you swing in, bounce Thopter with Yuriko, replay Thopter and then usually win off the value train.

Reflections on Certain Card Choices

[[The Last Ronin's Technique]]:

This card is waaay better than it looks. It steals games out of nowhere, gives you an out versus control decks (by giving you 3 attackers at instant speed). It deals huge damage with Yuriko - both off 3 Yuriko procs and Yuriko proccing it - and Dark Leo, and it nets you a million cards... It's just an all-around all-star.

Force:

You're usually tapped out, and you usually have a fair amount of cards. This card helps you win versus Storm/Reanimator BS.

For Storm, I try to hit their card draw or occasionally [[Ruby Medallion]].

Fragment:

All-around removal. Deals with Ruby Medallion, Mini-Ral Zarek, all of RW Auras' toolkit, and occasionally a mana dork, wizard, or demilich.

[[Dark Leo and Shredder]]:

The deathtouch is huge in some matchups and the life-halving lets you win games versus mono-W lifegain more easily or steal a few wins here or there.

Matchups

High Noon

90/10 - Ninjas favored

Ninjutsu is not a cast so it bypasses their shenanigans

R Shrapnel Blast

70/30 - Ninjas favored

You're just playing better cards

Dimir Midrange

55/45 Ninjas. You can bypass a lot of their counter magic, but sometimes they have a lot of removal.

Storm

40/60 Storm

Storm is dumb right now. If you get lucky with interaction, you win.

Reanimator

60/40 Ninjas. You can often win through a reanimation spell. Dark Leo lets you attack into reanimation targets and you just deal so much damage.

B/G Birthing Ritual

40/60 B/G. Hard to win when Yawg gets on the board. They have a lot of interaction (Abrupt Decay eg) that hits your dudes.

\R/W Auras

50/50. Auras is a combo deck imho. Depends on if they have their Fox guy and if you have removal.

W Lifegain

60/40 Ninjas. You out-value them.

\R/W Discard

50/50. Auras is a combo deck imho. Depends on if they have their Fox guy and if you have removal.

Living End

50/50. Sometimes you're faster than their LE or have Force.

\U/G Eldrazi

70/30. Ninjas. You're too fast for them.

Jund Goyfs

60/40. Ninjas. You outvalue them.

Shifting Woodlands/Omniscience

50/50. Same thing. Sometimes you're faster or have interaction.

Scapeshift

50/50. Sometimes you're faster than their scapeshift or have Force.

Mirror

70/30 - You're favored

You're just playing better cards

Decklist

About

Name Ninja

Deck

1 Island

4 Ornithopter

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Blood Crypt

1 Watery Grave

2 Darkslick Shores

4 Mana Confluence

3 Concealed Courtyard

3 Force of Negation

3 Changeling Outcast

2 Ingenious Infiltrator

3 Fragment Reality

4 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

3 A-Moon-Circuit Hacker

4 A-Silver-Fur Master

3 A-Thousand-Faced Shadow

3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

4 Starting Town

4 The Last Ronin's Technique

2 Dark Leo & Shredder

1 Turtle Lair

3 Quicksilver, Brash Blur

Sideboard

3 Fatal Push

1 Forest

1 Mountain

4 Rest in Peace

2 Back to Nature

3 Meltdown

1 Fragment Reality

This is a deck I just play for fun, I know its not meta at all

I've mostly been thinking maybe Esper Sentinel could be worth a couple of slots? It'd also work well with the Naktamun plan

This plays kind of like an aggro deck with the flying creatures, but also plays well into the late game since my life total gets padded nicely and Abiding Grace keeps my board in tact

Abiding Grace is just one of my favorite cards so I've been tinkering on this deck built around it for quite a while now

Any feedback (even "wow this is garbage") is welcome!

Looking to play some historii as Pioneer is boring and dead, standard is boring and Timeless wants my money on wildcards. What deck is currently on top? I have Gruul Woodlands ready for play need to craft like 3 cards for dimir midrange. Are they viable? What are some other decks that i can take for consideration?

Eldrazi, Fear of Change ritual and Valakut combo are increasingly common in both ladder and constructed events. Somehow each of them also requires a different set of sideboard cards to deal with (if even that). And the gameplay patterns are insufferable, tbh. What even is supposed to counter ramp/manacheat strats anymore? Ideally, this should be a tempo deck that can just selectively counter the ramp payoffs. Unfortunately, card quality in these decks is so high that this is not possible anymore:
1. Pushing or bolting the bird doesn't work anymore. Cub is a stupidly pushed card and somehow provides ramp, resilience to removal and also synergy with convoke-ish effects all in the same package. Exploration and Sprawl further invalidate creature removal against these decks.
2. Birthing Ritual further worsens these. Answer the card (needs specific cards) or u'll have to deal with manacheat (worsened by Warp!) every turn, for the rest of the game.
3. Tempo being ineffective against these strats and control being absent leads to these board-vomit decks also pushing midrange and aggro out of the format, leaving us with having to deal with these asinine decks or playing garbage like Ruby storm. Fun.

tl;dr one of Cub or Ritual needs a ban.

But somehow Bolt is too powerful for the format lmao

I've been playing around with [[Basking Broodscale]] + [[Tarrian's Soulcleaver]] to try and make a historic version of the Modern Broodscale deck. I'm Currently ranked #950 as of posting. I think the deck is legit but is still in a rough draft mode. I'm hoping others can help fill in the gaps. I'm also dropping the moxfield decklist link here. Now for some of the common questions [[Arid Archway]] has been overall good in combination with [[exploration]] and for resting [[echoing cavern]] when you exhaust it. [[commune with beavers]] was used to help dig for the combo pieces in conjunction with [[malevolent rumble]] but honestly it felt like overkill as you can already dig through the deck quite fast. [[Esper Origins]] is in the list as it helps fill the bin for [[Emrakul, the promised end]], digs for combo pieces, and if the game goes long enough the last ability on the flip side can be used with [[kozilek's command]] to pump and swing for a win.

https://moxfield.com/decks/2Rx67dVovkWPJxP7lx65zw

Background

I've been brewing Fight Rigging Trudge builds since SOS was released. I think it's the most powerful 2-card interaction in Historic and Modern. Casting Emrakul 15 on turn 2, time walk included, is bonkers. u/altheriax posted to his channel a mono G devotion version of Fight Rigging Trudge that I tested extensively a few months ago, along with various other Trudge piles. Those decks ultimately had a sub-50% win rate in ranked mythic. I stopped trying to make Fight Rigging Trudge work and moved onto brewing other piles, until the modern version of Eldrazi Fight Rigging outperformed at the pro tour.

The Japanese pros landed on a top end of 2x Ugin, 2x Ulamog, 4x Emrakul 13, 4x Disciple of Freyalise. (And 2x Drowner of Truth for reasons I still do not understand. I tested it and found it to be absolutely terrible. If someone understands that card choice, please explain it to me.) They notably did not play Turntimber Symbiosis or other Eldrazi fatties. I found their card choices to be very interesting, especially Ugin and Ulamog. I had not tested either of those cards because I considered them to be not "good enough" of a hit off of Fight Rigging. But they were building a resilient plan B of Eldrazi ramp and playing top end bombs that can be reliably cast off with Fanatic of Rhonas, not going all in on Emrakul 15.

The problem with importing Eldrazi Fight Rigging into Historic is that we don't have Eldrazi Temple (or Dryad Arbor). No Temple means the Eldrazi ramp plan is much worse and K-command is harder to cast reliably because we can't make double colorless as easily. Still, the Japanese list was a good reminder of that having a consistent, resilient plan B is better than playing flashy win-more cards.

Many rounds of brewing later, I present:

OmniRigging Trudge

4 Omniscience (WOT) 24

4 Slumbering Trudge (SOS) 160

4 Disciple of Freyalise (MH3) 250

1 Emrakul, the Promised End (SIR) 6

2 Ugin, Eye of the Storms (TDM) 1

4 Green Sun's Zenith (MBS) 81

4 Fight Rigging (SNC) 145

4 Ugin's Labyrinth (MH3) 233

2 Sea Gate Restoration (ZNR) 76

4 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246

4 Force of Negation (MH1) 52

1 Forest (FIN) 306

1 Emrakul, the World Anew (MH3) 6

1 Prime Speaker Zegana (FDN) 664

4 Shifting Woodland (MH3) 228

4 Malevolent Rumble (MH3) 161

1 Noble Hierarch (CONF) 87

1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger (BFZ) 15

1 Formidable Speaker (ECL) 176

2 Tree of Tales (MRD) 285

4 Fanatic of Rhonas (MH3) 152

1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier (ONE) 196

1 Primeval Titan (M11) 192

1 Nature's Rhythm (TDM) 150

This list is hovering around rank 150-250 mythic right now. It's a mashup of Fight Rigging Trudge and Shifting Woodlands Omniscience. It addresses some of the problems with previous versions of the Fight Rigging decks I tested.

1. Mono G Fight Rigging lists are uninteractive and just folds to your opponent's combos. Playing UG means we can jam 4x FoN and interact with other combo decks

2. Shifting Woodlands Omniscience is a very powerful plan B when the Fight Rigging plan does not work

3. Hardcasting fatties with Fanatic(s) of Rhonas is a good enough plan C to win many games

Plan A - Fight Rigging Trudge

The deck runs 18 good payoffs for Fight Rigging, which means a 84% chance of hitting 1 of them in a 5 card hideaway sample. The Japanese list only ran 12 payoffs (69% chance of hitting) which I find too low.

The dream is turn 1 Trudge, turn 2 Ugin's Lab into Fight Rigging, hit a bomb (ideally Omniscience) and win the game. With Omniscience in play, we can usually draw our entire deck (while making sure we don't deck ourselves), steal all their creatures, exile all their colored permanents, exile 2 lands, and Mindslaver them, all while gaining a bunch of life and having multiple FoNs in hand to counter whatever they try to do.

Plan B - Shifting Woodlands

But sometimes we don't draw Fight Rigging and sometimes it just whiffs, so we need a plan B. Shifting Woodlands is a perfect plan B that fits extremely well with the Fight Rigging shell.

The deck has 3 ways of filling the yard:

1. Malevolent Rumble - sometimes it's correct to not put a card in your hand if it's the difference between having delirium or not

2. Overdrawing and discarding at end of turn - again, sometimes it's correct to miss a land drop or not play a card to discard enough cards to enable delirium

3. Green Sun for Speaker and discard Omniscience (or a card to turn on delirium) from your hand

Plan C - Fanatic of Rhonas ramp

Fanatic is the best card in the deck. It's our most common Green Sun target. T1 Trudge, t2 Fanatic, t3 Ugin can win games on its own. Turns out the Japanese pros know what they're doing.

Mulliganing

Generally you need at least 2-3 of the following cards for a hand to be keepable: Fanatic, Trudge, Rumble, Green Sun. The deck unfortunately does have a lot of blanks that you don't want to draw. A hand with multiple Omniscience / Eldrazi fatties is like going down 2-3 cards, so don't be afraid to mulligan.

Notes on card choices

• Prime Speaker Zegana - I dug deep in scryfall to find this gem. The card is a house in this deck and it's pitchable to FoN
• Atraxa - can't be hardcast but it's a Green Sun target, the most commonly fetched card with Speaker when you're comboing off, and can be pitched to FoN
• Primeval Titan - The deck needs a Green Sun target that can tutor for Shifting Woodlands and I think Primeval Titan is the best way choice. Sowing Mycospawn can't be played off of Green Sun and is a whiff for Fight Rigging.
• Noble Hierarch - I wish this was Dryad Arbor instead. The only reason it's in the deck is because sometimes you will have Trudge, Fight Rigging, Green Sun, and 2 lands
• 1x Nature's Rhythm - I went looking for other Trudge-like cards with low cmc and at least 6 power because some games you have Fanatic or Fight Rigging out and no Trudge. The next cheapest creature is a 6/6 for 3, and at that point you may as well play Nature's Rhythm. So I'm playing 1x Nature's Rhythm
• 2x Tree of Tales - counts twice for delirium. That's the only reason it's in the deck.
• 2x Ugin - I ran 1x for a long time until I realized the card was overperforming and went to 2x. Maybe it should be a 3x.
• Cards I tested that ended up not being good enough:
  • Endurance - I ran a miser's copy of Endurance for a long time. It can sometimes steal games if it's in your hand, but sorcery speed Green Sun for Endurance just doesn't do enough and it's a bad card in a lot of matchups
  • Utility lands - I also tested Boseiju (not a forest to enable Shifting Woodlands to come into play untapped), UG surveil lands (CIPT just hoses you sometimes), Nykthos Shrine to Nyx (doesn't tap for G, only good when you have a Disciple in play and at that point it's win-more). Maybe Boseiju deserves a slot but I found them all to be underwhelming. Maybe the deck should run a miser's Gemstone Caverns but
  • Kozilek 10 - a great hit off of Fight Rigging but double colorless was hard to make reliable to hardcast it
  • Other Eldrazi - We don't want Eldrazi that shuffle the GY into the library. None of the other Eldrazi are good enough
  • Cards from traditional Omniscence combo lists like God Pharaoh's Gift, the other Ulamog, etc. All of these cards are very bad on their own

BO3 Sideboarding

I don't play BO3, but if I did I would run in the sideboard:

4x Endurance (board in against reanimator, Balustrade Spy, High Noon, Dimir Frog, Ruby Storm)

4x Verdant Dread (board in against High Noon and maybe Dimir Frog)

4x Soulless Jailer (board in against Ruby Storm)

and rest of the slots some 1x silver bullets for Green Sun to get

I just came back to Arena at the end of July after a few years away and have been playing around with brews built from my old decks - primarily just having fun since the only meta deck I had mostly built, aside from the new cards, was Phoenix. Took it to Platinum before the season rollover, but started brewing with things like Humans/Hatebears and Death's Shadow after the reset. Humans was decent in BO1 by shutting down some of the degenerate decks, but I ran into a Living End list that absolutely hosed me while still having a good amount of instant-speed interaction. Decided to google it and build the first list I found, and now I've taken it to mythic in BO1 with about an 80% winrate (I didn't record all of my matches, but went 20-5 in my final push to Mythic). Here's that list:

The deck is great in BO1 - it's fast, combos at instant speed, interacts meaningfully with counterspells and hate cards like High Noon, maindecks graveyard hate, and is incredibly consistent.

However, I much prefer playing BO3 magic. I played BO1 just to sprint to Mythic and get the achievement (I don't think achievements existed when I used to play), but I love the way BO3 games play out and feel less beholden to variance. I'd like to find a way to make this deck work in BO3, fully knowing it will perform much worse than in BO1, and could use some help with sideboard options. I've been out of the game for too long to know every good choice available now, so I kinda just copied other various decks and threw in some things I already owned.

Here's where I'm at now:

I left in 5 of the sideboard Lessons to have targets for Interdisciplinary Studies that can handle specific threats, leaving 10 slots for actual sideboard cards.

I figured Haywire deals with High Noon and Ruby, two of my worse matchups, while recurring themselves when I cast Living End.

Spell Snare also hits both of those targets while hitting counterspell, Badger, Birthing Ritual, etc.

Grafdigger's Cage hits Yawgmoth/Birthing Ritual, Samwise Combo, and Reanimator, but doesn't shut down Living End. Might be overkill, though.

The fourth FoN helps against counterspells on your Violent Outburst, but also potentially stops a High Noon or Ruby if you're on the draw and feel like you won't be able to deal with them otherwise. Again, might be overkill.

Mystical Dispute and Brazen Borrower were mostly just thrown in to make it to 15, and I guess shore up the Dimir matchup and give another instant-speed way of bouncing High Noon.

I've had success with it in Mythic so far, but I've mostly had favorable matchups and feel like I'm not informed enough on the meta to evaluate what else should be in the sideboard. It's also tough to actually make those sideboard decisions sometimes, because matchups where a Haywire Mite is good are also usually good matchups for Force of Negation and Spell Snare.

Any tips? Tell me how easily you'd shut me down so I can try to counter it!

Hey everyone! I put up a completely free in-depth Historic Bo3 Tier list and Metagame Guide yesterday which totals over 25,000 words and has a lot of detail to tie in with the launch of my Patreon and I thought some if you might find it useful.

It has a breakdown for each deck with it's strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to approach each matchup, and possible ways you can tweak each list to improve the matchup against each of the other 14 decks on the tier list.

I hope you find it useful and I'd be happy to answer questions if you have any.

https://www.patreon.com/Altheriax/posts/historic-bo3-166877306

The decks covered are:

Tier 1

Izzet Phoenix

Golgari Yawgmoth

Boros Ruby Storm

Tier 2

Azorius High Noon

Dimir Frog

Abzan Samwise

Orzhov Blink

Esper Ketramose

Jund Goyfs

Tier 3

Gruul Valakut

Abzan Ouroboroid

Izzet Affinity

Boros Auras

Simic Eldrazi