Following the nerfs of the over-performing Modern Horizon 3 cards and the release of the impressively impactful Duskmourn: House of Horrors, the MTG Eternal community discord has hosted yet another tournament to assess the state of the format. The dominance of Boros energy during the first month of mh3 in Historic dampened the deck building spirits of many brewers. Thankfully WOTC took action against the most offending trio of Guide of Souls, Galvanic Discharge, and Ocelot Pride; however, many strong cards from Modern Horizons 3 still remain legal, most notably Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, who was half of the strength of the banned Boros energy deck. This leaves the question of whether or not the other powerful cards will get a chance to see play.

Alongside the power level settling back down, Duskmourn injected multiple powerful tools into the format with its enchantment and graveyard-based themes. The most notable inclusions are Sheltered by Ghosts, which is arguably the strongest aura ever printed, and Abhorrent Oculus, which is strong enough to see play in Modern Murktide decks. With all the changes to the format, it is only proper to ask: How do the old favorites compare to the new brews, have any decks been revived or are we locked into perpetual format creep, how is Historic one of the most brewable formats in Magic.

Well, there’s only one way to find out. Without any more delay let’s break down the top 8!

First place

With a well-deserved top finish, Demiurge places first on their Dimir ninja’s deck; A tempo deck that uses cheap evasive creatures such as Ornithopter and Changeling Outcast to set up ninjutsu for its bevy of ninjas. Those ninjas consist of Moon-Circuit Hacker and Ingenious Infiltrator to amass card advantage, Silver-Fur Master and Thousand-Faced Shadow to close out the game, and new addition Kaito, Bane of Nightmares whose release has revived the pre-mh3 archetype giving it enough power to compete against the new archetypes.

Complementing the ninjas, the deck runs a playset of the commander card Retrofitter Foundry, it combos with Ornithopter to be able to print out 4/4s as early as turn one while still being an extremely mana dump for the long game. Mockingbird makes it into the 75 as a playset thanks to its ability to be extra copies of any of the other creatures for only one or two mana, shoring up the weakness of ninjas not being the most supported creature type. Closing out the list, the deck runs the full suite of cheap interaction, such as Fatal Push and Spell Pierce to keep its opponents off their toes long enough to end the game.

The notable sideboard cards are Brazen Borrower which overperformed for a single sideboard slot, and Stone of Erech which, spoilers, you will see a lot of thanks to certain two mana feline planeswalker.

Aggressive decks packing interaction are well suited to the format, so if Historic seems fun you might want to give the list a try. Congratulations to Demiurge for the strong and commanding win.

Second place

Coming in at second place, we have myself playing Izzet Wizards. A classic to the format, the explosive aggro deck utilizes wizards, wizard synergies, and cheap spells to quickly burn the opponent’s life total down to zero. The core of the deck is built upon the alchemy-buffed Symmetry Sage alongside the other top-tier wizards of Slickshot Show-Off, Balmor, Battlemage Captain, Soul-Scar Mage, and Dreadhorde Arcanist to create powerful prowess threats in the early game. 

The Wizards are then capitalized with the extremely powerful synergistic wizard spells that have been printed into the format; specifically, Wizard’s Lightning which takes the classic magic instant off of the ban list (Lightning Bolt) and back into the red mage’s hand, and Flame of Anor an insanely efficient three for one that kills all but the largest creatures of the format while also packing mainboard artifact hate. The deck also runs Sleight of Hand and the legacy-banned Expressive Iteration to keep the cards and prowess triggers flowing. 

Finally, Reckless Charge helps speed up the deck with haste allowing for potential turn three kills with the right hands. The ability for the deck to quickly send a lot of flying damage at the opponent’s face while also grinding with the power of Expressive Iteration and Flame of Anor (especially re-casted off of Dreadhorde Arcanist) has kept Wizards a top deck in Historic for a long time; so if Izzet decks are to your style then picking up the deck hardly a bad choice.

Third Place

Running in hot at 3rd place MaxMusterMan brings their spicy brew to a top finish. The graveyard-centered tempo/reanimator deck, labeled Defiler of Fates, attacks on three neatly woven together axes. 

It combines the breakout mh3 threat of Psychic Frog with an alchemy favorite of Diviner of Fates to turn Frog into an incredible card advantage engine. The two additional modern horizon three cards: Emperor of Bones and Ulamog, the Defiler, when put together, can regularly send a 17/17 annihilator 10 swinging at your opponent as early as turn four. 

Finally, it runs the newly released Abhorrent Oculus as an extremely strong flying beater which often hits the board for only a singular mana thanks to Unearth which also brings back all the other non-eldrazi creatures the deck runs. 

Tying the three packages together, the list has the new black Overlord of the Balemurk, Picklock Prankster, and Ripples of Undeath as card advantage that simultaneously fills the graveyard for the rest of the deck. 

Staying true to its Esper identity the deck runs all the most efficient removal in the format with Fatal Push, Fragment Reality, Prismatic Ending, and a one of Wrath of the Skies to bring the game to a state where the endless value from the graveyard will quickly bring the game to a close. The high performance speaks well of the deck, but if you desire to give the list a try then be sure to be wary of various graveyard hate that the deck is weak to.

Fourth Place

Proving that the top runner wasn’t a fluke, DD Klaw lands at 4th place with a near identical ninja’s list to demiurge’s. Differing only in the mana base and sideboard, this list leverages the same threats of cheap evasive creatures to similar success. 

To talk about the differences and from there the sideboarding philosophy of Historic as a whole, the choice of having two Pithing needles instead of the previously remarked upon Brazen borrower and an extra copy of Stone of Erech reflects the notable absence of Yawgmoth and Kethis combo (Two previously prominent Historic decks that pithing needle preyed upon) and the strength of Stone of Erech in the format due to its ability to single-handedly shut down the top decks of the format: Mardu Sacrifice and its variant of 4c SamCat. The choice of swapping out the three mana sweeper that is Toxic Deluge for the Alchemy-nerfed Meathook Massacre also didn’t help matters.

 Being the only deck that placed two copies in the top eight Dimir ninjas is certainly a force to be reckoned with and an extremely appealing deck for those hoping to get into the format.

Fifth Place

Chestheir brought a commanding performance to just outside of the top eight as their frog eye deck went undefeated through all five swiss rounds only losing to the other eye deck in the quarter-finals. The list is centered around the powerful core of Abhorrent Oculus, Psychic Frog, and Unearth as a trio of strong cards that only amplify each other’s strengths. The deck forgoes splashing white to commit harder to the Dimir tempo theme. 

Alongside Psychic Frog, the deck uses Ledger Shredder as another evasive quick-growing threat that can dump Oculus into the graveyard. The deck’s card advantage comes from a full playset of Picklock Prankster and Consider that helps load the graveyard and two copies of the infamous Treasure Cruise to cash it in. 

Rounding out the deck is a massive suite of counters and kill spells. The massive list of interaction including: a playset of Fatal Push, a 2/2 split of Spell Snare and Spell Pierce, 2 Long River’s Pull, 2 Drown in the Lochs, and even 6 removal spells in the mana base courtesy of the mh3 MDFCs with 4 Sink into Stupors and 2 Fell the Profanes is designed to utterly shut the opponent down while their life total is being whittled away at as any proper tempo deck runs. In the sideboard you will find Bloodchief’s Thirst over Cut Down as its 5-6th copies of Fatal Push, reflecting the desire for a longer game, and for the 5th consecutive deck, Stone of Erech makes its appearance. The one-mana artifact is the clear card of choice for Historic’s most dominant decks. 

If the deck excites you and graveyard hate keeps you up at night then you should check out the full run here. 

Sixth Place

Constantine brought one of the boogeymen of the Historic format to the tournament with Mono Green Devotion. The deck pulls its same strengths from the same place that the Pioneer deck bearing the same name does, but the archetype is super-charged thanks to a couple of additions from the Historic card pool. 

The new-from-mh3 Fanatic of Rhonas alongside Utopia Sprawl gives the deck much-needed redundancy beyond just Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx as permanents that tap for more than one mana that Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner desperately wants. 

Cavalier of Thorns and Storm the Festival often get played turn 3 to churn through the deck and find Karn, the Great Creator, who can answer any game state when given the mana that Devotion to Green makes. Outcast Trailblazer keeps the cards flowing so that the deck never runs out of fuel; especially, alongside the white-splashed Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines which is a simultaneous hate piece and a massive accelerant. Finally, the deck runs Yasharn, Implacable Earth, and Scrapshooter to shut down Mardu Sacrifice and 4c SamCat, both of which rely upon Goblin Bombardment. 

The sideboard differs from the average deck thanks to Karn, but it should be noted that multiple pieces of mainboard hate have finally relieved a deck of Stone of Erech, and Mindslaver often reads as 10-mana win the game”. 

Mono Green Devotion is an explosive deck that warps the format, so it’s an easy recommendation, but if you choose to play the list be sure to remove shifting woodland, which hurt the deck more than it helped.

Seventh Place

Eerily remnant of the list that finished first in the community’s last historic tournament the Mardu Sacrifice list piloted by MonkeyinaTopHat was a threat throughout the entire tournament. 

The heart of the deck is the newly minted mh3 menace, that is Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, which is a busted card before you combine it with Goblin Bombardment. When the deck isn’t fortunate enough to have Bombardment on the battlefield it relies upon a playset of Village Rites and another busted two-mana enchantment, Chthonian Nightmare, as sacrifice outlets. The deck’s main sacrifice fodder beyond the Ajani token is a whopping ten copies of the single-red card advantage on death creatures, the strongest being Goblin Grapfinder, thanks to always finding creatures and its cost-reduction effect. 

Guide of Souls and Amped Raptor make their appearance as the premier small-creature beatdown card with the former upgrading all the one-mana sacrifice dorks into considerable threats and the latter simply being a hard two-for-one accelerating the board state. To close out games the deck runs Marionette Apprentice, which can quickly stack up the damage alongside a bombardment. Fragment reality exists as a hyper-efficient way to remove blockers while also sniping the all important hate pieces. 

Managing to make it into the top 8 despite all the prepared dedicated hate for the deck is a testament to its strength, so it is an easy recommendation for any historic fans. If you would like to see how it navigated through, you should check out their pov here.

Eighth Place

Last off, Drop_the_Poptart brought a newer breakout deck to the tournament with 4 color SamCat. 

The deck is a variant of Mardu sacrifice leveraging the same core of Ajani in combination with Goblin Bombardment to create an absurd amount of damage, but instead of leaning into the sacrifice theme, it combines the core with another strong historic combo of Samwise Gamgee and Cauldron Familiar, which when given a free sacrifice outlet such as Bombardment or Bartolomé del Presidio goes infinite. 

Birthing ritual acts as another sacrifice outlet for Unlucky Witness, and Goblin Trapfinder while also quickly digging through the deck to assemble the combo, and find your Ajani, or your sideboard silver bullets. 

Amped Raptor is still strong enough to make an appearance; it is often cascading into combo pieces or just helping with the plan b beatdown. 

Thanks to Cauldron’s Familiar’s ability to be a self-recurring sacrifice fodder and a cat to transform Ajani turns the integration of a three-card combo into a natural conclusion to the normal gameplay of a sacrifice-based aggro deck; this often leads to a game where the opponent feels threatened by both the combo and the board which is key to the deck’s success. 

Tied together with Lurrus, the deck packs an impressive punch and is often able to steal games in both the early and late game, so it is a strong recommendation if you can stomach the painful historic mana base as it struggles to support four colors.

Closing Statements

The tournament was a great success in showing the diversity and open place space of the historic format. The only deck to have more than a single appearance in the Top 8 was a tier 2 favorite, and all the expected threats ended up towards the bottom. However, that does leave out some thoughts on some notable absences:

Boros auras:

Coming to recent prominence thanks to the new auras from Duskmourn Boros Auras has become an immediate presence in the historic format. It’s the fastest deck in the format with a favorable matchup against all other proactive decks, so it is an open question as to how the tournament would have fared if any of the competitors brought it.

Yawgmoth:

After mh3, the powerful combo deck has fallen from its height in both historic and modern. However, the deck’s high placement in the previous historic tournament (albeit supported with cards that got nerfed) asks the question of whether the deck is actually underperforming or whether it just needs another look.

Beyond that, make sure to check out the rest of our amazing competitors and their decklists here.

Thank you to everyone who competed in the tournament, read this article, or otherwise engaged in the historic format keeping it thriving.
Come join the amazing community server to be aware of the next one and see you around.

Signing off for now – Fanver