We are once again in preview season, this time with the new Magic Arena only set, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. We just started preview season and we have a week left to go. With over 750 cards in the set, there’s a lot of awesome cards from Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 2 and other sets to be revealed. We do have some cards that have been previewed between yesterday and today that have us really excited. Today we have 5 deck lists that include cards from Historic Horizons that we’re looking to try when the set releases. Now these lists are subject to change as more cards come out, but these are the preliminary lists.
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Tempered Steel
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Our first deck list is Azorius Tempered Steel. This deck is a an old standard power house from back in the Scars of Mirrodin days.
Tempered Steel
Tempered Steel
Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2.
gives our host of artifact creatures a massive power boost. Couple this with cheap evasive creatures like
Gingerbrute
Gingerbrute
Haste (This creature can attack and {T} as soon as it comes under your control.)
{1}: This creature can't be blocked this turn except by creatures with haste.
{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this creature: You gain 3 life.
, Vault Skurge and
Ornithopter
Ornithopter
Flying
lets us push damage really quickly. The new additions to this deck thus far include
Esper Sentinel
Esper Sentinel
Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.
,
Nettlecyst
Nettlecyst
Living weapon (When this Equipment enters, create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this to it.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control.
Equip {2}
and
Thought Monitor
Thought Monitor
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Flying
When this creature enters, draw two cards.
. These 3 cards bring some kind of utility to the deck, whether it be card draw, additional bodies or a big damage spike.
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Humans
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Next up is Humans. This is a strong deck in Modern, and while it has some great tools in Historic, it has generally been not quite strong enough to contend in the format. With Historic Horizons, we get some more tools to be able to help. Once again,
Esper Sentinel
Esper Sentinel
Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.
makes an appearance here, as well as
Thalia’s Lieutenant
Thalia’s Lieutenant
When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Human you control.
Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
. Esper Sentinel provides us an avenue of card draw but is also a cheap human to help build our board. Thalia’s Lieutenant helps beef up our board state to help ramp up the damage. The only piece of the deck that’s really missing is Aether Vial, and hopefully we’ll get that either in this set or a future Historic Anthology.
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Izzet Blitz
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The next deck is Izzet Blitz. I know that we just got out of an Izzet dominated meta game, but with the inclusion of
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able.
, the Izzet Blitz deck gets a big power boost. We do need to consider turning on Delirium with this card, but one thing that Historic has that Modern doesn’t, is Fatihless Looting, which can help us get card types in the graveyard. Normally the Modern version of this deck plays
Mishra’s Bauble
Mishra’s Bauble
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Look at the top card of target player's library. Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.
as a free way to gain some card advantage and get an artifact in the graveyard. We’re playing Chromatic Sphere in that slot to fulfill a similar role.
READ MORE: 10 MTG Cards From Modern Horizons 1 and 2 We Want In Historic Horizons
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Rakdos Lurrus
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Rakdos Lurrus has become a top tier deck in Modern, and hopefully the same can be the case in Historic. There are cards in the Modern List that we may or may not get in Historic Horizons like Dauthi Voidwalker, but we have a lot of the deck in the format right now. Once again this is another
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able.
deck, but this one aims to disrupt the hand, and clear the board with removal to push through some fast damage with Channeler, as well as Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger and
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Trample
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to this creature's power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
.
READ MORE: Five MTG Video Games We Really Want To Play
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Mono White Death & Taxes
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The last deck, and one that I’ve written about before in the past, is Mono White Death & Taxes. This deck aims to constrain our opponent’s ability to play cards, or any cards they play to come with an additional price. The new addition to the deck at the moment is just
Esper Sentinel
Esper Sentinel
Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.
, which helps us with card draw if our opponent plays a non-creature spell. It comes down early and can make an impact despite it being only a 1/1. There’s probably more cards to come that get added to this deck, so definitely stay tuned for updates to this list.
READ MORE: Where to Find MTG Arena Jumpstart: Historic Horizons Previews
There’s a lot of decks to be built over the coming weeks, especially once Historic Horizons releases on Arena on August 12th. What cards are you hoping to make it into the set, and what decks are you hoping to build when the set releases? Let us know in the comments!