Over the weekend, 230 players battled it out for $450,000 and a championship title in the Neon Dynasty Championships. The event was a split format event, between Alchemy and Historic, and man was it awesome. There were some incredible moments in the games, and some cards and decks stood out from the rest.
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All-star Cards
There were a few cards that were huge stand out cards from the event. Primarily, these cards showed up in Alchemy and they’re all Standard Legal cards, so they do have some application outside of Arena.
Fable of the Mirror Breaker
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The first card that came to play was
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
/
Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
. In Alchemy, the big bad deck that people were expecting to see was Naya Runes, and it felt like a majority of the field brought a deck to beat it. One of the archetypes was the BRx Midrange decks.
Three different variations showed up, straight Rakdos, Mardu and Grixis. Most of these deck lists showcased the Mirror Breaker himself, and were able to pull off some ridiculous turns. The card wasn’t used as a combo piece, rather as an insane value engine
Key targets for this were cards like Town-Razer Tyrant, Citystalker Conneoisseur, and
Graveyard Trespasser
Graveyard Trespasser
Ward—Discard a card.
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. If a creature card was exiled this way, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
.
Goldspan Dragon
Goldspan Dragon
Flying, haste
Whenever this creature attacks or becomes the target of a spell, create a Treasure token.
Treasures you control have "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add two mana of any one color."
even saw some copy action as well!
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March of Otherworldly Light
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Next up,
March of Otherworldly Light
March of Otherworldly Light
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of white cards from your hand. This spell costs {2} less to cast for each card exiled this way.
Exile target artifact, creature, or enchantment with mana value X or less.
showed us that this card is a premier removal spell, and is here to stay. This card felt a lot like
Prismatic Ending
Prismatic Ending
Converge — Exile target nonland permanent if its mana value is less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell.
, but was an all-star across the weekend.
The Wandering Emperor
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The last card that really stood out was
The Wandering Emperor
The Wandering Emperor
Flash
As long as The Wandering Emperor entered this turn, you may activate her loyalty abilities any time you could cast an instant.
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. It gains first strike until end of turn.
−1: Create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.
−2: Exile target tapped creature. You gain 2 life.
. White was a very popular color and nearly all of the decks playing white were playing some number of this powerful planeswalker.
Almost no matter who played it or when it was played, this card often times flipped the game on its head. Advantages would swing from player to player as this card was cast. It’s incredibly well rounded, well designed, and very strong.
Obviously, the latter 2 cards are going to be big across multiple formats outside of Alchemy, but I think that Fable of the Mirror Breaker really has a shot at being a powerhouse in Standard. Despite not having the powerful Alchemy only cards as targets, it’s still an incredible value engine that I think has some serious legs.
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Break Out Decks
While there were some great cards that stood out amongst the crowd, there were also some decks that made a HUGE splash as well.
Orzhov Venture
The first deck that surprised many was Orzhov Venture. We have Eli Kassis’s Championship Winning list here, and boy is it a doozey. With the rebalancing of many of the Venture cards from Forgotten Realms, the deck has gotten some new legs.
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Grixis Midrange
Next up on the list is a deck that comes from Jim Davis, who had an unprecedented run through the swiss, going completely undefeated in matches.
Jim brought one of the BRx variants with Grixis Midranges. It’s playing a very sweet package of creatures, and
Kaito Shizuki
Kaito Shizuki
At the beginning of your end step, if Kaito entered this turn, he phases out.
+1: Draw a card. Then discard a card unless you attacked this turn.
−2: Create a 1/1 blue Ninja creature token with "This token can't be blocked."
−7: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, search your library for a blue or black creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle."
as a card draw engine. It also boasts a wide array of removal spells to deal with many of the problematic creatures in the format, while grinding out value with Kiki-Jiki, or smashing in with Town-Razer Tyrant.
The last deck we’ll look at today is from Historic! The Historic format was filled with Izzet Phoenix, some Golgari Food, and the usual suspects. But this deck was only piloted by 2 players, and this list comes to us from Jean-Emmanuel Depraz.
Azorius Affinity
What we have here is Azorius Affinity. This deck looks to take advantage of some powerful Modern Horizons 2 cards in
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.
,
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.
, and most importantly
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}
to overwhelm their opponents.
This deck also has the advantage of being able to play main deck artifact based graveyard hate to deal with Izzet Phoenix, Golgari Food, and Rakdos Arcanist.
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Each of these three decks are fantastic and totally worth trying out on the ladder or at your next online event. If you missed any of the games from the weekend, I’d highly recommend going back and watching them, especially the Top 8.