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2by DoggertQBones · Published December 24, 2021 · Updated December 26, 2021
Hey everyone! Wizards has thrown down the gauntlet for us to test our skills in the MTG Arena Decathlon. It’s a series of events that culminate in a finals where you can win a pile of goodies including a full set of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and an exclusive Jace, the Mind Sculptor avatar. The Decathlon Event 6 is Historic Artisan, where you can build a deck using any card in MTG Arena but must be either common or uncommon rarity.
Packs awarded during Decathlon events can be from sets legal in Historic, Standard, and can even include the new Alchemy: Innistrad packs:
You can enter the Decathlon events as many times as you want, but you can only get one decathlon token from each event. You also need to get three different tokens to be able to enter the finals so make plans to play other events if you want to get your hands on some of those sweet finals prizes.
I will be compiling a list of 12 Historic Artisan decks that I’m confident in and finish the list with my personal picks. All of these decks are definitely viable, but have different strengths and weaknesses you should take into account before making your decisions. Since the format never rotates, you can find older Historic Artisan decks over at the deck database for more inspiration.
If you need some wins, it’s harder to go any simpler than Monowhite. You have a really nice curve which can lead to really aggressive starts and considering there are so few catch up mechanisms in Artisan, it’s even more potent. The worry with a deck like this is the card quality is going to be on average lower than the opponent’s, but overwhelming them is very viable.
Monoblue Tempo was a real force in Historic a ways back and this is more or less the deck from back then! This deck will absolutely demolish any deck that’s not looking to be particularly fast, but will struggle against strategies that are very fast or are just a pile of interaction. This is a pretty high risk / high reward deck as the matchup spread can be so polarizing, but still it’s a very powerful option.
Monoblack Sacrifice looks to play a slightly longer game with a bunch of value creatures and drain engines to get their wins. This type of strategy is generally strong against aggro and still good against midrange decks which makes it appealing. The main issue with something like this is that it can struggle with decks that can go way over it or decks that can circumvent their strategy completely (such as Monoblue). This deck is powerful and allows a lot of play to it, but I do worry that the decks bad matchups tend to be pretty bad.
The final monocolored deck of the list is Monored Burn, and similar to Monoblue, this is a strong Historic deck that gets to keep most of it’s tools. Burn is fast, interactive, and pretty punishing in general. This can struggle against decks that can mitigate your creatures effectively and keep their life total high, but there aren’t too many of those generally.
If you like grinding out your opponents, Azorius Blink is going to be your best option. A pile of creatures with enter the battlefield abilities, this deck is all about generating value and it all in on finding Soulherder to make those advantages insurmountable. This deck can be a little slow to start and is a bit reliant on Soulherder, but there are only a few decks that can really capitalize on that and circumvent your game plan.
Auras is a very interesting type in Artisan as it’s one of the few decks you’re trying to grow tall rather than going fast, going wide, or playing Control. The most obvious disadvantage of this deck is that it can struggle with interaction and plagued by mulligans, but it’s also one of the hardest decks to beat when they have a solid draw as it’s extremely difficult interacting with their creatures. I think this is also a higher risk option, but the power level is there in spades.
If you like the Monoblue Tempo game plan, but want to respect creatures more, this is a great option. Izzet loses the velocity that Monoblue has in exchange for significantly more resilience. With removal and more card draw, much fewer decks can just run you over or grind you out which is pretty appealing.
Playing pure Control isn’t easy in Artisan, but Dimir definitely does it the best. Packed to the brim with interaction and card draw, it’s going to be difficult for decks that aren’t planning on going fast or have counterspells of their own to really have a chance against this strategy. That said, I expect many decks to be more focused on being fast or interactive so I worry about how good of a metagame choice this would be.
I tend to not like synergy driven aggressive decks, but GW Lifegain is looking excellent. 12 Soul Warden effects, 12 Pridemate effects, and other helpful goodies, this deck should perform well against other aggressive decks while maintaining all the benefits of being an aggressive deck! The main concern is drawing the “wrong” half of your deck, but I think the consistency here should be very high.
The final high risk / high reward deck of the list. Orzhov Animator is absolutely excellent against aggressive decks and midrange decks in general as your game plan is just so good against them. There tends not to be too much removal in Artisan so landing a huge creature is going to be lights out for a good majority of decks. The issue with Orzhov is that Blue is a nightmare for it between counterspells and bounce spells. This deck has a high power level, but be cognizant that if you face a Blue deck you’re pretty likely to lose.
Golgari Adventures used to be the de facto best Historic Artisan deck quite a ways back. Despite a lot of decks getting much stronger and this gaining little, Golgari is still a solid option for those who like a strategy that realistically has game against anything else you could face. Despite how good the other options are, a turn 2 Lucky Clover is still an obscenely strong play.
The final list of the article, Dimir Rogues is currently considered to be the best deck in Historic Artisan. It’s relatively fast, it has a lot of interaction, and it gets access to Drown in the Loch and Into to Story which are two of the best cards in the format. This can struggle against extremely fast decks, but it’s not like those are particularly bad matchups either.
As I said before, all these decks are certainly viable options that can get you the 7 wins, but I don’t think that makes them all equal either. Personally, I would try to play a deck that’s as proactive as possible as winning the game rather than stopping your opponent from winning tends to be the best strategy and playing decks with as few bad matchups as possible is also a clear advantage. With that, I have 4 decks that are going to be my go-to for this event.
For aggressive options, I think the two best picks are Mono Red Burn and Selesnya Lifegain. I really like Burn as it keeps most of it’s tools from Historic and I’m generally privy to the archetype. You’re fast, you can interact with other decks if you need, and you have a lot of strong cards. Selesnya is the other aggro deck I’m a big fan of as you get all the advantages and speed of aggro, but you also are insanely strong against the other aggressive options.
If we’re talking midrange options, Azorius Blink is an excellent choice. You can struggle a bit against the Blue decks if they’re just stockpiling counterspells, but every single card gives you value so having a few threats slip through can still make their lives difficult. I do really like this deck, but I would personally play either of the aggro decks over this.
Finally, the unsurprising winner on what I’m going to play for this event has to be Dimir Rogues. Every Historic Artisan event that comes through Arena is absolutely dominated by Rogues and I doubt that’s not going to be the case this time either. I don’t think Rogues is so much better than the other options that it’s a mistake to not play it, but I would be extremely wary to play a deck that had a bad Rogues matchup like the slower decks of the list. This deck can just do it all and the only real downside to it is that sometimes you can get run over or you don’t find enough creatures, but both occurrences aren’t that common.
I wish you all the best for your Decathlon event! Thank you for reading!
We will also be posting some original 7 Win decklists from the community as usual as the event progresses. You can share them via our Deck Builder or Twitter!
Robert "DoggertQBones" Lee is the content manager of MTGAZone and a high ranked Arena player. He has one GP Top 8 and pioneered popular archetypes like UB 8 Shark, UB Yorion, and GW Company in Historic. Beyond Magic, his passions are writing and coaching! Join our community on Twitch and Discord.
Played the burn list here, but substituted Flame Channeler for Thermo Alchemist, and one Lightning Strike for a Flame of Keld. I went 7-0 in about 25 minutes.
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