Into the Arena: Best Decks from the Neon Dynasty Championship

Magic’s newest format, Alchemy, just had its biggest weekend yet as the main format for this season’s Mythic Championship. The fledgeling Arena-only format has faced some challenges in its first months, but proved to be an intriguing competitive experience over the weekend. The metagame was fairly diverse, and the gameplay seemed to be both fun and challenging. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the format was the fact that midrange decks were very competitive and actually dominated the Top 8 of the tournament. It has been a while since traditional midrange decks have been successful in Standard or Historic so it was great to see them succeed. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most exciting decks to come out of this weekend!

Orzhov Venture

Alchemy
by Eli Kassis

Starting off with my personal favourite, we have Eli Kassis’s winning Orzhov Venture deck. Kassis and his team brewed this deck for the tournament, and their efforts were very successful as it helped Kassis go 7-0 in Alchemy in the first two days of the tournament and then win six matches in the Top 8 as well. Teammate Brent Vos also got to the Top 8 with this same deck. 

This deck relies on the dungeoneering of Nadaar, Selfless Paladin and Triumphant Adventurer, which has been updated in Alchemy to make it more powerful. These creatures eke out value from each attack, while the rest of the decks aims to help clear the way for them and disrupt opponents. Getting to watch a grindy midrange list like this in the Top 8 was a lot of fun as it often ended up in close games that came down to top-decking and accruing small advantages, which rewarded expert play. Going forward, this is the deck I want to try to master.

Mardu Midrange

Alchemy
by Zach Dunn

This Mardu Midrange list also got two players into the Top 8; Zhi Yimin and 2nd place finisher Zach Dunn. This deck isn’t too different from Orzhov Venture. It plays many of the same excellent cards like The Wandering Emperor, Wedding Announcement, and the Alchemy-exclusive Citystalker Connoisseur. However, instead of doubling down on venturing into the dungeon, this deck splashes red and adds the surprisingly powerful Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. When this three-mana saga was spoiled I didn’t necessarily expect it to be a staple of a powerful midrange deck, but it looked very powerful all weekend. Getting to copy cards like Skyclave Apparition and Citystalker Connoisseur can be very powerful, and the first two chapters also help provide value. 

Going forward, it’s tough to say which of these two BW-based midrange decks will be more successful. In the finals of the Mythic Championship Eli Kassis triumphed thanks to his continual delving into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. However, the games were very close, and it took a full three best-of-three matches to find a winner. I think these two decks will continue to battle for supremacy.

Jeskai Hinata

Alchemy
by Jean-Emmanuel Depraz

Lastly I want to focus on this Izzet Control deck that was played to the Top 8 by Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. When midrange starts to do well, control decks are their natural predator, so I could see decks like this being very important going forward. Hinata, Dawn-Crowned definitely deserves to be the namesake of this deck. Not only does the spirit make interaction like Abrade and Negate extremely efficient, it also combos with Magma Opus to make it cost as little as two mana! All of this while also making opponent’s removal and interaction cost more. 

Although this deck went 1-2 against its midrange opponents in the Top 8 of the Mythic Championship, I think overall it should be able to dominate them. It just seems perfectly poised to go over the top of these decks that are accruing small advantages with Magma Opus and all of its card advantage.

Looking forward, there is an Alchemy Metagame Challenge coming up on Arena from March 25th to 28th. The results of this tournament are going to be laying the groundwork for what players will be bringing to this event, but the release of new cards from Alchemy: Kamigawa is also going to shake things up. The Mythic Championship showed that when great players work hard to brew in Alchemy the results can be very rewarding. This will certainly be the case for the Metagame Challenge as well, so I am excited to see what people will be bringing!