Table of Contents
Hey everyone! The Historic Bo3 Meta Tier List has just been updated which you can check out here, and I’m writing up this Meta Report alongside it going over the new cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction that have had the biggest impact, any updates to any of the archetypes since the release of OTJ, looking at potential archetypes that could still emerge via underexplored OTJ cards, and a general look at the overall meta. Let’s get into it!
Historic Best of Three (Bo3) Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck Name |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Izzet Wizards |
| Tier 1 | Abzan Yawgmoth |
| Tier 1 | Rakdos Bombardment Vampires |
| Tier 1 | Mono Green Devotion |
| Tier 2 | Azorius Artifacts |
| Tier 2 | Azorius Control |
| Tier 2 | Dimir Ninjas |
| Tier 2 | Gruul Goblins |
| Tier 2 | Kethis Combo |
| Tier 2 | Rakdos Midrange |
| Tier 2 | Boros Convoke |
| Tier 3 | Azorius Hammer Time |
| Tier 3 | Izzet Creativity |
| Tier 3 | Gates |
| Tier 3 | Mardu Reanimator |
Most Impactful Cards From Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Slickshot Show-Off
This has definitely felt like the biggest new addition from OTJ and it slots right into what is potentially the best deck in the format in Izzet Wizards. Having haste, flying, and getting a significant buff of +2/+0 off each non-creature spell means you can force through a huge amount of damage in a single turn, especially if you have multiples.
The ability to plot it is also really strong since it means it’s much less vulnerable to interaction which was one of the biggest issues with Wizards as a deck – if you suspect the opponent is holding up a removal spell you can plot it instead of casting it wasting their mana, and leaving it in exile represents a huge amount of damage you can set up at any point meaning the opponent is usually forced to hold mana open for interaction every turn, so you can often play slow and build up whilst forcing the opponent to waste mana every turn until you’re ready to cast it.
Additionally plotting provides you with a way to guarantee you’ll have a Wizard in play on turn 3 assuming the opponent doesn’t have a counterspell which is really big with both Flame of Anor (to guarantee getting both modes) and Wizard's Lightning (to guarantee the reduced cost).
Izzet Wizards
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
0 mythic
35 rare
16 uncommon
9 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (16)
Sorceries (14)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$325.74
Sideboard
15 Cards
$58.19
One other really nice advantage off adding Slickshot Show-Off to the deck is that it makes you less reliant on Reckless Charge – this is a card that was really important as a way to maximize the speed of the deck, and give you a way to force through a bunch of damage from an empty board, but Slickshot Show-Off already having haste does a very similar thing but is a self-contained threat and doesn’t require an additional creature (and it surviving) to be effective.
You can run them both together as shown in the above list but I’ve also been having great success recently with a version of the deck that cuts Reckless Charge in order to make room for tools that enable you to grind into longer games which has really improved Wizard’s worst matchups against the interactive decks whilst retaining the majority of your good matchups.
Slickshot Cruise Wizards
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
7 mythic
25 rare
16 uncommon
12 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (15)
Instants (16)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$460.16
Sideboard
15 Cards
$22.21
You do lose some speed compared to versions running both Slickshot Show-Off and Reckless Charge which will make your matchup against a deck like Mono Green Devotion worse but that was already one of your best matchups and has still felt favored with this build especially post-sideboard.
This version has felt more difficult to pilot since it can play like an aggro, tempo, or control deck depending on your hand and the matchup and often requires you to switch between those modes throughout the game, but I’m a big fan of this version if you’re expecting to face interactive decks and I have a full guide available for it on the Premium site here if you’re interested in a full breakdown of it.
Satoru, the Infiltrator
This is the card from OTJ that I feel like has the highest ceiling in Historic with it being an incredibly powerful card advantage engine in the right deck. The most natural home for it here is in Dimir Ninjas which is already a very powerful deck, and it fills a similar role here to Ingenious Infiltrator drawing you a card each time you pull off a Ninjutsu ability or cast an Ornithopter but it still lets you run Lurrus of the Dream-Den as your companion which is a big deal.
Satoru Ninjas
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
0 mythic
34 rare
11 uncommon
15 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (26)
Artifacts (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$267.16
Sideboard
15 Cards
$48.49
Being able to pull ahead on card advantage is very relevant in a lot of matchups but it’s not the best card when you really need to leverage tempo and race since in those matchups you’d rather be spending your mana on Ninjutsu abilities or holding mana open for counterspells.
Additionally it does require you to be pulling off ninjutsus and isn’t a great creature to pull back to your hand off a ninjutsu which is why I don’t think you’d ever want more than 3 copies, but when it does start producing advantage it really snowballs the game in your favor hard. The above list is a slightly modified version of Gdinut’s deck that he used to qualify for the Mythic Championship with.
Prismatic Vista
Getting a good quality fetch land in Historic is a really big deal since it enables a lot of different synergies. This doesn’t enable cards that require fetch lands to be good like Deathrite Shaman since you can only run 4 copies so there will be a good number of games where you don’t draw one early, but it is a big boon for decks that already run cards that benefit from fetch lands since Prismatic Vista will make them even better.
I think the first example of that is Bloodghast which is a key part of the Rakdos Bombardment Vampires deck I posted last month since you can now double up on rebuying Bloodghast with both Goblin Bombardment and Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord.
Rakdos Bombardment Vampires
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
17 mythic
25 rare
4 uncommon
14 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (22)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$566.78
Sideboard
15 Cards
$71.27
Other cards that benefit from it are Treasure Cruise to fuel the delve faster (which is run in both Phoenix and my grindier Wizards build shown above), A-Dragon's Rage Channeler from Phoenix as a way to get delirium online faster, Fatal Push in midrange decks to trigger revolt, and Tarmogoyf in Jund as a way to grow it faster.
Surgical Extraction
This is another great tool for sideboards against graveyard decks. The main graveyard decks to be concerned with in Best of 3 currently are Kethis, Reanimator, and Phoenix, and Surgical Extraction is excellent against all three.
If the opponent ends up with a Kethis, the Hidden Hand in the yard and you hit it with a Surgical Extraction then it’s usually game over unless they can somehow beat you down fairly, and even if you can’t hit a Kethis, extracting Mox Amber or Jace, the Perfected Mind will often stop them from being able to combo off too.
It’s a brutal card against reanimator too fizzling their reanimation spell and getting rid of all copies of the reanimation target, and getting rid of all of the opponent’s Arclight Phoenix makes the rest of their deck significantly weaker.
Having said that these three decks aren’t that popular right now and there’s a number of other good options for graveyard hate which have other upsides such as Unlicensed Hearse that doubles up as a threat and is good against decks with smaller graveyard synergies, and Soul-Guide Lantern which is much better against decks where you want to exile their whole graveyard like Dredge and can be looped with Lurrus of the Dream-Den etc.
For this reason I think Surgical Extraction fits best into decks that either synergize with it such as Izzet Wizards (where it triggers your prowess creatures and A-Symmetry Sage for free often acting as a pump spell) or decks where other graveyard hate isn’t an option such as Izzet Creativity (which can’t run artifacts since it interferes with Indomitable Creativity), or Azorius Control (since Divine Purge exiles your artifact-based graveyard hate and Rest in Peace shuts off Calim, Djinn Emperor and Snapcaster Mage), but if those three graveyard decks see more play this is an excellent way to counteract that in any deck.
Path to Exile
Another iconic card that we got from OTJ that fits well into Azorius Control is Path to Exile.
This is competing with Fragment Reality and Get Lost as a cheap piece of interaction but I’ve preferred Path to Exile so far since Fragment Reality still giving the opponent another threat if you use it on a creature that costs 2 or more is a very big problem for control, and Get Lost being a mana extra has been a big deal too since it often means you can’t use a counterspell and answer a threat the same turn.
Azorius Control
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
6 mythic
41 rare
8 uncommon
5 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (4)
Instants (18)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$339.78
Sideboard
15 Cards
$44.88
The downside on Path to Exile is definitely significant but that downside becomes much less pronounced as the game goes on and it’s still not the end of the world if you do have to use it early so I’ve preferred it overall. I do still have Fragment Reality in the sideboard for Mono Green Devotion to answer their turn 1 ramp and to have a higher density of 1 mana removal for decks like Wizards or Yawgmoth, and Get Lost as additional cheap removal and a way to answer enchantments and planeswalkers.
Another new card I’m running in the sideboard here as well is Surgical Extraction as my graveyard hate of choice since the other main options either clash with Divine Purge or Calim, Djinn Emperor as explained above.
Stoneforge Mystic
Another very iconic card we got added to Historic from OTJ is Stoneforge Mystic with its most natural home being Hammer Time. Hammer is a deck that hasn’t really seen play for a while mainly due to lack of consistency and Stoneforge has really helped with that, providing more consistent access to your powerful equipment without needing to splash green for Belt of Giant Strength, a body on the battlefield to equip your Colossus Hammer to, and a toolbox of other equipment it can fetch if you don’t have an equip cost reducer like Sigarda's Aid or Kemba's Outfitter.
Stoneforge Aegis Hammer
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
6 mythic
36 rare
12 uncommon
6 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (16)
Instants (4)
Artifacts (9)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$517.26
Sideboard
15 Cards
$22.25
I started out by testing builds with Lurrus of the Dream-Den which felt really nice to have as your companion, but my main issue with it was that I felt like only 8 equip reducers was too low to consistently find one, and the next best Lurrus of the Dream-Den compatible option is Kemba, Kha Enduring which has always felt pretty mediocre.
If you ditch Lurrus of the Dream-Den you gain access to Forge Anew which is a much better equip cost reducer (or potentially Ranger-Captain of Eos which can tutor Kemba's Outfitter as well as Gingerbrute and Giant Killer), and you also get two big Stoneforge Mystic tutor targets in Cryptic Coat and Assimilation Aegis which have both felt great to me.
Cryptic Coat is an excellent value tool that enables you to grind well into longer games, but it’s also excellent in Hammer since the creature it creates has ward 2 and unblockable, making it similar to a tutorable Invisible Stalker, and having Assimilation Aegis as a tutorable removal spell has also felt great.
Lurrus of the Dream-Den builds are still definitely viable but a lack of a good third Lurrus-compatible equip cost reducer was the big sticking point for me, and the extra utility you get from the 3 drop equipment via Stoneforge Mystic is a big upside too.
I’ve only put Hammer in tier 3 though because although Stoneforge Mystic has definitely improved the deck, it hasn’t fixed the major issues that have held it back in the past. In a lot of ways this is a combo deck looking to assemble 3 specific pieces which makes it naturally weak to discard spells since if the opponent takes your Colossus Hammer or equip cost reducer you’re often left scrambling to find a replacement.
You’re also weak to artifact removal since the deck is built around Colossus Hammer which is an issue when Flame of Anor sees play as a 4 of in one of the most popular decks, and Brotherhood's End sees a reasonable amount of sideboard play. Divine Purge is also incredibly strong against you from the control decks and you do have cheap counterspells to counteract that, but overall the deck felt a bit frail to me which is why I’ve put it into tier 3.
Requisition Raid
This is a really nice addition to the Boros Convoke deck with the floor being two mana buff your whole board which isn’t bad when you can swarm the battlefield so fast. The ability to also interact with artifacts and enchantments makes it a really solid sideboard card against decks like Azorius Artifacts, Selesnya Enchantress, Gruul Revels Goblins etc., whilst still forwarding your proactive gameplan at the same time, and it’s an excellent way to counteract Temporary Lockdown if that card starts seeing more play.
Boros Convoke by kamahl211
by Altheriax
Historic
best of 3
0 mythic
32 rare
13 uncommon
15 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (30)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (17)
60 Cards
$344
Sideboard
15 Cards
$27.88
Potential New Archetypes That Could Still Emerge
With OTJ still being a relatively fresh set and with most people focused on improving existing archetypes, I think there’s still a number of cards that are relatively underexplored and could lead to creating new archetypes that could appear on the tier list soon if they prove to be effective.
Jace Reawakened
This has seen play alongside Valki, God of Lies in decks from Explorer to Timeless and I expect it to be similarly effective in Historic. If you aren’t familiar with how this works if you use Jace Reawakened to plot Valki, God of Lies, you can cast it on the Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor side the following turn for free.
A turn 5 Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor might not sound like the most powerful thing in Historic but the big deal here is that this is a free turn 5 Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor without ever going shields down since you can consistently hold mana open for counterspells, removal, and card draw every turn. Similar to Timeless this can be run alongside Lurrus of the Dream-Den which could potentially lead to the re-emergence of Dimir Control.
I’ve also been having success with an Esper version of the deck that I’m going to continue testing again soon and hope to have a guide on at some point if I can get the list to a point I’m happy with. I haven’t seen a refined list of this archetype for Historic posted yet but if this is working in Timeless I’d be surprised if it isn’t viable in some form in Historic so this is one to keep an eye on.
Satoru, the Infiltrator
I’ve already covered this in the context of Ninjas but this is a card that I feel could definitely see play elsewhere. The home I’m most excited for with this card is blink where it draws you a card off every Ephemerate, Charming Prince, Soulherder, and Inquisitor Captain trigger.
Again this is an archetype I’ve been doing work on and hope to cover if I can get the deck to a point I’m happy with, but Satoru, the Infiltrator definitely feels like a card that has the potential to be broken in a deck that can consistently trigger it multiple times so even if blink doesn’t end up being good enough, I’d be shocked if this doesn’t enable a strong deck in Historic at some point in the near future.
Geralf, the Fleshwright
This is very reminiscent of Monastery Mentor and I believe you could build a strong deck that runs both Geralf, the Fleshwright and Monastery Mentor alongside Unearth, Helping Hand, and a bunch of instants and sorceries (and potentially another 2 or 3 drop to provide redundancy for your reanimation effects).
Being able to reanimate one of these powerful three drops for 1 mana and then fire off multiple instants and sorceries to trigger them immediately seems potentially very powerful so this is another archetype I want to test soon and would be sweet if it does end up being good enough.
Conclusion
Outlaws of Thunder Junction has introduced some really sweet cards to Historic and has caused a slight shift in the metagame with a number of pre-existing decks getting some nice new tools (although it is a bit of a concern that Wizards which was arguably the best deck already got the best new addition).
Overall though Historic still feels very wide open with a bunch of viable archetypes, and compared to Timeless a lot of the new cards have much more of a chance to see play here due to the lower power level so I wouldn’t be surprised if more archetypes get discovered over the coming weeks and months. Thanks a lot for reading!
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Altheriax
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