30 New Historic Brews with Amonkhet Remastered

Hello Everyone! Amonnkhet Remastered is set to be released on August 13, and I’ve been scouring the Gatherer to brew some sweet new Historic decks to try on the first day!

I will try to organize this as reasonably as possible, but there are just so many decks… I will accompany each list with a few thoughts and notes on the archetype. Take these decklists with a grain of salt. Most of the decks are geared towards competitive play, some a little less so. Not every deck has a sideboard, and most of the sideboards are not going to be good right away, but most of these lists are meant for BO3. Some of the sideboards are just my thoughts on other cards to consider in the maindeck. As always, heavy testing and tuning will be required to perfect them over time. Without further ado, here they are. You can also see all the decklists in one place here.

Collected Company Decks

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Merfolk Company

It always feels like a merfolk deck is really close to playable in Historic. My fingers were crossed for a Jumpstart Merfolk pack, but sadly wotc did not deliver. Instead we have Collected Company, which makes it worth dusting off the fish again. I just wish we had Botanical Sanctum to make the mana more bearable.

Selesnya Counters Company

While it’s not Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies, I think this Collected Company deck could really have legs. Starts like Pelt Collector -> Conclave Mentor -> Champion Lambholt -> Company hitting a proliferate creature seem pretty difficult to beat. Rishkar is also really good at overwhelming the opponent in the early turns of the game.

Elves Company

Elves is my favorite tribal strategy, and while I prefer combo elves to aggro elves, I still hope Collected Company is enough to push elves to competitively viable. Instant speed lords are definitely not something to scoff at and we have 12! I think that elves does not need to run Craterhoof Behemoth in Historic because of the other mana sinks available at easier to cast cmcs. This deck could easily be more +1/+1 counter focused, but I have chosen to include Elvish and Llanowar Visionary as ways to ensure the cards keep flowing.

Lands Company

This deck probably has the hardest manabase to construct of the company decks. The deck aims to use Ghost Quarter and Ramunap Excavator along with an increased number of land drops to lock the opponent out of the game. Knight of the Reliquary and Elvish Relcaimer have a small toolbox package because its difficult to balance colored sources with utility lands with a low land count (which needs to stay low because of Collected Company).

Spirits Company

This deck is likely lacking without Noble Hierarch and Selfless Spirit to truly be competitive, but between Nebelgast Herald/Shacklegeist keeping the board locked, Supreme Phantom/Empyrean Eagle pumping the team, and Spectral Sailor/Ghostly Pilferer refilling the hand, it could have some potential.

Combo Decks

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Sultai New Perspectives

I wrote a whole article about this one. Check it out here!

Izzet Phoenix

Amonkhet brought us Strategic Planning, which is the best enabler for Arclight Phoenix that we have available. Jump Start also produced Lightning Axe, which is a potent card in phoenix strategies.

Treasure Flare

This deck got better with the addition of new cycling lands. At the same time, Thoughtseize’s introduction into the format will surely crush this deck’s hopes and dreams if the arena interface didn’t already.

Dedicated Self-Mill Decks

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Dimir God-Pharoah’s Gift

This deck might need some more creatures to help promote early God-Pharoah’s Gift, but the Scholar/GPG shell has a lot of potential.

Golgari “Dredge” Reanimator (if we are still legally allowed to call it that)

A Historic Attempt to mimic Pioneer/Modern dredge, this deck should be a blast to play. Driven // Despair is definitely a tool that could take this deck out of obscurity.

Golgari Lurrus Self-Mill

This version of the self-mill deck nixes the Unburial Rites package in favor of Lurrus as a companion.

Silversmote Self-Mill

This version of self-mill is extremely all in. I don’t think the Silversmote Ghoul package is better than the Craterhoof Behemoth package, but it definitely warrants some testing.

Control Decks

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Azorius Control

One of my favorite cards to play with in the entire world, I hope UW Control with Sphinx’s Revelation is playable. Wrath of God is a big update over Shatter the Sky because it doesn’t give your opponent an extra card. It is difficult to tune a control deck when the format gets a shakeup, so this deck might not be perfect for a while. This version of the deck reminds me of pioneer UW Control, but obviously it lacks dig through time.

Azorius Cycling Control

Here we are trying to utilize Abandoned Sarcophagus as a card advantage engine. Just the thought of casting a Shark Typhoon from the graveyard late game makes me smile. This is a deck that could utilize post board Valiant Rescuer well.

Mono White Solemnity Nine Lives

I wrote an article about this deck. You can check it out here!

Orzhov Yorion Doom Foretold

This is very similar to the BW Demonic Pact/Doom Foretold decks that managed to do well in pioneer a little while back. The biggest difference is the manabase. Pioneer has more options for BW lands. New additions from Amonkhet are Demonic Pact itself and Trial of Ambition.

Thoughtseize Decks

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Tinybones Discard

Tinybones, Trinket Thief and Waste Not are very powerful cards, and Thoughtseize goes a long way to push them closer to playability. I was really holding out for Lay Bare the Heart as another discard spell, but it looks like that didn’t make it into Amonkhet Remastered.

Mono Black Aggro

Mono Black Aggro with a discard slant. Decimating the opponent’s hand while applying pressure is a sound strategy that is sure to bring in wins. Could end up being a Lurrus deck.

Rakdos Arcanist

With the introduction of Thoughtseize into the format, I am very interested in casting Dreadhorde Arcanist and Young Pyromancer. Claim // Fame and Driven // Despair also synergize well with the deck’s core.

Orzhov Lurrus Zombies

I think Wayward Servant, Dread Wanderer, and Thoughtseize make this deck worth trying. We already had Cryptbreaker, so a Zombies deck was inevitable as the card pool expanded.

Other Aggro Decks

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Mono White Death and Taxes

The only new interaction this deck got with Amonkhet is Ghost Quarter with Aven Mindcensor, but I think this deck could be well positioned due to the power of Thalia and Vryn Wingmare as well as the other hatebears against many of the common strategies in the format. Another card that I think is under explored is Swallow Whole. It’s definitely no Path to Exile, but in heavy creature based strategies, it can be a very powerful tempo swing.

Wizards Burn

This deck makes Wizard’s Lightning look like Lightning Bolt. It’s hard to say what aggressive red strategy will be the best in the Historic. There are so many ways to build the deck. No sideboard provided, but it almost certainly has 4 copies of Rampaging Ferocidon.

Boros Cyling with Hollow One

This deck did not receive Djeru’s Renunciation, which I thought would be very good for pushing through damage, but it still probably warrants testing. I could not convince myself to brew Seasoned Hallowblade with Hollow One (even though Hallow One is such a sweet deck name).

Mono Green Henge

Rhonas the Indomitable represents 4 more ways to ensure that The Great Henge costs 4 mana, which is big game for mono green. Rhonas also allows smaller creatures to become threats and manages to survive board wipes. The addition of Hashep Oasis gives the deck some extra reach to finish out games.

Field of the Dead Decks

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Sultai Field

I think Hour of Promise will make Field of the Dead decks rear their ugly head upon Historic once again. They were poorly positioned against the aggressive strategies, but Hour of Promise offers itself as a more explosive alternative to Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. Amonkhet also gave us access to many new lands, the most relevant being Ipnu Rivulet, which can single-handedly fill your graveyard for Uro. The manabases will be difficult to tune, but I expect Field strategies to be quite good, possibly even ban worthy.

Simic Scapeshift

This deck adds more redundant copies of Explore effects in Shefet Monitor. Notably, the monitor can tutor for a desert, contributing to Hour of Promise’s secondary ability, and being able to grab an Ipnu Rivulet is way better than regular explore when you have Uro. There is still much room for experimentation with Field of the Dead builds to be had, and as more and more lands enter the format, the deck will continue to grow stronger.

Decks that are probably a card or two away from being competitive

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Dragons

Dragons got some pretty cool tools in the form of cost reducers in Jumpstart, and with Glorybringer coming in Amonkhet, I could see this deck being fun/semi-competitive to play.

Mono White Monument

This deck is probably too slow, but I am nostalgic for Aviary Mechanic and Oketra’s Monument decks. This deck also has the potential to branch out into UW for cards like Elite Guardmage and Niambi, Esteemed Speaker.

Selesnya Cats

I was really excited to put a decent cat deck out into the world, but it turns out Adorned Pouncer did not make it into Amonkhet Remastered. Perhaps Collected Company can make this deck playable. This deck could use some Swallow Whole in the 75 for utility and flavor purposes. Still waiting for enough dogs to be introduced into Historic… Run this deck at your own peril!

Amber White

This deck is an interesting concept that I was toying with. It has no Amonkhet cards, but I figured I’d share it anyways. The goal is to leverage Mox Amber to gain early advantage. I think the deck is in need of 1 more good low cost legendary creature to start being scary.

Well, that is all the decks for today. Be sure to try some out! Did I miss an archetype that you think warrants exploration? Let me know what works and what doesn’t! I definitely will be trying many of the decklists out on my stream when Amonkhet Remastered is released. You can find me at my Twitch channel.

Let me know in the comments, Twitter or Discord if there are any decks in particular that you would like to see a full explanation for. Hopefully there are some decks that inspire you to play some Historic once Amonkhet Released comes out!

Amonkhet Remastered Constructed Set Review + Top 10