5 New Alchemy Decks featuring Alchemy: Tarkir cards

Hey all. The Alchemy Bo1 Qualifier is over, and the Bo3 Qualifier and Play-In are this upcoming weekend. While the meta is quite locked in, (and premium users can read all about the top meta decks in Altheriax’s post here: https://mtgazone.com/top-5-alchemy-decks-for-the-bo3-play-in-mythic-qualifier/ ) I also think that Alchemy: Tarkir has given life to a few new decks in the format.

Long time readers of my articles know that I almost never settle for playing a meta deck for these qualifier weekends. Has that gotten me very far? No, no it hasn’t, but I’ve found that the testing is much more interesting and far more fun when I am playing off-meta decks and not just tier 1 mirror matches.

All that is to say, the following decklists are not tier one decks, but I think that they are all to a point where with some amount of testing and tuning they could be competitive this weekend against the tier one decks.

So let’s break them each down!

Jeskai Dragon Control

This is a control deck looking to make use of various powerful dragons to close out the game after we have sculpted it to a stable state.

Cunning Azurescale joins us from Alchemy: Tarkir, and it is a great tool to use in the early game to find our critical land drops, or dig for the right spell. Later on, it can flash in to block, start closing out the game, and most importantly draw us two spells (or lands if you need them).

Dispelling Exhale is a nice payoff for all of our dragons, giving us a solid counter into the midgame, and we have a ton of card advantage from Stock Up, Hymn to the Ages, and Marang River Regent.

Our removal keeps us afloat, and our late game of dragons and Jeskai Revelation is pretty tough to top.

I’ve enjoyed this deck because it has the tools to stay alive against aggro decks, and the card advantage to grind out midrange decks. Heist can be a bit tough since we don’t have a fast clock, but it is a winnable match up.

Something that needs tuning in this deck is the balance of card advantage to other spells. I frequently felt like I had too many cards in hand, and copies of Stock Up and Hymn to the Ages were just rotting in my hand because I couldn’t afford to cast them.

On the other hand, if we don’t get our card advantage rolling, it can be hard to keep up with the aggro decks. It could also be worthwhile to find ways to get artifact/enchantment destruction into the main deck.

Regardless if this deck is viable for the qualifier weekend, it is a really fun build and I recommend giving it a try!

Abzan Control

If you are anything like me, you like control decks that aren’t blue based, and this build of Abzan control is the real deal.

Call the Crash is the headliner in this list, giving us a powerful finisher that stabilizes our life total by draining for six and giving us two Siege Rhinos to attack and block with. How we get there is by ramping and/or staying alive.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods and Bloomvine Regent help us get up to that critical six mana, but also offer us threats later in the game to help us close things out. A variety of removal spells and Deadly Cover-Up help keep the board clear to deploy our threats.

Our source of card advantage is Up the Beanstalk, which is triggered by our ramp creatures, Call the Crash, Deadly Cover-Up and Elspeth, Storm Slayer, keeping the cards flowing as we try to slow the opponent down and take over the mid to late game.

Dedicated Dollmaker plays a fun role in this deck, giving us a ton of interesting lines. First of all, it is great with Siege Rhino for an extra drain, Overlord of the Hauntwoods for an early overlord and extra land, and Up the Beanstalk for an extra card. Second, you can do interesting lines such as using it on Elspeth to get an extra activation, or Bloomvine Regent for some extra live.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer is great for making an army of tokens to block with, but her ability to send everything to the skies makes closing out games easy once you have some Siege Rhinos and ramp creatures in play.

This deck has been a ton of fun, and I think that it has the tools to compete with the top dogs in the format. It may need some tuning for the exact numbers here and there, but Up the Beanstalk and Call the Crash are a combo that are worth building around.

Temur Ramp

Sticking with the combo of Bloomvine Regent and Overlord of the Hauntwoods, this deck is a consistent ramp deck that easily takes over the late game with powerful threats that control the opponent’s board.

Stonehide Ancient was the inspiration for this deck, and wow has it lived up to the expectations. Serving as a removal spell early on and then bouncing the opponent’s entire board on turn four or five and giving us a big flier to close out the game feels almost unfair.

Even if it only bounces one or two creatures, the tempo gained is huge, and buys us time to close out the game or further develop our board.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods and Bloomvine Regent return as three mana ramp when we need them or five mana threats when we have already ramped. They are joined by Song of Seasons, new from Alchemy: Tarkir, to make sure that we are consistently ramping on turn three and getting up to five and six mana.

Our finishers include Dragonback Assault, which wipes the board and then starts making us 4/4 tokens, Stonehide Ancient, and Ureni, the Song Unending. For card advantage we have Up the Beanstalk and Mazemind Tome.

This Town Ain't Big Enoughmay seem like a strange inclusion in this type of deck, but it is great for slowing down opponent’s and giving us some extra value along the way. We can bounce Up the Beanstalk for an extra card, Mazemind Tome before it exiles itself, Dragonback Assault to wipe the board again, Roaring Furnace for another removal spell, or Stonehide Ancient to bounce the board again, among other things.

This deck plays really well and really consistently. I’ve been very impressed by Stonehide Ancient, and have found that the deck has the tools to quickly take over the late game.

Temur Exhaust Aggro

Temur Exahust Aggro is an update on a list that saw some amount of play after Aetherdrift came out, with the main goal of the deck being to get Afterburner Expertinto the graveyard and then brining it back with haste from Draconautics Engineer.

Audacious Knucklebladeis a great addition to the deck because not only does it have the ability to fetch extra copies of itself from the deck, but it also has the ability to give all your creatures haste, working with Afterburner Expertthe same way that Draconautics Engineer does.

Trackhand Trainer helps us get those exhaust costs down, and can be a big card advantage engine if left alive. With just one Training Grounds in play, our Audacious Knucklebladecan activate for just one green mana to fetch out a copy of itself, leading to easy big turns where you fetch all copies of the creature from your deck.

A lot of our tools are for helping us get Afterburner Expertinto the graveyard. Fear of Missing Out, Tersa Lightshatter, Dredger's Insight, and Glacial Dragonhunt all help us do this while providing other value.

This Town Ain't Big Enoughis great at buying time, but also great with exhaust creatures since we can reset them and activate them again.

Overall this deck has felt competitive. It has a lot of great lines and can easily win the game out of nowhere thanks to Audacious Knucklebladefetching several copies and giving them all haste. While access to the graveyard is nice for this deck, it isn’t necessary, so graveyard hate isn’t super effective.

If you like big brain aggro decks with a ton of different lines, I recommend giving this one a try!

Sultai Midrange

Lastly, we have a take on Sultai Midrange built around getting a ton of value from Oasis of Renewal to stay flush with cards into the mid and late game.

Oasis of Renewal on its own is essentially divination, drawing you a land and a nonland when it enters, but in this deck it is easy for it to draw an extra card each turn, and sometimes even two. We have a lot of ways to fill the graveyard and a lot of ways to exile cards from the graveyard to help us do this.

First, for filling the graveyard we have Cache Grab, which can also help us find oasis, Awaken the Honored Deadmills us on chapter two, and on chapter one it solves a variety of problems, and Molt Tender plays double duty, filling the graveyard when we need it to and exiling cards and ramping us when we have enough in there already.

Bitter Triumph and Marang River Regent also dump a card into the graveyard while providing other important functions. Marang River Regent is one of our main win conditions, coming down and bouncing any problematic cards and leaving us with a big flying body to close out the game.

For exiling cards from the graveyard we have the collect evidence parts of Deadly Cover-Up and Urgent Necropsy, as well as Ghost Vacuum and Molt Tender for consistent triggers. Scavenging Ooze can also be a consistent source of graveyard exile while growing into a large threat.

Even the return on Cache Grab and chapter three of Awaken the Honored Deadwill trigger Oasis of Renewal.

Overall, this deck is great at triggering the card it is built around, and has a lot of tools to stay alive and out value the opponent.

Honestly though, this deck is the one that I haven’t been very impressed with, but I think that might just be how it is built. It clearly has a lot of potential, and it is very easy to trigger Oasis of Renewal every turn, but I’m not sure if this is the right build or not. So feel free to take it and tune it how you like!

Wrapping Up

Like I said, these decks are not tier one decks, and they may not have what it takes to compete in the format, but I think they all have potential and with some testing and tuning they can easily become competitive in the format.

The part of Magic I like the most is building and testing new decks, so with a new set of cards like the ones we got in Alchemy: Tarkir, I had to get brewing and try to break out in the format.

I hope these decks will give you some fun games, inspiration for decks of your own, or maybe even a deck to tune and test for the qualifier weekend. Whatever you do with them, I wish you the best of luck in all of your matches!