Not too long ago, I wrote about the “identity crisis” facing Historic. We talked about how the format often feels like it’s caught between two worlds, struggling to find its footing somewhere between a digital-only experiment and the Modern-lite experience many of us crave. My argument then, as it is now, is that Historic shouldn’t just be a graveyard for rotated Standard cards or a testing ground for Alchemy. It should be a curated, high-powered format that rewards tight play and, more importantly, deep-bench brewing.
We’ve actually seen Wizards take some massive steps in this direction lately. The recent banning of cards like Ajani, Nacatl Pariah and Eldrazi Temple was a clear victory for format health. And it also showed a willingness by WoTC to enforce the rules of engagement by removing the kind of hyper-efficient threats and fast mana that were suffocating the meta in both Bo1 and Bo3.
Even more promising was the unbanning of a couple pieces of the Force Cycle and card like Harbinger of the Seas. By giving us zero-mana interaction and powerful land-hate, Wizards has finally signaled that they want Historic to be a format where you can play fair and still win.
We’re starting to see more checks and balances in the format, which is great, but with the philosophy of the format being better defined, I feel that we also have some room to add some additional tools for a variety of archetypes. Some of which are only just a few key cards, engines, or pieces of interaction away from their modern counterparts. Now that Wizards is willing to give us more answers, I’d like to add some cards (safely curated) that gives more reasons to ask the questions so to speak.
So, I’ve put together a list. 92 pieces of Magic history that I believe would transform Historic from a “Modern-lite” experiment into a true brewer’s paradise. And yes, I know I’m a bit biased as the brewer for the Fun & Jank articles, but many of these aren’t just here because they’re powerful, though many of them certainly are. They are here because they enable archetypes that currently don’t exist, provide more texture to the meta, and bring back that “Golden Age” feeling where every deck had soul.
If you haven’t experienced the pure, unadulterated joy of casting a spell with a name you can’t even pronounce, you’re missing out. Adding Asmo and the Cookbook would give us another powerful value engine in the format that play well with existing sells utilizing Monument to Endurance, while also potentially giving life to a new food-based deck too.
Asmo can obviously make use of cards like Squee or Master of Death as well, but these too undying creatures are also rather synergistic with things like Zombie Infestation or other discard based value shells. We can give these decks (and madness shells) another tool in the form of Big Game Hunter. Although he’s not impressive stat-wise. He’s rather useful to give these lower to the ground aggro decks a way to kill a Sheoldred or Barrowgoyf
And then there’s Vengevine. Since I’ve got Burning Inquiry and Street Wraith on this list, we’re talking about a level of consistency we haven’t seen yet. We already have Hollow One being played to mild success every now again, and this could make that deck an actual contender. I’m a bit worried about Inquiry on its own though, as Historic has already seen plenty of unfair graveyard strategies surface, but I believe the randomness of the discard effect would make it ok as its own safety valve. Obviously it could also fuel a more about a deliberate, synergy-driven Madness build as well.
Let’s talk about Fair Magic. Right now, Historic actually has a decent selection of Hatebears to choose from. Clarion Conqueror, Thalia, Containment Priest, Juggernaut Peddler, etc. Yet, we don’t have a dedicated Hatebears build outside of some incidental synergies in esper or orzhov decks. I’d like to see a few more cards to help keep other decks in check.
Leonin Arbiter, aka Cat Jesus, is one of the biggest bears we lack in the format. If we can also pair him with Aether Vial, we the foundation of a true Death & Taxes list. Vial is the quintessential “Boomer” card. It lets you ignore counterspells, flash in blockers, and keep your lands open for interaction. Arbiter doesn’t seem too harsh in a format without fetches, but still has enough utility to see play against other effects like Scapeshift or tutors. Shadow of Doubt plays a similar role albeit in a different color suite.
Then you have the silver bullets. Gaddock Teeg is the nightmare of every Ramp and Control player. No more Supreme Verdict, no more Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, they actually have to run cheap, targeted removal instead of just relying on “oops, I wiped the board” spells.
Other cards like Collector Ouphe and Sanctifier en-Vec can help act like the format’s immune system. Keeping new generalized strategies from getting too out of hand (artifacts/aggro/combo) by being good all-around hate pieces.
We have plenty of artifact strategies, but most of them are combo or aggro based lists. There’s still a chance for something in the realm of control or midrange to spawn. Thopter Foundry pairs with Sword of the Meek to give a powerful stabilization tool for both archetypes. Academy Ruins can help these decks grind well into the late game while also creating new combos (such as Mind Slaver loop), spawning a new way to play artifact based strategies.
We recently got Arcbound Ravager so why not Scrapyard Recombiner. Again, its a rather low power card, but with so many people trying Hardened Scales shells with Hangarback Walker or Marketback Walker (both constructs) it could provide some real tool-boxy power to certain shells. If we want to give a little love to non-affinity lists and still be a aggressive with artifacts, I’d love to see Signal Pest and Puresteel Paladin added to arena. Paladin is some great support for Hammertime, but has also seen play alongside cards like Sram in combo builds as well. And Signal Pest is another great threat for these low-to-ground aggro shells, and especially strong in the already existing 8-Whack shells featuring Gleeful Demolition.
I’m also interested in some high-level weirdness like Grand Architect and Ghirapur Aether Grid. Architect lets you turn your blue creatures into mana dorks for artifacts, leading to some truly disgusting turn-three plays, while the Grid gives you a way to win the game without ever even attacking. It’s the “Plan B” that keeps artifact decks from being one-trick ponies.
Scion of Draco is really only played in Domain style shells, which Historic already has most of! Territorial Kavu, Leyline of the Guildpact, and Tribal flames play a key role, while Scion could be the final threat the deck needs to have some real power.
These bad boys are mainly just for interesting brews and to add some variety to the card pool.
The headliner here is Astral Drift. Cycling hasn’t seen play since Ikoria standard, but this could give some new life to the mechanic in a different form. You’re blinking your own creatures for ETB triggers or blinking your opponent’s attackers to stay alive. It’s a completely unique playstyle that feels nothing like any current archetype.
Then you have my personal favorite: Heartless Summoning. It lets you play “Big Stompy” in a way that feels dangerously fast but is fragile enough to keep it from being Tier 0. You’re playing high costed threats ahead of time at the cost of giving them -1/-1. That my sound similar to the Eldrazi menace that we just got done dealing with. But at least Summoning has a draw back and is a bit easier to interact with. It forces you to build your deck entirely differently, looking for high-toughness creatures or “leaves play” triggers. It’s the kind of card that makes my eyes light up when I see it in my opener.
Swans and Seismic Assault: “Hit our Swans, draw some cards”
And we can’t talk about jank without Dubious Challenge. It’s for gamblers! But in reality you can brew some interesting lists with things like Flickerwisp to make sure you always come out on top.
The other cards like Spore Frog, Battle Hymn, or Early Harvest are rather niche but can spark whole new decks with ease. Ebony Owl Netsuke pairs well with Fevered Visions, which is already Historic legal, and serves as another fun wincon for players to brew around. They give people a reason to log in and try something new instead of just grinding the same three meta decks every single day.
If you’ve been hanging out on the Jank Tank, you know my love for Mono-Red Control. In Historic, “Red” usually just means Burn or Wizards, but it could be so much more. Skred is the foundational piece here. It’s one of the best scaling removal spells around, playable both early and late in the game. ut you need a payoff for playing all those Snow-Covered Mountains, and that’s where Koth of the Hammer comes in. Koth is a rather fair Planeswalker. He pressures life totals, ramps you, and his emblem is a powerful win-con. With just these two cards alone we could have a playable version of Skred Red (with Magus of the Moon) in Historic.
Continuing with going big, Extraplanar Lens could be another great artifact for obscure ramp decks. Imprinting a snow-land can help make sure that the effect is one-sided (in your favor) and fuel a powerful top end.
Pyrohemia is a rather obscure card that has some interesting ways to build around it. It’s rather sweet with Screaming Nemesis or some sort of Mono-R control shell.
We have Knight of the Reliquary in the format, but it feels like it’s missing some its friends: Life from the Loam and Retreat to Coralhelm. Loam is jsut such an iconic and powerful engine for eternal formats that has fallen off in recent years. But in a opne format like Historic I think we could put it to good use. Hopefully it could seperate out some of the land strategies and split them between Scapeshift style builds and more grindy ones when we pair it with Seismic Assault from above.
Speaking of lands, landfall aggro pops up every now and again on the ladder, but with Steppe Lynx and Retreat to Coralhelm we could see some much more streamlined versions that dabble into other colors besides red. I don’t think Knightfall Combo has been viable in Modern in a loooong time, but it might have some merit here! Although it’ll be a bit under powered without fetches.
Other powerful mana engines included Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wall of Roots. Notably for Chord of Calling based strategies in particular. They block, they accelerate, and they’re only 2 mana. Edge of Autumn kind of fits this group too. Its a rather niche effect for these strategies, but good to have nonetheless.
Now some of these are a little more iffy. Wizards is not a fan of making your opponent unable to play the game. But prison and attrition are real and viable strategies and part of any healthy metagame. It starts with Smallpox and Death Cloud. These are the ultimate equalizers. In a meta where people are ramping into oblivion or playing greedy five-color piles, Smallpox is a rather strong card. However, we don’t have Flagstones of Trokair to stay ahead. You lose a land, they lose a land; you discard a Squee, they discard a card. It rewards you for building a deck that thrives on low resources. Death Cloud is the big brother. It’s a high-skill finisher that requires you to manage your mana perfectly so you’re the only one left standing and can lead to interesting gameplay despite focusing on resource denial.
In order to make these decks work though, we need a way to slow the game down with prison elements. The Solemnity lock currently exists, and you can call me crazy, but I also want Ensnaring Bridge goddamit! Look, I know it’s controversial. People hate playing against it. But it forces hyper efficient creature decks to actually pack interaction like Haywire Mite or Boseiju. It creates a “lock” that rewards players for emptying their hand—which, conveniently, is exactly what Smallpox and The Underworld Cookbook help you do.
For these types of decks to exist though, they generally need some way to slowly generate an advantage. Academy Ruins and Hall of Heliod’s Generosity give prison decks recursion and Emeria, the Sky Ruin is a sweet engine for white based blink strategies that differs from the traditional Soulherder builds.
I’d like to see some more tactically-tooled walkers in the format as well. Take Ajani Vengeant. This is the quintessential “Boomer” walker. He locks down a land, he bolts a creature to keep you alive, and his ultimate sets the opponent way back. He’s not overpowered, but he’s playable and gives you a ton of versatility as soon as he comes down.
Then you have the “Engine” walkers. Garruk Wildspeaker is the gold standard for green midrange. He ramps you by untapping lands (shout out to Utopia Sprawl and Nykthos users), he protects himself with beasts, and he threatens an Overrun the very next turn. He’s simple, powerful, and fair. On the flip side, we have Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. If you’re playing the artifact package I mentioned earlier, Tezzeret is your finisher. He digs for your Thopter Foundry, and and can close out games by himself. I’d love to see a playable Tezzerator deck come to life here.
And then… there’s Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. I just think he’s neat. This is Fun & Jank afterall.
Superfriends is another popular strategy that people try but has never had much success. To tie it all together, we need better enablers. Carth the Lion is the missing link for a dedicated Superfriends build that doesn’t feel like a pile of random mythics. He makes your walkers harder to kill and lets them ultimate faster. Pair him with Planebound Accomplice, and you have the potential for some truly degenerate sneak-attack style turns.
Humans is already so so so close to being good. We just lack a few staples on arena like Champion of the Parish and Unsettled Mariner. Humans lacks that scary must-answer one drop right now. Pair it with Unsettled Mariner, and you have the perfect core for a tribal shell. Making your opponent pay one extra mana for every single Fatal Push or Abrupt Decay is the kind of friction that lets a creature deck actually cross the finish line.
Zombies is also missing some key players at the moment. Gravecrawler and Geralf’s Messenger are the some notable pieces we lack. Gravecrawler is arguably the best recursive one-drop ever printed. It’s not just an attacker; it’s fodder. Enabling both tribal and combo strategies. Messenger is a bit bigger but can also play a dual role in the format, giving tribal, devotion, and combo strategies another playable card.
And lastly we have Elementals, which actually just got a lot of love from Lorwyn Eclipsed. But could be even better with just a couple cards. Flamekin Harbinger is a one-mana tutor on a stick. Whether you’re finding a Risen Reef for value or a Fulminator Mage to blow up a Nykthos or a greedy tri-land, the Harbinger gives Elemental decks a toolbox. Speaking of Fulminator Mage, this is exactly the kind of Safety Valve I talked about earlier. It’s fair, it’s interactive, and it tells the five-color-pile players that their mana base isn’t invincible. Lightning Skelemental can also spawn another aggressive version of the tribe all by itself. We already have Thunderkin Awakener and Ball Lightning, so why not throw in old Thunder Balls himself and call it a day?
Wizards gave us Force of Negation and Force of Vigor, but the cycle feels incomplete. I’d argue those two are the strongest of the cycle, followed by Force of Despair, but all 5 don’t feel too crazy in the current context of Historic. Force of Negation has a been a good safety valve so far, but is seeing less play than expected. I think the other forces are a safe bet.
Next up I have some general use cards that were/are modern staples or playables. Gifts Ungiven promotes fun graveyard strategies in the form of both grindy reanimator and big combo. Kaya’s Guile feels right at home in terms of the power level of the format and be a nice piece of tech for BW lists.
I’m not entirely sure prowess and other spellslinger style decks need the boost, but Vines, Lava Dart, and Mutagenic Growth are all cheap manageable spells. I think they’d help make the stack a little more interesting.
I have quite a hodgepodge of cards for the last couple groups here.
The Martyr cycle is a rather interesting one, although only a few have seen regular play in Eternal formats. Sands is the one most people know of and is usually paired with Squadron Hawk (caw-blade anyone?). Diversifying the lifegain strategies could help pull it up from the depth of Gold Rank, but I’m not sure we actually want that. But it’s not just about life gain. Martyr of Frost gives blue decks a way to interact with the stack on turn one, and Sky Hussar provides a “free” draw engine for creature-heavy decks.
Daybreak Coronet is also a staple of the bogles strategy in other formats, and I’m sure Boros Auras would quickly adopt it too. It may be too strong with Lightpaws, but would give a traditional GW or Bant bogles build some legs for sure.
Let’s talk about the clock. Goblin Guide is the gold standard for aggro. It’s fast, it’s dangerous, and it gives the opponent information,it’s a balanced card that forces a race. Burn is somewhat present in the form of UR Wizards right now, but Guide could potentially be a reason to go back to the ‘ol reliable version featuring Swiftspear and friends. I added a couple other aggro cards here for good measure, to give a boost to more fringe strategies. Lightning Mauler plays very well off of Amped Raptor or Burning-tree Emissary, and Strangleroot Geist is a great reason to be a weenie-style green aggro list. Madcap Skills and Pongify are fun additions to the format in general.
On the more technical side, we have Coiling Oracle and Watcher for Tomorrow. These are the cards that help you find your pieces while putting a body on the board. They’re great targets for blink effects, generate value, and decent fodder for things like Neoform or Aether Vial.
To top it off, a few more random, but interesting cards to brew with. Living End is a format-defining deck in Modern and we have a majority of the pieces for it in one form or another in Historic. It wouldn’t be full powered, but it would certainly make a splash.
Madcap Experiment is another card that was playable at one time but got powercrept out of the format. We have both Platinum Angel and Emperion and this package can be slotted into ton of different shells while still being easy to interact with. This one kind of feels like a no-brainer if we already have Indomitable Creativity hanging around.
The utility here is just as spicy. Sunforger is the ultimate “toolbox” for Boros, letting you tutor for any answer in your deck at instant speed. Serum Powder helps the weirdest jank decks find their starting hand, and Postmortem Lunge gives you a “haste” enabler for your graveyard creatures for the low price of some life. Even Out of Time and Trail of Evidence provide unique ways for Control and Clue-based decks to manage the board and stay ahead on cards.
Closing Thoughts
Looking back at this list, it’s easy to see a mix of the legendary staples and the truly obscure Jank Tank specials.
Historic feels so much better after the recent bans. By clearing out the hyper-efficient rot Wizards has finally given the format room to breathe. I’ve tried to look for cards that would be impactful but also fair and fun to play. We aren’t looking for the next Tier 0 disaster; we’re looking for the missing link that makes an archetype viable. There’s a massive list of strategies, from Martyr-Proc to Death Cloud, that are only missing a card or two. Since Historic has carved out its own unique power level (somewhere between the Wild West of Timeless and the curated path of Pioneer), I truly believe that bringing in these pieces of Modern’s past is the right move. They have the relevance and the playability to matter, but they require the kind of tight, technical play that defines a healthy non-rotating format.
I keep a running “wish list” of cards I want to see come to MTG:A and Wizards has already added a large chunk of them over the past couple years or so. Hopefully they keep their finger on the pulse with this format because I’d like to see them continually add these fun additions as time goes on to help keep older cards relevant and give us a little hit of nostalgia.
That’s it for me!
Thanks for reading!
As always, feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below. And make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!
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Happy Brewin’!
