Introduction

Discover the best Magic: The Gathering Arena Alchemy decks and archetypes that the players are using as to climb the ranked ladder and win tournaments. Our MTG Arena Best of One (Bo1) Alchemy metagame regularly reviews and ranks the top decks in the format. We also follow up our choices based on a variety of factors and sources, with comprehensive analysis from the data available. Updated in December!

Alchemy Best of One (Bo1) Meta Tier List

Tier	Deck Name
Tier 1	Selesnya Rabbits
Tier 1	Grixis Heist
Tier 1	Orzhov Reanimator
Tier 2	Azorius Enchantments
Tier 2	Boros Mice
Tier 2	Orzhov Bats
Tier 3	Sultai Control
Tier 3	Gruul Dinos

• Tier 1 decks are consistent at executing their strategy and better/faster than other decks of the same class in the format at doing so, making them dominate picks in the metagame.
• Tier 2 decks are strong decks that consistently execute their game plan, but are slower or more susceptible to interaction than the Tier 1 decks, putting them just a step below.
• Tier 3: decks are good at executing their game plan but just don’t sit well against the current decks in higher tiers, making them good choices in a vacuum but require some tuning to thrive in the current meta.

Tier 1 Decks

Selesnya Rabbits

Key Cards and Gameplan: Selesnya Rabbits is an aggressive creature deck looking to curve out and overpower the opponent with their wide board.

The curve starts on turn one with Valley Mightcaller, or only non-rabbit that grows whenever a rabbit enters, Seasoned Warrenguard, which grows when it attacks while we control a token, and Pawpatch Recruit which can also be cast for three to create a 1/1 token copy.

Our two drops are all about synergy. Burrowguard Mentor grows for all of our creatures, Valley Questcaller grows our whole team and gives us some scries along the way, and Finneas, Ace Archer grows our team when it attacks. Hop to It makes three tokens which we can use to overwhelm the opponent or use to pay for our convoke threats.

Our convoke threats help us scale into the late game, with Emmara, Voice of the Conclave drafting us another threat from its spellbook, and Buxton, Decorated Host pulling more threats out of our deck.

Our removal, Sheltered by Ghosts, is great against other aggro decks, since it grants lifelink to swing the race in our favor.

Our last card is Three Tree Battalion a great way to recover from removal spells or a sweeper, or just to overwhelm the opponent with a wide board.

Playing Against this Deck: If you don’t have sweepers, focus on removing their two drops that grow their team, and have your own plan to end the game before they can completely dominate the board. Buxton, Decorated Host is also a must answer, as it really snowballs their board position. If you do have sweepers, focus on staying alive until you can sweep the board to buy time.

Why Tier 1? Selesnya Rabbits is a powerful and consistent deck, and while it used to play second fiddle to Mono-Red Aggro, since the banning of Monstrous Rage it has had a chance to shine as a powerful aggro deck that forces decks to have sweepers or their own fast game plan.

Grixis Heist

Key Cards and Gameplan: Grixis Heist, a long time player in the format, got a bit of a buff when the Chorus cards were buffed, making the deck have more consistent card advantage and removal.

This deck can be broken down into two categories: Heist and Control. The heist side of the deck includes Grave Expectations and Weave the Nightmare which are flexible heist spells that are good at getting us started, catching us up, or keeping us alive.

Our top end heist spell is Triumphant Getaway, which will heist two spells and drain our opponent for two every time we cast a heisted spell. This is our big payoff, and how we get to a point where we can end the game.

The control side of the deck is now the Chorus package. Ribald Shanty is great early removal, Hymn to the Ages is great card advantage, and Mycelic Ballad is great for stabilizing the board and gaining life. Obviously, these spells all work better and better the more you use them. But sometimes one use isn’t enough.

This deck now includes the package of Stormchaser's Talent and This Town Ain't Big Enough The goal is to level up the talent to level two to get back a spell from your graveyard, and then bounce it and an opponent’s permanent, generating tempo and letting you make another otter token and level up again. This Town Ain't Big Enoughis also great for bouncing Triumphant Getaway.

Beseech the Mirror works great with Stormchaser's Talent as well, as we can sacrifice the otter token or the talent itself to bargain.

Lastly, the one copy of Archival Whorl can shuffle our graveyard back into our library, drawing us a fresh 7 cards and putting all of our intensified chorus cards back as well.

Overall, this deck is quite the nuisance, turning your own deck against you, making you question why you even put good spells in your deck.

Playing Against this Deck: In general, Heist decks struggle against very aggressive decks or synergistic decks, where the cards they are heisting just aren’t very good on their own. There are a variety of spells that are good at getting your heisted stuff back, like Paths of Tuinvale, Into the Flood Maw, Parting Gust, Getaway Glamer, and Aven Interrupter so if you hate playing against heist try those cards.

Why Tier 1? In a format dominated by aggro decks, Heist isn’t the best choice, but as things have slowed down, and the buffed Chorus cards fit so seamlessly into the Heist shell, Grixis Heist has risen again as a powerful choice in the format, in both Bo1 and Bo3.

Orzhov Reanimator

Key Cards and Gameplan: The goal of this deck is simple: survive long enough to get Saint Elenda or Valgavoth into the graveyard and then bring it back into play for cheap.

This deck also has two categories: the stay alive category and the reanimator category.

The reanimator category includes ways to get big creatures into our graveyard, such as Bitter Triumph and Splitskin Doll, Zombify and Rite of the Moth give us a lot of four mana ways to bring back a big creature, and our big creatures Saint Elenda and Valgavoth to take over the board.

Perforator Crocodile is a sweet in-between card for this deck. It discards itself to cycle early on, and can be reanimated to wipe out the opponent’s board. Sire of Seven Deaths gives us another big creature to reanimate as well.

The stay alive category includes Bitter Triumph, which does double duty in this deck, Replicating Terror, and Porcine Portent. All good cheap removal spells, some of which gain life, to help us stay alive long enough to get all of our pieces into the right spot.

Rounding out the deck is Chittering Skullspeaker, a great creature to draw some cards, and then chump block to buy time. Chump blocking has gotten much more valuable since Monstrous Rage was banned.

Most decks in this format will have no way to win once one of our big creatures in play so when this deck goes off, it has most certainly locked up the game.

Playing Against this Deck: Well, if you don’t have graveyard hate, you need to end the game before they get a chance to do their thing. They do have a ton of removal, so try to get multiple threats into play early. Counterspells can also help buy some time.

Why Tier 1? I might be going out on a limb putting this deck in Tier 1, but the addition of Zombify has made this deck much more consistent, and with Mono-Red out of the format, the aggro decks don’t kill until turn four or five, making this deck able to go off most games. I think this deck should be a real player, and if you haven’t tried it yet now is the time.

Tier 2 Decks

Azorius Enchantments

Key Cards and Gameplan: Azorius Enchantments is an aggressive deck built around the eerie mechanic from Duskmourn, that triggers whenever an enchantment enters or we fully unlock a room.

Our eerie threats include Optimistic Scavenger to grow our team, Gremlin Tamer to make 1/1 tokens, and Entity Tracker to draw cards. Inquisitive Glimmer reduces the cost of our enchantments and unlock costs,

Mothlight Processionist gives all of our enchantments convoke, helping us snowball our board once we get going. Our other way to draw cards is Enduring Innocence, which on top of being an enchantment itself, draws a card each turn that we have a small creature enter, giving us great synergy with Gremlin Tamer.

Our enchantments include Shardmage’s Rescue to protect our threats, and this card is particularly great with Mothlight Processionist, as we can convoke it out at instant speed. Ethereal Armor helps grow one of our threats to a lethal force, and Sheltered by Ghosts is our main removal spell that also grants lifelink and a valuable ward 2.

Rounding out the deck is Solitary Study // Endless Corridor, also new from Alchemy: Duskmourn, which can buff up our team on one side, and then provide us a recurring source of enchantments on the other side, to allow us to continue to trigger our eerie effects and continue to grow our team.

Our other removal is Witness Protection, a cheap way to trigger eerie. We also have Valgavoth's Lair hiding out in the mana base to trigger eerie as well.

Playing Against this Deck: The key against this deck is to kill their first play or two to prevent them from getting their engine going. Without Entity Tracker to draw cards, or Gremlin Tamer to make a wide board, the deck can feel a bit clunky to compete with.

Why Tier 2? This deck is quite consistent and has a powerful strategy and engine, but it can be slow to get going, and can fall behind against other aggressive decks. That said, once it gets going it has one of the best engines in the format, drawing a ton of cards, and creating a wide and big board. It has the power to contest the top decks in the format, but needs a bit more consistency before it jumps to Tier 1.

Boros Mice

Key Cards and Gameplan: Boros Mice, sometimes called Boros Auras, is a neat aggro deck combining the best of the Mice of Bloomburrow and the enchantments of Duskmourn to pressure the opponent early and end the game quickly.

Many of the mice in our deck have the valiant ability, which gives us a trigger when we target it with a spell or ability, making all of our cheap auras great ways to trigger valiant.

Our mice include Heartfire Hero, recently nerfed but still powerful, which grows over the course of the game, Emberheart Challenger to gain some card advantage, Manifold Mouse to give double strike or trample to our threats, and Recruit Instructor to draft spells whenever we attack with one of our mice.

Our enchantments include Ethereal Armor to grant first strike and grow the creature it is attached to for all of our enchantments, Shardmage’s Rescue to protect our threats, Sheltered by Ghosts to remove an opposing threat and grant lifelink to swing the life totals in our favor, Demonic Ruckus to grant menace and trample, and Feather of Flight to grant flying and draw a card.

Rounding out the deck we have Optimistic Scavenger to pump out counters when our enchantments enter, and Turn Inside Out to trigger valiant and give us a boost in damage or trade in combat.

Playing Against this Deck: Just like most aggro decks, you have to break up their curve with removal. Their two drops are their real heavy hitters, so try to focus on them, as they grant the most card advantage and ability to hit hard. Be aware of Shardmage’s Rescue, as it can be used to save one of their creatures.

Why Tier 2? The addition of the enchantments package to this deck gives it a great new strategy to keep pace with the other fast aggro decks in the format, helping it disrupt their strategy with Sheltered by Ghosts, and protect their threats against midrange decks with Shardmage’s Rescue. Overall, this deck just has a ton of great threats, making it easy for them to overwhelm opponents. All that said, the nerf to Heartfire Hero and loss of Monstrous Rage have taken a lot of power out of the deck, making it play a bit slower than it used to.

Orzhov Bats

Key Cards and Gameplan: Orhzov Bats is an aggressive mid range deck, looking to use lifelink to outlast the aggro decks in the format, and its large flying army to overwhelm slower decks.

The stars of this deck are Golden Sidekick and Fear of Ridicule. Golden Sidekick helps us grow our creatures in hand whenever we gain life, and is also an enchantment creature, making it a nice curve into Fear of Ridicule, as our sidekick and fly over and trigger Fear of Ridicule right away on turn three.

This deck has good disruption in the form of Deep-Cavern Bat to break up the opponent’s curve, and Darkstar Banisher to take out their early plays.

Meanwhile, Zoraline, Cosmos Caller and Three Tree Battalionlet the deck grind into the mid game, giving it good value to stay relevant against slower decks.

Grave Expectations can heist a spell from the opponent or gain us life to trigger our life gain effects, and Case of the Uneaten Feast is another great way to gain life. Which is great for our remaining life gain payoff, Amalia Benavides Aguirre.

Playing Against this Deck: Golden Sidekick has got to die. If it stays in play for a couple of turns, the creatures that follow it are going to be very large and very difficult to deal with. Without Golden Sidekick, its creatures are quite small, meaning you can usually outsize them on the ground. Zoraline is also a must answer threat, as it can allow them to keep grinding into the late game.

Why Tier 2? This deck has a very powerful strategy that is consistent and easy to execute. All of its creatures have lifelink, making racing against the other aggro decks in the format very doable, and thanks to flying, it is able to push lethal through on most boards. It also has the card advantage to compete with slower decks, making it a well rounded player in the format.

Tier 3 Decks

Sultai Control

Key Cards and Gameplan: Sultai Control is a control deck looking to assemble a powerful card advantage engine, ramp to high levels of mana, and then take over the late game.

The core card of this deck is Up the Beanstalk, which is the main card advantage engine, triggering off of a variety of our spells. Up the Beanstalk is key to keep up with the card advantage generated by the chorus cards and other such engines.

Our ramp starts on turn three, with Overlord of the Hauntwoods, which will trigger Up the Beanstalk, or Ancient Cornucopia which will gain us some life throughout the game. Having a turn three ramp spell is important as it gives us more mana to work with and gets us to our five mana spells.

Our big payoffs for ramping include Doppelgang to copy a variety of permanents and take over the board, Outrageous Robbery to steal a pile of cards from the opponent, and even just leveling up Stormchaser's Talent to level 2 and 3, to return a spell and give us a way to generate a board pressence.

This deck also includes This Town Ain't Big Enough which can bounce Stormchaser's Talent, Up the Beanstalk, or Nowhere to Run for value, and it will trigger Up the Beanstalk even if you are casting it for cheap. You could even bounce an Overlord of the Hauntwoods that is impending to hard cast it instead.

The rest of the deck is about surviving to the late game. Long Goodbye and Nowhere to Run for removal, Into the Flood Maw to slow down aggro decks, and Deadly Cover-Up to clean things up and trigger Up the Beanstalk.

Playing Against this Deck: This deck will feel unfair when they have Up the Beanstalk in play and just average when it doesn’t. If you can keep them off of Up the Beanstalk, with either removal, counterspells, or discard spells, you should be able to grind out the mid game. Otherwise, try to get under them and put the clock on. They do have to take several turns off early to set up their ramp, so try to pressure them early and often.

Why Tier 3? Slower, more synergistic ramp and control decks are always going to be a bit of hard sell to me for Bo1. Although this format has slowed down a bit, and I think that this deck deserves a spot on the tier list, it is going to have some clunky draws that the aggro and midrange decks in the format are able to take advantage of. It also likely struggles against Heist decks, as their big payoff spells can be stolen from them and used against them. However, once it gets going, it is the best late game deck in the format, so if you can survive you have a good shot at taking the game down.

Gruul Dinos

Key Cards and Gameplan: Gruul Dinos is an aggressive midrange deck looking to curve out and dominate the board with their large creatures.

Our curve ideally starts on turn one with either Llanowar Elves or Ixalli's Lorekeeper, as these mana creatures help power out our three drops.

Even without our ramp, we still have great two drops, such as Belligerent Yearling which can pack a punch on future turns when we have a big dino enter, Intrepid Paleontologist for more ramp, graveyard hate, and a way to recur our slain dinos, and Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath, which is fine on turn two, but great once we have four mana to pay for its enters effect and make one of our dinos bite an opposing creature.

Our three drops are the real meat and potatoes of the deck. Pugnacious Hammerskull is just big, although it does require us to have another dino for it to not receive stun counters, it attacks and blocks well into any other creature in the format.

Stalwart Speartail was recently buffed, making it so we don’t have to pay any mana to ping the whole board and trigger its enrage ability, buffing all of our dinos. The only unfortunate part of this abiltiy is that it will kill any copies of Llanowar Elves or Ixalli's Lorekeeper that we have in play, but the payoff is worth it, as buffing all of our dinos in play, in hand, and in deck is going to make them even more difficult to answer.

Wingbane Vantasaur is a great flexible card, giving us removal for creatures, artifacts, or enchantments, whatever plagues us.

Palani's Hatcher is a great curve topper, giving us a 5/3, and a 3/3 haste right away, and a second 3/3 haste the next turn. Also, just giving all of our dinos haste is going to make closing out games much easier.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is our ultimate top end though, and it can frequently come down for as little as three or four mana. It is a must answer threat, and will quickly end the game.

Rounding out the deck we have Triumphant Chomp for removal, and Garruk's Uprising to grant trample and draw us cards throughout the game.

Playing Against this Deck: If they lead on a turn one mana creature, kill it immediately, otherwise focus on removing their three drops, as those are their most impactful threats. The goal against this deck should be to never let them have too big of a board, otherwise Ghalta could come down to make things much worse.

Why Tier 3? While this deck can have some pretty sick curve out games, it is pretty susceptible to removal, and without a good source of card advantage, you can easily fall behind after a couple of removal spells or a sweeper. That said, once it has a board presence it can be hard to shake, making it a formidable choice against unprepared opponents.

It’s a great time to try Alchemy!

Alchemy Best of One is in an interesting spot right now. As the format continues to grow, new strategies emerge and evolve, and the banning of Monstrous Rage, nerf to Heartfire Hero, and buff to Chorus cards has really shaken things up.

While there are still powerful aggro decks in the format, other strategies have had a chance to emerge and shine, making me think that this Alchemy Bo1 format may be one of the most balanced Bo1 formats we’ve had in a while.

It is a great time to brew and find the new deck to take on the top of the format. So give Alchemy a try!