MTG Arena will be hosting a special series of events called the Decathlon. Ten events with a variety of formats spanning fifteen days will be culminating to one final event for a chance to win some big prizes, including up to two copies of each card in the upcoming Phyrexia: All Will Be One set! This guide will contain everything you need to know about the Pauper event including the schedule, rewards and our exclusive sample decklists.
Ends After: 7 wins or 3 losses, whichever comes first
Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
The event was initially advertised as Historic Pauper (all cards in MTG Arena) but a bug in the event is allowing only Standard Alchemy common cards (without rebalances) as the legality.We’ve amended our deck recommendations accordingly, but there is also a small possibility that Wizards of the Coast could also fix the event. If which case if that happens, please go to our Historic Pauper deck database!
You can enter the Decathlon events as many times as you want, but you can only get one decathlon token from each event. You also need to get three different tokens to be able to enter the finals so make plans to play other events if you want to get your hands on some of those sweet finals prizes.
The Top Pauper Decks
While there was much more to go off of for Historic Artisan last year, Pauper is a much less explored format making the variety of decks you’re likely to face higher and the importance of having a solid deck that much more important as well.
To make matters even more complicated, this is regular Alchemy Pauper rather than Historic Pauper! The power level of this format is going to be extremely low so your biggest edge will be deck building. To get you started, here’s how I would build the five mono colored decks and what I like about each.
Mono White is a simple strategy that can produce devastating outcomes. Flood the board, chip away at the opponent’s life total, kill them before they can kill you!
If you’re looking to have complete control over the game, Mono Blue tempo is packed to the brim with interaction and then allows you to go over the top with large threats like Mirrorshell Crab and Tolarian Terror
The goal is to grind, and Mono Black should be able to do that extremely well! With a solid amount of removal and value creatures, you’ll always have something to do!
Acting almost like a combo deck, the goal here is to play a creature or two who likes spells, cast as many spells as you can, and blow up the opponent’s life total!
Another extremely simple game plan. Mono Green aims to play some ramp creatures early and then continually windmill slam huge threats until the opponent falls too far behind!
While there isn’t a huge initial incentive to splash as there’s very few good multicolor commons, there are definitely reasons to. The primary reason I would look to splash is to shore up a huge weakness in a deck, such as adding better removal to a color that didn’t get much. For example, adding Black to these mono colored decks seems like a reasonable option or Blue to Mono Red to give it additional threats and spells.
These could offer improvements to the deck if you think that making your mana more clunky is worth the effects you get access to. For the most part, I think it’s going to end up being worth it as none of these decks should be able to kill that effectively so the tempo loss of top lands is pretty well mitigated by the natural clunkiness of all these decks.
No matter what you choose, I wish you the best of luck!
Decathlon 2: Pauper 7 Win Decklists
Check out the variety of 7 win decklists from the community also!
Hey everyone! Wizards has thrown down the gauntlet for us to test our skills in the MTG Arena Decathlon. It’s a series of events that culminate in a finals where you can win a pile of goodies including a full set of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and an exclusive Jace, the Mind Sculptor avatar. The opening leg of the Decathlon is the first time on MTG Arena that we get to try a combined Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow sealed event.
Duration: December 18, 2021 @ 8:00 AM PST to December 20, 2021 @ 8:00 AM PST
Format: Phantom Sealed: Three packs each of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow
Entry Fee: 2,000 Gold or 400 Gems
Ends After: 7 wins or 3 losses, whichever comes first
Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
Rewards
Wins
Reward
7 wins
3,000 Gold + Decathlon token
6 wins
3 packs
5 wins
2 packs
3–4 wins
1 pack
0–2 wins
No rewards
Entry Reward
Arena Decathlete Sleeve
Arena Decathlete Sleeve
Packs awarded during Decathlon events can be from sets legal in Historic, Standard, and can even include the new Alchemy: Innistrad packs:
Alchemy: Innistrad pack: 20%
Standard set pack: 40%
Historic set pack: 40%
You can enter the Decathlon events as many times as you want, but you can only get one decathlon token from each event. You also need to get three different tokens to be able to enter the finals so make plans to play other events if you want to get your hands on some of those sweet finals prizes.
While it is relatively cheap to enter these events, you don’t get any currency back until you get to 7 wins so it can turn into a bit of a cash sink. On the other hand, if you just enjoy the Sealed experience, this is a bargain compared to the normal events (with the caveat that you don’t get to keep any cards from your sealed pool).
Building Your Sealed
Dreadfeast Demon Art by Andrew Mar
No matter what advice I give you, obviously the first thing you’re going to do when you open your sealed is to check if you won the rare lottery. So we’ll start after you’ve done the victory lap around the room for your triple Mythic Rare open.
Now that you’ve settled down, the first thing I like to do is to add all the cards that I actively want to play so I have a better idea of how deep each color really is. This prevents you from thinking “my Black is really awesome” when you actually have a lot of undesirable cards with a few that really stand out.
The next thing I want to look at is what mana fixing you have available. This can let you know whether you can splash your power cards or if you need to try to build a more aggressive deck.
Unless your sealed was insane, it’s usually pretty easy to eliminate two colors that just don’t get there. Now look over the remaining colors and make combinations of two color decks to compare which have the best mix of curve and power level. You can also see if any of the combinations are missing something like removal or a way to finish the game.
When you’re comparing the two color versions, you are probably going to be a few cards short so try to fill in the gaps with splashed single pip removal or power cards. Once you make your final choice, you’re just a mana base away from running the table.
Tips and Tricks
Set specific payoffs tend to be worse in combined formats since the cards are split between both sets.
Black was a top two color in both sets so it should be the top color in this event.
Sealed is slower than draft so you will have more time to draw cards and play out your splashed cards.
Evolving Wilds is always making the cut in your deck. Don’t overthink this, just put it in.
Think about which cards are going to perform better with cards from the other set for example Necroduality with all of Midnight Hunts Zombies.
Individual exploit cards will be better than they were in VOW because of the addition of decayed tokens. Being able to sacrifice an incidental token instead of an actual card is a huge difference.
While it’s going to be tempting to try to build the Festival Crasher and Kessig Flamebreather deck, it’s going to be very unlikely that you get a combination of enough of each along with a density of spells to make it worth it.
Traveling Minister gets the nod for me as the top white common as it changes the entire flow of the game for one mana. Incidental life gain while pushing extra damage is a huge payoff for such a small investment and should play just as well in a mixed format.
Fierce Retribution is unconditional removal for six mana while providing the out of being able to Doom Blade an attacker. The expensive side isn’t as big of a drawback in sealed as it is in draft so that bumps this up and makes it a splash candidate.
Lunarch Veteran provides both incidental life gain and card advantage by coming back as a flyer. This was a huge overperformer in MID and I don’t see that changing here.
Search Party Captain isn’t hard to play for two or three mana providing card advantage and a bear. This type of “free” creature plays very well in sealed and gets better in multiples.
Sigarda's Imprisonment is a fine card as long as your opponent isn’t playing exploit or ways to gain a benefit off of the imprisoned creature. While there are only half as many packs of exploit available there are new cards like Ecstatic Awakener that will still gladly munch them up. This should still be great against any non-Dimir deck.
Organ Hoarder was the “mythic common” of Midnight Hunt and it is going to be just as nuts alongside VOW. This is another card that I would happily splash into almost any deck that can support it.
Revenge of the Drowned acts as an instant speed removal plus a free zombie. This would be a very playable card without the bonus 2/2, but now that decayed tokens can be exploited it has even more value.
Flip the Switch is one of the best limited tempo counters we’ve seen in awhile. Even in the late game, it’s never fully dead because you still get that zombie.
Syncopate might seem controversial here, but you have to remember that sealed is slower and more likely to revolve around who has more powerful cards. Removal is at a premium and the ability to answer anything is much stronger when you don’t have to worry about getting run over as quickly.
Bleed Dry is the no restrictions removal spell of choice out of these sets. Instant speed, hits everything, gets around indestructible, and exiles in a format full of disturb. The only knock on this is the difficulty in splashing it.
Diregraf Horde is a total beast bringing seven power down while wrecking your opponent’s graveyard. While there are only half the flashback spells, there are still plenty of disturb and recurrence in VOW to hit. Diregraf Horde was responsible for an insane amount of bad beat stories from Midnight Hunt.
Ecstatic Awakener might be a little worse than it was in MID with less decayed tokens floating around, but still plays great with some of the VOW exploit fodder like Doomed Dissenter and Wretched Throng.
Diregraf Scavenger is just a miniature Diregraf Horde which means it’s still a great card and the life drain with a deathtoucher can make life miserable for your opponent.
Defenestrate and Eaten Alive are kind of lumped together as great removal with a drawback. They are still very good and always going to make your deck if you are playing black, but the drawbacks are real.
Abrade is just a great efficient removal spell that provides coverage for troublesome artifacts. It’s always been awesome in limited and I don’t see that changing here.
Flame-Blessed Bolt might be even better with MID in the mix with even more disturb creatures floating around. There are times when this card singlehandedly wins tempo battles making it an easy inclusion in any red deck.
Burn the Accursed blows Lacerate Flesh out of the water in the five mana red removal competition. This is pretty close to unconditional removal, but unfortunately misses some of the bombs like Dreadfeast Demon.
Falkenrath Celebrants should play out better in sealed than draft as you have more time and less blood production turning this into a draw two. Just a great top end card that I would consider a solid splash in a deck that needs the card selection.
Moonrager's Slash is still just an efficient removal spell whether or not you can flip it to night.
Shadowbeast Sighting will actually give the VOW UG self mill cards a relevant payoff to hit. Just a solid creature that comes back for seconds. I think this will play better in this combo since VOW has much better green cards than MID.
Weaver of Blossoms value goes up in sealed because it provides an easy way to splash powerful cards. I’ll happily play as many of these as I get in any green deck.
Flourishing Hunter is easier to play in the slower sealed formats and provides a huge body with some game stabilizing lifegain thrown into the deal.
Eccentric Farmer is still a great card, but goes down a bit as VOW lacks payoffs to hit. It’s still an acceptable body that almost always replaces itself.
Wolf Strike is the bite spell of the set and as long as you have some decent creatures this is almost three mana instant speed removal. Just be very careful when you play this as a blowout can be devastating.
Wrap Up
This should be a really fun experience since it’s almost a pseudo prerelease of this set combination. Hopefully this guide will get you a head start in that race for the first Decathlon medal.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
Robert "DoggertQBones" Lee is the content manager of MTGAZone and a high ranked Arena player. He has one GP Top 8 and pioneered popular archetypes like UB 8 Shark, UB Yorion, and GW Company in Historic. Beyond Magic, his passions are writing and coaching! Join our community on Twitch and Discord.
