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Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the bright lights on your trip back to Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty or as I will forever recall it, Red Fest 2023. I’m looking at the next step in the Decathlon and I Shih Tzu not (editor’s note: Wow Josh, trying my patience early on this one, huh?), it appears to be Omniscience phantom bot draft. Normally you want to get the wild and crazy out earlier in life, but they saved this one for last.
The very basic event info is that it costs 2000 gold a pop and you need to get seven wins before you get three losses. If you get there, you get that all important Decathlon Token while getting to dubs up on your entry fee. If you fail, you get an insignificant number of random packs. In other words, crush dreams and get there.
Event Details
Draft from packs of mixed cards from across MTG Arena and build a 40-card deck. All spells can be cast for no mana!
- Duration: January 13, 2023 @ 8:00 AM PST to January 16, 2023 @ 8:00 AM PST
- Format: Omniscience Phantom Bot Draft
- 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)
Note: These are Phantom events, and cards are not added to your collection.
Rewards
| Wins | Reward |
|---|---|
| 7 wins | 4,000 Gold + Decathlon token |
| 5-6 wins | 3 packs |
| 3–4 wins | 2 packs |
| 1-2 wins | 1 pack |
| 0 wins | No rewards |
| Entry Reward | Bronze Sundering Titan Sleeve |
Pack Rewards
Packs awarded during Decathlon events can be from sets legal in Standard or Historic:
- Standard main set: 40%
- Non-Standard main set pack: 40%
- Alchemy set – 10%
- Mythic pack: 10%
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.
Knowing it all about Omniscience
What are the exact details of this situation? Funny story. We don’t actually know what the card pool is going to be. Literally the only information we have on the card pool is “Draft from packs of mixed cards from across MTG Arena”. That sounds like it implies that the cards are going to be a curated pool, similar to cube, instead of a typical chaos draft with random packs.
Assuming that’s the case, it will be really interesting to see if they go with crazy over the top cards or just big chonkers. My suspicion is that it will be an updated pool from the last time we had Omniscience Midweek Magic. Of course, they could send us the ultimate curveball and make it all one drops. Calm down people, that’s obviously not really going to happen.
The basics of Omniscience draft are that everything is free to play, but activating abilities and such still costs mana. Luckily you have an emblem that lets you add WUBRG once a turn (including on your opponent’s turn to double up on activating something like Skarrgan Hellkite). You also start each game with only three cards in hand since you don’t have to worry about ever drawing lands. Typically, they have always given you a “first mulligan is free” on this format, but I can’t confirm that will be active here.
Tips and Tricks
You are going to be playing 40 of the 45 (or 42 depending on how they handle it) cards that you draft so even your later picks are going to matter. Don’t just go autopilot at the end of packs and grab whatever.
Card advantage is king. Seriously, if it says draw a card you need to be grabbing it like you’re in the middle of a black Friday sale. Anything that draws more than one card should especially be windmill slammed hard. Even a bad card like Read the Tides is insane because it turns into an Ancestral Freecall that draws all gas.
Counterspells can also be a brick house. You thought Force of Will was good, now you don’t even have to worry about having another blue card to shut your opponent’s best spell down. They are a great way to not get completely destroyed because your opponent won the die roll and had a ridiculous card draw spell. Sublime Epiphany is so heckin’ amazing, I can’t possibly overstate what a house it is.
Discard is another option because if it actually hits, it always hits real cards. The only problem is when you lose the coin flip and they dump their entire hand before you get a chance to use it. Of course, if it’s a card like Bad Deal you get the best of both worlds. Not such a Bad Deal after all, is it?
Removal is only going to be good if it is hard removal. You really don’t want to be picking up Shocks when your opponent is going to be exclusively dropping monsters. Sweepers are also great, especially on the draw after they dropped their entire hand on board.
Creature wise you really just want ones with powerful abilities, preferably comes into play ones. If there are none of those, you usually want to grab the biggest, most ridiculous one that’s hanging around in the pack. Sometimes Gigantosaurus can get there.
I feel bad about having to say this, but don’t draft ramp or mana fixing. It does nothing, you have no lands, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever need more mana than you get off the emblem. It certainly isn’t worth going down a card when everything is free.
Of course, I have saved the most important for last. Just get really, really lucky! Nothing tops having a deck stacked with all stars while winning all your coin flips. It is supposed to be a fun, casual format so the variance is extremely high. Don’t let it get to you if it takes a couple runs to get there.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! I’m glad you have all come along with me on this crazy trip through the decathlon. Don’t worry, I won’t freeze you out on a Kaldheim draft guide to help you prepare for the upcoming flashback draft. Check back in a few days for that, right here on MTGAzone.com. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
You can also find me at:
Past Events
The ninth Decathlon event is Traditional (best-of-three) Standard! It’s time to bring out your best competitive spirit and get ready for some intense matches, as we revisit this stabilized format. Here’s everything you need to know about this event, rewards and sample decklists from the community that achieved the maximum wins.
Event Details
- Duration: December 30, 2021 @ 8:00 AM PST to January 2, 2022 @ 8:00 AM PST
- Format: Standard
- Entry Fee: 2,000 Gold or 400 Gems
- Ends After: 5 wins or 2 losses, whichever comes first
- Match Structure: Best-of-three matches (BO3)
Rewards
| Wins | Reward |
|---|---|
| 5 wins | 3,000 Gold + Decathlon token |
| 4 wins | 2 packs |
| 3 wins | 1 pack |
| 0–2 wins | No rewards |
| Entry Reward | 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.
Standard Guides
Below is our latest take on the Standard format as a whole, for both best-of-one and best-of-three. We have more resources for you to below, as we begin to collect the latest decklists:
- Standard Articles and Deck Guides
- Standard Deck Database
- Standard Metagame
- Arena Standard (BO1) Metagame Tier List and Rankings: Innistrad: Crimson Vow – January 2022
- Traditional Standard (BO3) Metagame Tier List and Rankings: Innistrad: Crimson Vow – December 2021
7 Win Standard Decklists
Below are the decklists from the community that managed to reach the maximum 7 wins in the event. We will aim to be showcasing one deck from each archetype – please note that it is not a representation of the Historic metagame at large.
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