Table of Contents
- Event Details
- Event Rewards
- Historic Banned Card List
- Best Gift Bag Historic Festival Decklists
- Izzet Wizards
- Boros Thopters
- Izzet Belcher
- Dimir Dredge
- Eggs Combo
- Budget Red Deck Wins
- Complete List
- Izzet Wizards by Jee Dhillon – Gift Bag Historic Event (5-0)
- Izzet Wizards – Gift Bag Historic
- Boros Thopters – Gift Bag Historic
- Izzet Belcher – Gift Bag Historic
- Dimir Dredge – Gift Bag Historic
- Eggs Combo – Gift Bag Historic
- Budget Mono Red Aggro – Gift Bag Historic
- Wrap Up
Hey everyone! We have finished going through a Season of Growth during our latest ride of the festival. The train is pulling up to the next station and this time it is Gift Bag Historic. I’m sure most of you are wondering what a gift bag emblem does.
It is “At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn’t been chosen: Create a treasure token, Create a clue token, Create a food token” You only get each of them one time and then the gift bag is empty.
For those of you without much Historic experience, it is a very fast format where games can end in the blink of an eye. This is especially true when you’re playing the Bo1 version like this event. You might be asking yourself, “Why is Josh discussing format speed in Festival event?”. Quite simply that you might not get much off of the stipulation other than getting an extra mana off of the treasure.
Of course, there are some options such as Gleeful Demolition that will always have a target now. Red decks probably didn’t need that food anyway, but they sure could use three little beaters.
Keeping that in mind, we’ll mostly be playing decks that wouldn’t mind an extra mana early. I’ll be providing a budget deck for those who don’t want to invest into a top tier historic deck just for a festival.
Since the effect is pretty minimal on game play, you will be fine playing almost anything off of our recently updated Bo1 Historic Meta Tier List. I’ll be highlighting the ones that I think you should be considering in this article.
Yeah, yeah, I’m almost to the decklists… Just some event info and then you can click your buttons.
Event Details
- Duration: October 6th, 2023 at 8:00 AM PST – October 10th, 2023 at 8:00 AM PST
- Format: Gift bag Historic
- Entry Fee: 2500 Gold or 500 Gems
- Ends After: When event ends
- Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
Event Rewards
| Wins | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 Win | Twining Twins Adventure Card Style |
| 2 Wins | Cruel Somnophage Adventure Card Style |
| 3 Wins | Mosswood Dreadknight Adventure Card Style |
| 4 Wins | Virtue of Knowledge Adventure Card Style |
| 5 Wins | Beluna Grandsquall Adventure Card Style |
Historic Banned Card List
The following cards are banned in historic:
- Agent of Treachery
- Blood Moon
- Brainstorm
- Channel
- Counterspell
- Dark Ritual
- Demonic Tutor
- Field of the Dead
- Intruder Alarm
- Land Tax
- Lightning Bolt
- Memory Lapse
- Natural Order
- Necropotence
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- Sneak Attack
- Spreading Seas
- Swords to Plowshares
- Thassa's Oracle
- Tibalt's Trickery
- Time Warp
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Veil of Summer
- Wilderness Reclamation
Best Gift Bag Historic Festival Decklists
Izzet Wizards
I expect some version of this to be the most played deck in the festival. Very easy to pick up and play with most of the rares tied up in the mana base. Sometimes it just kills the opponent before they have a chance to get off of the ground and it has just enough interaction to keep them honest.
Companion
Creatures (15)
Instants (14)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$245.4
Sideboard
1 Cards
$0.79
Boros Thopters
This probably gains the most off of the emblem because it cares about raw number of artifacts and can turn those free artifacts into 4/4s off of Yotia Declares War.
Companion
Creatures (16)
Artifacts (18)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$425.24
Sideboard
1 Cards
$1.49
Izzet Belcher
One of the problems this deck has always run into is all of the tapped lands leaving you one mana short from going off before dying. Getting that extra treasure can be a huge swing and even getting a food to gain three life can be the difference in living to go off the next turn and packing it in.
Companion
Instants (24)
Sorceries (32)
Artifacts (4)
60 Cards
$314.12
Sideboard
1 Cards
$0.59
Dimir Dredge
The biggest benefit this is getting from the emblem is being able to cast your two-card combo of Founding the Third Path and Glimpse the Unthinkable on turn one to get the party started. Being able to sneak that in underneath a Thoughtseize can be a really big deal.
I’m not expecting to see much graveyard hate in this event so that is another big plus for this one.
Creatures (27)
Instants (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
64 Cards
$312.3
Eggs Combo
Another deck that the extra treasure can be huge in getting to go off a turn earlier with. This deck lets you basically ignore your opponent’s creature removal while you are focused on doing some pretty crazy stuff and/or things.
Companion
Creatures (2)
Artifacts (40)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$115
Sideboard
1 Cards
$0.49
Budget Red Deck Wins
Just a bunch of cheap red cards to try to race to zero. Knowing that you get some free artifacts lets you take advantage of both Gleeful Demolition and Shrapnel Blast. I also threw in Experimental Synthesizer so you’d have some other artifacts to sac once your gift bag runs dry.
Creatures (12)
Artifacts (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$24.44
Complete List
The decks below also include ones from the community.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my coverage of WOE Alchemy limited! Until then, stay classy people!
