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Monastery Swiftspear Art by Steve Argyle

Historic Artisan – Midweek Magic Event Guide and Best Decklists

This guide will contain everything you need to know about the Midweek Magic: Historic Artisan event, including rewards and our exclusive sample decklists.

Hey everyone! We have once again reached the middle of another week (I know, I know, I keep expecting the world to self-destruct as well, but here we are) and that means that we are primed for another Midweek Magic. This week we will be doing Historic Artisan which is commons and uncommons only built out of the historic card pool. That means there will be no need for a budget list since the entire format is budget.

This is always a popular format every time it becomes available and I look forward to seeing all the builds the community comes up with. Here are some decks to get you started!


Event Details

Welcome to Midweek Magic! Each week, try out a different way to play MTG Arena!

Bring a 60-card deck using only commons, uncommons, and basic lands from any set in MTG Arena. Without rares, the common folk can truly be heard!

Find out more details about this and upcoming Midweek Magic events HERE.

  • Duration: December 19th, 2023 @ 2:00 PM PST to December 21st, 2023 @ 2:00 PM PST
  • Format: Historic Artisan
  • Entry Fee: Free
  • Ends After: You can play as much as you like for the duration of the event.
  • Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)

Event Rewards

WinsReward
1 WinRare Individual Card Reward (ICR)
2 WinsRare Individual Card Reward (ICR)
3 WinsOne Random Cosmetic Item

Banned Cards

The following cards are banned in Historic Artisan:

Let’s be honest here, nobody wants to play the Cauldron Familiar game of a thousand clicks and they can’t have you just Zenith Flareing your opponent in the middle of nowhere.

Decklists

Azorius Auras

A classic archetype where you stack a bunch of auras on a difficult to deal with creature such as Invisible Stalker and quickly run them over while drawing a bunch of cards off of Staggering Insight and Curious Obsession. It’s backed up by Selfless Savior and Alseid of Life's Bounty to prevent any shenanigans from stopping you.

Just a reminder that the Shadows over Innistrad lands were downshifted to uncommon so they are playable here.

MWM Historic Artisan Azorius Auras
by j2sjosh
Buy on TCGplayer $60.96
Midweek Magic
best of 1
0 mythic
4 rare
29 uncommon
27 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Enchantments (21)
4
Ethereal Armor
$3.96
3
Gryff’s Boon
$1.17
Lands (21)
7
Island
$2.45
10
Plains
$3.50
4
Port Town
$1.96
60 Cards
$36.76

Izzet Wizards

While not quite as explosive as the normal Historic version, this can still put a hurting on your opponent with a swiftness. The biggest loss is the mana base which goes from great to really rough. You just can’t afford to have very many taplands in this deck so I went with two just to ease the pain a little bit.

MWM Historic Artisan Izzet Wizards
by j2sjosh
Buy on TCGplayer $81.26
Midweek Magic
best of 1
0 mythic
0 rare
28 uncommon
32 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Instants (14)
2
Consider
$1.58
4
Play with Fire
$17.96
Sorceries (8)
4
Reckless Charge
$1.40
Lands (22)
8
Island
$2.80
12
Mountain
$4.20
60 Cards
$37.72

Ninjas

Another fairly easy transition down to the artisan version. You have twelve cheap evasive creatures that let you ninjutsu out a train of card draw or even a ninja lord on the cheap. It has a bunch of inexpensive interaction that is easy to hold up to ensure that the foot clan emerges victorious.

MWM Historic Artisan Ninjas
by j2sjosh
Buy on TCGplayer $133.24
Midweek Magic
best of 1
0 mythic
8 rare
16 uncommon
36 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Instants (12)
4
Cut Down
$9.16
4
Fatal Push
$7.96
4
Spell Pierce
$3.16
Lands (22)
10
Island
$3.50
8
Swamp
$2.80
4
Choked Estuary
$1.96
60 Cards
$44.76

Red Burn

You know what to do. Point red spells at your opponent until they are toastier than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

MWM Historic Artisan Burn
by j2sjosh
Buy on TCGplayer $68.17
Midweek Magic
best of 1
0 mythic
0 rare
27 uncommon
33 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (16)
Instants (13)
2
Shock
$0.70
4
Play with Fire
$17.96
3
Searing Blood
$1.05
Sorceries (11)
Lands (20)
16
Mountain
$5.60
4
Ramunap Ruins
$3.96
60 Cards
$40.8

Mono Black Sacrifice

While you can’t play the Cat that came back, you do have plenty of other minions to sacrifice to churn through your deck with a swiftness while accumulating value.

MWM Historic Artisan Mono Black Sac
by j2sjosh
Buy on TCGplayer $133.9
Midweek Magic
best of 1
0 mythic
4 rare
20 uncommon
36 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (24)
4
Eyetwitch
$1.40
4
Shambling Ghast
$1.96
4
A-Blood Artist
$0.00
Instants (16)
4
Fatal Push
$7.96
4
Village Rites
$2.76
4
Deadly Dispute
$5.96
Enchantments (4)
Lands (16)
16
Swamp
$5.60
60 Cards
$38.36
7 Cards
$2.45

Complete List

The below decks also include ones submitted by the community. You can also find them in our Historic Artisan deck database here.

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with another MWM (that’s right not even Christmas can stop me from posting these articles). Until then, stay classy people!

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j2sjosh
j2sjosh

Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.

Articles: 287