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Arena Historic (BO1) Metagame Tier List and Rankings: Innistrad: Crimson Vow – November 2021
Introduction
Discover the best Magic: The Gathering Arena Historic decks and archetypes that the players are using to climb the ranked ladder and win tournaments. Explore the Arena (BO1) Historic metagame as we regularly rank the top decks in a tier list, as well as our comprehensive analysis and review.
- Click here to view the separate analysis and tier list for Traditional Historic (BO3).
- Click on the deck archetype name to find the latest decklists representing it from Mythic ladder, events, and tournaments.
- On the tier list. each deck will be ranked in numerical order as well as tier order. The higher something is within the tier, the better it is than other decks.
Meta Snapshot – November 25, 2021
Tier List and Rankings
- Tier 1: The best of the best. The most consistent decks that sport the highest win rates and generally, the highest play rates.
- Tier 2: Very solid decks that are slightly lacking in some capacity, whether it’s consistency or power compared to the Tier One archetypes. These can still be strong choices for ladder or for tournaments if you are highly skilled with the archetype or play them during the right metas.
- Tier 3: Either these decks are poorly positioned or have a lot of power/consistency issues. These are decks that see play, but are generally worse choices than your other options.
- Tier 4: Off-meta or decks that are not in the rankings, but we have coverage on.
Historic Best of One (BO1) Metagame Tier List
| Rank | Archetype | Tier | Guide | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Humans | 1 | Guide |
| 2 |  | Auras | 1 | Guide |
| 3 |  | Golgari Food | 1 | |
| 4 |  | Izzet Turns | 1 | |
| 5 |  | Elves | 1 | Guide |
| 6 |  | Selesnya Enchantress | 2 | Guide |
| 7 |  | Lifegain Combo | 2 | Guide |
| 8 |  | Izzet Phoenix | 2 | Guide |
| 9 |  | Jund Food | 2 | |
| 9 |  | Jund Citadel | 2 | Guide |
| 10 |  | Jeskai Control | 2 | Guide |
| 11 |  | Merfolk | 2 | Guide |
| 12 |  | Jeskai Creativity | 2 | Guide |
| 13 |  | Neostorm | 2 | Guide |
| 14 |  | Angels | 3 | Guide |
| 15 |  | Burn | 3 | Guide |
| 16 |  | Rakdos Goblins | 3 | |
| 17 |  | Dragonstorm | 3 | Guide |
| 18 |  | Gruul Shamans | 4 | Guide |
| 19 |  | Artifacts | 4 | Guide |
| 20 |  | Death's Shadow | 4 | Guide |
| 21 |  | Hollow One | 4 | Guide |
Tier 1
Selesnya Humans
Creatures (33)
Instants (4)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$431.18
Selesnya Humans utilizes the velocity of Historic’s best Humans with the obscenely broken Collected Company.
Auras
Companion
Creatures (16)
Enchantments (23)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$129.16
Sideboard
1 Cards
$22.99
Azorius Auras has an unbelievable ability to kill quickly but also grind extremely well with the Aura creatures and draw enchantments.
Golgari Sacrifice
Companion
Creatures (13)
Instants (11)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$639.34
Sideboard
1 Cards
$22.99
Nixing the normal Red from the Jund deck, Golgari leans way down and leverages Ravenous Squirrel, Trail of Crumbs, and Lurrus of the Dream-Den to grind through any opposition.
Izzet Turns
Creatures (4)
Instants (19)
Lands (27)
60 Cards
$494.68
Sideboard
7 Cards
$4.83
Taking over the insanely powerful Standard shell to Historic, Izzet Turns tries to set up multiple turns in a row to kill opponents with Bird tokens.
Elves
Planeswalkers (1)
Creatures (34)
Instants (4)
60 Cards
$453.95
Using a large swath of mana producers and insanely broken starts, Elves is by far the fastest deck in Historic being able to kill as soon as turn 3.
Tier 2
Selesnya Enchantress
Enchantments (25)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$205.58
With plenty of support from Jumpstart, Enchantress has a lot of grindy elements with a lot of ways to churn through your deck and a game ending combo.
Selesnya Lifegain Combo
Creatures (32)
Instants (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$371.98
Between aggressive starts and a combo kill, Selesnya Company has an awesome blend of grindy and aggressive elements to tackle the metagame.
Izzet Phoenix
Creatures (14)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$490.88
Phoenix is a classic archetype that is filled to the brim with cheap spells and threats to tempo out the opponent.
Jund Food
Creatures (19)
Instants (3)
Sorceries (3)
Artifacts (4)
Lands (25)
60 Cards
$534.12
Sideboard
1 Cards
$5.99
A deck dedicated to the grind, Jund Food is a deck with a bunch of different engine pieces to slowly press the opponent with time.
Jund Citadel
Creatures (30)
Instants (4)
Artifacts (4)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$515.1
Unlike Jund Food, Citadel looks to combo kill their opponents with Bolas's Citadel and a bunch cheap creatures and sacrifice triggers.
Jeskai Control
Creatures (3)
Instants (16)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$611.12
Jeskai has a boat load of interaction to slice through the threats of the format while simultaneously looking to cheat out a Magma Opus for insane value.
Merfolk
Creatures (34)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$360.4
With a boatload of synergistic creatures, Merfolk looks to build massive board states to decimate the opponent.
Jeskai Creativity
Creatures (3)
Instants (20)
Lands (25)
60 Cards
$543.48
Creativity has the classic elements of a Control deck with a strong prison combo by getting out multiple Serra's Emissary to lock out the opponent from winning.
Neostorm
Creatures (26)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$473.14
While a bit fragile, Neostorm can consistently kill on turn 4 making it an extremely potent weapon against non-interactive decks and still reasonable against reactive decks.
Tier 3
Angels
Planeswalkers (3)
Creatures (29)
Instants (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$498.5
The veritable creature crusher of Historic, Angels is excellent against all the decks looking to attack you but not the best against most Control decks.
Burn
Companion
Creatures (16)
Sorceries (15)
Enchantments (1)
60 Cards
$31.44
Sideboard
1 Cards
$5.99
Looking to play cheap threats and burn spells, Burn can be flexible as a quasi control deck or a very quick aggressive deck.
Rakdos Goblins
Creatures (36)
Sorceries (2)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$273.64
Goblins is all about working towards Muxus and destroying the opponent with a huge swing. It has a strong ability to grind as one Muxus can easily turn the game around.
Dragonstorm
Instants (12)
Sorceries (21)
Enchantments (2)
Lands (19)
60 Cards
$478.74
One of the coolest combo decks in Historic, similar to Neostorm, this deck can also kill consistently on turn 4 with putting a Dragonstorm in the graveyard and getting it back with Mizzix's Mastery.
I’ve won my last eight games in a row with Angels. So fun!
Wait, why are we playing Goblin Instigator instead of Irencrag Feat in bo1?
Thank you very much for the BO1 List! This is awesome! 🙂
I’m frequently running into Elves especially, followed by Jeskai and UW Control and lastly Auras and creature decks like Angels and Gruul. If you look at this as your meta, what deck would you recommend to have the best possible matchup against all the decks? Initially, I was shooting for Jeskai Control with lots of wrath and spot removal, but now I’m thinking if Jund Food would be a better option to have a better control matchup, since I would have lots of dead romval cards in hand then. What would you take? 🙂
Hey Thanks for the great articles. It has been really helpful to study this tier list and the guides to the decks. I would LOVE a quick reevaluation on this since the Meta has changed a bit since May and one deck on the list (dimir pact) was banned lately. Keep up the great work 🙂
Thank you very much again that there is also a BO1 list! 🙂 I also highly appreciate the come back of the amounts of necessary wildcards for each deck! I really missed that function the last months. Thank you! 🙂
I’d argue that both Dragonstorm and NeoStorm Combo are both Tier 2 decks in BO1. They are powerful and can run over any decks on this list except a counter heavy deck. I play Dragonstorm UR and have the most issue with UB Control, Jeskai Control, Burn, and UW / BW Auras.
https://mtga.untapped.gg/profile/eb7aa9be-6ab8-442f-96b4-852cd0af8b08/BJK27X376NAMBITXBT2GS3LKNQ
Hey thanks again for all the work. Is it possible you could update the list now that the D&D set was released?
Honestly, it doesn’t seem like AFR has really impacted competitive Historic much. The only AFR card I’ve seen showing up near the top in tournament results is Demilich which some players are trying in Izzet Phoenix. I’ve maybe seen a couple copies of Power Word Kill? No new archetypes though really.
Thank you so much for updating the list! Highly appreciate! 🙂
Where did the 4-Color Dragonstorm list in this article come from? I’m not convinced it’s better than just focusing on RW for Thrilling Discovery and Cathartic Reunion, plus a little blue for 2 Prismari Command. The listed deck is going to take a ton more damage from your own lands because you’re trying to cast 4 colors of spells, and I don’t think playing 4 Stitcher’s Supplier to block is going to make up for that. Taking 2-4 land damage almost every game is going to result in a lot more losses to aggro decks before you can combo off.
Yeah, after playing with it a bit, I’m 99.9% certain the Dragonstorm list here is worse than this list: https://mtgazone.com/historic-dragonstorm-combo-deck-guide/
The list in this article is much more likely to lose to aggro, and much more likely to miss land drops with significantly fewer draw spells, and therefore not combo on turn 4. I don’t recommend playing it.
This list was from untapped.gg and is supposed to be the most popular variant of it.
I would like to suggest that more information about the decks’ winrate be provided in these metagame tier list articles. For example– is the sample size Diamond-Mythic players, or something else? What time frame are we looking as, as well? And it’s all from Untapped.gg, correct? I think those additional details would help me put the numbers in a better context 🙂
Not a bad idea! From what I gathered, the sample size is Platinum – Mythic as that’s the only range large enough to get a solid sample size and I believe the time frame was from June 14th
I am also 99% certain that elves is not a tier 1 deck in historic. At least not the list in this article. I think the lists which play craterhoof behemoth and growing rites have a much better win %. And even those decks are not really tier 1 in my opinion. They have very bad matchups against every deck that plays a little bit of interaction. I would not consider it tier 1 and I would not recommend building that deck.
Will this article be updated any time soon? A lot has changed in the historic meta and the lists in the bo3 articles still include brainstorm. Please update
Seconded
It’ll be updated with the Bo3 tier list next week or so
Merfolk didn’t even make the bo1 list despite being a top deck in bo3??
Bo1 is very polarized between decks that are looking to goldfish and decks that are looking to interact in some way. A lot of the goldfish decks are faster than Merfolk and a lot of the interaction decks are favored against them Game 1 as well. It’s a way better Bo3 deck as the sideboard makes it super potent and the meta isn’t so polarized
I’ve played a lot of BO1 ranked queue with merfolk recently, easily going from Bronze to Platinum and I have to say that matchups against creature decks are the easiest. I managed to outpace elves, Angels, goblins and slivers on numerous occasions. It is true that the BO1 build is weak against interaction but in BO1 you encounter a lot less Jeskai and control than BO3. Mono Red Burn or Boros Burn is one of my worst matchup with Merfolks. I would still put it way higher than Slivers and very near elves which is also very weak against interaction
I would probably place it lower Tier 2 as it’s far from a bad deck in Bo1 but has seen very little play and results which is why I excluded it to begin with.
Thanks for the update. In my opinion, the Azorius Auras listed here may need some change. 1) Although the Curious Obsession is faster than Staggering Insight, the lifelink is a fatal factor to beat other aggro decks when they are faster than you. I played many games against Burn and Elves, which can kill me with one more turn after turn 3 or 4, where I only have a not-so-big Spiritdancer. As long as I draw Staggering Insight, most of the game ends with my opponents’ explosion. Also, sometimes the aura need to hold back for some tricks, at this point the Staggering Insight is better than Curious Obsession since it doesn’t need to be sacrificed. 2) The Sentinel’s Eyes is actually a much more powerful aggressive aura than Cartouche of Solidarity, or even All That Glitters. The reason is that the creatures attached with many auras are already big enough to beat most creatures, so even without the first strike, our creatures can still survive from the battle. With the vigilance ability, we can attack each turn with the defense saved, so that the opponents must consider “Even if I do not block, I still can’t attack since it’s vigilance”, and this often force them to spend small creatures again and again. Cartouche of Solidarity is good on every aspect, but at some times when I draw Cartouche of Solidarity, I have to hold back. But when I draw Sentinel’s Eyes, I can attack. 3) Alseid of Life’s Bounty has good abilities, but most of the time we don’t have the 1 mana for the protection. The Selfless Savior do most of the protection, then the
Spell Pierce is very good against control decks (sometimes the Tibalt’s Trickery :D), then the Karametra’s Blessing (the +2+2 is sneaky). 4) Flying is important, sometimes fatal.
So my adjustments are mainly these: 1) 4 Staggering Insight, no Curious Obsession. 2) 4 Sentinel’s Eyes, 2~3 Cartouche of Solidarity. 3) 0~1 Alseid of Life’s Bounty, 2~3 Spell Pierce. 4) 4 copies of Arcane Flight. 5) We can also -1 All That Glitters, -1 Heliod’s Punishment, and -0~1 Sram, Senior Edificer, add 1~2 Adanto Vanguard, and add 0~1 dual land.
Thanks for the list anyway. I almost check for the update twice each day before this version.
Thanks a lot for the update and the added information! I wonder why the Auras List you put here doesn’t play Hengegate Pathways?Is that a mistake or am I missing something?
That’s a great question honestly. This manabase was from a sample list and I didn’t notice it was missing Pathways, maybe to help Glacial Fortress but you should have more than enough sources already? I guess I’m missing something too or the sample decklist forgot it themselves lol.
Hey Doggert, Terence and guys,
I’m a quite frequent reader here and I highly appreciate your content! It’s me premier go-to page for MTG content. The day when the new tierlist of a set has been released was almost as exciting as spoiler season for me. 😀 Unfornutaly I’m a Bo1 player for several reasons and the quality of their respective tierlists decreased over the time. Nowadays it’s even just copy and paste from the BO3 list (correct me, if I’m wrong, but I had a quick look to compare them). I know and I completely understand that your focus is on BO3, even though that I think that many of the casual player which you me reach with you content, play BO1. I know that it’s way harder for you to make a BO1 version. This was also a reason, why often the BO1 lists came a week later or so, because you needed more time to evaluate it. That’s completely fair and acceptable. Back then we still had own decklists for BO1, even though that it was often probably just an assumption, because you didnt have the time to try it out and adjust it. Nowadays all the linked lists are BO3.
I really love you work and your passion, and this is the reason why I ask you to either increase your quality of BO1 tierlists again or to just leave it out completely. But copy and paste doesnt seem fair to readers. It’s just clickbait and views. Sorry guys.
I hope you will move on and think of the BO1 readers base.
Thank you! 🙂
Hi there, thanks for the feedback. We are indeed working on something at the moment, we just didn’t want to have something displayed so outdated – keep an eye out!
Thank you very much for taking BO1 in the focus again. 🙂 I like the tierlists, but especially the new BO1 decklist for each deck guide. That is really awesome! 🙂 Now we dont have to ask in the comments anymore for advice for BO1 adjustments, although I didnt ask that much in the past anymore, since I’m a Historic player. I’d love to see more Historic content, but I can also understand that most people play Standard and prefer that content. But speaking as a f2p-player with limited amount of time, keeping up with Historic is easier in long-term perspective than keeping up with Standard. And I think that probably many of the non-premium readers might be f2p-player and therefore also focus on Historic or at least at anytime soon, when their majority of cards is Historic playable only. It’s just easier to finally collect all the shocklands and stuff than always collecting all the rotating Standard Rare Lands. That would also align with the new rise of BO1 content here, since probably many of the f2p-players are also BO1 players, since that needs less collected cards and time.
Anyways, thank you very much! 🙂
Thanks again for your time and effort. I really appreciate these articles a lot. Especially since Bo1 Historic advice is very rare to find sadly. I think one of the decklists has a minor flaw though. The Golgari Sacrifice list should really add Lurrus as a companion since the deck fulfills all the requirements and Lurrus adds some respectable power to that deck. Correct me if I’m missing something.
Thanks 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying it! Also Lurrus was 100% supposed to be there, just put in the deck incorrectly. That’s been fixed so thank you for letting us know!