Today was the second day of competition in the Neon Dynasty Championship, the first official MTG championship of the year. The Swiss rounds of the tournament came to their conclusion today. Four rounds each of Alchemy and Historic were added to yesterday’s standings to determine the Top 8 players who will be continuing to Sunday’s double-elimination playoff.

This article is a continuation of our coverage of the Neon Dynasty Championship on MTG Arena Zone. We’ll be discussing some of the day’s most exciting moments, and presenting the final Top 8 with decklists from each player. If you’d like to watch for yourself, you can view a replay of the entire day’s live broadcast on Magic’s Twitch channel.

In case you missed it, our coverage from day one is embedded below:

Neon Dynasty Championship: Day One Standings and Undefeated Decklists

Additionally, you’ll find more info about the Neon Dynasty Championship’s Alchemy and Historic metagame here:

Neon Dynasty Championship: Most Popular Archetypes with Examples

Neon Dynasty Championship: Swiss Top 8

Rank	Player	Historic Deck	Alchemy Deck	Overall Record
1	Jim Davis	Azorius Auras	Grixis Midrange	15-0
2	Jean-Emmanuel Depraz	Azorius Affinity	Jeskai Hinata	13-2
3	Brent Vos	Izzet Phoenix	Orzhov Venture	12-3
4	Yudai Miyano	Rakdos Sacrifice	Esper Clerics	11-4
5	Jonny Guttman	Golgari Food	Mono White Aggro	11-4
6	Zach Dunn	Rakdos Arcanist	Mardu Midrange	11-4
7	Zhi Yimin	Rakdos Arcanist	Mardu Midrange	11-4
8	Eli Kassis	Izzet Phoenix	Orzhov Venture	11-4

Find the official final standings in full here

At the beginning of play this morning, we still had two players with undefeated records: Jim Davis and Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. The two faced head-to-head in the first featured match of the day, where Davis was able to eek out the win and maintain his untouched record.

Depraz won the first game after a long battle that ended with Magma Opus cleaning up most of Davis’ board. However, Davis and his Grixis Midrange Alchemy deck showcased the power of both Citystalker Connoisseur and the new planeswalker Kaito Shizuki, and he ended up taking the match.

The streak didn’t stop there though; Davis continued to win his next four matches, bringing him to the twelve wins needed to clinch a Top 8 position. Davis was the first player of the day to secure his position in the playoffs, and also the first player at a Set Championship to make a perfect 12-0 run.

"I played a lot of Pro Tours in the late 2000s, and despite a few Top 32s I never had that breakthrough performance that got me on the train, and eventually stepped away from Magic for a while, so it feels pretty damn good to finally get one."

Congrats on the Top 8 @JimDavisMTG! pic.twitter.com/xuD1KOvTFX

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) March 12, 2022

Heading into the fourteenth round, Davis was still the only player to have clinched the Top 8. During the featured match, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz managed to claim his twelfth match victory – thus securing second place in the Top 8 – in a three-game Historic showdown that pitted his Azorius Affinity deck against Eli Kassis playing Izzet Phoenix.

izzet phoenix

50.5% global win rate

15.33% metagame share

Powered by

vs dimir rogues (lurrus)

100.0% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist (lurrus)

85.7% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs esper greasefang

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs azorius control

71.2% win rate

73 tracked matches

vs mono-red burn

66.7% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs rakdos goblins

66.7% win rate

9 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

65.4% win rate

52 tracked matches

vs 5c niv-mizzet

63.6% win rate

44 tracked matches

vs simic merfolk

62.5% win rate

16 tracked matches

vs other

61.0% win rate

82 tracked matches

vs dimir control

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya aggro

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs orzhov auras (lurrus)

57.9% win rate

19 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist

57.7% win rate

104 tracked matches

vs jeskai control (yorion)

57.1% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs azorius control (yorion)

56.8% win rate

44 tracked matches

vs Tainted Pact

56.5% win rate

23 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

55.0% win rate

60 tracked matches

vs mardu greasefang

50.0% win rate

10 tracked matches

vs jund food

50.0% win rate

26 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

50.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs esper control

50.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

49.2% win rate

132 tracked matches

vs mono-red aggro

45.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

vs heliod company

43.8% win rate

16 tracked matches

vs rakdos sacrifice

42.9% win rate

14 tracked matches

vs orzhov midrange (yorion)

40.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

39.4% win rate

33 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

38.1% win rate

21 tracked matches

vs golgari food

36.3% win rate

204 tracked matches

vs rakdos midrange

25.0% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs azorius affinity

24.6% win rate

57 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

21.2% win rate

33 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

18.2% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs mono-black aggro

14.3% win rate

7 tracked matches

Brent Vos, who was ranked outside of the top sixteen at the beginning of the day, locked in the third spot in the Top 8 in the final round against Zach Dunn. Both players started the match with 11-3 records striving for that twelfth win, but an uninspired draw from Dun’s Rakdos Arcanist deck could not stand up to Vos returning four Arclight Phoenixes from the graveyard at once in game three.

rakdos arcanist

55.6% global win rate

5.34% metagame share

Powered by

vs dimir control

100.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs simic merfolk

87.5% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs gruul aggro

85.7% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs jeskai creativity

85.7% win rate

7 tracked matches

vs jeskai control

81.3% win rate

16 tracked matches

vs mardu greasefang

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs rakdos arcanist (lurrus)

80.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs selesnya enchantress

75.0% win rate

8 tracked matches

vs azorius lotus field

75.0% win rate

16 tracked matches

vs azorius affinity

73.3% win rate

15 tracked matches

vs azorius control

65.0% win rate

20 tracked matches

vs Tainted Pact

60.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs other

58.7% win rate

46 tracked matches

vs azorius control (yorion)

56.3% win rate

16 tracked matches

vs azorius auras

55.6% win rate

45 tracked matches

vs heliod company

54.5% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs mono-red aggro

45.5% win rate

11 tracked matches

vs golgari food

44.6% win rate

56 tracked matches

vs izzet phoenix

42.3% win rate

104 tracked matches

vs selesnya humans

38.1% win rate

21 tracked matches

vs 5c niv-mizzet

30.8% win rate

13 tracked matches

vs mono-red goblins

0.0% win rate

5 tracked matches

vs boros feather (yorion)

0.0% win rate

6 tracked matches

At the end of the round, the remaining five of the Top 8 players were decided by tiebreakers. At 9:00am PST tomorrow, the playoff tournament will be held to determine the final standings and the players who will earn invitations to the World Championship. You can catch the action live over at twitch.tv/magic where the tournament will be cast all day.

We’ll be back again afterwards to go over the final results, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the decklists from our Neon Dynasty Championship Top 8! We’ve broken down the decklists by player in order of their current ranking.

Top 8 Decklists by Player

---

#1 – Jim Davis

Alchemy:

Historic:

#2 – Jean-Emmanuel Depraz

Alchemy:

Historic:

#3 – Brent Vos

Alchemy:

Historic:

#4 – Yudai Miyano

Alchemy:

Historic:

#5 – Jonny Guttman

Alchemy:

Historic:

#6 – Zach Dunn

Alchemy:

Historic:

#7 – Zhi Yimin

Alchemy:

Historic:

#8 – Eli Kassis

Alchemy:

Historic:

---

This has been the second day of coverage concerning the Neon Dynasty Championship on MTG Arena Zone. We’ll be back tomorrow with the final results, and you can find results from day one here. The official tournament broadcast will resume Sunday morning at 9:00am PST over on twitch.tv/magic.