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Jukai Naturalist Art by Anna Steinbauer

Top Early-Season Mythic Decks – March 2022 Season – Week 1

2022 is moving fast, and March is already upon us! For us, the beginning of a new month also means the end of one ranked season and the start of the next on MTG Arena, and as always, the race to Mythic is on. We’ve collected decklists and their associated rankings that players have shared documenting their successes in the new season, and it’s time again for our once-weekly review.

With everybody getting a fresh start on their journeys to Mythic, the first week of a new season is always a great time to get a temperature check on the current Arena meta in various formats as players make their runs up the ladder. We’ve got quite a few decks to go over from Standard and Historic this week, and we’re keeping our eye on the Alchemy format as well.

As usual, we’ll get started by putting a spotlight on the decks from each format that have achieved the highest rankings. You’ll also find even more Mythic decks from both Standard and Historic that you can browse at the end of each section. Let’s dive in, and see what March has had in store for us thus far!


Standard Top Mythic Decks of the Week

Jeskai Dragons by Noriyuki Mori – #10 Mythic

Our first spotlight from this week comes from Magic Pro League member Noriyuki Mori. Mori’s deck, which he used to achieve the rank of #10 Mythic, is going to look pretty familiar to anyone who’s been following Standard since the release of Kaldheim. Izzet Dragons, which was dominant in the competitive Standard scene before the banning of Alrund’s Epiphany, still has access to Goldspan Dragon, Unexpected Windfall, and all of the other tools that made the deck a force to be reckoned with.

Mori’s deck, which includes a white splash to allow for some protection like Valorous Stance, is also similar to the Jeskai Combo decks that we’ve been seeing in Standard based on broken interactions with Goldspan. His deck, however, doesn’t bother with the Show of Confidence combo that is the staple of Jeskai Combo. Instead, Mori sticks to the tried-and-true tempo gameplan of the original Izzet Dragons archetype. While there’s no Alrund's Epiphany in Standard anymore, two copies of Alchemist's Gambit can function in a similar way to help push enough damage to end the game.

Naya Runes by Hello Good Game – #13 Mythic

Our next deck comes from YouTuber and content creator Hello Good Game, and it’s an example of a deck that’s been taking Standard and Alchemy by storm since the release of Neon Dynasty: Naya Runes. For a detailed breakdown on this archetype, you can find an excellent guide to the deck written by MTGA Zone writer Bohe below:

The combination of Champion of Runes, which allows its controller to pay {1} rather than the regular casting cost for runes, and Jukai Naturalist, which reduces the cost of enchantments its controller casts by {1}, means that rune spells can be cast for free when both creatures are on the field at once. Combine this with the resilience of Kami of Transience and the grinding power of the enchantment Showdown of the Skalds, and you’ve got a hard-hitting aggressive deck that can still grind, and it was strong enough to take HGG to the #13 rank.

Rakdos Sacrifice by OzymandiasMTG – #24 Mythic

Our third and final Standard spotlight for this week is another archetype that has been supercharged by Neon Dynasty: Rakdos Sacrifice. Oni-Cult Anvil has proven itself to be a very real card in multiple formats – more on that in our Historic feature. The rest of the deck, which was posted by French MTGA grinder OzymandiasMTG, is filled with low-curve threats that can generate artifacts, such as Shambling Ghast and Bloodtithe Harvester, and other cards that play with with the Anvil like Experimental Synthesizer.

While Ozymandias admits that Runes makes for a hard matchup (as it does for many decks in the current format), they were able to take the deck all the way to an impressive #24 Mythic in the early season.

rakdos sacrifice
54.8% global win rate
0.30% metagame share
Powered by
vs orzhov control
40.0% win rate
5 tracked matches
vs naya runes
28.6% win rate
7 tracked matches
vs orzhov midrange
20.0% win rate
5 tracked matches

That’s it for our Standard showcase this week, but there are more decks you can look at from the early season below. Then, we’ll see what players have been getting up to in Historic so far this month.


Historic Top Mythic Decks of the Week

Rakdos Anvil by Altheriax – #1 Mythic

Look familiar? Our first Historic spotlight for the week is another Rakdos Anvil deck, although this one has been built for MTGA’s eternal format. There is something else special about this deck though, besides, of course, the fact that it was taken to #1 Mythic.

The deck’s designer and pilot, Altheriax, has been featured in our spotlights many times in the past as he’s often playing in the highest ranks of Mythic. Now, Altheriax has joined the ranks of our awesome writing staff here on MTG Arena Zone. In fact, his first article on our site is a guide for this very deck! We highly encourage anyone interested in the archetype and how it translates to Historic to check out his excellent work:

Bo1 Historic Jeskai Creativity by Flavio Ausilio – #23 Mythic

Back in June of last year during the Strixhaven Championship, the Historic format was ruled by decks that used Indomitable Creativity to cheat Velomachus Lorehold into play – something that was particularly brutal because at the time, Time Warp was legal in the format, and so a Velomachus getting to attack could often end the game outright.

As a response, Time Warp was banned in Historic shortly thereafter, and the Velomachus Lorehold-based decks quickly disappeared. However, Indomitable Creativity is still around, and players have been searching since then for another combination of cards that’s powerful enough to justify the all-in combo shell. Some players have been using Creativity to cheat out Serra's Emissary, a creature that’s backbreaking in many matchups but not a guaranteed win.

jeskai creativity
46.2% global win rate
1.00% metagame share
Powered by
vs other
100.0% win rate
5 tracked matches
vs izzet phoenix
81.8% win rate
11 tracked matches
vs azorius affinity
80.0% win rate
5 tracked matches
vs azorius auras
28.6% win rate
7 tracked matches
vs azorius control
20.0% win rate
5 tracked matches
vs golgari food
14.3% win rate
14 tracked matches
vs rakdos arcanist
14.3% win rate
7 tracked matches

Rather than using Emissary, however, our second Historic spotlight for the week looks to deploy a combo that will end the game on the spot. Coming to us from Arena grinder Flavio Ausilio, this deck seeks to use Indomitable Creativity to cheat out two creatures at once: Sage of the Falls and The Locust God. With both creatures on the field, the interaction between the two cards allows their controller to create as many 1/1 haste Insect tokens as necessary to finish the game – and since Sage of the Falls is a “may” ability, the loop can be ended at any point.

People have been playing with the Sage of the Falls combo since almost immediately after Time Warp was banned, but Flavio’s new take on the deck was able to earn him the #23 Mythic rank, proving that the deck can at least be competitive in the highest levels of Mythic play on Arena.

We have a handful of other Historic decks in our collection from this week, which you can check out below. To finish things off, we’ll take a look at a couple of top week-one decks from Alchemy.


Alchemy Mythic Decks of the Week

Orzhov Control by Sasha Coulter – #5 Mythic

Over in the Alchemy format, our first featured deck also comes to us from a familiar face for those who have been following this series: Sasha Coulter. Sasha is a streamer and regular high-Mythic grinder who recently took this particular deck up to the #5 rank playing Alchemy. Orzhov Control has been quite popular in Standard and Alchemy to a lesser extent, and while Neon Dynasty didn’t bring too many new toys to the archetype, Sasha has found it worthwhile to dedicate a few slots to Magic’s newest expansion.

Spirited Companion and Dockside Chef both join the list as one-ofs, and Sasha has decided to make rooms for two copies of Ao, the Dawn Sky – one of the new legendary Dragons that can either pump the team or return a bunch of sacrificial fodder to the field when it dies. The rest of the deck looks similar to other Orzhov Sacrifice/Control decks, with the usual package of Deadly Dispute, a suite of one-drops, and a range of planeswalkers that play well with the gameplan. Notably, the Alchemy version of the deck also has the benefit of running Sanguine Brushstroke.

Sasha had this to say about the deck:

Bo1 Naya Runes by Hagera – #17 Mythic

Our final deck for this week is… Naya Runes, except in Alchemy this time! This Alchemy-built take on the archetype was submitted to us by Twitch partner eliott_dragon, also known by his Arena handle Hagera. Funnily enough, the only Alchemy-specific card to be found in the whole list is four copies of the land Forsaken Crossroads, which helps smooth out the three-color manabase.

The rest of the deck looks much the same as the Standard version from earlier other than a few specific card choices that are all also legal in Standard. The fact that eliott_dragon was able to do so well with this hardly-adapted Standard deck in the Alchemy format notable for its powerful digital-only cards speaks to the power of the archetype, especially in Standard. There’s no question that Naya Runes is definitely a deck to watch across both formats.


This column is our weekly roundup of Standard, Historic, and Alchemy decks players are using to climb the ranked ladder on MTG Arena! Our goal is to curate and post a variety of deck archetypes and interesting card choices at the end of each week to help you keep up to date with the latest trends in the metagame. If you have any decks you want featured, please tweet us at @mtgazone or give us a shout at our Discord.

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Paul
Paul

Dude from Vermont who likes to play Magic and Escape from Tarkov. Musician, writer, and gamer. Submit feedback or corrections to @Paul on the Discord.

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