Last Sunday the Qualifier Weekend was played on MTG Arena, which for this month was Explorer format. It's a very coveted event because the very few winners will be able to get a ticket to the Arena Championship, the most prestigious event the digital platform has to offer. Specifically, the qualification for the Arena Championship 7 is being chased, which will be held on a date to be defined between October and November and will be the first one with the new formula: the number of participants will be indefinite, following the qualifications, and will no longer be limited to 32.
But who are these good and lucky winners? And above all, which are the decks performed so well as to climb to the top?
Unfortunately WotC doesn't release official data on this matter, limiting itself to the list of qualifiers a few days/weeks before the event, so the only thing to do was to collect this information manually through the posts released on the social platform X.
Disclaimer: It's very possible the following are not ALL of the winners from this Sunday, as of course I may have missed a few posts or some winners may not have made any. My sincere apologies if I missed you!
Rakdos Vampires by Keisuke Sato
Without much surprise to anyone, Rakdos Vampires was one of the decks to achieve 6 victories on Day 2 of the Qualifier Weekend. Consolidated by Seth Manfield's victory at Pro Tour MKM, it has become one of the favorite decks to win and the most chosen because it is not excessively complex and tiring to play.
Specifically, here we find added elements that were once part of the old Rakdos Midrange such as: Reckoner Bankbuster in place of Smuggler's Copter and the return of Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp.
In a fairly open meta where there aren't only mirror and Izzet Phoenix, Archfiend of the Dross has diminished in favor of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet which is still able to exile Arclight Phoenix forever, but is probably better against aggro and it counters Amalia's recursion from the graveyard, other than making Voice of Resurgence ineffective.
Speaking of Amalia Combo, it's certainly a very feared match up as you can intuit from that unusual Quakebringer in the sideboard as a specific solution, which is added to all the other tools such as: Grafdigger's Cage, Legion's End and the mass removal as Path of Peril and Extinction Event.
Rakdos Vamps’Tree by Jollto
Here's another Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord + Vein Ripper deck to get the trophy but... with something more! The package consisting of: Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Tree of Perdition and Voldaren Thrillseeker adds a further angle of attack to the deck that, combined with the novelty factor, will have caught the opponents completely unprepared! Yes, Tree of Perdition is a rather weak card, but this is not of primary importance as long as you don't have to cast it, but just discard it. So you can transfer its ability via Agatha's Soul Cauldron to a creature possibly without summoning sickness and with just 1 in toughness and, activating it, you will bring your opponent's life to 2, no matter what their previous amount was.
At this point it's easy to finish the job: transferring Voldaren Thrillseeker's ability; pinging 1 damage at a time with it and with Voldaren Epicure; shooting a Lightning Helix by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord; triggering Vein Ripper; etc.
Ok, but how to get the combo pieces to the graveyard? The deck solves this question as well between: the blood tokens of Voldaren Epicure and Bloodtithe Harvester, the second chapter from the Fable of the Mirror-Breaker saga, up to the Thoughtseize on themselves in extreme cases.
Lastly I note that Agatha's Soul Cauldron also works as a hategrave piece maindeck and it's certainly useful in the match up against Izzet Phoenix.
Rakdos Arcanist by Zhi Yimin
Vampires again apparently, but it's another variant yet! “There must be a reason why Dreadhorde Arcanist is banned in Legacy and is among the scariest cards of Wizards in Historic” must be what Zhi Yimin thought when they built this version.
How can you blame this, if it connects just once you already made enough value and from then on they are all extras that will facilitate the game towards victory.
To make this happen and to find always valid targets in the graveyard, they play at least 4-5 spells at 1-mana value more than a classic Vampire list, including Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave will be used as a land when not needed.
Lastly I note that, despite Dreadhorde Arcanist being a Zombie and not a Vampire, you can do interesting tricks:
- It can be targeted by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord's first ability. It won't get the +1/+1 counter, but it will still gain lifelink and most importantly deathtouch which will allow it to pass through blocks.
- It can be sacrificed by surprise with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet's activated ability! No one pays attention to what kind of creature its tokens are, just as no one pays attention to what kind of creature Arcanist is, so someone may be taken by surprise by the fact Kalitas can sacrifice both Zombies and Vampires.
Rakdos Sacrifice by Luke
Always Rakdos but changing type with the old but gold Sacrifice which, I confess, was the deck whose result surprised me the most! Don't get me wrong, I love this deck, I played it and I even won some Play-In and Metagame Challenge in the past, but currently I don't think it's doing too well in the meta.
The deck grinds every creature deck and Amalia Combo might not be an exception, but against Control, Combo or Go-Big decks the situation is rougher.
I find it doesn't have the right tools to beat Quintorius Kand, Transmogrify, Indomitable Creativity, Fires of Invention and MonoG Devotion, but on the other hand it's doing well against Rakdos Vampires at least as long as it manages to avoid/beat Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Vein Ripper and can compete with Izzet Phoenix.
For the rest the list has aged well, remaining almost unchanged over time, and should never be underestimated, because it has shown one more time it can win the whole thing even when no one expects it!
Izzet Phoenix by chewy
Another big favorite after Vamps was Izzet Phoenix! After the top8 at Pro Tour MKM by Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and the victory of Arena Championship 5 by Toni Ramis Pascual, there's no longer any doubt the deck is strong, even if it's not for everyone as it requires a lot of skill, desire to solve problems and, let me say, patience.
This is because sometimes we'll see 3 Arclight Phoenix in the first 20 cards and it'll be fantastic, but in other cases these will be in the last 20 and we'll have to wait, resist and navigate patiently until that moment arrives.
Furthermore, post sideboard you can expect all kinds of hategraves and threats, so, in addition to a possible change of gameplan with Crackling Drake and Young Pyromancer, a good skill in counterplay is necessary, solving the opponent's plays.
Unlike the two previously mentioned lists, here we find Proft's Eidetic Memory as an additional attack tool. I've seen other lists get 7 wins on Day 1 of the Qualifier and they all played 1-3 copies of this spell, so it's probably worth it and I would definitely play it right now. Just like I would play another spicy tech that we find in this list and I hadn't seen yet: 2 Torpor Orb in the sideboard, ready to neutralize Amalia Combo!
Amalia Combo by HPWizard
Speaking of Amalia Combo we find it as the last deck of today. Third big favorite for its overall positive matchup against Vampires and Phoenix, it doesn't miss among the winning lists, proposing a quite classic list with Collected Company and not Knight-Errant of Eos, but with some particular personal details between main and side.
No Fauna Shaman for the maindeck, probably considered too fragile and preferring instead the value of Voice of Resurgence, usually left on the bench.
Consequently, in the sideboard we find a toolbox of creatures slightly softer than usual, going to prefer non-creature spells, more impactful but not tutorable and which slightly reduce the hit-ratio of Collected Company.
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate is the maximum value that we can extract from a single card, while Thought Distortion could be what makes the difference between a victory and a defeat against Control.
It's curious instead the choice to prefer the scry1 of Loran's Escape to the 2 life of Tamiyo's Safekeeping. Beyond the fact that 2 life are relevant against aggro, they start the combo between Amalia Benavides Aguirre and Wildgrowth Walker even when you don't have the lifegainer, like Prosperous Innkeeper, into the battlefied.
That's all for today! I hope I didn't forget anyone and I hope they forgive me if I did! Congratulations to all the winners and good luck in the next Arena Championship 7!
