Explore the Realm of Magic: The Gathering - Articles and Insights

Looking for a dirt-cheap but dangerously explosive deck on MTG Arena? Say hello to 8 Wack, a classic archetype reimagined for the digital age—without a single rare. That's right. This version of 8 Wack costs almost nothing to build but can still run circles around unsuspecting opponents. It's fast, it's aggressive, and it wins games before your opponent even knows what's happening. The Deck At the core of the strategy is a simple philosophy: flood the board with creatures, then slam down a hasty finisher like Goblin Bushwhacker or Reckless Bushwhacker to swing in for lethal. Let's break down how it works and why it's the best cheap MTG Arena deck around.

While the Foundations spoiler is still ongoing (even though it's almost over), there is another one that has already ended, or rather never started, because Foundations Jumpstart (J25) was revealed in its entirety from the very first moment, without any spoiler session. This is because it's not actually a Magic set but rather an appendix to Foundations, which is the main set and to which all the hype is dedicated, being legal in Standard and with a higher concentration of relevant cards. Jumpstart, in fact, will not be legal in Standard, Pioneer, or Modern but will be playable only in Legacy and Vintage on paper and in Historic and Timeless on MTG Arena.

Modern Horizons 3 brought many new , interesting and powerful cards to MTG Arena, although not all of them saw play because they were overshadowed by other , even stronger cards or because they lacked the right synergies. The best example is probably Nadu, Winged Wisdom, which in Modern was one of the absolute protagonists for a few months until it deserved the ban, while it was basically unplayed in any of the digital platform's formats due to the absence of Shuko. Another card that generated a lot of hype during the spoilers, but then didn't live up to expectations, was the reprint of Kappa Cannoneer, which was already in Neon Dynasty Commander and therefore already played in Legacy. Its power level, however, seems to be absolutely respectable, with a whole series of stats that would potentially make it in line with the Historic format, but where probably there aren't yet the right tools to support it. To find out if this is the case, today we'll try to find the most suitable home for it, brewing a full artifact version that will make it the protagonist!

Last time we talked about the nerfs that hit Boros Energy in Historic and I left you with a question: "Has Wizards of the Coast managed to bring the deck back to the same level as the others?". In case you missed it and want to know more about the recent Historic rebalances, together with my thoughts, I'll leave the article below so you can catch up!  

Many who are familiar with my channel remember the good old times when Alchemy first came out and one of the coolest cards ever printed allowed us to play a really cool mono black deck for a long time. We took it into the top numbers in mythic, and played plenty of qualifier weekends with the list. It was an easy mythic every season when you were allowed to play cards like Sanguinestroke and Invoke Despair in the same deck. Another card that worked out really well when Alchemy first came out was Citystalker Connoisseur. We just amassed so much value, and drew so many cards that it was almost impossible for the opponent gain an advantage. Hell, they even nerfed the Alchemy cards we were using, and it didn't matter much. Well, those days are over now of after multiple rotations, and with the news coming out that Sanguine Brushstroke was going to be printed into the new Mystery Booster packs, I wanted to try my hand at playing that card again in a deck. I figured it might not be quite powerful enough for Timeless, so I figured we would try it in Historic. One of the benefits there is that we would still have access to the MH3 cards, and there are some pretty strong spells from that set that can be used in the deck. I don't view Historic as a terribly competitive format - more so just a place where you can do fun things and maybe pull off some ridiculous combos. Also, you know this deck wouldn't be complete without running a playset of our favorite finisher, Invoke Despair. Let's check out how the Historic version of our beloved Alchemy deck from two years ago! This deck will have a lot of familiarity to people who were watching my stream about two years ago. This deck put all kinds of work for us on the ladder, and really helped us get things going on the competitive front. Relevant Alchemy Cards

Ulamog, the Defiler is an absolute monster can decimate your opponents if it gets even a single chance to swing. Unfortunately, getting it online with a good annihilator number is awfully tricky and can be a bit too slow. Fortunately, Twitch viewer CozyPorcupine turned me onto a build that is designed to drop Ulamog into play with haste as fast as turn three if the draws line up well. The Setup

It happened! As announced, Historic was rebalanced on August 6th, changing the text of some cards with the aim of weakening a very specific deck: Boros Energy! As Wizards of the Coast said, the latter began to dominate the field shortly after the release of Modern Horizons 3 and pushed out other archetypes and possible new brews that would add diversity to the format. The confirmation of this supremacy came with the Arena Championship 6, where Boros Energy represented 58% of the metagame and even won in the hands of Wouter Noordzij. It was the straw that broke the camel's back and there was no longer any doubt: something had to change!