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Theorycrafting Amonkhet Remastered

by TheAsianAvenger // Aug 15, 2020

Amonkhet block has returned to Arena and is now ready to be used for historic action! Though we've already seen what is in Amonkhet, this time around we get to see some new faces added to Historic. Some of those new faces include Thoughtseize and Wrath of God so lets dive right in with some decklists.

Mono Red aggro has been lacking a power boost and thanks to Amonkhet, it gets access to cards like Soul-Scar Mage and other red all-stars!

With Soul-Scar Mage, red can wither down big creatures with all of it's burn spells like Shock and ontop of that, Soul-Scar has prowess which means kill it with damage based removal can get tricky. Ontop of that, red gets to see an old friend in Hazoret the Fervent. Hazoret used to be the top end that can close out games and is extremely difficult to answer unless people are packing exile effects. Hazoret's activated ability will also turn all of our dead draws in the late game into Shock, which means we've always got something to do. Of course, the last bit of upgrades returns in the form Ramunap Ruins. A card that was once on the banlist and we'll see if this helps red mages get all their aggression out before decks get to their late game.

Another aggro deck that was an all-star in it's standard life was Zombies! It even took down a PT in the hands of Gerry Thompson. The difference between zombies then and now is a little bit of power creep but historic has given Zombies Gempalm Polluter so this is what I'd start with if I were looking to bring back the undead

Zombies might be a tad bit slower than it once was but Cryptbreaker into a Lazotep Reaver is definitely something worth trying out. Prior to AKH Remastered, zombies lacked a solid zombie lord and more one drops. AKH has brought back Dread Wanderer, Lord of the Accursed, and Liliana's Mastery. All of these cards are definitely a power bump for zombies and definitely worth giving a spin. I doubt zombies can be tier one but it definitely can be a higher end tier two deck. The deck still needs something like Diregraf Colossus and Relentless Dead but regardless, the deck looks sweet.

A card that wasn't originally in AKH but got added in the remaster was Collected Company and I've definitely got a few lists that could benefit from that. Up front is a Mono green stompy deck splashing black.

Green is starting to get to the point where it's loaded to brim with solid beefy threats at the three drop slot. Because of this, Collected Company feels like it might be strong enough to make it so we can trim threats that are above three mana. The issue with CoCo decks is that you are loaded with little mana dorks like Llanowar Elves and though there are the unfortunate times where you might only see mana dorks, it's definitely worth the upside of hitting Rotting Regisaur and Steel Leaf Champion. We've also got Garruk's Harbinger to make life a little more difficult for black-based control mages. And the few non-creature threats we've got are Garruk, Unleashed and Vivien, Arkbow Ranger. Both have a +1 ability that allows us to push our threats over tiny chump blockers as we have trample. It's also nice to have Vivien's -3 as a form of removal to pick off threats or planeswalkers. And since we're splashing black, our sideboard options get much better as we'll have hard removal and Thoughtseize to try to get our opponents to stumble.

Another CoCo deck that is probably better in Pioneer and Modern, but is still worth a shot is spirits.

This deck is definitely middle of the pack when it comes to tier two decks but CoCo is a nice addition to the deck. The deck still needs cards like Spell Queller, Mausoleum Wanderer, Selfless Spirit to truly be a force in Historic but it is fun to try.

Now, I'm not sure how good Young Pyromancer is in Historic as there aren't a ton of cheap spells but that doesn't mean I won't try at least one decklist based around it.

This deck got an increase in power thanks to AKH bringing Thoughtseize, Claim // Fame and Cut // Ribbons into the format. Otherwise, it's still a bit too fair for historic. However, this is a fun starting point and can only get better as we get more cheap spells.

Here are my decklists that are less creature-oriented and a lot more midrange and control based.

Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to try to play the deck that I love playing in Pioneer and that deck is Esper Demonic Pact. This deck is a tap out control deck that utilizes all of the enchantments and eventually grinds opponents out with too much card advantage. AKH brought this deck so many new toys between Gideon of the Trials, Trial of Ambition, and of course Wrath of God. With Historic, we get access to cards like Innocent Blood and Phyrexian Arena, which gives us more power and efficient cards. However, the deck is lacking some power with the loss of Teferi, Time Raveler so this is my starting list.

AKH block also brought us The Scarab God. This God used to be one of the headliners in a control deck and could potentially still be decent in Historic.

This is just a good old classic Dimir Control deck. We're focused on the land-go playstyle and hoping to close with The Scarab God. I do however feel like we might be a tad bit threat light but this is a fine starting shell. Some key cards that make this deck tick are Pull from Tomorrow, Supreme Will, and of course Thoughtseize. Now, Thoughtseize is a great card but in a deck that doesn't run too much life gain, it might be better to just play Thought Erasure as the Surveil also helps when drawn in the late game.

Oh, and who would I be if I didn't at least supply a decklist with some good ol' Teferi, Hero of Dominaria ??

Azorius control definitely got some sweet new cards with Cast Out, Approach of the Second Sun, and Sphinx's Revelation. It's been quite some time since I've cast a Sphinx's rev so if you're telling me there's another format to cast it in, I'll definitely try. Although Rev was an all-star card, I doubt many people will concede to card advantage in 2020 so I went and added a singleton Approach of the Second Sun sun to actually have a way to win. This deck is going to be extremely slow so be mindful of the arena clock. Oh and one other thing, Censor used to be the business so naturally, I want to try a few here but if it ends up not working out, I'd just cut it for more removal like Seal Away, Supreme Will or Hieroglyphic Illumination.

Oh and what about Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in the same deck?

If you've seen any of my streams or content in the last year, I've been in love with Esper Bolas. The deck just got another Bolas to add into its planeswalker arsenal and on top of that we got Wrath of God which is a great sweeper that won't draw our opponent's any cards! The deck will stumble against decks like Mono Blue Tempo but can go over the top as the deck is quite greedy itself. Ethereal Absolution is a card that I'm trying out to help fight goblins (yes, I know its six mana). If the Absolution doesn't work, we might have to go back to Kaervek, the Spiteful. My issue with Kaervek is you can't dig for it with Narset, Parter of Veils so I wanted a non-creature spell. If that won't work, then Grafdigger's Cage may be the way.

And the final list is the Grixis Control list I climbed pretty easily from Diamond to high mythic with before AKH..

The deck looks like a huge pile with all of the singletons but the deck is efficient and it did benefit from a few new cards like Commit // Memory and Hour of Devastation. We even got a singleton Pull from Tomorrow to finally give us that big mana sink spell we've been needing.

Conclusion

AKH block's return will definitely have an impact on the meta so there's no doubt about that. However, cards like The Scarab God are things that might need to be reevaluated for the power level of the format. Even Thoughtseize doesn't feel like an auto-include in some decks. For example, I feel like there's a Grixis Midrange deck out there that uses Glorybringer and The Scarab God better than a control deck will. I also think that a deck that doesn't have a ton of solid follow-ups to Thoughtseize should probably just play Thought Erasure to save life and getting the chance to Surveil to set up for later turns. There's also a few sets worth of Cycling now so maybe New Perspectives or Drake Haven could be fun! Anywho, tons of stuff are going to be happening in Historic so happy brewing. Keep an eye out for the YouTube channel as I'll be making gameplay videos for a good chunk of these lists!

PS. Field of the Dead should still be banned.