MTGA Historic BO3 December 2020 Tier List

Good Morning (from US)! – Happy upcoming Holidays around the world

I have pulled a snapshot tier list (20 Decks) together here in the aftermath of a month of Kaladesh Remastered Drop for Historic! As many of you know I enjoy getting a nice timestamp for tracking & trending, plus equally helping tackle the competitive MTGA landscape, or those who like a visual or just to discuss! I figured this information and insights might help provide some great views of the current meta and shells to build with or around! Last I have laid out trends, key considerations, and observations for current Historic BO3 below as well.

TLDR: Kaladesh brought some things, but nothing overwhelming to the format. Lots of potential still, some constraints with Historic, but we see some new decks inching in. A healthy impact from ZNR Championship, and move in the meta

What it is, current meta observations, and deck overviews! Additionally I love sharing the observations and recent changes we have faced in an ever evolving longer standing format.

Items of Interest, Observations, & Considerations:

Kaladesh Remastered – Well we now have had Kaladesh in Historic play now for over a month. The fruits of those impactful cards are starting to come to fruition and there are a couple of key call outs here. First, some of the low hanging fruit that we knew would help in cards like Fatal push. Second, we see some improvements in tweaks to main meta decks that have been around a while. Last, we did get some new competitive additions into the meta that I believe we will continue to see spike and shift things.
Underwhelming but still Potential– The majority of reaction to this set was that it didn’t quite have as much impact per say with what was absorbed into the current meta. Certain decks like sultai or black/swamp in general had some pickup improvements to compete against the more aggressive decks with push already mentioned. We also see sram adding more outs and value to UW auras but helping lift orzhov auras into an initial spotlight as well. I believe we will continue to see some influx and spikes over time of this set either as people get more creative or as more sets impact the Kaladesh block as well.
COMBO Land– Definitely worth noting is the new paradox engine spike. This deck certainly packs a punch, takes a bit of setup, and most certainly lots of AT BATS! I got some flack on this one personally, but it was more a time constraint. My thoughts are this nonetheless despite my near perfect play 😉 It is a very very powerful combo, it does take a decent amount of setup, I think it’s a tad overrated at the moment despite calls I’ve seen for it in T1. It’s easy to interrupt, and I believe Temur Neostorm is actually more efficient. Now withstanding my previous comments we certainly have an impactful combo! In the competitive scene now (not that neform wasn’t) that I know has been a welcomed change.
Archetype Influx– As touched on a bit we did see a few new changes but a few things to call out that I will keep in mind for the next Historic rendition. The additions of vehicles whether boros/mardu have been encroaching as well as the energy decks like temur. These mechanics are certainly here to stay, so keep an eye on them. If anything we may see some uplift from Kaldheim as well. So, keep pace my friends 😛

Cost Controversy – I’ve been considering doing a separate discussion on this, but I do at least want to note this here (maybe poll your perspectives as well). Saffron Olive made a pretty bold statement around costs of $1700 etc I spent this year on MTGA. Is historic cost prohibitive in my opinion from the outside looking in and based on his analysis one would say yes. From my perspective not necessarily as it’s more the gacha style gaming that many are already used to. The key trap is actually time – particularly for competitive players that may have high ELO and find close to infinity or less diminishing returns on their in game resources. Time is the one constraint we all face. So, you buy packs – crack instead of earning. The money may be worth your time.

Personally, if there was anyone particular content influencer/creator for me it would be saffron. I exchanged personal emails with him half a decade ago picking his brain which I am thankful for. My two cents here – keep in mind his priorities/incentives aren’t necessarily aligned with the average player. You can do the math on the cost without actually buying, and he is acquiring cards as a creator where he can write it off or have someone else pay. He also is focused on a variety of decks, and time to market is different for him.

As a creator myself I took a longer approach (more aligned to the actual grinders), certainly no where near having the set, but was pretty proud to acquire 50+ packs, and rare draft enough to make things viable. Some of the decks I still certainly lack myself, costing as much as 10+ rare/mythic crafts, and I’m not trying to make excuses for not hitting all the decks.

Zendikar Rising Championship one of – First congrats to Brad Barclay on the “off meta” UW Control deck. This certainly has shifted some of the meta landscape in the historic realm, and by no means a surprise is as expected. I will again beat a special drum here as now you can see the increasing importance of “one of” cards in a deck. This is a very nice community use case to showcase why you should not always consider a 4x strategy in your decks. It helps cover a wider variety of deck challenges you may face and allow you to position easier in the BO3 SB. As I always say, “Every BO3 match starts with a BO1!”a
Tier thoughts – Lastly, I probably should actually talk about the list 😛 We saw a healthy shift in T1/T2 shakeup. To be honest almost a recursion of where we were a few months ago with sac & sultai mid holding the crowns. As I mentioned there are certainly calls to make Paradox a T1, but personally I am hesitant as this could just be a quick reaction in the meta. However, it has definitely been successful, but no run rate to it yet. Time will tell. Overall we have had some healthy moves in the meta landscape with Kaladesh Remastered which is always a nice breath of air!

I have produced this list from a culmination of a few things. I have reached this point by pulling together research data from multiple sources like untapped, MTGAzone, twitter, personal gameplay, tournament matches, this reddit as well as others, personal stats, and consistently hitting Mythic over the last year and participation in Mythic Qualifiers.

Again, Happy to discuss or talk about decks not included! Tier list below plus deck lists (shells) if you are looking for some options most all top 1500 at some point many at the #1 Rank!

All Full Deck lists below!

MTGA BO3 December 2020 Tier List

Tier 1 (2)

Sultai Midrange (Decklist)

Jund Sacrifice (Decklist)

Tier 2 (12)

Paradox Engine Combo (Decklist)

Azorius Control (Decklist)

Mono Red Goblins (Decklist) – Updated List

4C Midrange (Decklist) – Updated List

Rakdos Sacrifice (Decklist)

Temur Neoform (Decklist)

Orzhov Auras (Decklist)

Azorius Auras (Decklist) – Updated List

Gruul Aggro (Decklist) – Updated List

Selesnya Fauna Shaman (Decklist)

Mono Red Aggro (Decklist) – Updated List

Mono Black Aggro (Decklist)

Tier 3 (7)

Mono Green (Decklist) – Updated List

Rakdos Arcanist (Decklist) – Updated List

Mono Red Burn (Decklist) – Updated List

Bant Control (Decklist)

Dimir Control (Decklist) – Updated List

Dimir Rogues (Decklist) – Updated List

No Color Monument (Decklist) – Updated List

Deck lists in Detail

*Note you can copy and paste the specific lists right into MTG, and you are off to the races!