5 Jumpstart: Historic Horizons Decks That We're Excited To Try On Magic Arena

We are once again in preview season, this time with the new Magic Arena only set, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. We just started preview season and we have a week left to go. With over 750 cards in the set, there’s a lot of awesome cards from Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 2 and other sets to be revealed. We do have some cards that have been previewed between yesterday and today that have us really excited. Today we have 5 deck lists that include cards from Historic Horizons that we’re looking to try when the set releases. Now these lists are subject to change as more cards come out, but these are the preliminary lists.

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Tempered Steel

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Our first deck list is Azorius Tempered Steel. This deck is a an old standard power house from back in the Scars of Mirrodin days. Tempered Steel Tempered Steel Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2. gives our host of artifact creatures a massive power boost. Couple this with cheap evasive creatures like Gingerbrute Gingerbrute Haste (This creature can attack and {T} as soon as it comes under your control.)
{1}: This creature can't be blocked this turn except by creatures with haste.
{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this creature: You gain 3 life. , Vault Skurge and Ornithopter Ornithopter Flying lets us push damage really quickly. The new additions to this deck thus far include Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. , Nettlecyst Nettlecyst Living weapon (When this Equipment enters, create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token, then attach this to it.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control.
Equip {2} and Thought Monitor Thought Monitor Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Flying
When this creature enters, draw two cards. . These 3 cards bring some kind of utility to the deck, whether it be card draw, additional bodies or a big damage spike.

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Humans

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Next up is Humans. This is a strong deck in Modern, and while it has some great tools in Historic, it has generally been not quite strong enough to contend in the format. With Historic Horizons, we get some more tools to be able to help. Once again, Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. makes an appearance here, as well as Thalia’s Lieutenant Thalia’s Lieutenant When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Human you control.
Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. . Esper Sentinel provides us an avenue of card draw but is also a cheap human to help build our board. Thalia’s Lieutenant helps beef up our board state to help ramp up the damage. The only piece of the deck that’s really missing is Aether Vial Aether Vial At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on this artifact.
{T}: You may put a creature card with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact from your hand onto the battlefield. , and hopefully we’ll get that either in this set or a future Historic Anthology.

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Izzet Blitz

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The next deck is Izzet Blitz. I know that we just got out of an Izzet dominated meta game, but with the inclusion of Dragon’s Rage Channeler Dragon’s Rage Channeler Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able. , the Izzet Blitz deck gets a big power boost. We do need to consider turning on Delirium with this card, but one thing that Historic has that Modern doesn’t, is Fatihless Looting, which can help us get card types in the graveyard. Normally the Modern version of this deck plays Mishra’s Bauble Mishra’s Bauble {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Look at the top card of target player's library. Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. as a free way to gain some card advantage and get an artifact in the graveyard. We’re playing Chromatic Sphere Chromatic Sphere {1}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color. Draw a card. (Activate only as an instant.) in that slot to fulfill a similar role.

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Rakdos Lurrus

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Rakdos Lurrus has become a top tier deck in Modern, and hopefully the same can be the case in Historic. There are cards in the Modern List that we may or may not get in Historic Horizons like Dauthi Voidwalker Dauthi Voidwalker Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it with a void counter on it.
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Choose an exiled card an opponent owns with a void counter on it. You may play it this turn without paying its mana cost. , but we have a lot of the deck in the format right now. Once again this is another Dragon’s Rage Channeler Dragon’s Rage Channeler Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able. deck, but this one aims to disrupt the hand, and clear the board with removal to push through some fast damage with Channeler, as well as Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger When Kroxa enters, sacrifice it unless it escaped.
Whenever Kroxa enters or attacks, each opponent discards a card, then each opponent who didn't discard a nonland card this way loses 3 life.
Escape—{B}{B}{R}{R}, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.) and Dreadhorde Arcanist Dreadhorde Arcanist Trample
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to this creature's power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. .

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Mono White Death & Taxes

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The last deck, and one that I’ve written about before in the past, is Mono White Death & Taxes. This deck aims to constrain our opponent’s ability to play cards, or any cards they play to come with an additional price. The new addition to the deck at the moment is just Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. , which helps us with card draw if our opponent plays a non-creature spell. It comes down early and can make an impact despite it being only a 1/1. There’s probably more cards to come that get added to this deck, so definitely stay tuned for updates to this list.

There’s a lot of decks to be built over the coming weeks, especially once Historic Horizons releases on Arena on August 12th. What cards are you hoping to make it into the set, and what decks are you hoping to build when the set releases? Let us know in the comments!