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The first Magic: The Gathering Arena Championship of the latest rotation showed off the power of Alchemy. It also proved just how powerful Black is as a color, thanks to expansions like Dominaria United.
Alchemy is a format similar to Standard, except it has several online-only cards, which offer new levels of power to Magic: The Gathering Arena players. In the tournament, almost all of the players in the top eight ran some flavor of Black cards on their deck.
At the top of the heap, though, was Sam Rolph, who won with a powerful Rakdos (Red/Black) Midrange deck, which used the might of the Oni-Cult Anvil. It’s a slow deck, but it defeats players reliably.
Sam Rolph gets $30,000 and invitation to next year’s Magic World Championship after winning Magic: The Gathering Arena Championship 1
Sam Rolph ultimately won $30,000 and an invitation to the Magic World Championship next year, and his final opponent received the same invite and $20,000. Both players ran very similar decks, but Sam Rolph’s was a bit more potent.
The winning Magic: The Gathering Arena deck was all about consistency, which is a powerful thing in the card game.
Focused heavily around Blood Artist and Oni-Cult Anvil, it slowly but surely drove a player’s life total down to 0.
Decklist
Creatures
- Bloodtithe Harvester (4)
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare (4)
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (2)
- Voldaren Epicure (4)
Instants
- Deadly Dispute (4)
- Infernal Grasp (3)
- Voltage Surge (4)
Artifacts
- Experimental Synthesizer (4)
- Oni-Cult Anvil (4)
Enchantments
- Sanguine Brushstroke (4)
Lands
- Forsaken Crossroads 94)
- Haunted Ridge (4)
- Mountain (4)
- Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (1)
- Sulfurous Springs (4)
- Swamp (5)
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
Sideboard
- Duress (3)
- Gate of the Black Dragon (1)
- Molten Impact (2)
- Ob Nixilis, the Adversary (2)
- Pilfer (3)
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (2)
- Wyll, Pact-Bound Duelist (2)
Fans of the Rakdos Midrange deck discussed earlier on Sportskeeda will be familiar with many of the cards on this Magic: The Gathering Arena deck. However, there have been some significant changes. For example, The Meathook Massacre no longer gives life back in Alchemy, so a different card is needed.
Thankfully, the Arena-only Sanguine Brushstroke is the perfect answer. It creates a copy of the creature Blood Artist and puts it into play. The enchantment also makes an opponent lose one life and grants you one life whenever you sacrifice a Blood Token.
Blood Artist does everything it needs to do when it comes to consistent, frustrating damage-dealing. A staple for the various Aristocrats decks, it has the following key ability.
“Whenever Blood Artist or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.”
It’s essentially Magic: The Gathering Arena's Cauldron/Witch’s Oven all over again in terms of power and difficulty to halt. Oni-Cult Anvil allows you to sacrifice an artifact to deal one damage to each opponent, and you gain one life.
Whenever one or more artifacts you control leaves the battlefield on your turn, you create a 1/1 colorless Construct artifact token. It only triggers once a turn, though, so you have to be prepared for that. Simply sacrificing a Blood Token, which this deck generates, can create that artifact creature to sacrifice.
The artifact creature is then sacrificed, and Blood Artist also triggers, doing more and more damage. It pairs this with a variety of helpful instants, one of which also helps this combo. Additionally, Deadly Dispute creates a Treasure Token that can also trigger for Oni-Cult Anvil.
Having Braids, Arisen Nightmare in play is another serious advantage for this Magic: The Gathering Arena deck. You can sacrifice an artifact, creature, enchantment, land, or planeswalker on your end step. If you do, each opponent can sacrifice a permanent of the same type, but if not, they lose two life, and you draw a card.
This can potentially trigger Blood Artist or Oni-Cult Anvil, depending on what you sacrifice. It’s a powerful deck that constantly generates value.
It’s worth noting that this deck does not really feature as consistent a loop as the Cauldron combo. It’s slower, but it’s just as reliable. It also has a stacked sideboard with cards like Ob-Nixilis, the Adversary, which can be devastating on turn three.
While Keisuke Sato’s deck was similar, it did not quite hold up to the constant value generated by Sam Rolph’s.
Magic: The Gathering Arena Championship 1 was an exciting event, and Rolph earned his 2-1 in the Grand Finals.
