Historical Type2 Decks

[PalladiaMors]

Some players are interested in this format, but aren't sure where to find decks they could play competitively. The list below includes several top decks from each year's Standard, you should be able to find some decks that you'd like to play among them. Historical Type 2 is a completely open format right now with no established metagame and an incredibly vast and diversified deck pool. Help us playtest in Xmage!

The sets listed by each year are meant to correspond to the ones that were legal at the time of the World Championship tournament. Whenever possible, I'm trying to link to the year's World Championship's archive.

1996 (FEM to ALL+4ED)
1997 (FEM to WTH+5ED)
1998 (Mirage+Tempest+5ED)
1999 (Tempest+urza+6ED)
2000 (urza+Masques+6ED)
2001 (Masques+Invasion+7ED)
2002 (Invasion+Odissey+7ED)
2003 (Odissey+onslaught+8ED)
2004 (onslaught+Mirrodin+8ED)
2005 (Kamigawa+Ravnica+9ED)
2006 (Ravnica+Time spiral+Coldsnap+10ED)
2007 (Time spiral+Lorwyn+Coldsnap+10ED)
2008 (Lorwyn+Alara+M10)
2009 (Alara+Zendikar+M10+M11)
2010 (Zendikar+Scars+M11+M12)
2011 (Scars+Innistrad+M12+M13)
2012 (Innistrad+Return to Ravnica+M13+M14)
2013 (Return to Ravnica+Theros+M14+M15)
2014 (Theros+Khans of Tharkir+M15+Ori)
2015 (Khans of Tharkir+Battle for Zendikar+Ori)


This wiki page from mtgsalvation features several top decks from the 97-04 era.

Massive early 2000s deck database from Magic-League.

Massive mid to late 2000s deck database from Magic-League.

Large early 2010s deck database from Magic-League.

Notice that Historical Type 2 uses a custom ban list that doesn't correspond to the actual cards that were banned during each Standard.

Latest edit: Better links for 1996 and 1998.

[PalladiaMors]

Some quick deck reviews. The objective here is mostly to induce some discussion on the format. Feel free to contribute with deck reviews or comments, I'll quote and add them to the list.


1996

Necro

This is one of the most famous decks in mtg history, and several reference lists can be found around. A lot of people were initially concerned that it could imbalance the format. It's very likely the deck with the highest number of cards with extremely high individual value: Necropotence is a major monster, and there's also Hymn to Tourach, Demonic Consultation, Dark Ritual, Strip Mine, Nevinyrral's Disk, Zuran Orb, plus several other very good cards as well.

Actual practice against other decks in the format has shown some clear vulnerabilities. The deck took advantage of the fact that the 1996 standard was a very slow format, which allowed it to exploit Necropotence to the maximum. However, it clearly has trouble against recent fast aggro decks that deal damage quickly and can work with few lands on the board. Demonstrated bad matchups include recent mono red aggro or white weenie decks. The fact that the deck's life gain and creature removal is a bit clunky becomes very obvious then. Of course, it may be possible to tweak the list to improve on these weaknesses. Some control matchups also appear unfavourable, such as Odissey-era mono-black control.

Necro is surely a candidate to be among the the top decks in historical standard, but that will probably require tweaking the list to what is a very different format compared to the 1996 standard, and practice has shown that there are definitely unfavourable matchups.

1997

URW Control

Aggro decks from the 90s such as the 1997 world championship winner look below the curve when compared to the current power level of aggro decks, but the control decks feature plenty of cards that are still considered very powerful nowadays. This list includes resources such as Counterspell, Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares, Abeyance and Thawing Glaciers, and is likely to have good matchups vs. several recent decks. Looks like a better candidate from 1997 to perform well in historical standard than the winning deck from the year.

1998

Prosbloom

Historical Standard has fewer combo decks compared to eternal formats, since the more restricted card pool in a Standard format means there are less available interactions between cards. This tried and tested consistent deck was dominant at the time. Of course, historical standard is a more powerful format than the 1998 standard, which was relatively slow, and it should have more trouble facing decks that are fast enough to finish before it can go off, or can stop it from going off. We can't test this one yet since Squandered Resources and Natural Balance are unavailable in Xmage at this time, and the deck is too slow to be competitive without its mana engine kickstart. But it's a likely candidate to be among the format's top combo decks.

RecSur

During playtest, this turned out to have excellent results vs. recent decks. Once the Survival of the Fittest + Recurring Nightmare combo got going, it managed to deal with pretty much everything that was thrown at it, while managing to return its threats to the battlefield when necessary. One thing I've learned in this format is that the surprise factor is a major advantage, since it's hard to play optimally against a deck when you don't know its strategy beforehand. This deck is now over 15 years old and has been out of the map for a while, so it's possible to benefit from that when running it. The list is very flexible and can be tweaked easily depending on what the metagame turns out to look like. On first glance, a very strong contender in historical standard.

1999

Wildfire

The winning deck from arguably the strongest standard, this deck is an easy bet to do well in the format. During playtest, it became clear that it actually struggles against recent control decks that can counter the Wildfire and deal with its threats. Mass artifact removal is also an issue. In the other hand, I just don't see how an aggro deck can beat this one. Given the fact that several matchups are indeed very much in its favour, this deck should be a major contender in historical standard, but the training games demonstrated a fair share of bad matchups as well.

Sped Red

The tempest + urza's mono-red land destruction deck. As far as individual value is concerned, it features cards that really don't look too great (Jackal Pup, Fireslinger, Stone Rain). Yet during playtest it turned out to be devastating, particularly when matched against recent decks. It did lose in the 1999 finals, although to another very strong deck. The problem with the deck's scary performance is that land destruction can be frustrating to play against, and if this one turns out to do really well, it could turn people away from the format. Hopefully solid counters will be found as the historical standard becomes more popular. Anyway, regardless of whether that's a good or bad thing, this deck turned out to be extremely tough during test games.

Sui Black

This is the fastest deck in the format (it can win by turn 2 with a 1-drop and Hatred powered by enough acceleration). It's a major gamble, which should lead to extreme matchups, either weighted very much in its favour or against it. Things that can go very wrong include Phyrexian Negator getting bolted or Hatred getting countered. Burn, creature removal and counterspells are abundant in the format, and it did *not* do well during testing, but when this catches a deck that happens to be unprepared to deal with its strategy, the opponent is in trouble.

2000

Tinker

This legendary deck is certainly one of the scariest in the format and a huge candidate to be among the top decks. It has its share of weak spots, such as mass artifact removal or Tinker getting countered. But it's something you're going to have to plan against in historical standard.

Replenish

This very powerful and consistent combo deck featuring Replenish and Opalescence is also a solid contender in the format. It is, however, vulnerable to graveyard hate, which is easily available for many of the recent standards. In case it turns out to do well, it should be reasonably simple to counter it by running efficient graveyard hate. Other decent counters include cards such as Surgical Extraction, also commonly available in several standards. When Replenish faces something that hasn't planned for the matchup, it's likely the favourite.

2001

Fires of Yavimaya

One of the most popular decks ever, this is also among the few older aggro decks that stand a chance in the format. It's not as quick as the fastest aggro decks in historical standard, but has an advantage in the fact that its threats can be difficult to deal with (Saproling Burst, Blastoderm, Spiritmonger on versions that splash black). Playtesting indicated an average performance.

2002

UG Madness

Another popular older aggro deck, this is slower than other strong aggro lists in the format, but generates a ton of card advantage, and has a lot of combat tricks at its disposal. Playtesting showed that it struggles a bit in historical standard, though. Another famous 2002 deck, Psychatog also seemed to lose every match during test games, so 2002 isn't looking very competitive at this point. Perhaps an Odyssey-based mono-black control list adapted for standard and fit the format's meta better, some examples can be found in the links provided in the first post.

2003

Goblin Bidding

onslaught-based mono-red Goblins, using the shell with Goblin Warchief, Goblin Piledriver and Siege-Gang Commander, is a big candidate to be among the fastest consistent decks in the format. The version that splashes black for Patriarch's Bidding doesn't lose that much speed compared to the mono-red version, while including a solid plan B against removal. Bidding also synergizes with the abilities involving sacrifice costs featured in the deck. It didn't perform that great in 2003 because Goblins were very popular then and obviously Patriarch's Bidding isn't that great against tribal decks, but in a format with a much more diversified deck pool, I see this version faring better.

2004

Affinity

This is another deck a lot of people feared could the format. There's no doubt it's one of the fastest consistent aggro decks in historical standard, and decks that require a slow buildup and are unable to deal with its threats are pretty much doomed against it. However, it has a fair share of weaknesses: it's very vulnerable against mass artifact removal and mass creature removal, and even to targeted removal as well. It's also something that everyone will surely be expecting to come across. During playtest, it didn't look dominating at all, getting often beaten by much less famous decks. And it did lose the 2004 championship to Slide.

Slide

The link consists in the GW version designed in 2004 to beat affinity, while RW versions with Lightning Rift were used in 2003 against Goblins. The deck is very successful in beating aggro, but can struggle against other control decks. The lists are flexible and can be tweaked depending on the meta, and you can even switch between 2003 and 2004, so I wouldn't rule out this turning out to be reasonably competitive, but so far test games showed an average performance.

2005

Enduring Ideal

While aggro and control decks from 2005 feel a little underpowered for this format, this powerful combo deck has a pretty unique mechanism and can be expected to catch people off guard. Once it manages to resolve Enduring Ideal, it's very difficult to escape its grasp. It can do that by the 4th turn with a perfect hand, although it can't do it consistently, and such a hand won't be able to stall for a few turns, which can be necessary in a format with very fast aggro decks. It still requires a few turns to win after Ideal resolves. The best ways to deal with this deck are either decks that can finish faster than it can cast Ideal, or countering the card. It's been showing up quite strongly during playtest.

2006

Dragonstorm

Another big combo deck in the format, this one can't go off at the 4th turn consistently such as something like Prosbloom, but it's very successful at stalling for a few turns until it can cast Dragonstorm into the hellkites. Has been performing well in test games.

Izzetron

The urza lands also have their place in historical standard. Like the one above, this is a UR deck from 2006, but it's a control list that's competent at stalling the game while searching for the urza lands, until it amasses enough mana to pull off a killer Blaze or Invoke the Firemind. It's been looking solid in training games.

2007

The Rock

GB lists were dominant in 2007, and the link consists in the WC winner, which seemed representative of the deck. You can go hardcore aggro with the Elves tribal subtheme, you can splash white for Doran, the Siege Tower, you can replace some creatures to give the deck a more control character. The flexibility is a good sign and it's been showing up decently.

2008

Faeries

Probably the first deck that comes to mind when you think about an aggro/control list in the format. One thing that it has going against it is that the whole shell is Lorwyn block and the other sets don't have a lot to add to the theme, so it's basically a block deck fending off in a standard-strength format, although that doesn't stop several decks from shining in historical standard. This deck actually seems to be performing below average, mainly because it seems to have a lot of trouble keeping the quickest aggro decks in check. Some adaptations to the reference lists are going to be necessary: for instance, running Terror main deck might have made sense in the 2008 standard, but seriously risks being dead cards in this format.

2009

Jund

A sure candidate to appear among the top decks. Not only this is a very fast deck, capable of crushing plays such as Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid Elf, it also has threats that are difficult to deal with such as Sprouting Thrinax, and even some hand disruption through discard with Blightning. The list can also be adapted to a good degree depending on what you expect to see. A very good deck to playtest against, since it's super consistent and gives a good idea of Historical Standard's speed.

2010

Eldrazi Ramp

Ramping up into big creatures is a traditional idea, available in plenty of standards. Versions including Zendikar block have access to plenty of strong ramp spells and to the Eldrazi, and should be among the most competitive ones.

Mono Red Aggro

The 2010 version is a front runner among the mono red aggro decks in the format. With a lot of unearth creatures and even manabarbs in the sideboard, it's got a decent shot against control decks as well. Compared to older versions, these recent ones have less broken cards, but the creatures are much better. They tend to be more consistent.

2011

Caw-Blade

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were actually banned in their Standard, but as explained in the first post, Historical Standard (Type 2 in Xmage) uses a custom ban list which doesn't correspond to the actual ban list from each Standard, and they were deemed balanced enough for the format. The result is this super strong control deck which is certainly one of the top decks in the format. It's always going to be a tough deck to face, but I don't really think it's imbalanced, it's definitely beatable and probably even has unfavourable matchups.

Tempered Steel

This deck, and not 2004 Mirrodin-block Affinity, is the true roots for the Affinity top deck in the Modern format. It's a fast, consistent aggro deck that uses Tempered Steel to pump its efficient artifact creatures, playing similarly to a typical white weenie.

2012

Delver

Besides the linked UR version, UW and UWb variants were also common. I expected this deck to be very popular, but surprisingly few people have actually been running it, to a point where it's been difficult to access its strength in the format. Given the success that versions of the deck have had in Modern and even Legacy, I supposed this should be expected to be a solid contender.

2013

Devotion to Black

The various Devotion decks are pretty popular and the black variant is the one showing up the most in historical standard matches so far, with generally solid results. It's pretty simple and straight forward to play and seems to have good matchups against many strong decks in the format.

2014

UW Control

So far this has been the most commonly played control deck in the format. It's always a challenge to face and has been having pretty good results. Of course, playing against it isn't necessarily the most fun thing in the world, particularly the most hardcore control versions, and one danger that the player has to keep in mind is not overstepping the time limit, which has been happening occasionally. These decks have an important role to play, though, in keeping the combo ones in check.

2015

Abzan

The link is the WC winning control version, there are also aggro and midrange versions of the deck. Average card power in MtG has increased tremendously over the years, if you compare this deck card by card to the ones from the 90s, the difference is shocking. And yet, every year has been shown to have competitive decks in historical standard!

[fireshoes]

MTGtop8.com has "The Decks to Beat" each month from Dec '10 to present, if you want some newer decks. Also "The Rogue Corner" if you want decks that aren't as mainstream. If you click on a deck and then click Export, you can save it as an mwDeck file, which can be used to import into the xmage deck editor.

[fireshoes]

tcdecks.net also lets you look at decklists back to MRD-SOK. Just put your mouse pointer over standard and choose which standard you want.

[PalladiaMors]

^ Thanks for the reference links @fireshoes!

Bumping the topic since I've completed a few reviews now. I might add more reviews later since I also tested several post 2004 decks in case there's some interest on those. I've also bumped the topic about the format in mtgsalvation and added a link to this list, hopefully that could bring us a few new players. I don't know if it's going to be possible to make this really popular in Xmage, but nobody can accuse me of not trying!

[fireshoes]

I didn't look too close, but I think the sets are a year off for the Worlds decklists. Like the 2011 decks are Scars/Innistrad instead of Zen/Scars.

[PalladiaMors]

^ Thanks for noticing that!

I tried to get each year's listed sets to correspond to the ones that were legal at that year's world championship tournament. It was previously mistaken because apparently there was no Mirrodin+Kamigawa blocks Standard world championship tournament (the list was mistaken since 2005). Could anyone confirm if this is true? In that case, hopefully it's now correct.

[fireshoes]

According to the Magic Worlds wiki, the 2004 Worlds was help the first week of September, about a month before Champions of Kamigawa had come out. Then the 2005 Worlds was Nov 30-Dec 4, so a month after Ravnica had come out, so the timing caused the Mirrodin-Kamigawa standard to get skipped at Worlds.