After an intense competition of the best Magic: The Gathering Arena players, Shinya Saito won the Arena Championship 4 with a Blue/Red Wizards deck.
Although the 5th anniversary of Magic: The Gathering Arena has been mired with technical issues, the competition was still fierce during the Arena Championship 4. Wizards of the Coast held the two-day virtual event, which saw 32 players vie for the title as well as the prize pool of $200,000.
By the end of the fierce weekend eliminations and the final 8 clash, Japan’s Shinya Saito won with his Izzet Wizards deck over USA’s Bassel Nasri and his Dimir Control deck.
Congratulations again to our Arena Championship 4 winner, Shinya Saito!
🔮 Get their Izzet Wizards decklist here: https://t.co/GXKAA6pojO pic.twitter.com/SQGEsLWKIL
— MTG Arena (@MTG_Arena) October 9, 2023
Since the release of Ravnica with its two-color themed guilds, fans have referred to color combinations based on them. This helps to easily identify the meta-game and theme of the decks played, especially among Magic: The Gathering players. For instance, instead of saying a player used a Blue/White control deck, it would be referred to as an Azorius Control deck (Azorius being the Ravnican guild with that color combination).
In the case of Shinya Saito’s winning Historic constructed deck used in Arena Championship 4, it is an Izzet Wizards deck. The color-combination is Blue and Red with Wizards being the prominent creature type. It relies on efficient library management and card draw, while its creatures gain or give significant advantages the more instants and sorceries are cast during play.
One of the key cards in Saito’s deck is Wizard’s Lightning. Typically, it is an overcosted Lightning Strike. But with even one Wizard in play, it turns into the classic Lightning Bolt. Flame of Anor (from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth set) provides multiple options when played with a Wizards deck for only 3 mana. Paired with the MTGA version of the Strixhaven A-Symmetry Sage (which changes the base power of a creature to 3 when an instant or sorcery is cast) and Saito’s Izzet deck can be deceptively fast with dealing damage.
The rest of the deck is fairly straightforward, providing direct damage and card advantage. Interestingly, there are no counterspells in Saito’s Izzet deck, which is unusual. Izzet Blue/Red decks will usually have a few counterspells to deal with big threats or things like enchantments. Even Saito’s sideboard only has a single Spell Pierce card.
You can see the full list of Saito’s Arena Championship 4 Historic constructed deck below:
Companion
- 1x Jegantha, the Wellspring
Creatures 15 cards
- 4x Soul-Scar Mage
- 4x Dreadhorde Arcanist
- 4x A-Symmetry Sage
- 3x Balmor, Battlemage Captain
Sorcery 13 cards
- 4x Reckless Charge
- 4x Expressive Iteration
- 4x Sleight of Hand
- 1x Strangle
Instant 12 cards
- 4x Wizard’s Lightning
- 4x Flame of Anor
- 2x Play with Fire
- 1x Reckless Rage
- 1x Spikefield Hazard / Spikefield Cave
Lands 20 cards
- 4x Steam Vents
- 4x Spirebluff Canal
- 4x Riverglide Pathway / Lavaglide Pathway
- 3x Fiery Islet
- 2x Den of the Bugbear
- 1x Island
- 1x Otawara, Soaring City
- 1x Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
Sideboard 15 cards
- 2x Snapcaster Mage
- 2x Unlicensed Hearse
- 2x Pithing Needle
- 2x Brotherhood’s End
- 2x Aether Gust
- 1x Spell Pierce
- 1x Tormod’s Crypt
- 1x Jegantha, the Wellspring
- 1x Strangle
- 1x Reckless Rage
For his triumph in Arena Championship 4, Shinya Saito received $30,000 of the prize pool. Second placer Bassel Nasri received $20,000, while the top 3 and 4 Marcus Wosner and Michal Guldan received $15,000. The rest of the top 8 Finalists received $10,000 while the remaining players that qualified received $1,500 to $7,000 based on their rankings.
What do you think about Saito’s Historic format Izzet Wizards deck? How does it compare to Magic: The Gathering World Champion XXIX Jean-Emmanuel Depraz’s Standard Constructed Esper Legends deck?
Magic: The Gathering Arena is available for play on Windows PC, macOS, Android, and iOS platforms.
