The Historic Artisan event is here for the next ten days as an additional way for players to enjoy the Historic format – on a budget! Artisan makes its return from the Festival of the Fae event back in November, where we are only allowed to use common and uncommon cards but this time within the Historic card pool. Read on for our strategy guide and a variety of decklists that you can use for this event!

Skip straight to the Historic Artisan decklist section if you wish!

Event Information

Duration : December 20, 2019 @ 8:00 AM PST – December 30, 2019 @ 8:00 AM PST

: December 20, 2019 @ 8:00 AM PST – December 30, 2019 @ 8:00 AM PST Format : Historic Artisan

: Historic Artisan Entry Fee : 2500 Gold or 500 Gems

: 2500 Gold or 500 Gems Ends After : You can keep playing, but rewards do not go past five wins.

: You can keep playing, but rewards do not go past five wins. Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)

Event Rewards

To clarify, you do not have to re-enter the event and you only have to pay the entry fee once. There is no limit on the number of losses (or victories). Play as much as you want for the duration of the event.

1 Win

2 Wins

3 Wins

4 Wins

5 Wins

What is Historic Artisan?

Historic Artisan is a constructed format that allows you to only use common and uncommon cards in your deck from the Historic card pool – that is, all the cards in MTG Arena. Don’t forget you can use cards from Historic Anthology 1! Also, it is important to note that the following cards are banned for this event, which are the same ones from the Standard Artisan event back in November:

This does not stop us from creating even better decks, as there are even better cards than these – read on to find out!

Building Your Artisan Deck

Compared to Pauper, there are a lot more deck construction possibilities in Historic Artisan and most of the power level comes from uncommon cards. It is also budget friendly, not requiring rare or mythic rares to play, and can later be upgraded to fully fledged Historic decks if desired! Be sure to check out our Budget Historic Decks section for a more detailed run down on our decks below which have been tuned for best-of-one play and how to upgrade them.

In our previous guide to Standard Artisan, we identified the most powerful uncommon cards that were the strongest decks to build around and that can be held the same here as well. Aggressive tribal synergies (especially in BO1) are likely the most consistent, quickest and linear decks to play in Artisan. You can even use Unclaimed Territory for these tribal archetypes in Historic Artisan, which solves the problem of a inconsistent mana base without the rare lands!

There are also a lot of sweet uncommon cards that can be good for general use or also as build around cards. These cards will be serving to support your deck.













Our Top Artisan Decklists

More decks will be added here as the event progresses and updated where necessary. Make sure to check back here later, or go straight to our Artisan deck section!

Wrapping Up

We hope you enjoy the next ten days of Historic Artisan! This weekend we have the final Standard MagicFest of the year at Portland. How will the format shape up? We will be posting the top decklists as soon as they are published. Leading up to the new year, Theros: Beyond Death previews and spoilers kick off again beginning December 24 and a Standard Shakeup event on December 30 so keep your eyes peeled for them as well!

Also remember, you can always engage in our growing MTG Arena Zone community: