MTG Arena: 5 best cards from the Historic Anthology

MTG Arena recently rolled out the Historic Anthology. Here are our top five cards to give you the edge in this exciting new format.

No longer will Magic the Gathering: Arena players be restricted to standard-based game modes. Various cards from past Magic the Gathering sets are making their debut in MTG Arena‘s new Historic format.

Earlier this month MTG Arena developers released Historic Anthology 1, which featured 20 different cards all from older sets, some as far back as 2000. I took the time to sit down and examine some of these cards and compiled my top 5 cards that will surely give you an edge in this exciting new format.

Not all colors are equally represented, however. The break down for cards was as follows.

• White-3
• Blue-2
• Black-4
• Red-3
• Green-3
• Multicolor-2
• Colorless-3
• Creatures-13(1 artifact creature)
• Artifact-2
• Enchantment-1
• Instant/Sorceries-4

Because of the name Historic Anthology 1, it stands to reason that MTG Arena developers will be releasing more historic sets as we roll into next year. Hopefully, as we have more cards added, the synergy between the sets will increase. That said here are my top 5 cards of Historic Anthology:

1. Kinsbaile Cavalier

Knight decks have been the creature type of choice for tribal deck players since Throne of Eldraine released earlier this season. Now knights will have additional support outside of the standard. Kinsbaile Cavalier will offer players a new utility card for both offense and defense. Double strike is always a powerful ability, but blanketing that effect across all your knights sets up for a powerhouse of value.

2. Distant Melody

Tribal decks are a common thing. Eldraine has Knights, Ixalan had Merfolk, Vampires, Dinosaurs, and Pirates. Drawing cards because of your tribe is always a plus.

Distant melody allows you to draw cards based on how many creatures of your chosen type you control at the time of cast, all for only 4 mana. This has the capability to give extreme value, provided you can keep your board state.

3. Phyrexian Arena

This is a personal favorite card of mine. Draw power is essential in competitive Magic. Normally this is restricted to mostly Blue players, but now Black players can get the leg up, at a small fee of one life. If combined with any form of life gain be it through other black cards or even white, youll have a nice draw engine to keep your hand fresh.

4. Serra Ascendant

Speaking of life gain, Serra Ascendant will keep your life high while tearing your opponents down. For a single white mana players get a lifelink creature, who gets a major power boost when you hit 30 or more life. Not only does it get a boost in strength, but gaining flying for additional utility.

5. Darksteel Reactor

Ever since War of the Spark, proliferation has been a very popular mechanic. Proliferation allows you to add counters of any type on permanents you control, mostly used with planeswalkers to manipulate their loyalty counters.

Now you can add counters to help you win a game faster. On turn four you could be manipulating the engine of your victory. And with indestructibility, turning that engine off will be very difficult.

There you have it! 20 fresh cards to kick off an exciting format in Magic Arena. You can redeem wildcards for any of the cards in Historic Anthology 1 or head to the in-game store and purchase an entire playset of each card for 3,400 gems.