Arclight Primer!
Written on June 9th, 2024 by Roughmar
Table of Contents
Introduction
Who is this for?
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This guide is intended for both new players approaching the Arclight Phoenix deck in Pioneer and veteran players looking to refresh their knowledge on card choices and concepts.
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Many new players are drawn to Arclight Phoenix thinking it plays a certain way, but become discouraged when they find it functions differently. This guide aims to bridge that gap.
Why play Arclight?
Over the relatively short time Pioneer has been around, Phoenix has stood firmly in the upper-tier echelons. Not as powerful as the modern version during Hogaak Summer, the pioneer version has one thing that the modern version never had - access to Treasure Cruise.
On previous iterations of the 75, Pieces of the Puzzle (we will talk about this card later) and Expressive Iteration were the main pieces that kept the deck rolling and sort of helped create the notion that Phoenix was mostly all about the midrange with the 2 for 1’s held together by the inevitability of an extra turn(s). Later on, bans happened, the Apocalypse happened, and Phoenix was on an all time low. Wilds of Eldraine changed this with Picklock Prankster and the reprint of Sleight of Hand.
The strength of Phoenix is that it has almost no bad matchups (realistically there are two), and the deck feels and acts differently depending on the pilot and the way they allow the deck to ebb and flow.
What is Arclight?
When trying to describe what Phoenix is, most people have it wrong. Some people say it’s a combo deck, others will say control. After some time playing the format, some players will say it’s an Aggro/Tempo deck.
It’s not.
Phoenix is a Storm Deck(…) I see the deck similar to Storm/Scapeshift where you make land drops and develop yourself until you get enough resources to cast Timewalk and just win - Daniel Goetschel
The concept of Phoenix is extremely straightforward since its inception: your opponents cast their threats, you cast your spells to remove them, and eventually they are topdecking while you still have a full grip, literally going over the top with a flying armada and potentially taking extra turns.
Phoenix is mostly all about the grave. The namesake wants to be there, cruise wants to feed from it, your removal needs it. Like most broken decks, trying to beat phoenix the conventional way doesn’t usually work, but the deck is very easily hated on. We’ll cover what you can expect to go against post board, and what to do against it, here.
Classical Structure
Phoenix is a deck that keeps evolving over new entrances on the card pool, as well as the meta, but the bread and butter doesn’t change much:
Main Deck/
├── 8 Creatures
| ├── 4 Arclight Phoenix
| └── 4 Friends
| ├── Ledger Shredder
| └── Thing in the Ice
├── 12 Cantrips
├── 8 Single target removal
├── 4 Grave Fillers/Card Selection
| ├── Pieces of the Puzzle
| └── Picklock Prankster
├── 5 (+1 Fork) Delve Spells
| ├── 3-4 Treasure Cruise
| └── Turns Package
| ├── 1-2 Temp. Trespass
| └── 1-2 Galv. Iteration
├── 17-19 Lands
| └── 2 MDFC
└── 3 Flex Slots
├── 2 Spell Pierce
└── 1 Brazen Borrower
Mulligans
This is the part you seriously need to read if you are starting with the deck. The whole thing about Phoenix is understanding that the match, at least in game 1, is all about spending your mana, building up for future Treasure Cruises, all the while maintaining the battlefield in a manageable state. I understand that mulliganing leaves your initial options slimmer, but unless you are against a deck with hand disruption (eg: Thoughtseize or Duress), you can and should aggressively mulligan to be able to build your plan.
The number one issue I see is people keeping hands that seem great in the long run (+2 Delve Spells in hand) or having a lot of removal without knowing the opposing matchup. On the other hand, I tend to see people mulliganing away hands that are perfectly reasonable, and due to confirmation bias (or failure to believe in the quantum state the deck offers), mulligan away Air hands.
There’s a specific section to dive through initial hands.
What to expect from a 7 hander
You want to ideally have 2-3 lands with at least one of them being able to give red mana. You want some Air. Removal is fine but not mandatory. You don’t want delve spells. Phoenixes are ok as long as you can ship them away in a way that isn’t too taxing (Shredder is cool, Lightning Axe works, but you sort of mulliganed to 6. Cards like Prismari Command or Izzet Charm can do this proactively but come at a cost.)
One land hands are fine game 1 if you have Air and the land can give both colors of mana. Be mentally prepared to stumble sometimes.
Ship it. Do it often.
You have Treasure Cruise to rebuild. Following the logic that there are many games where you need to discard during cleanup, you can and should be able to rebuild from a smaller starting hand. Pieces isn’t as played as it used to be, and EI is banned, so you can no longer be a complete degenerate and hard mulligan for them to make sure you have game against anything, but you can still rely on the fact that your deck functions lightly. Also, Phoenix is a deck that sometimes stumbles it’s engine (over time you’ll learn to make sure it happens as few times as possible) and it can enter topdeck. Being on topdeck obviously isn’t great, but if there’s a deck that’s capable of clawing it’s way out of it, it’s Phoenix.
Quantum State
I couldn’t find a better term to express this concept. It’s the most important thing to understand about the deck, the hardest part to feel comfortable with, and why I think, honestly, that Phoenix isn’t as hard to pilot as some people think. You just need to adapt to this concept and play around it. Be water my friend.
The cards in your hand might not be there. The cards on the top of your deck might not be there.
The only thing you know is what’s on the grave, what might be going to the grave, and eventually what’s exactly on the bottom of your library since you placed it there. Playing with this in mind, understand that every card state is mutable to a certain extent.
Air
Air are all the cantrips you have in your deck. All 12 of them. 30% of your spells are Air. They’re nothing and everything at the same time, and they are what makes your deck actually function.
Air in your hand can be a land, a creature, a piece of removal. It can even be more Air. It can become a cruise and multiply into more Air, or whiff into 3 lands. As long as you have Air, you have control over your game’s outcome. It’s due to this Air that you can recycle your hands and bring your Phoenixes back by just using mana but not wasting cards.
Embracing the Uncertainty
The cards in your hand can be swapped with connive triggers from Ledger Shredder, or be sent away with a Lightning Axe. You can loot them with a Charm or Command.
Every single card in the top of your deck can be either there, go to your hand, be in your grave or on the bottom of the library.
Unlike Schrödinger’s Cat, you can decide the outcome after you take a look.
Sometimes you need to Embrace the Quantum state and let the wheel turn. Sometimes you will Cruise, sometimes you will Free the Fae/Pieces. Sometimes you go hard mode and you play with Air, effectively not knowing the card that’s underneath and wasting all of that precious resource, making your hand cumbersome, while you dig for a specific card.
Whenever you send a card away, the probability that the card on top can mutate into a copy of one of them diminishes, but at the same time, you need to play around the fact that you will eventually see it. This is the push and pull the deck offers, and you eventually need to embrace it if you want to be able to play it to its fullest.
It’s mid-game and you need to find a counterspell. You have a Free the Fae in hand.
You might find the counter, you might find something else.
You might bin a Phoenix, you might bin that Hall of the Storm Giant or Crackling Drake too.
Playing around what is, what was and most importantly what might be is the most important thing in the whole deck, and the sooner you realize that, and feel confortable navigating the aether of unknown one spell after the other so the little Bird can be set free, the sooner you can tell whether Phoenix is the deck for you or not.
Topdeck Mode
Possibly one of the strongest points Phoenix has is Topdeck Mode. Some people will say that this is a moot point, as you always have cards in hand, due to Treasure Cruise.
Not only is it a fallacy, since some matches require heavy resource trading that will leave you hellbent, you don’t really need to have no cards in hand to be in Topdeck Mode.
If all your cards in hand are lands, are you not in Topdeck Mode?
Phoenix has the particularity that sometimes you might hit Topdeck Mode with a full grip and you might not even notice that.
If all your cards are Air, are you in Topdeck Mode?
Actual Topdecking/Being Hellbent
All the times you are in Topdeck Mode, you are practicing topdecking (ha!). Remember all the cantrips and what they usually see? Remember only running 17-19 lands in the whole deck? When you are topdecking, the probability that you will hit something that will get you out of that situation, is very high. The deck might make you work for it, but you can accelerate the speed it will take you to see the Picklock Prankster that will get you out of this mess.
Or the Treasure Cruise that will get you back in the game.
You need to have some discipline, however.
Let’s assume you are hellbent, and the card you draw is a Consider. You cast consider and you see a Shredder. That Shredder will not get you out of Topdeck Mode. You bin that bastard.
Even if the card after him is a Land, you are one card ahead to finding what you need to come out on top.
Card Notes - Core
Air Package
Air, or the card selection cantrips, are what allows this deck to exist. You breathe through it, and more often than not it stokes the flame for Arclight to come back to life.
Traditionally we used to have only 8 good cantrips, with some people trying out cards like Crash Through or Quicken to increase their density but often giving up due to the fact that you couldn’t manipulate anything.
Sleight of Hand
Reprinted in Wilds of Eldraine, it’s arguably the worse of the trio, being a sorcery, but it comes with a few notable upsides. Being able to actually choose from 2 cards is quite different than seing the top, shipping it, and then getting the unknown. Also, it’s not a draw. It goes over Narset and it won’t trigger Sheoldred
Consider
The best of the bunch. Fills your grave faster. Allows your Fiery Impulse to go online with a single cast. It gives information to the opponent, however.
Opt
The OG. Humble in it’s inception, possibly the prettiest card in the whole 75. Phoenix is the only deck that should play opt
What to actually cast when you have Air options?
Sleight is usually better to just send away at the beginning, if there’s no fear of repercussion on the opponents turn, since it’s a sorcery. Beyond this point, Sleight is better when you’re looking for a very specific card, so that if you miss, you can still take the best of the 2 options given.
Imagine it’s turn 2 and you only have a slow land in hand. You want to use that land for next turn. You Opt. The card on top is another Opt.
Do you keep it, and stumble your land drop this turn allowing you to keep looking for lands next turn with this new Opt, or do you bottom it, not knowing whether you will hit an actual hand?
What if you hit a Cruise you can’t possibly cast anytime soon? If you use Sleight of Hand in situations like these, you can take an informed decision. The less mana you have, the more value Sleight usually brings to the table.
Consider is always the best choice, unless you want to save it so that you can fork it. The reason I say it’s the best choice stems from the fact that you are generating mana for delve spells with it and potentially binning Phoenixes with it.
It’s also better to cast earlier in the game as the sooner in the game it is, the more often you will send spells away, and losing that graveyard equity is detrimental for you. If I cast an Opt right at the beginning of the game and see a Phoenix, I’ll probably send it down, as there’s other cards I need right away. I won’t ever see that Phoenix again (unless my opponent has shuffle effects).
The only issue with casting Consider in the beginning is if you bin something that signals something. Like, say, a Ledger Shredder in the first turn. If that happens, you are probably really desperate for lands, and savvy opponents might be able to prey on that.
Should you use Air turn 1?
It depends. Do you know what you want the card on the top to be? If the answer is yes, you probably should. If the answer is no (as in, you both need the land drop and a removal spell), you should probably want to see what you get on the drawstep and make an informed decision from it.
The other main reason to hold cantrips in the beginning is Ledger Shredder. Being able to connive away bad cards you have, get fuel for delve cards, or just be able to make it grow to 4 toughness can be reasonable arguments to hold your Air in hand.
Sometimes the usage of Air is matchup dependant. If the opponent is playing hand disruption, like thoughtseize, I will probably want to hold on my Air, so I know what he took from me before I actually start going deep into Quantum space. Permission matchups, like UW Control, also are the ones where I hold my Air the longest, as depending on the boardstate, I might want to be going in for threats or go into stack fighting (usually post sideboard).
A very specific nuance is in the mirror. On the draw, you might want to Consider turn 1, to make sure the Fiery Impulse you have in hand can kill the Ledger Shredder the opponent just played.
There’s no rule set in stone. Try to understand the balance between what you need in hand to advance your game state and what (if anything) you need to hinder your opponents’.
Single Target Removal
There’s really not much to talk about here; you kill everything on sight. Be cognizant that even though having spell mastery is trivial, you should be carefull when casting delve spells so you don’t accidently turn it offline.
Grave Fillers/Card Selection
The grave fillers are the most powerfull cards in your entire deck, as they advance your gameplan in all possible dimensions: they get you specific card selection through the Quantum, and massively fill the grave while at it.
Be careful that post-sideboard, you might be milling away your win conditions. Also, be cognizant that even though turbo self-milling (by forking) is super powerful, you need to be careful that you might run out of gas and end up milling yourself by doing this.
Picklock Prankster
- Is arguably a 1-for-1 since the creature is kind of meh
- Only sees 4 cards (forces you to pick 1 if hits)
- Instant
- Can grab other creatures (ie: copies of itself or Brazen Borrower)
Pieces of the Puzzle
- Sorcery speed
- 3 Mana Value
- Sees 5 cards (allows you to send all to grave even if hits)
- 2 for 1
When Wild of Eldraine came out, Phoenix lists were sort of scattered.
- Thing in the Ice vs Ledger Shredder vs Demilich
- What to take out to put Sleight of Hand in?
- Is this Fairy the real deal?
Over time Demilich and TiTi went into hiding (mostly due to meta reasons), but so did Pieces of the Puzzle. There’s only one established player who still plays with it with good results but even he is starting to move away and potentially adopt the adventure creature.
Personally, I believe there might be a space for Pieces in the future, if the format ever slows down, but for the present time, 2 mana instant speed is really hard to beat.
Delve Spells
Before we go any further, this section is here to try to make it very clear: you just can’t take more than 5 delve spells.
You don’t want them stuck in your hand, and you just can’t fuel them all. 5 is the sweet spot. Sometimes you will see a single Treasure Cruise in a sideboard slot on some lists with 2 Trespass in the main - you are supposed to take the Trespass out.
Turns Package
The most over the top thing this deck does. The number one reason you are able to steal away pre sideboarded games, and ironically, the cards that more often that not, get cut games 2 and 3.
The turns package give you inevitability game 1, pre graveyard hate, to just steal away games that you had no right to win. Making 2 extra turns and attacking with 2 phoenixes means 18 flying damage, with no further spells being cast, no Hall of Storm Giants activation, nothing.
If the game drags on, you will win. No other deck can beat the sheer power of this in game 1, with the possible exception of the degeneracy that is Hidden Strings.
Post sideboard you need to be prepared for the hate that’s coming and usually, the turns package is the first to go.
Creatures
Ledger Shredder
The difference in games where you start with an uncontested Shredder, and games you don’t, is absurd. Ledger does everything you want by leaning in the Quantum State and dialing it up all the way up to 11. It’s the most important card against most aggro matchups and can run away with the mirror if you manage to protect it well enough. Being able to remember the connive triggers on paper can be tricky sometimes, and planning ahead for stack wars is important.
The typical example being not having a removal in hand with our oponent tapped out. You cantrip, find a Fiery Impulse, and even though spell mastery is online, you will trigger connive if you cast it. You can wait for the opponents turn to cast Fiery, but he might double spell in response and grow Shredder out of reach, or just Spell Pierce it. The option you have, is casting another spell, triggering connive, and with it on the stack, casting your Fiery Impulse.
Shredder introduced a skill-intensive and highly rewarding mini-game to the battlefield, which might take some time to get used to.
Thing in the Ice
The meta breaker.
Hullbreaker Horror(yeah, it’s the same guy!) used to be present as a 2 mana threat that would flip the battlefield upside down and start breaking unsuspecting faces. Despite not having that much presence lately, it sometimes still shows as a 1-2 off in the flex slot, or as a sideboard card. If the Pioneer meta ever starts becoming focused on the battlefield again, expect to see it pop up.
Flex Slots
Spell Pierce
More often than not you will have 2 slots for this. It will protect your Shredder from removal, your hand from getting Thoughtseized, it will counter Fable or Sorin. It’ll save you from Teferi or The Wandering Emperor. It’ll stall Convokes’ plan. There’s too many to mention but my life has been saved by this card a ridiculous amount of times and you should always try to represent having it in hand whenever you can, even if you don’t have it (you can always cantrip in the end) so that your opponent is forced to play around it.
MDFC’s
You can either run them, or not. If you do, you can go further down in the number of actual lands, as long as you are aware that sometimes you will have slow starts, or that the mana base will be more finicky. When they work, they are great, when they don’t they aren’t that bad. I don’t think you are ever really happy to see them, but at the same time, you’re never really that bothered either.
So why run them?
The easy answer is that the opportunity cost is too low.
Spikefield Hazard used to have it’s uses against Llanowar Elves or Thalia, and the exile clause actually was relevant against either Mono Green, Mono White or Greasefang. It made cat-oven be humble and could respond to Kroxa in an elegant manner (although still a 2-for-1).
Being able to trigger the third spell on an empty board for Phoenixes, being able to target Planeswalkers or actually going to face (hey, I’ve forked my fair share of Spikefields) made the card relevant.
The case for Jwari Disruption followed swiftly. Sleight of hand really made the deck further tend towards blue, and post sideboard some matches are really blue heavy. Having a soft counter to any spell on the format that can usually trade up on mana and that you can always use as a land when it’s too late, as long as you can sequence your early in a way you don’t shoot yourself in the foot seems like a no brainer.
All of this is on a land that can be seen by your grave fillers or pump a Shredder when discarded (the front side is a spell), for the low cost of coming into play tapped.
Problem Cards
(Still being worked)
