Alchemy is one of the more unique formats you can play onMagic: The Gathering Arena. It stands out from the rest thanks to a ton of unique digital-only cards that often have random effects, manipulate your deck in ways that you won’t be able to otherwise, and the ability to just make cards appear from thin air.
With the release of Alchemy: Aetherdrift, you now have a ton of cool new cards to build around. If you’re wondering what cards you should craft from this mini-set or what to look for while cracking packs, we took a look through all 30 cards to highlight the best it has to offer.
7Bail Out
Eject!
There are quite a few one black mana instant spells in Magic that work to keep a valuable creature alive through certain death, and Bail Out is one of the more unique ones that the game has ever seen. While it does the usual ‘when this creature dies, return it to the battlefield,’ it also deals one damage to each opponent, which is a neat little twist.
The real power comes from the fact that Bail Out has an alternate casting cost, letting you overload it for four mana instead. Casting it this way gives all your creatures this effect, potentially letting you slip through a board wipe while also dishing out a ton of damage.
6Trackhand Trainer
Don’t Stop Training
There’s a lot going on with this card, even if it doesn’t initially look like much. Trackhand Trainer comes with an exhaust ability for just one blue mana that lets you conjure a Training Grounds onto the battlefield.
You can only use exhaust abilities once per game, but you can get around that limitation by blinking the creature or any other effect that makes it change zones.
Training Grounds is an incredibly strong effect that reduces the activated abilities of your creatures by two generic mana. This ability always bottoms out at just one mana, but that’s fine since the discount is so great.
5Routeway Moose
Seeking New Lands
Normally, a two-mana 3/3 is already above curve for most Magic cards, and Routeway Moose comes with some added bonuses to help push it over the top. Attacking while this Elk Mount is saddled lets you seek a land card and drop it on the battlefield tapped.
Seeking a card in Magic has you taking a card at random from your deck.
The best part of this card is that it can seek out any land card, not just basic ones, giving you the potential to get some of the best cards in your deck out without really having to tutor for them. Routeway Moose shines best in land-based Commander decks, and while you might only get a few activations out of it, it is agreat way to ramp ahead of your opponent.
4Quickbeast Amulet
Wear It Proudly
Intensity is a rather unique mechanic that grows over the course of the game depending on different factors. This Arena-exclusive mechanic works with Quickbeast Amulet by increasing its intensity count by a creature’s power every time a new creature comes into play under your control.
Very quickly,this two-mana equipmentwill spiral out of control, both in equipment-based decks and just regular creature-heavy decks. Since it has such a low cost, both to play and equip, it doesn’t take much investment for it to be an incredibly strong card.
3Hangarback Assembler
Potential For Lots Of Shenanigans
A neat little artifact that potentially could be a neat focus of a deck, Hangarback Assembler has you conjure a Hangarback Walker card onto the battlefield when it comes into play. The Assembler automatically puts a +1/+1 counter on the Walker since it would just die immediately, given its 0/0 stats.
Conjuring a card means it’s a real, physical (digitally physical, more so than a token) card and can be bounced back to your hand or sent to the graveyard. Hitting max speed with the Assembler is neat and can fuel the Walker since it makes more tokens once it dies. It can also do well in a control or midrange deck.
2Masterpiece Vault
Fancy Artifacts Ripe For The Taking
Certainly a card made more for Brawl than Alchemy, Masterpiece Vault is a three-mana artifact that gives you a fancy version of a very strong piece of equipment when it is put into the graveyard, though two are certainly worse than the others.
Your options are:
The Mirran swords are clearly the best here, though the other two have their uses since they both grant a flat protection with hexproof and shroud. With a little manipulation of the graveyard, you can get multiple uses out of Masterpiece Vault, making it a great addition to plenty of decks.
1Kari Zev, Crew Of Two
Two Is Better Than One
Okay, one of the best cards that Magic has ever seen is the little Monkey Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. While Kari Zev isn’t Ragavan, she does conjure a Ragavan card onto the battlefield tapped and attacking anytime she attacks and you don’t already have one out.
Kari Zev treats this Ragavan as if it was just sent out with its raid ability, sending it back to your hand at the end of your turn. This lets you stockpile Ragavans turn after turn, saving them for a later turn when the battlefield is cleared.
