Magic: The Gathering 2021 Challenger Decks Offer Easy Starting Point for New and Lapsed Players

Wizards of the Coast has revealed 2021's Magic: The Gathering Challenger Decks. Each year, the [...]

Wizards of the Coast has revealed 2021's Magic: The Gathering Challenger Decks. Each year, the company releases pre-constructed Challenger Decks inspired by archetypes popular in the current Standard metagame. The decks offer new and lapsed players an easy to place to start in their local competitive Magic: The Gathering scene. The decks are playable out of the box and upgradeable. This year's decks are Azorious Control, Dimir Rogues, Mono-Red Aggro, and Mono-Green Stompy, and each comes with 75 cards -- 60 in the main deck and 15 sideboard cards -- plus five double-sided tokens. Wizards of the Coast revealed the decklists for each, which you can take a look at below.

The Azorious Control deck is classic white-blue control. Disrupt your opponent in the early game using counters like Neutralize and board wipes like Shatter the Sky, then go in for the kill with a bomb creature like Dream Trawler or two Angels created with Emeria's Call.

Azorious Control Challenger Deck
(Photo: Wizards of the Coast)

Dimir Rogues can be aggressive like an aggro deck or patient as it mills its opponent's library to nothing. The blue-black archetype is a staple of the current metagame.

Drown the Loch serves double-duty as graveyard-based removal and a counterspell, while Thieves' Guild Enforcer and Soaring Thought-Thief pressure the opposing player.

Dimir Rogues Challenger Deck 2021
(Photo: Wizards of the Coast)

Mono-Red Aggro is one of Magic's oldest archetypes. Somehow, it always seems to have a foothold in the meta.

This version gets aggressive early with knights like Fervent Champion and Rimrock Knight, and the legendary Anax, Hardened in the Forge resists board wipes. Embercleave is a killer finisher, and Tobran, Thane of the Red Fell can help end games in a more traditional, less sudden manner, doubling the damage of those Shock spells.

Mono Red Aggro Challenger Deck 2021
(Photo: Wizards of the Coast)

Lastly, Mono-Green Stompy is another archetype as old as the game. It likes to go big and crush its opponents.

This version uses Swam Shambler and Lovestruck Beast as hard to remove early plays. Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig gets meaner as you expand your board. Stonecoil Serpent is a versatile creature that gets scarier the more mana you have to sink into it. Gemrazer's Mutate ability can give any creature Reach and Trample, the latter being key to finishing drawn-out games, and works exceptionally well with tokened creatures like Serpent and Yorvo. Primal Might adds some removal to deal with blockers are other problem creatures.

Mono Green Stompy Challenger Deck 2021
(Photo: Wizards of the Coast)

What do you think of this year's offering of Magic: The Gathering Challenger Decks? Do you plan on picking them up?

Let us know what you think in the comments. The decks go on sale on March 26th.

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