So you've finally unlocked all of the Starter Decks. Which one do you use?

In Magic the Gathering: Arena, there are 15 decks you get to unlock and play with at the beginning of the game. At the time of this article's writing, each deck is based on each of the Guilds from the plane of Ravnica. But which of these decks is actually useful, and which one is just glued together draft chaff? 

In this article, we’re going to look at which of these beginner decks have the highest win rates according to MTGarena.pro and how you can pilot them to victory.

Without further ado, here are the top 5 Beginner decks 

5. Cult of Rakdos

Ain't no party like a Rakdos party, cause at a Rakdos party everyone dies. 

The Cult of Rakdos comes in at #5, with a winrate of 46.3%. The deck has a little bit of everything you would need in a decent deck: early plays, some removal, and a solid bomb to finish the game. 

What is Great About This Deck

• Plenty of board and hand control options
• Great bomb through Spawn of Mayhem
• Lots of cards that can keep generating value for you, like Light up the Stage and Theater of Horrors

How This Deck is Played

• Turn 1, play any of your one-mana creatures. Each of them performs a slightly different function.

  • Spear Spewer is a great way to stop any pesky 1/1s from hitting you in the face and is an easy way to activate Spectacle.
  • Footlight Fiend helps dissuade any early 2/2s from attacking you and can also be emergency player damage when you need it to be. Alternatively, if your opponent has any important 1 toughness creatures on the board, Footlight Fiend essentially holds them hostage since, if the Fiend dies, then you can destroy that one toughness creature too.
• Turn 2, ideally, you want to play another creature and keep developing your board. If you’re able to connect with any creatures this turn, don’t be afraid to play a 1 mana creature and then a spectacle card for value.
• Turn 3, push damage again and then play Spawn of Mayhem. Most decks won’t have an answer this early for a 4/4 flying trample threat - the exception is any deck with Black in it since they have some pretty early hard removal.
• As you play this deck, you’re going to realize that you can vomit your hand onto the board again and again. But this projectile hand spewing will also leave you with no answers for your opponent. In these cases, make sure you play Theater of Horrors, Blade Juggler, and Light Up the Stage to give yourself some cards, even if it’s temporary.
• Even though you may run out of cards fairly early, you can use Cult Guildmage and Carnage to drag your opponent’s hand size down with you.
• I recommend you use your removal to get rid of bothersome blockers so your creatures can help you force bad trades on your opponent or just deal more damage. Rakdos Firewheeler, Bedevil, Skewer the Critics, and Get The Point are all great sources of removal for this deck.
• Alternatively, don’t be afraid to direct non-combat damage into your opponent’s life pool. There are a few cards in this deck that can deal damage to “any target.” In these scenarios, you want to look at the board and figure out which path will cripple your opponent the most. You could kill a creature or hurt a planeswalker, but if you can lower your opponent’s life so that the next time you swing it’s for lethal, then you’ll be forcing your opponent to make bad trades to stay alive.

Cards

Creatures (20):

2 Blade Juggler
1 Spawn of Mayhem
2 Spear Spewer
2 Cult Guildmage
3 Hackrobat
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
2 Rakdos Firewheeler
2 Rakdos Roustabout
3 Footlight Fiend
1 Dreadhorde Butcher
1 Mayhem Devil

Spells (15):

2 Light Up the Stage
3 Skewer the Critics
1 Bedevil
2 Get the Point
1 Theater of Horrors
1 Bedeck // Bedazzle
2 Carnival // Carnage
3 Shock

Lands (25):

1 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
10 Swamp
10 Mountain