One of the best things possible in content is to write about or create content about a deck and then do well with said deck - it's just about the best promotion possible.

Well, this weekend, after over 15 years of competitive play, I made my first Pro Tour Top 8 at the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Set Championship. I did so with a perfect 12-0 record in the swiss, only to fall in both my matches in the double elimination top 8. While this sadly means I didn't qualify for The World Championship (which a 6th place or better finish would have done), it does mean that I can finally check off the big Pro Tour finish that has always eluded my resume.

And I did so with an awesome deck too!

Time Stamps:

04:57 - Match 1

26:33 - Match 2

40:03 - Match 3

Grixis Midrange | Alchemy | Jim Davis, 7th Place Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Set Championship

• Creatures (15)
• 2 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton
• 2 Town-Razer Tyrant
• 3 Rahilda, Wanted Cutthroat
• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester
• 4 Citystalker Connoisseur

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Sorin the Mirthless
• 4 Kaito Shizuki

• Instants (8)
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Flame-Blessed Bolt
• 2 Power Word Kill
• 2 Voltage Surge

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Duress

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Lands (26)
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Den of the Bugbear
• 2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 2 Shipwreck Marsh
• 3 Stormcarved Coast
• 4 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 4 Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway
• 4 Haunted Ridge
• 4 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Duress
• 1 Soul Transfer
• 2 Annul
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Mind Flayer
• 3 The Meathook Massacre
• 2 Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1 Sorin the Mirthless

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While I can take some credit for the decklist (as it was based off of the Rakdos deck I won the qualifier with), most of the work was done before I even arrived in the House of Mengucci team testing Discord. It was an absolute pleasure working with the team and while I deviated a bit from the teams list there's no chance I would have been as well prepared as I was for each format without them.

At its core this is a midrange deck, but it's much more engine-based than most midrange decks. Your goal is to get ahead with cheap removal and disruption, and get either Kaito Shizuki, Reflections of Kiki-Jiki, or Rahilda, Wanted Cutthroat online, which gives you an amazing card advantage engine. Citystalker Connoisseur is also one of the best cards in the format, playing perfectly in the deck.

The deck, as well as the Alchemy format as a whole, are a blast and it was quite the run!