It's unusual when a brand new Standard deck pops up later in a Standard season. It's unlikely when that deck goes on to dominate an event. However, that's exactly what happened recently in the MTG Arena MCQ! The crew of Ondrej Strasky, Ivan Floch, and Stanislav Cifka have been tearing it up in Standard lately with powerful and successful brews, and quite frankly they've done it again.

I've done some brewing with Kethis, The Hidden Hand on stream, but had been viewing it as a beefy Eternal Witness variant that wanted you to play with lots of legends. But where I saw Eternal Witness, Ondrej and friends saw Yawgmoth's Will, also known as one of the most powerful combo cards of all time. The result? A surprisingly powerful combo deck!

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:08:26

Match 2 - 00:39:17

Match 3 - 00:59:44

Match 4 - 01:25:27

Kethis Combo | Ondrej Strasky | MTG Arena MCQ

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Diligent Excavator
• 4 Fblthp, the Lost
• 4 Kethis, the Hidden Hand
• 4 Lazav, the Multifarious

• Planeswalkers (9)
• 2 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 3 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
• 4 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Urza's Ruinous Blast

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Oath of Kaya

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Mox Amber

• Lands (25)
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 2 Temple Garden
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Hallowed Fountain
• 3 Temple of Malady
• 3 Temple of Silence
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
• 2 Unmoored Ego
• 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1 Urza's Ruinous Blast
• 2 Cerulean Drake
• 1 The Elderspell
• 1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
• 1 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 2 Legion's End
• 1 The Immortal Sun

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Mix together some odd draft commons, a one card engine, and some of the best cards in Standard and what do you get? Kethis Combo, that's what.

As you saw in the games, the true power of this deck comes from the much maligned Mox Amber. The ability to generate free Diligent Excavator triggers as well as free mana as you loop through every Mox Amber in your graveyard via the legend rule give the deck it's combo potential in conjunction with the activated ability on Kethis, the Hidden Hand. Once you've gotten through most of your deck, it's time to point your Diligent Excavator triggers at your opponent and finish them off.

As you also saw in the games, this deck is tough to play! This is not a combo deck like Scapeshift or Show and Tell where you play your card and do your thing and win. There's a large amount of setup and finesse, and then once you're actually there there's a bunch of busy work and going off to execute as well. In a lot of ways the deck resembles the old Four Color Rally the Ancestors decks or even Modern Ironworks decks.

However, if you can get over the learning curve we're looking at and extremely powerful deck in Standard right now. When your combo deck gets to play the best card in the format, Teferi, Time Raveler, you know you're in a good place.

Just beware the rope!