It feels good to be right!

Last Thursday I made my usual five predictions for Mythic Championship V, and number three was quite the doozy:

"Prediction Three: Ken Yukuhiro Has The Best Deck In The Room And Will Top 8"

Calling for any particular player to make Top 8 in an insanely stacked field of 68 players is already almost a fool's errand. However, it was even deeper than that. Ken had registered a wildly unexpected deck that was totally off the radar. While it was listed as Mardu Knights, Ken's deck was really about two cards in particular:

Embercleave had it's coming out party at Mythic Championship V, and Ken's deck was the most Embercleavy deck of them all. With the full playset of Embercleave backed up by a playset of Acclaimed Contender to find them, Ken's deck is set up to Embercleave as soon as possible and is capable of a number of different turn four kills.

The best wielder of Embercleave is the creature with shortest arms, Rotting Regisuar. Double strike and trample look pretty damn good on a 7/6 creature, enabling some insanely fast kills. The Golos Field-heavy metagame meant that spot removal and Teferi, Time Raveler were also underrepresented, making the deck operate even better.

So will Ken's highly metagamed deck perform well on the MTG Arena ladder?

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:06:09

Match 2 - 00:28:07

Match 3 - 00:42:47

Match 4 - 0057:13

Match 5 - 01:08:00

Dino Blade | Eldraine Standard | Ken Yukuhiro | Top 8 Mythic Championship V

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Acclaimed Contender
• 4 Blacklance Paragon
• 4 Fervent Champion
• 4 Inspiring Veteran
• 4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 4 Rimrock Knight
• 4 Rotting Regisaur

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Embercleave
• 4 Steelclaw Lance

• Lands (24)
• 3 Swamp
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Tournament Grounds

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Legion's End
• 3 Chance for Glory
• 4 Noxious Grasp
• 4 Angrath's Rampage

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You bet!

Not only did we have a few turn four kills and run the tables, but it was fun too!

Ken's deck is a thing of beauty, and even though it was specifically metagamed for the Mythic Championship that doesn't mean it doesn't have legs elsewhere too. The deck is powerful, focused, and aggressive, with a lot more in common with your average Modern deck than a Standard deck. It does one thing and it does it really well, interaction be damned.

Of course there are some interactive elements in the sideboard and there's no doubt that Legion's End and Noxious Grasp are fantastic sideboard cards. Chance for Glory didn't feel great, although I'm not sure how much you even want to sideboard to begin with. Part of the allure of the deck is how it can ignore its opponent, meaning, just like in Modern, oversideboarding can lead to diluting the deck.

So give the dinosaur the sword and get to work!