From games crashing to competitive tribal decks, the Streets of New Capenna Championship had a lot of storylines from this past weekend. The most incredible of all of these is the story of a challenger who made his entire run to MTG worlds with his own unique deck lists.
For any who think that you need to follow the meta to win a game of MTG, this is a great example of how to not do that. Don’t get me wrong, ignoring the metagame is a quick way to earn yourself some losses. Using it to create something entirely new, however, is an incredibly difficult achievement. This is a story for all the players out there who refuse to do what’s already been done.
Yoshigoe’s Orzhov Brew
Back in late February of this year, Hisamichi Yoshigoe entered an SNC championship qualifier with his Orzhov brew. He didn’t know at the time that winning this tournament would qualify him for anything. His brew would go on to win that qualifier, and win another qualifier the next day. This tournament win will end up qualifying Yoshigoe for MTG worlds.
Orzhov was present in the meta when Yoshigoe won this qualifier, but it was much more controlling than this list. The use of Silverquill Silencer in particular was not something that had been commonly seen up to this point. This list was much more concerned with disrupting your opponent temporarily and using that opening to win the game.
The video in the embedded link below from @PlayMTG outlines his two-month old competitive history.
Yoshigoe’s Naya Brew
Fast forward to the SNC championships, and Yoshigoe registers another home brew that in his words is ‘not around in Arena.’
There were other players that played this archetype in the SNC championships, but it was a very underplayed option. This deck was generally a bit more aggressive than the rest of the meta, allowing for it to beat other decks down. This is a midrange list by heart. This can be seen by the amount of removal present in the main deck. Esika’s Chariot and Workshop Warchief have some amazing interactions. Being able to push a ton of damage immediately with blitz while leaving a token for the chariot to copy gives this deck an option to get aggressive before the opponent can stabilize.
Sideboarding For The Meta
The sideboard for Yoshigoe’s deck reflects that his brew respects the meta wholeheartedly. A full playset of Archon of Emeria will make any runes player’s life miserable. Allowing them to only play one spell per turn prevents them from stacking a bunch of free runes on top of a creature. The Archon also plays double duty against Jeskai Storm. Your opponent can’t storm off if they only play one spell per turn. Spot removal that can take out big creatures will shine in both matchups. Between Voltage Surge and Valorous Stance, this deck came prepared.
READ MORE: At This Rate, White May Become the Strongest MTG Color in Commander
Final Notes
Yoshigoe did register Rakdos Arcanist, a known meta archetype for Historic. Even with this deck he had a ton of unique options like Sarkhan, Wanderer of Shiv and two Unlicensed Hearse in the maindeck. He even had some By Force in the sideboard for Azorius Affinity and Food matchups.
MTG worlds are just around the corner. I haven’t been very excited in the past for them, but I will be cheering on Yoshigoe this time. His story is too good not to root for him.
