The Mythic Rare Podcast - Ep 9 - The Czech Hotshots Lighting Magic on Fire in 2019

After a 2017-18 Magic season fraught with disappointment, Ondrej Strasky announced his retirement. Fast forward to today, and Strasky is a Mythic Championship winner and near lock for the MPL. In what Wizards has hyped as the biggest season of competitive Magic ever, the Czech hotshots of Strasky and Stan Cifka have been lighting the game on fire.

For the Czechs, it all starts with deck building. Stan Cifka in particular has been the biggest innovator and brewer in 2019. Period. He is generally given credit for creating the 4 color Command the Dreadhorde deck, a lot of the key innovations for the Bant Scapeshift deck, and of course the Kethis Combo. Cifka’s ability to repeatably break the meta wide open is unprecedented. The meta was already supposed to be figured out heading into the mythic qualifier weekend for MCV, until the Czechs debuted the Kethis combo, a deck that carried both players into the top 16. More recently the Czechs haven’t done anything too crazy, running Bant Ramp and Simic Food the last two Mythic championships, however in both instances you would have to say they picked the best deck in the field. Bant Ramp was widely criticized heading into the tournament but put up incredibly impressive numbers and carried Cifka to a top 8, and Simic Food ended up being noticeably better than Sultai Food last weekend.

There is also something appealing about two Magic gurus living together and perfecting the craft of Magic. Stan Cifka has been quoted saying that he will work on Magic for upwards of 16 hours a day, and Strasky and the rest of the Czech contingent have been using his umbrella of tutelage to post incredible results. While Strasky often says he thinks Cifka is the better player of the two, that is likely a very thin margin based on Strasky’s recent results.

Outside of just his play, Strasky is a great ambassador for the game. A young confident guy who is a little cocky but also humble in victory is a great face for the brand. Additionally, Strasky has a solid streaming presence and does very educational recap videos of his tournament matches.

Congratulations on a huge win for Strasky, and we expect to see much more out of the Czech as the season winds down.

Content Creator Decks of the Week

As often as we can, we like to feature decks from certain content creators in the Aetherhub Community on the podcast. This week we have:

MONOBLACKMAGIC - Gauntlets of Neoform

Gauntlet Neoform Druid Visual

CMC

Compact

Export Main 60 cards (22 distinct) Lands - 23 Side 15 cards (15 distinct) Main 60 cards (22 distinct) Lands - 23 Side 15 cards (15 distinct) $€Tix Main 60 cards (22 distinct) Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (17) Once Upon a Time $2.19€2.202.01 Gauntlets of Light $0.23€0.040.05 Neoform $0.41€0.250.01 Finale of Revelation $4.71€1.380.35 Finale of Devastation $21.64€12.756.89 Creature (20) Faeburrow Elder $2.57€0.700.06 Zegana, Utopian Speaker $0.50€0.230.01 Fblthp, the Lost $0.49€0.280.02 Arboreal Grazer $0.60€0.120.01 Incubation Druid $1.25€0.940.26 Biomancer's Familiar $0.62€0.270.01 Gilded Goose $2.50€2.510.34 Fae of Wishes $0.480.19 Land (23) Thornwood Falls $0.20€0.040.04 Fabled Passage $6.99€4.803.05 Plains $0.24€0.070.02 Forest $0.29€0.100.01 Temple Garden $10.75€5.901.06 Hallowed Fountain $8.45€7.322.39 Temple of Mystery $0.89€0.440.06 Breeding Pool $22.00€14.913.71 Island $0.33€0.190.01 Side 15 cards (15 distinct) Finale of Glory $1.85€0.940.22 Finale of Revelation $4.71€1.380.35 Gauntlets of Light $0.23€0.040.05 Thousand-Year Storm $7.99€3.480.54 Planewide Celebration $0.49€0.170.02 Planar Cleansing $0.39€0.160.02 Time Wipe $0.46€0.200.05 Return to Nature $0.19€0.070.01 Sorcerous Spyglass $0.58€0.430.08 The Great Henge $27.99€18.403.86 Casualties of War $1.86€0.930.04 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries $5.00€2.050.71 Nissa, Who Shakes the World $5.45€3.313.43 Karn, the Great Creator $8.99€6.5530.69 Samut, Tyrant Smasher $0.29€0.090.02



Has Mono Black Magic done it again or has he done it again?? This combo deck uses Gauntlets of Light , Incubation Druid , and Biomancer's Familiar to create unlimited mana. Once you get that off, you can cost a Finale of Devastation for 10 million if you wanted and secure a nice easy win.

KagelVlusha - The Order of the Lotus

The Order of the Lotus 2.0 Visual

CMC

Compact

Export Main 60 cards (21 distinct) Lands - 25 Side 15 cards (6 distinct) Main 60 cards (21 distinct) Lands - 25 Side 15 cards (6 distinct) $€Tix Main 60 cards (21 distinct) Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (10) Knights' Charge $0.80 Vivien's Arkbow $0.50€0.190.02 The Great Henge $27.99€18.403.86 Deathsprout $0.25€0.110.01 Creature (21) Gilded Goose $2.50€2.510.34 Paradise Druid $0.68€0.300.01 Cavalier of Night $4.99€3.821.79 Cavalier of Flame $4.33€3.710.47 Cavalier of Dawn $2.49€2.020.69 Cavalier of Thorns $4.02€3.232.51 Planeswalker (4) Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner $0.49€0.160.01 Land (25) Temple of Malady $0.74€0.410.13 Swamp Plains Temple Garden $10.75€5.901.06 Fabled Passage $6.99€4.803.05 Mountain Lotus Field $5.00€3.481.76 Overgrown Tomb $11.82€6.630.99 Forest Castle Locthwain $3.97€1.833.24 Side 15 cards (6 distinct) Trostani Discordant $1.50€0.990.30 Murderous Rider $2.142.92 Cavalier of Flame $4.33€3.710.47 Planar Cleansing $0.39€0.160.02 Vivien's Arkbow $0.50€0.190.02 Duress $0.19€0.060.04



Have you ever wanted to have 4 of the cavaliers in your deck? Well now you can with KagelVlusha's Order of the Lotus deck. He has a very lengthy deck teach you can read by clicking the deck name, but the deck takes advantage of both the elemental and the knight tribal synergy to go over the top pretty hard. A fantastic creation!

Also on the Mythic Rare Podcast this week we:

-Break down my trip to Richmond

-Review the results from Mythic Championship VI

-Review the results from the Aetherhub Oko Ban Standard Tournament

-Discuss if Veil of Summer getting banned in Pioneer is foreshadowing for Standard

And much much more!

You can also follow the show on twitter: @MythicRarePod