Store Championship: Secrets of Strixhaven

On May 12th, 2026, Gamers XP hosted our Standard Store Championship for the Strixhaven set. The battle between 11 competitors was tough, but only one person could stand at the top and take home first place to earn the awesome Abhorrent Oculus promo card. 

First place was claimed by Josh E. after an epic final battle with his friend Eddie to see who was top dog of the local meta. Josh’s deck of choice was Jeskai Lessons which played one of his favorite cards, Accumulate Wisdom.  According to the champ, it was Ancestral Recall in standard before they actually printed Ancestral Recall in standard on “Emeritus of Ideation”. He enjoys playing the deck because the deck has many micro decisions that make the deck more challenging and fun. 

His co-finalist, Eddie, was piloting the deck spellementals, another popular Izzet variant - or, as Eddie likes to call it, Izzet deck #3. The deck casts cheap spells to fill the yard, and that's when the crustaceans come out. Eddie is a big fan of the deck because of one card called Eddymurk Crab which according to Eddie “Eddymurk Crab is just like me for real for real”. But who can blame him? It’s right there in the name of the card. 

Besides the 2 finalists, there were plenty of other people vying for the top seed. We had contenders like Jesse, Pierce, and Skip using low to the ground, mono-red aggro decks. Skip left before we could get a comment on the deck and event, but both Jesse and Pierce were able to comment about their different versions of the deck. Jesse enjoys the deck because he doesn't have to think too much with the deck and gets to use powerful cards like Nova Hellkite, that he “thinks is neat”. Pierce on the other hand had a more thought-out explanation of the deck (though not much more thought-out; these are mono red players after all). Pierce enjoys the “consistency of the deck, being able to win with only 2 lands or too many lands”. His favorite card in his list is Hired Claw, a 1 mana ½ that is guaranteed damage on swing. 

Madi brought her favorite deck to the event: Izzet Prowess. It uses cards like Monument to Endurance and Storm Chaser’s Talent to dish out consistent loss of life and fill the board with otters. She enjoys the otters (or water squirrels as she calls them) and thinks “they are so cute and fun”. She adds that “the deck having the ability to win with big swings using the otters or not swinging at all and winning the game by slowly whittling the opponent down with Monument to Endurance”. 

Kevin D. brought his version of Jeskai that he likes to call “Jeskai Horses". "It makes my nay-bors quite hoofed and they nag me all the time. Did you know 1 horse generates 12 horsepower? So my deck generates 48 horsepower. We play horses and ride the lightning to victory,” Kevin D. says. His favorite card of the deck is Colorstorm Stallion. It's a creature card that gets a payoff from casting spells and an even bigger payoff from casting spells with converted mana cost 5 or greater which will then make copies of this stallion and generate even more horse power. 

Next, we have our two midrange players, Kris S. (the most beloved store manager) and Draco (just Draco). Both players performed well with their respective decks. Draco went with a more practical approach, Dimir midrange utilizing cards such as Enduring Curiosity and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. The deck has consistent card draw and hand hate. His favorite card in the deck is Enduring Curiosity because “kitty cat”. Kris on the other hand competed with a homebrew deck utilizing Witherbloom Charm, Emeritus of Abundance and Professor Dellian Fel. The “combo” of the deck is to use Professor Dellian Fel and his emblem that states “Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life” with Witherbloom Charm to drain your opponent while returning the charm back to your hand from the graveyard with Emeritus of Abundance. The deck also runs a fun little wombo with Unholy Annex and Mutable Explorer/Firdoch Core. Unholy Annex draws a card, gains you 2 life, and drains your opponent for 2 life as long as you control a demon. Mutable explorer and Firedoch Core are changelings that fullfil the demon requirement for the deck as well as the Mutavault token that the explorer generates. He is quoted saying “Being able to loop Witherbloom Charm with Emeritus of Abundance is super fun. It’s just a great midrange package”. 

Finally we have the one and only control player of the event, Sunny M. He brought 4-Color Control. The deck utilizes Tablet of Discovery to help cast massive cost spells 2 to 3

turns earlier than normal. Unsurprisingly, Tablet of Discovery is his favorite card in the list. “It’s the glue that holds the deck together essentially. It accelerates your game plan of Jeskai Revelation while also ‘drawing a card’,” Sunny explains. Sunny’s favorite aspect of the deck is that it feels like a midrange deck with a control top end. 

Our store championship was full of experienced players who all brought decks they enjoyed playing. While not everyone performed well, everyone had fun vying for the grand prize. Hopefully, our next championship will be even more diverse than our Strixhaven championship and feature a variety of different decks that are not cookie-cutter style. Congratulations to Josh for winning the event. Next time, he will have to defend his store champ title. Good luck to all who participate in our future events. If you're lucky enough, maybe you too will get featured in one of our articles.