Facing off against one of the best Magic: The Gathering players, Ondrej Stráský beat out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa to win Mythic Championship VI.
The finals at MCVI was a mirror match of Simic Food, with each deck nearly identical to the other. Both veteran players would trade wins in the best-of-five match. And it would come down to game five, with Stráský winning the last major tabletop tournament of the year.
A running joke is that Stráský is going to retire after every major tournament win in his career. But this win was different. Given the new esports path created by Wizards of the Coast, Stráský now has a realistic shot of making it into the Magic Pro League (MPL) in the very near future.
But that didn’t stop the Czech pro from teasing fans with a retirement announcement upon receiving his MCVI trophy.
MCVI was certainly a tournament for the history books. The field was overpopulated with Food decks, breaking every Magic tournament record of dominant archetypes flooding the Standard metagame. Given the impact Oko, Thief of Crowns and Gilded Goose had on the meta at MCVI, both are on the chopping block for an upcoming Banned and Restricted announcement.
Stráský could care less about which card gets banned, since his win at MCVI earns him a direct invite to the Magic World Championship. The largest MTG tournament of the year has a prize pool of 1 million, with a field of only 16 players.
Stráský also won 50 Mythic Points with his MCVI trophy, putting him in contention to enter the Rivals League and claim a coveted seat in the MPL next season.
