Ken Yukuhiro (Mono Red Aggro) wins Pro Tour Final Fantasy

Japanese Ken Yukuhiro is the Pro Tour Final Fantasy champion after beating the American Ian Robb by 3-0. Yukuhiro used one of the most popular decks of the event, the Mono Red Aggro while Robb was playing Izzet Prowess, the most played archetype with 42% of Metagame share.

The Top 8 of the Final Fantasy Pro Tour was one of the most unique in recent history: on one side, four Mono Red Aggro competed to determine which of them would go to the finals. On the other, the four Izzet Prowess players followed the same ritual, where only one of each archetype would face the other to determine the champion. The result of the Top 8 proves the dominance of Red-Based Aggro in Standard, which has raised discussions about banning Monstrous Rage and Cori-Steel Cutter.

Mono Red was also had one of the highest win rates of the event, with 60.4%, while Prowess had 48.9%. One of the reasons is due to Magebane Lizard in most Red Aggro lists, which works as a maindeck hate against the spell sequencing from Prowess players.

In the finals, Ken Yukuhiro maintained dominance throughout all three matches, pressuring Ian Robb with Emberheart Challenger and Manifold Mouse followed by cheap interaction and Magebane Lizard. In the third game, Yukuhiro kept a copy of Self-Destruct in hand on a decisive turn, even with the information of one of the cards in Robb's hand. Ian then decided to pressure his opponent, finding an Into the Flood Maw from a Sleight of Hand and using it to try to remove a Hired Claw that would block their Stormchaser's Talent token with Wild Ride, which Yukuhiro responded with Self-Destruct in Heartfire Hero for lethal damage.

You can check all the Top 8 decklists here.