The deck that against all odds was piloted in Game Day Hour of Devestation to take the top spot.
Takes advantage of Earthshaker Khenra being an extremely solid card. Their cousin Resiliant Khenra being just as good and an absolute back breaker with haste. Metallic Mimic buffing these two when they enter and rounding out the 2-drop Jackals. The mimic also makes Khenra Charioteer (which is on curve) out of range of a base Harnessed Lightning and Abrade. The eternalized versions of the two Khenra's werr phenomenal and allowed the deck to win games that were longer drawn.
Khenra Charioteer started as just solid card that was included since they were a Jackal and playable like Dread Wanderer. They're a 3/3 for 3 that has a sometimes relevent lord type static effect. Trample helps only push a few points of damage in early game, usually in trades. With Hasep Oasis, Rhonas, God of Strength and the real or token Resiliant Khenra the added Trample very much becomes a problem for opponents. Rhonas, God of Strength was just a really solid card in this list, and he always presented a real problem for my opponents while synergizing well with the Jackals.
Ramunap Hydra, now this was a card that landed and just really helped to pull ahead if they were building a board. The vigilance is great and the reach patches up the lack of anything to deal with flyers outside of my small set of removal. Trample was sometimes redundant because of Khenra Charioteer but it didn't hurt when they weren't out. Originally this was Bristling Hydra but I didn't like how it was going to cost double green. The idea was then to go deeper into deserts and use this hydra as another on curve creature to power up Rhonas and be a roadblock for my opponent.
With all the deserts why not throw in one of the best colorless five drop finishers I know. Reality Smasher fit the bill and it ends games very fast. The other 5 drop was honourary Jackal Hazoret the Fervent. She wasn't drawn much but filled a very similar role as the smasher with a little bit of extra reach.
Hostile Desert was an allstar. Really great for forcing in damage after boardwipes, won some games on it's own by outnumbering blockers and acting as an alright blocker. Evolving Wilds was duel purpose on fixing and acting as food for the above desert. Hasep Oasis was sometimes hard to activate but the +3/+3 was critical in some games and often allowed creatures to punch through. Ramunap Ruins did exactly as expected by winning games with the reach it provided.
Claim / Fame, this card performed better than I had speculated. My 2-drops are very important and being able to buy them back was exceptional. Giving haste to Resiliant Khenra after it targets itself with it's EtB was great. Metallic Mimic being brought back (as it was often killed very quickly) and then playing another 2-drop Jackal from my hand felt strong. Claim to Fame helped in the control matchup if they weren't casting Magma Spray and in other matchups it often just was a strong combo that gave Rhonas or a Hydra haste.
The sideboard was mostly typical. Vizier of the Menagerie worked wonders when dropped after boardwipes or when my opponest have run out of spot removal. Cartouche of Zeal was good when I needed to be faster and paired well with Resiliant Khenra as mentioned earlier. Insult / Injury was just the icing on this spicy cake. It wasn't pulled out much but made combat explosive.
The deck was an absolute blast to play at game day and I hope I can build another deck that will be just as good for Game Day Ixalan.
