Jesse Kotton Wins YCS Columbus 2026 with Branded Dracotail

The weekend of May 24, 2026, delivered a spectacular showdown as Jesse Kotton secured yet another championship title, winning YCS Columbus with his incredible Branded Dracotail deck! The Finals featured a tense matchup as Kotton overcame Lucas Sacco’s formidable standard Branded strategy to take the crown. Despite the overwhelming representation of the Kewl Tune archetype throughout the event, the reinvented draconic engines proved to be the ultimate competitive powerhouse.

Going into the tournament, Kewl Tune was the undisputed most represented deck, forcing competitors to adapt to suffocating hand-knowledge effects from Kewl Tune Rotary and deck manipulation from Kewl Tune Cue. To survive, top players relied heavily on powerful disruption, utilizing popular hand traps like Fydraulis Harmonia alongside tech choices like The Fallen & the Virtuous. However, it was the game-changing 2026 support card, Fallen of the White Dragon, that pushed Kotton's Branded Dracotail build to the absolute peak of the tournament, successfully outmaneuvering other Top 8 contenders like Artmage, DoomZ, Sky Striker, and Mitsurugi.

With these impressive strategies cementing their dominance at the top tables, Duelists will undoubtedly be optimizing their side decks to counter these draconic threats in the upcoming qualifiers.