Imagine you work together with a Magic enthusiast – you are one yourself- and he created this great budget format called Gentry. You’re compelled to play in one of his tournaments right? Together with some great colleagues we attended the Gentry Open, our goal having fun and who knows winning some boosters.
After checking out the metagame (thanks for the articles on the gentry website), I brewed a deck that I supposed was good against the green decks in the format but would most likely lose to blue decks. Here is the decklist:
| Lands (22) 4 Forsaken Sanctuary 5 Swamp 3 Island 4 Evolving Wilds 6 Plains Creatures (19) 1 Noxious Gearhulk 1 Linvala, the Preserver 1 Spell Queller 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury 4 Thraben Inspector 4 Deadeye Harpooner 3 Cloudblazer 4 Vengeful Rebel Other Spells (19) 1 Dead Weight 3 Displace 3 Prophetic Prism 4 Acrobatic Maneuver 4 Renegade Map 4 Fatal Push | Sideboard (15) 2 Dead Weight 2 Tightening Coils 3 Decommission 3 Negate 3 Wretched Gryff 2 Fourth Bridge Prowler |
Although this was an untested list, I was quite confident in it. I actually had no reason to have such confidence, since I never played Gentry and it really makes no sense to “trust” in an untested deck. Anyway I started the tournament with the ambition to have as much fun as possible and win as many matches as possible.
Tournament Report
My opponent in round 1 started with forest and Attune with Aether, I smiled internally, would my prediction come trough, would my deck beat green decks? It did, but the match was not so easy. Especially game 2 when he played Attune into Longtusk Cub into Longtusk Cub + combat trick, that was a draw I did not beat. But since I managed to win games 1 and 3, I won my first match of Gentry. Deadeye Harpooner really shined here.
Round 2 followed quickly and I was able to dispatch my opponent in a fast manner. I don’t remember the details of the match but it was fun and fast ;-).
I had the honor and pleasure to be called to the feature match area for round 3. I faced a favorable match up again, against a green deck. Favorable does not mean unloseable though, as I was unable to beat the combination of Arlinn Kord and Nissa, Vital Force in Game 1. Game 2 and 3 went my way after my deck did what it does, handling every threat my opponent played. I was pretty happy with my level of play in this match and feeling especially confident in my chances to secure a spot in the top 8 after this win.
I indeed only needed one more win, as being 4-0 would allow me to ID twice in the last 2 rounds. With this clear objective in mind I started round 4 and after 2 fast games I advanced to 4-0. As advertised, I intentionally drew with my opponents in round 5 and 6 and made it to the top 8. So far the tournament was a success, I enjoyed playing my deck a lot and was undefeated so far. But, would I be able to win, to maybe become a Gentry Open Champion? I certainly wanted to, but I needed to get past my quarterfinal opponent. He played a very interesting grixis control deck. I did not expect to beat him since I believe his deck to be stronger in the long game. As you could see in the coverage I was able to overcome after two very nice games. I again was surprised with how synergetic my deck is and to how many cards it has answers to.
Next up were the semifinals and to cut it short I got crushed. It was (as you can see on the coverage) brutal, turn 2 Heart of Kiran swinging for 6 on turn 3 was too much for my deck to handle. If only I had drawn a fatal push, it might have made the difference. But it was not to be and my opponent went to the finals.
The tournament was over and I felt accomplished. I discovered a new format, had some great games and won 16 boosters. I also met some promising new players and was very happy to see some more accomplished players competing in this event. It was a great day and I would like to thank Niels for organizing the tournament, the judges for running a smooth tournament, my opponents for being friendly and nice to play with and Ellen, Jurgen and Robin for being great colleagues and rooting for me during the whole day.
See you at the next Gentry Open?
Michaël Milis
