By Niels Viaene
The Gentry tournament circuit
The Gentry tournament circuit is focused around two Gentry Opens that take place around
The Gentry Invitational
In order to highlight the Gentry Open and the metagame and decks you might expect there, we host an Invitational in the time leading up to it. For that
Sander De Quick has won the last edition of the Gentry open in september 2018, securing him the first slot in this Invitational. Alan Schuer and Yens Goethals got their slots by being in the lead of the Outpost Gent and Magic Arena Leaderboard respectively. All the other inductees earned their spot by popular vote: Lars Meeussen took the Open vote after Pascal Vieren and Emma Mangodt could not make it, Thijs Weytens replaced Tom De Wael who was kept from attending due to illness, Mats Clays was a clear winner in the St Niklaas Community vote, as was Johan Meys in the ‘Other Community’, hailing from Merksem, a small but very stable community that deserves some attention at this point. And then finally, Kobe took home the wild card after scoring high in a lot of other categories and being an interesting deckbuilder and analythical mind of the format.
The Metagame
At the time the Gentry Invitational was hosted most attention has gone out to Guildgates, with Gates Ablaze, Gatebreaker Ram and Gate Colossus pay-off cards that break parity in Gentry. Sander analysed this perfectly when he explained the design filosophy that created them: These cards are balanced in Standard because they force you to play a subpar manabase that cannot compete in versatility and speed with the different rare lands. In Gentry, however, Guildgates and the other set of dual lands that enter the battlefield tapped, are backbones and foundations of the format, giving these cards no drawback to speak of.
In the other corner, we have
Does that mean there is nothing else? Of course not. It just means that when making a new deck in Gentry, it would be wise to prepare for these two decks as counterparts to the metagame. And, most importantly, both have weaknesses against different white cards in Ixalan’s Binding and Revitalize and Healing Grace.
The pairings and the decks
For this edition of the
And these are the decks the players chose to register for the event.
Mats Clays
Spectacle Black
Mats is a competitive player with a long history in the game and has a name of showing up with very simple yet streamlined decks. He did not disappoint in this regard, showing up with a monoblack disruption deck that is honed and preboarded to deal with control lists and slow decks.
| Lands (24) 22 Swamp 2 Memorial to Folly Creatures (26) 4 Footlight Fiend 4 Dusk Legion Zealot 4 Burglar Rat 4 Plaguecrafter 1 Midnight Reaper 2 Ravenous Chupacabra 1 Spawn of Mayhem 1 Demon of Catastrophes 4 Blade Juggler 1 Doom Whisperer Other (10) 4 Fungal Infection 2 Duress 1 Abnormal Endurance 3 Drill Bit | Sideboard (15) 4 Fountain of Renewal 4 Moment of Craving 2 Dead Revels 2 Vicious Offering 1 Duress 1 Abnormal Endurance 1 Ill-Gotten Inheritance |
Lars Meeussen
Thousand-Year Reclamation
Lars replaced Emma Mangodt and in an effort to honor her slot, he chose to play a deck designed and optimized by Emma. Rather than going for a slow grinding finish this deck aims to end in a big storm.
| Lands (25) 4 Azorius Guildgate 4 Boros Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate 3 Selesnya Guildgate 2 Gruul Guildgate 2 Island 1 Forest 1 Mountain Creatures (1) 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun Other (34) 2 Circuitous Route 1 Dawn of Hope 1 Devious Cover-Up 1 Expansion // Explosion 4 Gates Ablaze 4 Growth Spiral 4 Guild Summit 1 Invert // Invent 3 Opt 1 Recollect 4 Revitalize 2 Shock 2 Spell Pierce 1 Thousand-Year Storm 3 Wilderness Reclamation | Sideboard (15) 3 Blink of an Eye 2 Crushing Canopy 4 Healing Grace 2 Negate 2 Shock 2 Spell Pierce |
Thijs Weytens
Nexus Reclamation
Thijs was a last minute replacement for Tom De Wael, who fell ill just days before the event. He has been championing the Temur Gates Control deck up to now but chose to show up with a Wilderness Reclamation List that is very focused on Nexus of Fate, f
| Lands (24) 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Gruul Guildate 2 Simic Guildgate 3 Memorial To Genius 5 Forest 6 Island Creatures (2) 2 Murmuring Mystic Other (34) 1 Nexus of Fate 1 Expansion // Explosion 1 Precognitive Perception 3 Invert // Invert 3 Chemister’s Insight 4 Opt 4 Growth Spiral 3 Blink of an Eye 3 Cancel 4 Root Snare 2 Shimmer of Possibility 4 Wilderness Reclamation 1 Search for Azcanta | Sideboard (15) 1 Skitter Eel 3 Negate 1 Spell Pierce 3 Crushing Canopy 4 Druid of the Cowl 3 Dimir Informant |
Kobe Keymeulen
Nexus Reclamation
Kobe showed up with a Wilderness Reclamation deck as well, him being probably the first person to build and play the deck in the Gent community. He opts for a secondary win condition in Electrodominace + Fight with Fire, both which can be found with a single Invert // Invent, giving a possible one-hit knock-out on turn 6!
| Lands (24) 4 Gruul Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate 3 Forest 3 Mountain 6 Island Creatures (1) 1 Gate Colossus Other (35) 2 Blink of an Eye 3 Chemister’s Insight 2 Devious Cover-Up 1 Electrodominance 1 Expansion // Explosion 4 Growth Spiral 3 Invert // Invent 1 Nexus of Fate 4 Opt 2 Root Snare 2 Spell Pierce 1 Fight with Fire 1 Gates Ablaze 1 Recollect 2 Shimmer of Possibility 1 Search for Azcanta 4 Wilderness Reclamation | Sideboard (15) 2 Crushing Canopy 2 Dual Shot 1 Gaea’s Blessing 4 Negate 3 Ravenous Daggertooth 3 Shivan Fire |
Yens Goethals
Temur Gates
Yens descended upon us from the Magic Arena Leaderboard and may have been a bit impacted by card availability and familiarity with the best-of-3 format. He used Thijs’ article on Temur Gate Control as his guide and entered the tournament with the 75 below. There is nothing super innovative or fancy here, just good old solid deckbuilding.
| Lands (26) 4 Azorius Guildgate 3 Island 4 Forest 4 Gruul Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 3 Selesnya Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate Creatures (8) 3 Gate Colossus 4 Gatebreaker Ram 1 Hydroid Krasis Other (26) 4 Gates Ablaze 4 Growth Spiral 3 Shimmer of Possibility 3 Opt 2 Negate 3 Open the Gates 4 Guild Summit 1 Vivien Ried 1 Teferi, hero of dominaria 1 Ral, izzet viceroy | Sideboard (15) 4 Revitalize 3 naturalize 2 negate 1 syncopate 3 shivan fire 1 squire's devotion 1 essence scatter |
Johan Meys
Monored Goblins
Johan was going to be an unknown factor in this event no matter what, coming from a very isolated community in Merksem, no one else had an idea what is played there or what kinds of decks Johan himself would prefer. He ended up bringing Goblins, an archetype unheard of up to now, supported by Calvacade of Calamity. After the match it was clear the deck had huge potential but needed some polishing, showing some mana issues and a lack of hasty finishers, both of which can be addressed by adding Goblin Warchief to the deck.
| Lands (20) 20 Mountain Creatures (19) 2 Tin Street Dodger 4 Fanatical Firebrand 4 Skirk Prospector 1 Legion Warboss 1 Siege-Gang Commander 1 Goblin Chainwhirler 4 Gobling Instigator 2 Clamor Shaman Other (21) 3 The Flame of Keld 3 Burn Bright 4 Skewer the Critics 4 Calvacade of Calamity 4 Goblin Gathering 1 Electrodominance 2 Lightning Strike | Sideboard (14) 1 Mountain 3 Cosmotronic Wave 2 Smelt 2 Lightning Strike 2 Radiating Lightning 4 Shock |
Alan Schuer
Monored
Coming into the event, Alan was seen as the biggest constant in the Gent community. Everybody was sure that he would show up with his trusty Monored burn deck. There was discussion he might throw a curveball and take advantage of people that would change their deck choice and composition because they knew they would be facing off against him but in the end, the world made sense, and Alan came to bring down fiery justice.
| Lands (21) 21 Mountain Creatures (14) 4 Fanatical Firebrand 4 Ghitu Lavarunner 4 Viashino Pyromancer 1 Goblin Chainwhirler 1 Rekindling Phoenix Other (25) 4 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 3 The Flame of Keld 4 Light Up the Stage 1 Risk Factor 4 Skewer the Critics 4 Wizard's Lightning 1 Experimental Frenzy | Sideboard (15) 2 Deface 3 Shivan Fire 2 Act of Treason 3 Bombard 2 Burning-Tree Vandal 3 Radiating Lightning |
Sander De Quick
Guildgate Control
Of all the players in this event, Sander probably took it the most serious and showed up with a Jeskai Gates Control deck that was geared towards beating both other Gates decks and Mono red. For everybody looking to have a strong and versatile deck in the current metagame, look no further.
| Lands (24) 4 Azorius Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Boros Guildgate 1 Plains 6 Island 5 Mountain Creatures (3) 1 Gate Colossus 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun 1 Dream Eater Other (33) 3 Essence Scatter 3 Lawmage's Binding 2 Negate 3 Quench 4 Syncopate 3 Gates Ablaze 4 Ixalan's Binding 4 Chemister's Insight 2 Shivan Fire 1 Spell Pierce 2 Sphinx's Insight 1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria 1 Search for Azcanta | Sideboard (15) 2 Healing Grace 1 Faerie Duelist 2 Invoke the divine 2 Negate 2 Shivan Fire 1 Gates Ablaze 2 Gate Colossus 3 Revitalize |
The actual event
The event was streamed on twitch.tv and is now available on our Youtube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow if you want to stay up to date with all the developments in Gentry Land as we have an Open coming up that will deliver plenty of content as well.
