Kobe wins the first Gentry Competitive Leaderboard

By Niels Viaene

Last weekend marked the first edition of the Competitive Gentry Leaderboard event. After 5 rounds of swiss and a top 4 play-off, Kobe Keymeulen secured the first bye for the Gentry Open in April 2020.

Below you can see his decklist and those of his fellow top 4 competitors.

Kobe Keymeulen
Winner
UBRG Gates

Main Deck (60) 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Dimir Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate 3 Island 3 Gruul Guildgate 3 Golgari Guildgate 4 Forest 4 Arboreal Grazer 4 Gatebreaker Ram 2 Gate Colossus 4 Opt 2 Duress 4 Growth Spiral 2 Scorching Dragonfire 4 Gates Ablaze 3 Guild Summit 2 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Mass Manipulation 1 Ugin, the Ineffable 1 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Sideboard (15) 2 Devious Cover-Up 3 Negate 2 Duress 2 Scorching Dragonfire 2 Undercity’s Embrace 1 Return to Nature 1 Crushing Canopy 1 Spark Harvest 1 Healer of the Glade

Yes, it is Gates, the deck that has the most raw power in Gentry right now. It is not surprising to see it take the top slot early in the development of the metagame, but with so much yet to discover, it is yet to be seen if there is a predator for gates lurking, much like White-Black Afterlife was 6 months ago.

Joeri Claes
Finalist
UR Drakes/Draw2

Maindeck (60) 6 Mountain 4 Swiftwater Cliffs 4 Izzet Guildgate 7 Island 1 Mysctic Sanctuary 4 Faerie Vandal 2 Merchant of the Vale 3 Crackling Drake 1 God-Eternal Kefnet 1 Cavalier of Gales 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun 2 Shock 4 Opt 3 Thrill of Possibilities 4 Radical Idea 4 Impossible Alliance 2 Heartfire 2 Slaying Fire 2 Flame Sweep 1 The Royal Scions 2 Hypothesizzle

Sideboard (14) 2 Charmed Sleep 2 Sea 3 Negate 2 Shock 2 Callous Dismissal 3 No Escape

Joeri brought the new iteration of Blue Red Drakes to battle. It lost Enigma Drake but now has either Pteramander as a replacement or, as Joeri chose to do, add the Throne of Eldraine special that does extra things when you draw a second card each turn. Thrill of Possibilities is the big card here, as it allows you to trigger the effect a second time in your opponent’s turn for the low cost of 2 mana. Knowing it might grow multiple Faerie Vandals, or produce multiple Improbable Alliance Faerie tokens shows how explosive this deck can be.

Alan Schuer
Semi-Finalist
4-Color Elementals

Maindeck (60) 4 Thornwood Falls 4 Rugged Highlands 4 Swiftwater Cliffs 6 Forest 6 Island 4 Leafkin Druid 4 Creeping Trailblazer 4 Risen Reef 3 Overgrowth Elemental 4 Cloudkin Seer 3 Thicket Crasher 1 Omnath, Locus of the Roil 1 Cavalier of Gales 1 Cavalier of Thorns 1 Oko, Thief of Crowns 2 Opt 4 Neoform 4 Applied Biomancy

Sideboard (15) 2 Healer of the Glade 3 Sagitar’s Volley 3 Scorching Dragonfire 3 Return to Nature 4 Negate

We have seen Alan play this deck in multiple events before. Since it hardly lost anything from rotation it is not a surprise to see it do well here, the Elemental package with Neoform support is nothing to scoff at, and much like Kobe’s Gates deck, it offers quite the punch.

Sander De Quick
Semi-Finalist
4-Color Gates

Maindeck (60) 4 Dimir Guildgate 4 Golgari Guildgate 4 Gruul Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate 3 Forest 3 Island 4 Arboreal Grazer 3 Gatebreaker Ram 2 Gate Colossus 2 Duress 4 Growth Spiral 4 Scorching Dragonfire 4 Gates Ablaze 3 Guild Summit 3 Narset, PArter of Veils 1 No Escape 1 Oko, Thief of Crowns 1 Ugin, the Ineffable 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Sideboard (15) 2 Healer of the Glade 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Duress 3 Negate 1 No Escape 2 Return to Nature 2 Spark Harvest 1 Undercity’s Embrace 1 Soul Salvage

Sander also brought Gates to the fray and selected the same support color in black as Kobe did. Black gives access to Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Duress, one being one of the best cards to single-handedly win games, and the other the widest answer to threats available. At this point, the metagame is still very unknown and these are safe options to have options against almost every opponent. Considering there was an Elementals list in the top 4, that Chandra, Awakened Inferno seems suboptimal but perhaps I am missing something.

That concludes this brief report. I hope you learned about the current metagame. It looks like the expected top dogs really came through in this edition of the Leaderboard. That makes them a target for the future as people now know what they need to prepare for. The next edition of the Competitive Leaderboard is on November 16th. Will a new proactive deck take the top slot, will it be one of the big three, will an aggro deck break through the ranks or does hard Control have what it takes? Hell, right now some people think Mono Blue mill is the bees knees, others are playing White-Blue artifacts to great success and I am experimenting with various food-oriented strategies. But maybe you have what it takes?

May your brews be optimal,
Niels Viaene