By Niels Viaene
On April 28th, the first edition of the Gentry Arena Leaderboard took place. This is currently the only leaderboard that is active due to COVID-19 measures.
32 people were part of the event, both established players and new names, and most importantly, both local and international, intercontinental even. We welcomed several players from North America that will be representing their region in the Leaderboard as well.
That said, a lot of people have not selected their region yet. You can still do so on this google form. If you play in your second event without selecting a region, you will be put under ‘other’.
After 4 rounds, 2 players stood undefeated, and both played the same deck, a clear contender for the new best deck in the format: Lurrus Cycling.
4-0 Renzo Verkooren
4-0 Willian Jackson
The contenders
Boros cycling is not the end of the story, though. Ikoria moved a lot of things in the world of Gentry. At first, it seemed like every deck not feature a companion is ow unplayable, but several people have shown that Control shells and UR spells can fight back. Any deck that has access to sweepers and some removal has a fair chance as well in this format.
3-1 Teddy Andersen
Teddy stayed on top of the standing until the last round, showing that dedicated control is far from dead.
3-1 Jelle Lauwers
Jelle chose to pair blue, the core control color with the flexibility of white rather than the destructive power of black to the same record.
3-1 Mark Dragstra
And finally, we have Mark, bringing the Gentry tested and true combination of Red and Blue to the fray in a more tempo oriented approach. All of these decks have something in common, though, they either have a companion, or a plan against a companion, and it seems that for the foreseeable future, that is going to be what Gentry is about.
There are still plenty of other options, though. Gates, Food, and Mono red are far from gone and Monowhite has received some extra tools to fight in this metagame while being better situated in general. For now, things look balanced, but we keep our eye out for the impact that companions have on our little format.
In the meantime, we are cruising towards the second edition of the leaderboard. It is now a weekly event, and only your top 5 finished will count towards your points, making this the first edition that does not actively punish people for not grinding out the entire series. It also makes it possible to join in later and still have a chance at participating at the top level.
See you at the leaderboard event,
Niels
