By Niels Viaene
With bars and other social events reopening all over Europe and it being a beautiful day to boot, finding players turned out to be a struggle for this edition on the monthly. Even though we did not reach the announced minimum of 17 players to give the prizes, we decided to give prizes to the top 4 after all.
The Metagame
Diversity was the name of the game in this event, with Gruul Aggro and Jund Sacrifice being the only two archetypes that had multiple players on it. Eventually, Izzet Control, Dimir Control, Sultai Elementals and Mono-W Bogles took slots in the play-off and won some of those €40 in card coupons.
Winner Peter Jönsson
Sultai Elementals
Peter will not be a new name to a lot of our players, nor will his deck be. He is currently in the lead on the Leaderboard and has gotten his deck featured in multiple articles already. He chose to add black to the blue green core of Elementals, trading the red explosive finish for a stronger and inevitable late game.
Peter wins €20 in Cardmarket coupons.
Finalist Micky Mattens
Izzet Control
Another regular took the finalist slot. Micky chose to forsake Crackling Drake in his version of Izzet, instead opting for the full set of Improbable alliance and Semi-finalist Sander De Quick
Dimir Control
[deck]Deck
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
4 Dismal Backwater
3 Dimir Guildgate
1 Lochmere Serpent
1 Ugin, the Ineffable
2 Chemister’s Insight
4 Omen of the Sea
3 Cry of the Carnarium
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Essence Scatter
2 Thirst for Meaning
7 Island
9 Swamp
3 Murder
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
2 Mystical Dispute
4 Negate
3 Tyrant’s Scorn
2 Nightveil Predator
1 Mystic Sanctuary
Sideboard
4 Duress
4 Whisper Agent
2 Pharika’s Libation
3 Sorin’s Thirst
2 Devious Cover-Up
[/deck]
If there ever has been a quintessential Control player in Gentry, then Sander would take that crown. Dimir Control is his comfort pick and he thrives in metagames where it is gppd enough.
Well, these days, it is public enemy number one according to many players, and Sander is having a field day. He is sporting a geat win rate with the deck, and is not afraid to adapt and adjust to the metagame. Look for Sander to make subtle changes to the deck as attantion shifts. [c]Nightveil Predator">Ominous Seas[/s] supported with many cards we have not really seen in the archetype. Whether this direction is objectively better or people are just getting blindsided with them, being used to playing a very different version of the deck does not matter for now, as Micky has shown great proficiency with his deck, and is poised to keep delivering good results.
Micky wins €10 in Cardmarket coupons
Semi-finalist Sander De Quick
Dimir Control
[deck]Deck1 Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
4 Dismal Backwater
3 Dimir Guildgate
1 Lochmere Serpent
1 Ugin, the Ineffable
2 Chemister’s Insight
4 Omen of the Sea
3 Cry of the Carnarium
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Essence Scatter
2 Thirst for Meaning
7 Island
9 Swamp
3 Murder
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
2 Mystical Dispute
4 Negate
3 Tyrant’s Scorn
2 Nightveil Predator
1 Mystic Sanctuary
Sideboard
4 Duress
4 Whisper Agent
2 Pharika’s Libation
3 Sorin’s Thirst
2 Devious Cover-Up
[/deck]
If there ever has been a quintessential Control player in Gentry, then Sander would take that crown. Dimir Control is his comfort pick and he thrives in metagames where it is gppd enough.
Well, these days, it is public enemy number one according to many players, and Sander is having a field day. He is sporting a geat win rate with the deck, and is not afraid to adapt and adjust to the metagame. Look for Sander to make subtle changes to the deck as attantion shifts. [c]Nightveil Predator is a great example of this, dodging many of the answers the metagame have to the card.
Sander wins €5 in Cardmarket coupons.
Semi-Finalist Jacub Puzio
Mono-W Bogles
| Companion (1) 1 Lurrus of the Dream Den Deck (60) 4 Alseid of Life’s Bounty 22 Plains 4 Gods Willing 4 Karametra’s Blessing 4 Healer’s Hawk 3 Sentinel’s Eyes 4 Glaring Aegis 4 All That Glitters 4 Gingerbrute 4 Solid Footing 2 Light of Hope 1 Heliod’s Intervention | Sideboard (15) 1 Lurrus of the Dream Den 2 Devout Decree 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Hushbringer 2 Blade Banish 1 Disenchant 4 Pacifism 3 Revoke Existence |
Jakub came out of nowhere with this deck. He found the event on mtgmelee, made sure he understood the deckbuilding rules of Gentry and waded right into the top 4 of his first event with a port of a Standard deck that is gaining in popularity. Both his mainboard and sideboard are geared towards the mirror as this deck has favorable match-up against many of the common decks in the format. While definitely not without weaknesses, there are few decks that can see an All that Glitters resolve and live to tell the tale.
Jakub wins €5 in Cardmarket coupons.
Honorable mention Renzo Verkooren
Orhov Midrange
Renzo brought a scary-looking version of Orzhov, a new contender in Gentry, to the fray. This disruption and answer heavy archetype is something that tends to pop up when metagames settle in clear ways, allowing them to diversify their deck to perfectly fit the puzzle of match-ups. This is a description that fits Blue based Control decks as well, but those tend to feast on creature focused decks, while Orzhov usually has a better match-up against control decks.
This version chooses to shore up the creature matches a lot more than the Control matches, as he has only few answers to Planeswalkers in the deck. Give this kind of deck time to optimize itself, though, and you end up with a very strong contender in the metagame.
Conclusion
Gentry is still drawing in new people but has to compete with the world returning to its old ways. The metagame seems to be more diverse than many people give it credit for but Control does seem to gravitate to the top. Decks that manage to combine pressure with disruption or protection manage to put dents in their perfect record and Elementals show that enough card advantage can overwhelm even the hardiest of control decks.
One-dimensional decks, like classic aggro and interaction based decks, are struggling at the moment as they don’t have the tools to protect and exact their game plan in Contol matches while being strong enough to withstand an assault from bogles. Will another new contender shake up things before M21 hits Gentry, or are we settling in for a couple of weeks? Whatever it may be, this higher frequency of play has really shown how flexible Gentry is and how much impact shifting a single card to a different rarity can have.
May your brews be juicy,
Niels
