Arena XIII.1.5 – The one that got raided

By Niels Viaene

Amidst a world that is on the brink of reopening, improving weather and life in general, 7 players found themselves in a calm evening to duke it out in the 5th installment of the Gentry Weekly. What promised to be a calm little 3-round event got shake up in quite ad interesting and entertaining wait but before we get to that, lets look at our undefeated player.

3-0 Sander De Quick
BUG Control

Deck (60) 5 Snow-Covered Island 1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 2 Narfi, Betrayer King 3 Snow-Covered Forest 2 Negate 4 Eureka Moment 4 Frantic Inventory 2 Witherbloom Campus 3 Reject 3 Behold the Multiverse 1 Quandrix Campus 5 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Muse 3 Poison the Cup 4 Sarulf’s Packmate 4 Mortality Spear 2 Bloodchief’s Thirst 2 Pestilent Haze 1 Professor Onyx 2 Jungle Hollow 2 Thornwood Falls 3 Dismal Backwater

Sideboard (15) 3 Duress 2 Negate 2 Lash of Malice 2 Feed the Serpent 1 Teferi’s Tutelage 2 Suffocating Fumes 1 Cling to Dust 2 Resculpt

To say the ‘best deck’ of the format has struggled to justify that title would be an understatement. With many people looking for new decks and hyperaggressive strategies being a problem for the deck, things have not exactly been rosey for the deck. This event it came back with a vengeance in the hands of Sander, who has risen to the top of the leaderboard largely on the back of this deck.

2-1 Joseph Rygaard
WG Aggro

Companion (1) 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den Deck (60) 4 Defiant Strike 8 Forest 3 Charge Through 10 Plains 4 Clever Lumimancer 3 Show of Confidence 4 Seasoned Hallowblade 4 Conclave Mentor 1 Leonin Lightscribe 4 Strength of Solidarity 1 Dragonsguard Elite 4 Guiding Voice 2 Struggle for Skemfar 4 Snakeskin Veil 3 Blossoming Sands 1 Shaile, Dean of Radiance

Sideboard (15) 2 Environmental Sciences 2 Expanded Anatomy 2 Introduction to Annihilation 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den 4 Feat of Resistance 3 Ram Through 1 Struggle for Skemfar

A new addition in the aggro department is a lesson-supported update to green-white counters. Many different decks have sprung off the back of Conclave Mentor, the current shining example of a Gentry-focused engine card. This version plays more as a combat trick focused build that we are more used to seeing in red-white configurations. These builds usualy heavily rely on Clever Lumimancer, a strong new addition to the pool of aggressive cards. The Lesson core gives this deck some really interesting flexibility, allowing it to answer annoying things in game 1 with ease.

The raid

Towards the end of the event, this happened:

A raaaaaaaaaaid!!!!

It was a nice surprise, and I would like to thank Nummy for the raid. let’s hope some of those people find their way into Gentry. 😀

What is coming up

The next event is an interesting one. Not only does it have deckbuilding restrictions making it so that your rares and mythic rares have to be an instant or sorcery, it is also the 6th event, meaning the leaderboard will start evening out as only the top 5 results will count towards your standing. There are quite a few people that finished well in the first edition of this season, that could still make a strong run for the bye.

And to answer the FAQ: You are allowed to play a modal double faced rare that has at least one instant or sorcery side, but you are only allowed to cast that side.

See you soon,
Niels