By Niels Viaene
Disclaimer: All of the deck discussion in this article has been written by the people that have build and play the decks.
Gentry around the world
While Gentry in Belgium has waned a bit since Corona, the community is still strong in Sweden (hosting regular FNM’s), the Netherlands (with mostly online events ran from the Gentry Discord server) and Turkey. It was the latter that contacted me asking if I wanted some extra content to keep the site alive and kicking, they send in 3 decklists with some explanation by the people building and playing them for your viewing pleasure.
I personally think Gentry is in a really interesting position since the standard card pool has been expanded to up to 3 years worth of cards and the dip in interest in the format has kept a lot of deckbuilding space left to be discovered. Let’s have a look at what the Turkish Community has to share:
Rakdos Outlaws Sacrifice
By Pascal Zandar
Here is a deck inflicting pain whenever an outlaw is entering or dying, where big scary demons are the bombs. This deck uses a lot of uncommon legendary creatures which is why there are only two of each. Stormclaw Rager is a great sacrifice outlet that gets bigger while drawing cards. There are two Furnace Reins that can be used to steal your opponent’s big scary creatures to attack and sacrifice them later for value. In the sideboard there are more card draws, removals, and protection if needed.
Gruul Stompy
By Chloé Zandar
This deck uses small deathtouch creatures to stop the opponent, mana dorks to ramp, and big scary creatures to finish off the opponent. In the main deck there are card draw and protection but little removal to open space for more pressure to the opponent. Colossal Rattlewurm is a great card here that has flash as long as you have a desert on the board which you will mostly have. Dragon Whelp and Geological Appraiser are great creatures that either keeps pressuring the opponent from the air or is creating value. Jolene here is great also creating treasure each time a big creature is attacking. In the sideboard there is more removal and card draw while Snarespinner is great to block if the opponent is coming at you with a lot of flyers which there are a lot in Bloomburrow set.
Boros Aggro
By Pem
Hey there this is my first write-up on a gentry deck so let’s get with the idea. We are a traditional aggro/token deck with a kind of accidental theme of power being equal to 2 or less. With Duskmourn and Bloomburrow good synergy pieces came together. Arabella Abandonded Doll house is the bread and butter and also the one of the two main finishers in the deck, often on turn 4. The rest of the deck besides rares, cantrips and creatures have a good amount of token generation or an upside on them. In aggro decks you are out of steam quickly and since in gentry we need to grind a bit too, cantripping bodies that are cheap are golden for us, like Clockwork Percussionist can get us value while dying. This deck will look similar if you are familiar with pauper red deck where we are making goblins with Gleefull Demolition. The other finisher of the deck is Hazardous Blast, which is an amazing top deck when u are looking to create many creatures but not great to attack.
Let’s look at the rare choices, Care Taker’s Talent many of us know this card already from pioneer and standard and it’s no surprise that it’s really good in here to draw every turn (sometimes on the opponents too thanks to charge of mites, carrot cake and reckless lackey) and the anthem effect too of games goes a bit long. Speaking of games going late, Dollmaker’s Shop // Porcelain Gallery is an amazing inclusion for us as a 2 drop for the early game and later on a 6 mana finisher effect [chef’s kiss]. Enduring Courage is also a beast for us, it is basically an ogre battle driver on steroids. Lastly, Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon can wrap up game by itself if unchecked.
On the sideboard, Indoctrination Attendant amazing card for a long grindy match up for value and more power like a second Carrot Cake. Holy cow is there for a more tempo approach and off-guard flying and who doesn’t like to be surprised by a holy cow right? No one, I tell you, except the opponent. The usual removal for creatures, enchantments and artifacts in Abrade, Disenchant and Deadly Riposte for aggro mirrors fiulls out the remaining slots, and one more hazardous blast for stat checking match ups.
Conclusions by Niels
It is nice to see Gentry is still played and loved in different locations, and that the people want to help support it. I am looking forward to rebooting the support from my side once I have more time available this winter.
