By Niels Viaene
Riddled with scheduling issues and a broken-down social media frame, this event almost did not see the light of day. In the end, we decided to push through the issues and have the event after all. 9 players showed up, sporting 9 different decks so let’s walk through the deck lists and crown another champion at the end of this article.
Daan Vanhee
WG Counters
Daan’s deck was built by Nathan and is a good example of going all-in on a mechanic and taking the best elements for the mechanic from different sets. Green-White has had a counters matter theme in a lot of sets and can go critical easily against decks that do not interact with it well. Of course, that also means the deck has a tendency to overload the board which is harder to punish in Gentry without free access to rare board wipes. We see Inspiring Call to protect against these but I can’t help but feel like in Gentry it is an unnecessary measure that I would not mind seeing replaced with main deck Gaea’s Gift, freeing up both uncommon slots in the main, and sideboard slots.
The deck is fun to play, but can get quite complicated to track all the triggers and interactions. It is also easy to build and works just as well with a bunch of budget rares. There are quite a few interesting options at uncommon as well, so you can really build this deck in a way tailored to your personal preferences, opting to go more aggro, more value, or more interaction. Kami of whispered Hopes, Stocking the Pantry and Trash the Town are all options that go in different directions.
Izaak Vercruyssen
RG Racoons
Izaak brought his Racoons to the party, but he was struggling a bit. I feel his deck was lacking a little optimization and struggled with card availability. That said, Racoons probably do not have enough support to exist as a strong archetype in Gentry. I could see it serving as a secondary role in a more streamlined midrange stompy deck that accidentally takes advantage of the expend 4 mechanic.
Nathan Van Eenoo
RG Sacrifice
The same Nathan that built the WG Counters deck brought Red Black Sacrifice for himself. Another archetype that has support across multiple sets. This list feels like a mix between value Sacrifice with Stormclaw Rager and tempo Sacrifice with Soyowa Lava-Tongue. Sometimes this leads to a more flexible playstyle but it also makes it a lot harder to play because you have to adapt more based on the cards drawn and the deck choice of your opponent. In general, I would advise people to streamline more towards one side or another.
One tip for people looking for cards for decks like this is too also look for “dies”, otherwise you might miss cards like Garna, bloodfist of Keld or Totentanz, Swarm Piper.
Alan Schuer
UB Reanimator
Alan brought Reanimator, an archetype that has traditionally struggled in Gentry because it relies heavily on Rares and Mythic Rares to bring back from the graveyard. There are two approaches to it, going turbo reanimate or making a control deck that has a reanimate finish plan where they can also cast their threats. Alan went for the second approach, keeping a lot of control elements in his deck and complementing the reanimation plan with a Tolarian Terror back-up plan, making it a very resilient deck choice but also one that can be prone to awkward hands with multiple copies of Zombify clogging up the hand.
After talking with Alan, we concluded it would probably be better to have a main deck with slightly more control Elements, 1 or even 2 less Zombify in the main deck, and a more turbo plan in the sideboard bringing them back in. I would also look at having more self-protecting threats, especially Koma, World-Eater as a near unbeatable threat on turn 4, a plan you really need against hyper aggro decks.
Wout Deceuninck
WB Vampires
Wout brought White Black Vampires, a different approach to the Sacrifice Archetype, which usually trades off some aggression for better removal and a “drain” mechanic like Elas il-kor, Sadistic Pilgrim and Vengeful Bloodwitch. It tends to suit itself more to a slower approach but Wout chose to go for a much more aggressive mana curve.
In that philosophy I am missing a flexible source of removal, like Reckless Lawbringer, and the ultimate sacrifice fodder in Helpful Hunter. I also can’t help but wonder about the tempo in the mana base, with many lands entering the Battlefield tapped and even a rare land, which could be a much more high impact card.
The decks above were the people that did not manage to clutch a coveted top 4 spot in order to compete in the single elimination bracket for the title. Let’s get on to the top 4!
Semi Finalist Sander De Quick
UR Spells
UR Spells might be one of the most quintessential Archetypes in Gentry, with Sacrifice themes and Mono Red also in the discussion. In every cardpool since its inception, people have looked for and usually found some way of playing these strategies. Enigma Drake has been a poster boy for this archetype, getting reprinted every few years to be a big payoff. Tolarian Terror is a more tempo-oriented plan for the deck, with Eddymurk Crab serving as extra flashy copies of the Terror.
The archetype is currently missing a “go-wide” option where it makes tokens since Third Path Iconoclast just does not offer the flexibility or resilience of older comparable cards, so the way too interact with this deck is lightly more straightforward than some other versions of this deck. Considering the fatty beats plan there are some cards that are featured here that we usually do not see like Monstrous Rage to offer Trample but I would love to see a way to give haste and go for surprise kills. But Bitter Reunion is telegraphed and awkward to play early, and Felonous Rage and Hammerhead just don’t give the kind of flexibility that Expedite gave.
Semi Finalist Sven Bourree
G Beats
If Blanchwood Armor is legal, Mono Green Beats is a deck! While always on the fringes when considered as a true metagame defining decks, this strategy attacks opponents in ways that other decks often disregards, and demands answers that usually are sacrificed at the end of deckbuilding. Of course, the aura is only half of the puzzle, finding good creatures to put it on, especially ones with trample, Hexproof, or other interesting abilities is where the deck goes from playable to problematic for your opponents. This version hopes to get there with the combination of the protective ability ward and protection spells, supported by Audacity for trample. It makes the deck somewhat weaker against aggro but even scarier for control decks to deal with.
Finalist Tom De Wael
WR Blink
While not the colors one would expect them in, this is a dedicated lategame oriented control deck trying to channel the reusability of Nurturing Pixie and Scrollshift into an overwhelming advantage. The deck is very atypical in how it plays and often has a lot of options and lines it could play, making it a complex deck to pilot and play well.
Champion Dylan Botten
BG Roots
Insidious Roots has been a bit of a boogey man of the format lately, it has a lot of flexibility, a plan against both aggro and control decks, and gets to play a lot of cards that generally allow it to play a very diverse and adaptive plan. As long as it, and in lesser regards, Honest Rutstein are legal, there will likely be a competitive Gentry deck to be made by them.
