Ian Comboed himself into a bye at the third Leaderboard event

By Niels Viaene

4 different decks made it to the top 4 decks of the last Leaderboard. In the end Rakdos Sacrifice featuring the Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven Combo took the top seed and solidifies itself as a top contender in Gentry right now. The deck has a lot of development space left and Ian said he had ideas for optimizations so don’t just copy his list.

You can find all coverage of this event here:

Ian Ide
Winner
Rakdos Sacrifice

Main Deck (60) 4 Evolving Wilds 3 Bloodfall Caves 2 Mountain 14 Swamp 4 Cauldron Familiar 4 Footlight Fiend 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods 1 Ayara, First of Locthwain 4 Mayhem devils 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks 1 Cavalier of Night 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim 2 Claim the Firstborn 4 Witch’s Oven 2 Duress 3 Shock 3 Spark Harvest 2 Heartfire 1 Thrill of Possibilities 1 Act of Treason 2 Dead Revels

Sideboard (13) 1 Duress 1 Act of Treason 4 Scorching Dragonfire 2 Cosmotronic Wave 2 Foreboding Fruit 1 Forever Young 1 Bake into a Pie 1 Heartfire

Is it turning into a tradition not to have a complete sideboard and winning a Leaderboard? It shows these events are still testing grounds for the format and that a good deck combined with tight play has what it takes to take the top spot.
Ian introduces a new deck to the metagame, one that folds to Cry of the Carnarium. Is this the destabilizing shift we will be seeing in the meta?

Alan Schuer
Finalist
Temur Elementals

Main deck (60) 4 Thornwood Falls 4 Rugged Highlands 4 Swiftwater Cliffs 2 Bloodfell Caves 5 Forest 5 Island 4 Leafkin Druid 4 Creeping Trailblazer 4 Risen Reef 4 Cloudkin Seer 3 Thicket Crusher 3 Scampering Scorcher 1 Omnath, Locus of the Roil 1 Yarok, the Desecrated 1 Cavalier of Flame 1 Cavalier of Gales 4 Neoform 3 Teferi’s Time Twister 3 Scorching Dragonfire

Sideboard (15) 2 Healer of the Glade 3 Negate 3 Return to Nature 2 Cosmotronic Wave 3 Unsummon 2 Sagittar’s Volley

The story of Alan’s deck is in small optimizations. He kept the Scamperinng Scorcher change from last time but joined the bandwagon on Teferi’s Time Twister. He also dropped the Opts to make room for Scorching Dragonfire in the main deck, giving the deck a way to interact more. Especially in the Cat meta, threatening an Exile effect is very valuable. That freed up space in his sideboard for Unsummon, a tempo Tool that has been becoming increasingly common in wats to fight Gates.

Sander De Quick
Semi-Finalist
RUGB Gates

Main deck (60) 4 Simic Guildgate 4 Gruul Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Dimir Guildgate 4 Golgari Guildgate 3 Island 3 Forest 4 Arboreal Grazer 4 Gatebreaker Ram 2 Gate Colossus 2 Duress 4 Growth Spiral 4 Scorching Dragonfire 3 Narset, Parter of Veils 3 Guild Summit 3 Gates Ablaze 1 No Escape 1 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 1 Ugin, the Ineffable

Sideboard (15) 3 Negate 3 Return to Nature 2 Spark Harvest 2 Duress 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Undercity’s Embrace 1 Soul Salvage 2 Quench

Where Alan showed slight evolution, Sander brought the true and tried strategy. Changing only the Oko because it was banned, into a Garruk, Cursed Huntsman and making minor tweaks in his sideboard. The boogeyman is and remains the boogeyman…

Kerem Mazly
Semi-Finalist
UBwr

Main Deck (60) 4 Dismal Backwater 4 Scoured Barrens 4 Tranquil Cove 2 Bloodfall Caves 3 Orzhov Guildgate 1 Dimir Guildgate 4 Island 2 Swamp 3 Witching Well 3 Epic Downfall 2 Disenchant 1 Negate 4 Golden Egge 4 Guild Globe 3 Prison Realm 2 Mortify 4 Cry of the Carnarium 3 Ill-Gotten Inheritance 3 Chemister’s Insight 1 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General 1 Dance of the Mance 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno

Sideboard (15) 1 Witching Well 4 Duress 4 Clear the Mind 3 Negate 2 Disennchantt 1 Ill-Gotten Inheritance

Holy moly… Kerem has shown us here that there is a very different way of attacking the metagame. Pack all the answers you need to address the top dogs in the format into one deck and hope you get to crush them all day long. Whether it is Gates you are up against, and you need Exile effects like Prison Realm and Epic Downfall to get rid of Gate Colossus and Planeswalkers, or Exiling sweeper effects like Cry of the Carnarium against Elementals and Cat Oven, you are ready to go. Just hope you don’t run into a steady stream of 3/3’s, a big hexproof Creature, or a deck like UR, that has near infinity rebuild potential.

Conclusion

This edition of the Leaderboard really shakes up the metagame. Cat-Oven Combo is the real deal, and Kerem showed the metagame is ripe for a dedicated Control deck to rise and take matches away from people. In the meantime spoilers have started for Theros Beyond Death, so who knows what is yet to come….

May your innovations be elegant or defining,
Niels Viaene