By Niels Viaene
26 players eventually settled down to play the second installment of the Gentry Arena Leaderboard. This edition was also going to lock in all people that participated for the second time in their region.
That leaderboard has now been updated and boy o boy is there a story developing there. The second-largest region and holder of the champion slot currently is…
Americas!
AMERICAS!
I can only hope this instills something in the local communities to rally and bring those top slots to their own region. And then in return motivates our American friends to retake the territory. But that is not what this article is about. We are here to share the undefeated and 3-1 lists with you.
4-0 Robbe Schildermans
Belgium – Ghent
Robbe’s decklist is a fine metagame tool. He managed to find a balance between playing arguable the most broken strategy currently (Lurrus) and incorporating a tool to fight back against fellow nightmare cats with maindeck Soul-Guide Lantern to shut down both recursion shenanigans and lethal Zenith Flares. He chooses for mix that optimises pressure and disruption and ended up in the top seed this event for it.
4-0 William Jackson
Americas
William is what many people are calling the new ‘best deck’ of the metagame, Boros Cycling. They aim to build advantage through swarming with Valliant Rescuer and pinging with Drannith Stinger to finish their opponent off with Zenith Flare or Flourishing Fox. A well placed Cry of the Carnarium and Negate will butcher this strategy though, so maybe the metagame just needs some time to adapt to this new threat.
3-1 Jelle Lauwers
Belgium – Merksem
Jelle went with a new player on the blocks that aims to have answers to everything that is thrown at them and then try to win the game. This is a very classic approach to Control in the traditional colors so there should be no surprise that this deck can do well in the hands of a good player. The better they know what they are up against, the better this deck can be built and played, so don’t sleep on control as a potential deck to face or play!
3-1 Kristof Van Holsbeeck
Belgium – Bredene
Another good player and again the Azorius Control deck. Here we see the combo of Realm-Cloaked Giant and Time Wipe to sort of ‘cheat’ an extra rare into your deck. The many overlaps with the previous deck should be a great base for you to build on. The deck can be very flexible and a surprising card choice can go a long way.
That also means there are 4 players from different regions in the top 4!
3-1 Ruben Simoens
Belgium – Ghent
Here we see another take on the strategy that went 4-0 in the hands of Robbe. Notable missing are the dedication to the mirror match that Robbe chose to focus on. Is this what caused the difference in performance? Only time will tell.
3-1 Kobe Keymeulen
Belgium – Ghent
Kobe introduces some new tech here in Underworld Breach. As the deck is notoriously hard to pick rares for, this option is interesting as it gives you another way to recur your key cards, but this time including the Zenith you often desperately need for the kill. The fact you can use it to replay Lurrus and that way replay the breach is just extra value in a deck that is already stocked full of value.
3-1 Andries Regniers
Belgium – Ghent
Andries is playing Lurrus Cycling as well. And this looks like the most ‘stock version’ of the three so far. He has not a single impactful rare in his 60 and is all-in on the linear plan of cycling and finding the Zenith for the kill.
3-1 Ruben Naudts
Belgium – St. Niklaas
UR Spells is an archetype that is keeping up its name of the best-kept secret in Gentry. At all times it seems playable and it currently has a lot of flexibility in how you build it. Here we see Ominous Seas in the slot that used to be Improbable Alliance as one of those options. The ‘correct’ choice will depend on the metagame, and with Lurrus making sweepers and cheap interaction very important, getting a few 8/8’s might be better than many 1/1’s.
3-1 Peter Jönsson
Sweden – Malmö
Our final player that finished 3-1 hails from another region, representing the first large group of Gentry players outside of Belgium, Sweden. He brought what many think is the answer to the current metagame. Dimir Control has started making waves in the metagame even before Ikoria and is now situated even better with that Cry of the Carnariu plus Negate package that can dismantle many opponents. After sideboarding they can load up on disruption or more specific answers and shore up pretty much any match-up. A hard but rewarding deck to master.
That wraps up the top-performing decks of the second Leaderboard event. I hope this gives you inspiration or information you need to build or adjust your deck, ready to take the next event down. This weekend, we have a Gentry Monthly, a free event giving away prizes to the top 8, up to a €25 voucher to cardmarket series. And of course, on Tuesday, there is the next Leaderboard event! All of these will be featured live on the stream as well, so even if you can’t play, you get to feel like you are part of the experience!
I hope to see you there,
Niels
