By Niels Viaene
After a bit of a Lull, Gentry seemed to be on the upswing again, with Gentry breaking the 20 player boundary for the 21st edition. This edition we saw a fall back to 15 players, which still puts it in the upper half of the last 8 events. That said, it is a long way from the 40+ and 50+ player events these used to be (more on that in the hall of fame page if you are interested).
But I digress, let’s not dwell on the past, not dream of uncertain futures, Gentry currently is a dreamscape of deckbuilding options, playstyle deversity, and creative freedom, which this event showcased gorgeously. Below, I will list all decklists that joined the fray outside of the top 4, followed by the top 4 decklists. So if you just want to see the winner and their decklists, scroll down, but you will miss some actual gems in between.
Tibo Maes (WUR Dragons)
To people that say you can’t play cool cards if you want to be competitive, there is this deck: Dragons and flexibility galore. Your early game removal and permission turns into lategame threats. This deck made it all the way to the finals of the XXI edition, a bigger event than this one. It is based somewhere between UR tempo decks and hard control decks but offers a very good game plan, interaction, and finishing power.
Nathan Van Eenoo (B Sacrifice)
Sadly, Nathan decided to leave the event early due to a snow storn starting outside and being worried he would not be getting home safe, so we will never know if he was going to do well in the end. His deck focuses on the combo of Forsaken Miner, Umbral Collar Zealot and any creature that lets you drain an opponent for one life whenever a creature you control dies. Noticably nissing from this list is Perigee Beckoner, which is an infinite combo with another copy of itself and a sac outlet. I am not sure if Nathan chose to omit this combo because hee feels it is not realistic or if another reason exists for him not to play it.
Arthur Verscruysse (WU Robots)
Cid, Timeless Artificer feels like a new kind of “you can play any number of this card in your deck” kind of card, it does not really help just itself, has cycling, and is just as good in the graveyard. In Gentry, that makes it a really interesting card to play around with but because it is legendary, it feels like an extremely hard puzzle to crack on what is the correct amount to play. 6-7 (oh no…) seems like it might be a really nice spot for this card to be but Arthur clearly had heavy card availability issues when making his deck. I would have loved to see a far more aggressive version of the deck that really threatens a scary Cid Turn with a few creatures on the board, a couple of Memory Guardian‘s that are posing issues and one or two Cids already chilling in the graveyard. Maybe Station Monitor can help bump the Artificer count, with a stray SP//dr, Piloted by Peni as a cool one-of card that gets the hero buff?
Sarah Edwards (UR Prowess)
I mentioned card availability already in the previous decklist, and it is clear Sarah was facing the same constraint, I think she chose the best deck available to try and work under those constraints, though, as UR Prowess has near-infinite synergy in the current Gentry. The combination of burn, draw, pump and prowess creatures is so deep right now, you can build many different versions of the deck. That is, of course, unfortunate for their opponents and makes them completely unpredictable, which is the reward for stepping out of the Lessons shell.
Kjell Maekelberg (WG Hare Apparent)
Where the Cid deck that Arthur brought was a new and surprising addition to the event, Hare Apparant is something very known in the format, with different versions floating around. Kjell brought a green-splashing version, with Burrowguard Mentor as the main reason in the maindeck. I personally do not think it gives enough of an edge to warrant weakening your mana base and I don’t think the extra rare options are that exciting but Kjell streamlined the deck to fit them in, so maybe I am missing something that he knows.
Joren Plaskie (URG Landfall)
Joren is playing Landfall, but I have a feeling card availability really held him back from optimising this deck but while it is not the best version of the deck, it does more than enough good things to make people shiver with early game pressure in Sazh’s Chocobo and Ride The Shoopuf both buffing early and threatening late game. I feel like Joren got enticed a bit too far down the Chocobo rabbit hole as they are generally a bit underwhelming as far as Landfall pay-offs go. Not seeing any Evolving Wilds, or the full set of Springbloom Druid is surprising to me as well, but I am not sure if those are conscious choices, or just not having access to the cards. This llist makes me want to test and optimise things, though.
Jeroen Moernaut (WU Reanimator)
If I am not mistaken, this deck was actually built by Dylan (of former Gentry Championship fame) and, I have to admit, it is a beauty and honestly what I feel makes Gentry such a great format. It is centrered around Return Triumphant and Helping Hand returning the juiciest 3 drops he could find. To add spice, those can be Creatures with steep casting penalties that get circumvented in Abhorrent Oculus and Patched Plaything with Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium offering both setup for your combo as an alternate way to sneak them into play and…. AND… Picklock Prankster being capable of both putting a creature in the craveyard AND returning the reanimation spell to your hand from an empty board and graveyard. This deck is a beauty and has some building flexibility left if you know where to look.
Izaak Vercruysse (G Poison)
Izaak has been optimizing both this deck and his playskills with the deck, making it and him a scary opponent to go up against. The Fynn, the fangbaerer driven poison aggro plan is probably the fastest uninterrupted kill in the format right now, but this deck does not just rush yiou out of the game. With its suit of protection spells ready, it can grind through removal spells and the fight cards combined with all the Deathtouch creatures makes blocking a nightmare!
Wiebrecht Storme (UR Lessons)
UR Lessons was THE talk of the tournament, with many people finding that the Accumulate Wisdom fueled engine was too powerful for the format but most people actually building the deck finding out very quickly that it is a very uncommon strained archetype right now, with discussion on the correct number of Gran-Gran and the playability of Iroh’s Demonstration and Dragonfly Swarm. The card that makes the deck tick in Standard, Boomerang Basics, is also missing from this list, just proving how hard it is to make this work in Gentry. This deck is also a reminder that Tolarian Terror is still a monstrous Threat and definitely one of the most defining commons in the format right now.
Milan De Boever (WUR Allies)
Channeling the power of both Sokka and Katara for a go-wide strategy seems like an amazing plan. I love the addition of Case of the Gateway Express as an out of theme/set synergy monster in the deck. I would have loved to see a little bit of counter magic in the main deck and probably some more diversity in permission from the sideboard. Shifting the mana base a bit more towards blue-white might also help the deck in being more stable but maybe it doe snot have enough ally token support without red. I have not really looked into this archetype, but it looks a lot more promising than I originally thought it would.
Tom Willems (URg Lessons)
Our second UR Lessons player, this time splashing green for Iroh and going for the full set of Dragonfly Swarm and not a single Gran-Gran this time, really showing the differences in how you can build this deck. The green component gives the deck better interaction against Enchantments but it seems like the scary enchantments did not really show up for this event. Filling out the sideboard with some extra Origin of MEtalbending And Negate seems like a good start.
Semi-Finalist Alan Schuer (WG Kithkin Aggro)
Alan brought the beats, with Kinsbaile Aspirant into Thoughtweft Lieutenant being probably the hardest one-two punch Gentry can produce at the moment, hitting for 4 on turn 2 and threatening multiple ways of dealing 10 damage on the next turn. Crossroads Watcher feels like the most underwhelming card in the deck and might be better as a pump or protection spell, or event a catch-all removal spell.
Alan fell in the quarter finals to Philip in the match for the better beats.
Semi-Finalist Robbe Ipers (WRb Push the Limit)
Robbe played the same version on this deck in the previous Gentry Open and stranded in the top 8 then. This version does not have any extreme changes compared to that version, pretty much just minor updates because some cards rotated out that are not that vital to the working of the deck. It aims to cycle away Vehicles and find a big Push the Limit that will hopefully allow him to win the game in one massive swoop. With half the Vehicles sporting Menace and allowing you to exile or destroy blockers, surviving that attack usually is impossible. And if it did not get your there the first time, you can just go again the next turn! There is a bit of a back-up plan in Tune Up but that usually only serves to buy some time or to bait opponents into playing interaction and leaving them more open for a Push the Limit in the near future.
Robbe’s sideboard seems mostly aimed at control match-ups and the mirror match, which makes sense as this deck plays 4 sweeper main plus a slew of burn based removal, making aggro matchups pretty good in general. Still, Robbe lost his semi-final to the mirror match, where the smallest design decisions made the biggest differences.
Finalist Philip Chung (W Hare Apparent)
All the things I said before about this deck still are valid but this version made it to the finals. Let’s look at the reasons. The deck is mono colored, giving it a massive consistency and a tempo boon in Gentry that has to play a lot of lands entering tapped or risk color screw. An extra Dewdrop Cure and more Hare Apparent give it more Consistency (again). And finally, more impactful rares, in particular the Elspeth, but perhaps that is a biased opinion, since I have had my butt handed to me by her on too many occasions.
Philip must have not been happy to see two Push the Limit decks with him in the top 4 but I have to admit, I saw the main board Requisition Raid completely invalidate all Tune Up plans, a great addition to the deck, giving it some amazing flexibility from game 1 while offering a scary buff to his team.
Winner Niels Viaene (WR Push the Limit)
I won in the end. Looking at my decklist and Robbe’s might feel like we were playing the exact same list, but there were minor differences that influenced our matches (we played in the swiss, where he won, and in the semi-finals, which I won). I played Abraded Bluffs over Robbe’s Raucous Carnival and Robbe went deeper into other lands that enter the battlefield tapped, playing 4 Evolving wilds next to his lower count of Wind-Scarred Crag[c/]. This difference meant that in a few scenarios I was threatening lethal with 3 attackers for 6 (pinging him twice with the Bluffs) where Robbe needed to find a fourth. In exchange, his black mana gave him access to [c]Duress from the side, one of the best cards against the deck when played correctly. Lightning Strike gave me more reach, but Cathar’s Commando outperforms Abrade. They were all tiny changes that we needed to maneuver.
After playing the event, I feel like my main deck was slightly better set up than Robbe’s, with Fire Magic offering me way more flexibility and outplay maneuvering options than Pyroclasm‘s mana advantage would ever have given me. But Robbe had put way more time and effort into creating an amazing sideboard for the deck. I originally started building the deck as a bit of a joke, a meme, with the actual goal of making the now-no-longer-legal Mishra playable in a deck. But I have found a deck with brute power, and deceptively interesting playing lines and interaction.
Conclusion
I won my own tournament, which may feel improper. I understand that sentiment, I used to have it myself until enough people in the community convinced me to step back into the fray. And I am glad I did. Playing Gentry is the best thing to it, and it really gave me the energy to get back behind the keyboard for you guys. And thank you, to all the deckbuilders out there, showing off just how many cool things this little format is capable of. Let’s keep bringing new people in and help them build decks and borrow cards. Because in the end… magic is about the gathering… (I know that is corny, but it is also true!)
