By Ephara/DuneBrood 16May202
On May 5th 58 Gladiators entered the Arena to battle for the title of the G:AS FNM Champion in a 4 rounds Bo3. The following 8 champions emerged victorious.
- 4-0 EMG(23637) on Sultai Midrange
- 4-0 cart4ever on Boros Aggro
- 4-0 Nickfingertip on Gruul Stompy
- 3-0-1 catmoozi on Esper Control
- 3-1 grexar on Esper Control
- 3-1 ItThatBetrayed on Sultai Lands
- 3-1 nIght on Simic Ramp
- 3-1 mordieth on Rakdos Aggro
Besides the 8 champions other Gladiators also brought spica tactics to the table. A special shoutout to Treglen who was on Glint-eye Dragonstorm and went 3-1.
Archetype and Color distribution
| Color Pairs | Amount | Aggro | Midrange | Control | Tempo | Ramp | Combo |
| Sultai | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Boros | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Gruul | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Esper | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Simic | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Rakdos | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Glint-eye | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Mardu | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Jeskai | 8 | 2 | 6 | 1 | |||
| Abzan | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Dimir | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 5c | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Green | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Golgari | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Azorious | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Temur | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Witchmaw | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Orzhov | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Dune-Brood | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Grixis | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Jund | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Total: | 58 | 11 | 22 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green |
| 31 | 34 | 33 | 25 | 29 |
As can be seen by the Archetype distribution yesterday’s format was a Midrange Fest with a downtip in Gruul aggro decks. Furthermore there was a big uptick in Jeskai decks, especially control, followed suit by Esper control. When taking a look at the top 8 we can see this heavily favored Sultai midrange/lands decks and Esper control with both delivering 2 top 8’s. The different Tempo decks have not found the sweet spot and did not perform very well in this tourney. Furthermore combo was almost completely absent with only one omni deck signing up and dedicated nexus decks completely absent from this tourney.
With a lot of the Midrange and Control decks still utilising graveyard synergies to grind out other midrange decks, an uptick in Black and white was to be expected, due to the good exile removal it offers. Control decks also adapted to this by adding ashiok to the main board, a card which has not been added to many of the Midrange decks. However taking a look at the lists many of the decks are still missing out on Graveyard Hate cards like Consecrate//Consume, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, Cling to Dust, Scrabbling Claws, Return to nature and Soul-Guide having a low floor and a high ceiling for inclusion
Card of the day Ashiok, Dream Render. I believe this card to be criminally underplayed. They are a real powerhouse in this format of graveyard galore, but this is not their only strength. Ashiok is a swiss army knife in many decks, able to exile your opponent’s graveyard, stopping your opponents from tutoring for lands or T3feri forbid a 10/10 Gilded craterhoof. But that is not where their usefulness stops, they are also an engine to full the escape costs of your other graveyard cards like Uro or Kroxa. I have been playing them in my 5c Niv deck for a while now, and they have always been a welcomed card and a noussance for my opponents.
I hope you enjoyed this little write up and gave you some useful insights into Gladiator. If you have any comments, questions or criticism, feel free to contact me on Discord @Dune Brood#0924 or @Ephara#65980.
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