Aaron “littlebeep” Gertler
This weekend, 94 players participated in the first DreamHack MTG Arena tournament in Anaheim, California. The 2020 DreamHack Arena Open was a Standard format tournament held over three days, and featured a prize pool of $100,000 with the winner earning an invite to the Mythic Invitational in May.
The event boasted a star-studded Top 16, including Magic Hall of Famer Shuehei Nakamura, MagicFest Portland winner Dylan Nollen, and Players Tour Phoenix Top 8 competitors Allen Wu and Austin Bursavich.
Metagame
- 8 Azorius Control
- 3 Jeskai Fires
- 1 Jund Sacrifice
- 1 Mono-Red Aggro
- 1 Sultai Ramp
- 1 Temur Adventures
- 1 Temur Reclamation
Since the release of Theros Beyond Death, Azorius Control has become the clear deck to beat, with Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa taking down World Championship XXVI with it, and a whopping eight copies making the Top 16 in this event. But in the end, it was Aaron “littlebeep” Gertler and his Temur Adventures deck that took home the trophy.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Beanstalk Giant
- 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
- 4 Bonecrusher Giant
- 4 Fae of Wishes
- 4 Brazen Borrower
Lands (27)
Spells (9)
For the first time since large tournaments started being held on MTG Arena, the finals featured the two players at the top of the Mythic leaderboard – with Gertler coming in at Mythic Rank 1, and his opponent, Mani Davoudi (Zapgaze), at Mythic Rank 2.
Gertler’s deck was perfectly placed to take advantage of the Azorius Control decks, using cards like Lucky Clover and Edgewall Innkeeper to gain incremental advantages and eventually make huge, game-ending plays with Fae of Wishes.
In his post-match winner’s interview, Gertler also announced he would be donating half of his tournament winnings ($15,000) to charity.
The next MTG Arena DreamHack Open will take place May 22-24 in Dallas, Texas.