Aareon “littlebeep” Gertler won the first DreamHack Arena Open with Temur Clover on Sunday evening in Anaheim, CA. He defeated Mani “zapgaze” Davoudi, who was on Jeskai Fires, in the Grand Finals two games to zero.

Gertler brought the perfect deck for a metagame full of UW Control—which made up half of the Top 16 decks—after Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s victory with the archetype at World Championship XXVI. Temur Clover is an especially difficult matchup for UW Control because its namesake card, Lucky Clover, can overwhelm the control deck with card advantage. Combined with the fact that most UW Control players weren’t packing many answers to a two-mana artifact and Temur Clover was perfectly positioned to take down the tournament.

Oh, and it didn’t hurt that Gertler had played the deck for more than 40 hours with more than an 80% win rate.

Gertler faced Davoudi in the Grand Finals after breezing through a Top 16 full of UW Control. The matchup pitted the #1 and #2 ranked players on Arena against each other—the first time in the game’s short history that the finals of an Arena tournament featured the two top-ranked players. Though Davoudi’s Jeskai Fires list could pack a punch, it just couldn’t keep up with the insane amount of card advantage Lucky Clover provided and Gertler took the match 2-0.

The DreamHack Arena Opens are a new tournament series in 2020 made up of four events in Anaheim, Dallas, Atlanta, and Sweden. To enter, players must buy a three-day pass ($100+ plus tax), bring their own laptop, and preregister. In Anaheim, the tournament lasted for three days: two days of swiss and then a cut to a double-elimination Top 16 bracket on Day 3.

Prize payouts at DreamHack Anaheim

The DreamHack Arena Opens award $100,000 in prizes, including $30,000 for first ($5,000 less than the winner of a Players Tour), as well as an invite to a Mythic Invitational (Ikoria in this case)—yet only 93 people showed up to the event in Anaheim. Gertler, for his part, announced on stream that he was donating half of his winnings to Givewell.

The next DreamHack Arena Open is in Dallas, TX on May 22-24, 2020. Three-day passes are still available for $110 but details about the Open have yet to be posted.

The Decklists from the Finals of DreamHack Arena Open Anaheim

Standard Temur Clover by Aaron Gertler (1st)

Creatures (24)
Edgewall Innkeeper
Brazen Borrower
Bonecrusher Giant
Lovestruck Beast
Beanstalk Giant
Fae of Wishes

Spells (4)
Escape to the Wilds
Incubation // Incongruity

Artifacts (5)
Lucky Clover
The Great Henge
Lands (27)
Forest
Island
Mountain
Stomping Ground
Breading Pool
Steam Vents
Temple of Abandon
Temple of Mystery
Temple of Epiphany

Sideboard (15)
Mystic Repeal
Shadowspear
Aether Gust
Disdainful Stroke
Negate
Fling
Return to Nature
Domri’s Ambush
Sorcerous Spyglass
Storm’s Wrath
Once and Future
Escape to the Wilds
Chandra, Awakened Inferno

Standard Jeskai Fires by Mani Davoudi (2nd)

Creatures (20)
Brazen Borrower
Bonecrusher GIant
Sphinx of Foresight
Cavalier of Flame
Cavalier of Gales
Kenrith the Returned King
God-Eternal Oketra

Planeswalkers (4)
Teferi, Time Raveler

Spells (3)
Deafening Clarion

Enchantments (6)
Fires of Invention
Elspeth Conquers Death
Lands (27)
Fabled Passage
Plains
Island
Mountain
Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Sacred Foundry
Temple of Epiphany
Temple of Triumph
Castle Vantress

Sideboard (15)
Mystical Dispute
Aether Gust
Devout Decree
Robber of the Rich
Dovin’s Veto
Deafening Clarion

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