With Devotion decks in demand in the current Standard metagame, other deck archetypes has been switching gears in order to deal with the top two Devotion to Blue and Devotion to Black decks. The recently concluded Grand Prix in Dallas Fort Worth reflected that with the archetypes that made into the top 8. Esper Control shifted to Azorius Control whereas Monowhite Aggro featuring Boros Charm became Monowhite Aggro featuring Orzhov Charm (quoting from the coverage).

The champion of the event though was the Orzhov Control deck which first appeared in GP Vienna (making into the top 16). The deck was piloted by the Mexican Marlon Gutierrez. I initially got a preview of the deck in the video coverage at around round 13, facing a variation of Junk Reanimator.

His finals matchup was against Hall of Famer William Jensen, who mastered Azorius Control’s performance to near perfection. The match went into a deciding game 3 wherein Blue White stumbled to Orzhov’s discards and Sin Collector, and struggled on his land drops. The game later on was decided after a few hits by Lifebane Zombie, which Jensen could not block or deal with.

A big congratulation to Marlon Jacob Avila Gutierrez, the Champion of Grand Prix Dallas/Fort Worth!

Here is the winning decklist of GP Dallas Fort Worth:

Marlon Gutierrez’s Orzhov Control
Grand Prix Dallas Fort Worth 2013 Champion
Standard

Maindeck
4 Godless Shrine
4 Mutavault
1 Plains
12 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence

4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Desecration Demon
4 Pack Rat
1 Sin Collector

4 Devour Flesh
2 Duress
4 Hero’s Downfall
2 Last Breath
4 Thoughtseize
2 Ultimate Price
4 Underworld Connections

Sideboard
3 Dark Betrayal
1 Doom Blade
1 Duress
3 Lifebane Zombie
3 Pharika’s Cure
1 Pithing Needle
1 Shrivel
2 Sin Collector