Last week we talked a little bit about the shape of new standard here: Post Innistrad Standard Decks. We didn’t use the most competitive data, as we were just exploring possibilities.
I’d now like to introduce you to a site that I just found: http://mtgpulse.com/. This website is very close to what the old deckcheck.de used to be, in that it lists individual events and the top 8 decklists from them. I recommend you bookmark it immediately!
We’re going to take a look at the decks that have now seen competitive play and have made it into the T8 of both Grand Prix Brisbane as well as a few of the States / Provincials. Let’s see how many of each archetype are being played / winning and if there is a deck out there that is heads above the rest!
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GP BRISBANE ( Deserves its own section)
1st = U/B Control
2nd = Township Tokens
3-6th = Wolf Run Green
7th = U/B Control
8th = Tezzeret
When we examined decklists last week I thought we’d be seeing a lot of Wolf Run decks and it looks like that has proven to be true. 4 of the top 8 decks were Wolf Run Green… something we’ve seen before with Valakut and later, Cawblade. Does this hold true for the results from states as well? Let’s find out!
In this list I have compiled the results from the first 6 lists for states that I found so as to not cherry pick for stats.
Legend:
Archetype = What kind of deck was played.
1st = How many first place finishes the deck had.
Top 8 = How many times the deck showed up in the Top 8 EXCLUDING 1st places.
Total = The number of T8 Finishes TOTAL (1st + T8)
ARCHETYPE | 1ST | TOP 8 | TOTAL |
Wolf Run Green | 3 | 13 | 16 |
U/W Aggro | 1 | 6 | 7 |
Red Deck Wins | 6 | 6 | |
Solar Flare | 6 | 6 | |
Tempered Steel | 1 | 3 | 4 |
U/B Control | 2 | 2 | |
Township Tokens | 2 | 2 | |
Tezzeret | 2 | 2 | |
U/W Control | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Mono Black Infect | 1 | 1 |
10 different decks that made the T8 in those tournaments with the highest number of placing gong to Wolf Run Green with 40.0% of the total T8 showings. The next closest was U/W Aggro with 17.5%. That means that 55% of the top 8 placings were composed of those 2 decks, which doesn’t seem that diverse. Overall there were only 10 different archetypes that filled a possible 40 places.
Now here are the results of the first 6 lists for Provincials to see what’s happening here in Canada and if the metagame is any different:
ARCHETYPE | 1ST | TOP 8 | TOTAL |
Solar Flare | 1 | 11 | 12 |
Wolf Run Green | 1 | 6 | 7 |
Red Deck Wins | 2 | 3 | 5 |
RUG Control | 2 | 2 | 4 |
U/W Aggro | 3 | 3 | |
Tempered Steel | 3 | 3 | |
Township Tokens | 2 | 2 | |
U/B Control | 2 | 2 | |
Shape Anew | 1 | 1 | |
Esper Control | 1 | 1 | |
Mono Black Control | 1 | 1 | |
Grixis Burning Vengeance | 1 | 1 | |
Mono Black Infect | 1 | 1 | |
Tezzeret | 1 | 1 | |
U/W Control | 1 | 1 | |
Junk | 1 | 1 | |
RUG Pod | 1 | 1 | |
Puresteel Paladin | 1 | 1 |
In Canada it looks like the most popular deck was Solar Flare with 30%. Wolf Run Green was next with 17.5% and Red Deck Wins followed with 12.5%. There were 18 different decks that placed, which is a lot more diverse that how things looked on the American side. Is it because our Canadian meta is not as developed, or have we just been brewing more? I personally feel that where there are LESS decks making appearances that it means that we are in a more developed meta, which to me means that Canada is behind the curve as we have not optimized the best decks yet to crush all opposition.
It’s also interesting to note the lack of Solar Flare builds in USA vs. the number that showed up here in Canada. Wolf Run Green still seems to be “universally” popular, and have the most decks overall that have shown up in the Top 8’s.
Now let’s look at all of the winning decks to see if there are any trends:
ARCHETYPE | 1ST |
Wolf Run Green | 4 |
RUG Control | 2 |
Red Deck Wins | 2 |
U/W Aggro | 1 |
U/W Control | 1 |
Tempered Steel | 1 |
U/B Control | 1 |
Solar Flare | 1 |
While these stats are all well and good, let’s see if we can use them to see what the actual % finishing in top 8 vs. actually WINNING the events will be! This is important because it stakes the volume of decks vs. the actual wins for the deck itself.
ARCHETYPE | 1ST | Total in T8 | First % |
RUG Control | 2 | 4 | 50% |
U/W Control | 1 | 3 | 33% |
Red Deck Wins | 2 | 11 | 18% |
U/B Control | 1 | 6 | 17% |
Wolf Run Green | 4 | 27 | 15% |
Tempered Steel | 1 | 7 | 14% |
U/W Aggro | 1 | 10 | 10% |
Solar Flare | 1 | 18 | 6% |
I really find this interesting. Some of the decks that were LEAST represented in the top 8 actually had the HIGHEST % of 1st places! Could it be because people weren’t prepared for these underdog decks? So while the boogeyman Wolf Run Green decks took the MOST 1st places, they were also the most represented so theoretically they SHOULD have the highest wins due to VOLUME, if nothing else.
I wish there was somewhere I could look that would show the TOTAL number of decks of each archetype that were present at the events so that we could compare that as well. If there were 1,000 Wolf Run Green decks and only 100 Red Decks, that would also affect this type of calculation on a much larger scale.
I hope this helps you better understand the metagame and what appear to be the top decks ATM!
Cheers,
Carl Szalich
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