Hello everyone!
For this week's article, I am going to talk about the results from the Eternal Tournament Series 2018 Season 3 Week 3 - Top 8, a best-of-three tournament with no sideboards that took place last weekend, and analyse the metagame from there. I will then conclude by giving my thoughts on the deck lists that were brought to this tournament and provide my suggestions on what to play and look out for next week.
Metagame Analysis
This time the tournament had 62 players playing, so it is still hard to make any concrete conclusions from this data.
As we can see from the chart, midrange still remains the most popular archetype this week, making up 43% of the overall tournament, and has decreased from last week's tournament of 49%. This time we have more of a representation of aggressive decks, increasing from 9% last week to 20% this week, whilst control’s representation had increased to 21% from 27%. We also have unfair decks being represented this week at 10% from last week 11%.
Win Rate Analysis
Here I will go through the win rates for each archetype and give my thoughts about them.
If we look at the performance of each major archetype, we can see that midrange is still performing well (51%) but a little worse than last week, whilst we see control decks performing as badly as last week (47%). Aggro decks performed much better than last week (53%) whilst unfair decks had a bad performance at 43%. Overall, I think the meta evolved way faster than I had originally anticipated mostly because of the popularity of TJP Gift on the ladder. We can see that this was what affected the metagame the most and every time aggro decks are popular, unfair decks take a hit. Additionally, control and midrange decks performed similarly to last week but the particular decks in each major archetype changed a lot. The control deck that performed well this week was very efficient at dealing with TJP gift, whilst most of the midrange decks that performed well have cards like Valkyrie Enforcer or deadly units such as Scorpion Wasp and Blistersting Wasp to deal with TJP Gift.
Decklists
Now I will talk about every deck with 3 or more copies in the tournament:
Praxis Tokens (67%): This was the best performing deck in the tournament and I think this is thanks to TJP gift, as most of the decks and cards that are good vs TJP gift are awful vs this deck. Imagine you have a deck with a lot of cheap removal and Scorpion Wasps will probably be awful vs Praxis Tokens. I think this deck was a great choice for this tournament and whether you like it or not, this is a deck that I expect to see going forwards in the coming weeks.
TJP Gift (54%): This deck is probably the best ladder deck right now because it is not only good but also very fast, so your wins per hour are great. The deck is probably the best aggro deck as well, and it was the second best performing deck in a field that was very well prepared for it, making me think that the deck is very good and we will keep seeing it.
Combrei Pants (53%): Combrei is still good and performing but for some reason people don't play it more. It is a deck that has many tools to beat other midrange decks, a lot of silences and a lot of aegis units to dodge removal. I think this deck will keep seeing a lot of play because it is just solid and can easily adapt to many metagames.
Xenan killers (50%): This deck has all the tools to beat TJP and is usually a nightmare for any Icaria deck. I'm sure we will see more of this deck in the future. However, I'm not sure what is the best build for it but I'm certain that you don't want Mystic Ascendant in this deck.
Kennadins (50%): A very fun and very powerful deck but I don't think this deck is good enough and is particularly bad vs TJP Gift. The deck has a big weakness to flying units, coupled with the fact that it doesn't work as effectively without Combustion Cell, but if you want to play a fun, cool and powerful deck then this should be first on your list.
Praxis midrange (46%): Most of the decks we talked about before are good against this deck or at least close so this so underperforming is not a big surprise. The deck is still solid and powerful but the metagame is not friendly for it right now. On the other hand, I think many of the changes you want to make in control decks to beat TJP Gift will make Praxis mid comeback in the future. At this moment in time, I think you want to play its brother Praxis Tokens.
FJS (40%): The worst popular performing deck in the tournament got destroyed and the reason is simple; I saw the decklists and none of them are good vs TJP Gift. They are built to beat midrange decks and have a lot of cards that will underperform vs TJP like Rise to the Challenge, Statuary Maiden or Tavrod. I played this deck a lot and I think it can have a good but close match up vs TJP gift but you need to build it right and the people in this tournament failed to do that. Also the big presence of Scorpion Wasp in the metagame didn't help Icaria that is for sure.
The Top 8
The top 8 was very diverse. Firstly, we have the Rakano Valkyries deck, which was played by my teammate Tobboo and eventually won the whole tournament. I personally dislike this deck but I think it could probably be good. Playing Icaria or Amilli early is no joke and in the end, it is a pile of some of the best cards in that faction so there is a limit to how bad it can be. I expect to see more of this deck in the future. Moving on we have two lists of praxis tokens by robotdinosaur and IAmMonstrum. I talked about this deck earlier and think it was a strong choice for this tournament. Next we have Icaria Blue by drolicheck. I'm not a fan of his list but I do think Icaria Blue could be a good deck if Dawnwalkers are not popular and it looks like we are heading in that direction. Then there's another Gift style deck in the form of Feln Berserk played by DrPringles. I don't think this is a real deck, as it is very similar to Skycrag Berserk in that they are great vs control decks but lose to everything else. Another team list was Xenan killers by my other teammate lv13david. I'm not sure about this particular list but I do think Xenan could have potential, as it has many tools to deal with Icaria and TJP Gift decks. Up next we have TheRocke with TJP Gift. This was a solid list overall and there is not much room for improvement in TJP right now, there could potentially be like 7 cards you could change max in his list. Finally, we have Moment by darkhannds and I honestly have no idea how good or bad this deck is yet but I do think is has potential. I will keep on eye on it for now.
Next Week
TJP gift is the elephant in the room so you need a plan for it. Praxis tokens will become more popular to prey on the people with Scorpion Wasp and cheap removal. It will be hard for control decks to beat both decks at the same time so I anticipate midrange decks to increase in popularity. Beware that linear decks like TJP Gift are not as good in tournaments as in ladder and the fact that people know your list before playing you changes the match up significantly. I also think every control deck that plays Primal should play 4 Levitates, as it is a cheap way to break aegis for free and in my opinion the card is criminally underplayed right now.
Lists I like
FJS control: This is the list I have been playing at Rank One Master the last few days and I do think it is good vs TJP Gift but the games are still close.
Rakano Valkyries: I think you probably want Unseen Commando over Whirling Duo in the future because of Praxis Tokens and I also can see some copies of Rolant's Intervention in the deck as the card is very good. I don't like End of Stories in general even Harsh Rule feels a little clunky quite often.
Praxis tokens: I think you can't go wrong with the list from Magikarp. He's played the deck a lot so he probably knows one or two things about it, but I do think the one of Seek power is complete nonsense.
