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Written By - Thomas NeilsonJune 17, 2024
With Guardians' Creed finally released, the Port Credit Siege Series provided the proving ground for a variety of powered up archetypes to dethrone the top tiers of the meta. With the final results, they did just that with 4 of the leveled up EOR warlords making top 8, and with 2 more using one newly supported archetypes. Although the metagame will need a lot more testing before anything is set in stone, there are some notable lists already popping up.
Top 8 Archetype Overview
Top 4
Top 4
The 3rd and 4th spots in the tournament were taken by Jasper Kasunic with Alero Fandorian Midrange from Team Shockwave, and Jacob Feldt with Michael Sanctify Midrange respectively. Both of these lists have lingered near the top half of the tier-list in the prior metagame, and both received some notable tools which have allowed the two decks to evolve alongside the metagame with new angles of attack and tech choices.
The archetypal "mid-tier" deck of the previous meta, no specific Hero archetype received a bulk of support in GCD, apart from the newly supported "Magi" archetype. Despite this, the archetypal "stew" of Fandorian Midrange is the perfect place for these mini support pieces to thrive, bolstering the deck in every direction.
Fandorian Darkwood Dryad, Fullilia is a great example of this, giving the deck a way to push in more damage than expected out of a previously clunkier archetype. Jasper was able to also tune his sideboard to include archetype swaps for both Magi, featuring the new guardian Marovin, Ancient Arcane Magi, and walls, using the new Call Upon The Shield Wall.
Whilst the archetype has historically been a touch too "fair" for it's own good, with a wide range of powerful new choices and a more interactive metagame, the grindy threat of Fandorian Midrange looks to potentially be on the rise.
Despite receiving no support for his main "Seraphim" archetype, Michael saw two lists in the top 8, both leveraging the new sanctify support piece of Azrael, Golden Angelic Requiem, with an additional level of board pressure from Citrine Amulet.
Whilst more testing will need to happen, it does look initially at least that the more Midrange Sanctify style may be the more powerful build of Michael, with the ability to push more consistent damage versus the previous main win-condition of Sacred Seraphim Blade.
Whilst receiving little attention, the base version of Seraphim Control is likely to remain a strong contender, especially with powerful interactive additions such as Tethered To The Chaos Divine. Where the list may struggle however, is finding a useful metagame niche in comparison to new powerful control lists like Gaia and Mal'ady, and the faster Sanctify versions.
Second Place - A Growing Threat From EOR
Second Place - A Growing Threat From EOR
Past these older refurbished lists, the top 2 represents two previously much weaker warlords from EOR: Mal'ady and Angelica. Despite not quite making it to a first place finish, Mal'ady looks to be one of the dominant decks fighting for an S-Tier Meta-game placement coming out of GCD, with an impressive final placement from Matt Waller from Team Shockwave.
With powerful archetypal stax-pieces such as Asphyxia, The Putrid Silencer, and Mal'ady's Putrid Mausoleum, coupled with the bounty Twilight package, the deck leverages enough main deck Stax pieces to suffocate nearly any deck in the metagame, whilst using chip burn damage from Decay triggers and the DCM recovery of Putrid Eruption Bloom to constantly push the war of attrition in your favor.
As always, it is early in the metagame, but for the time being it does seem that this Stax control version of Mal'ady is a stronger list than the full mill style comparable to Mortis Grimm lists.
Additionally, it will need to be seen how the list plays into more ramp style archetypes, especially Mythic Beasts. Whilst hate pieces like Majik Void Aurora can be brutal for these lists to fight through, they can also be swept away more easily, and both Mythic Beast Warlords have access to impressive attrition tools to drown out Control decks in advantage. Whilst Sh'Lara was one of the balancing factors for Onoskelis in the previous metagame, it'll be fascinating to see what decks can take advantage of the weaknesses of Mal'ady.
First Place - A Brewing Storm Of Potential
First Place - A Brewing Storm Of Potential
Hunter Smith piloted Angelica Sapphire Storm to a first place finish, an impressive placement for a deck who's inception occurred only at the start of the GCD spoiler season. Despite its currently short lifespan, Sapphire Storm has quickly jumped out as the breakout archetype of Guardians' Creed as a blistering fast storm deck with a greater degree of resilience compared to previous Aggro decks such as Blastforge or Primordial.
The list doesn't utilize any of Angelica's exclusive Rogue cards, but rather leverages a new engine printed in GCD.
The combination of Sapphire Amulet, The Hood Becomes The Resistance, and March Of The Resistance creates a draw engine able to use Warriors to churn through cards, setting up a lethal with Ancient Relic - Sword Of Sacrifice. With a full package of unified negate power, and back line breaking power with Fandorian Ferocity and the Archers+Betrayal combo, the deck has the ability to fight through far more interaction than may be evident at a first glance, and it'll likely be a deck more punishing than most on a bad opening hand.
The deck does of course have some notable weaknesses into Stax pieces, and certain interactive cards such as Putrid Parasol, but in Port Credit it proved that not only can it threaten some blisteringly fast kills, but can also grind out longer recursive attrition matches.
Top 8 - Older Favorites, and Rising Empires
Top 8 - Older Favorites, and Rising Empires
The 5th place finisher was Josh Jutzi, piloting Gaia Unstoppable Control: a control list heavily bolstered in GCD. With a whole new chunk of support for its draw engine and finishing capability, Gaia is poised to be one of the strongest control decks in the new meta alongside Mal'ady. Gaia's Reformation locking down Warrior attacks makes her a uniquely difficult to fight Control deck. Whilst other slower decks have historically been able to slug through waves of Blockade to trample over Gaia, her new finisher tools make her a much more difficult to deal with Warlord.
In 6th place, Connor Lamie brought Onoskelis Fallen Control, as a list which has historically seen an array of top place finishes. With a series of SRL hits and metagame adjustments, Onoskelis no longer seems to be the top dog in the meta, and will now have to compete with various other control decks occupying the top slots, but her access to hand hate and powerful control tools new and old keep her as an intimidating threat.
Ethelhime Alehouse Storm made 7th place, piloted by Sylas Belmont from Team Shockwave. As a deck which can shift between a faster storm based variant and a slightly slower and interactive Tempo version, Alehouse is a fast and explosive list, with a unique list of angles of attack to strike the metagame. The ability to channel Ale Counters into a Warlord attack kill makes Ethelhime uniquely prepared to handle some of the main control tools leveraged by the new best control decks, Gaia and Mal'ady. Regardless, Ethelhime seems likely to sit at the top of the meta alongside Sharn Boars as an aggro deck which trades the raw consistency of Boars for a touch more speed, explosiveness, and with a flexible set of kill-lines.
8th place saw Malik Mutch bring Michael into a second top 8 placement in the tournament, making him the only Warlord to appear twice in the top 8. Again, it will still need to be seen how the Sanctify Midrange and Seraphim Control builds stack up into each other and the meta, but it seems evident that the Warlord will continue to sit around the upper half of the meta, despite a lack of archetypal set support.
The Rest and the Best
The Rest and the Best
The rest of the tournament metagame showed tons of format healthiness and potential, with 14 different Warlords represented. The only two warlords that pushed ahead in popularity were Quartzheart and Alero, with Quartzheart split between Frost Control and Blastforge Aggro, an Alero between Fandorian Midrange and a dedicated Walls build. Some patterns from the previous metagame can be seen holding over, but overall, the format has seen an impressive amount of shifting only a day past the official release of the set. Whilst it'll take more time for concrete results to be seen, top tier performers are already clashing at the top of the list, and the rest of the metagame will need to adapt to better compete with the trends and powerhouses at the top of the game.
Empires Rise, and Guardians Show Their Devotion...
With the support released in GCD, many of the EOR Warlords are seeing upwards trends, bolstered by a variety of new supporting pieces. Additionally, we're seeing a notable degree of relevant support to more adjacent game plans and strategies to offer a huge spike in variety. We can expect to see this appear in more unique transformative sideboard plans, or dedicated main-deck builds of previous smaller archetypal packages like Sanctify Angels, Hero Walls, Orc Burn, Mount Bane, and more.
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