Our first Online tournament hosted by LRAWSnapshot, the War Of Attrition has given us another overview across the decks popping up in the post GCD meta, helping to cement some decks in place, shift the position of others, and reveal more information about this new meta.
Top 8 Archetype Overview
The 3rd and 4th place spots from the WOA were taken by two of the S-Tier lists in the metagame: Mal'ady Garden Stax, and Ethelhime Alehouse Storm. Both were seen in the Port Credit Siege Series, and with these placements they've continued to cement themselves as metagame mainstays for GCD. Garden Stax, piloted once again by Matt Waller, boasts the ability to make strong use of the Twilight Package from Guardian's Creed, aswell as leveraging Asphyxia's Suffocate ability to choke out opponent's game plans. Ethelhime, piloted by Patrick Watt, represents a faster archetype, seeking to storm off as early as turn 2, but more often by turn 3, scaling drink reveal effects from hand into a selection of explosive win-conditions.
We last saw this list make second place at the Port Credit Siege Series, and whilst Matt got knocked down a place in this tournament, it shows a level of consistency needed for a top tier deck. The stax pieces available to Mal'ady make for lock out potential that can throw plenty of roadblocks at nearly any deck in the metagame.
Whilst Pat has been playing this list for a while at local campaign events, this tournament marks his first time bringing it to a major event, and to great effect. The list boasts an incredible degree of kill power, and notably, kill power with the ability to get past some of the notable control tools of the current top tier control decks of Gaia and Mal'ady.
A deck that I've personally brought to tournaments before, Blastforge Aggro is a list that's largely been left to the wayside in recent play. From my personal experience, whilst the list can be risky, it can threaten a powerful and consistent kill much faster than players may be expecting.
The Addition of Genhildr, Sage Of The Stormclan from Guardian's Creed, alongside the devotion, gives the deck a little more consistency, and a bit more constant pressure throughout. The first ability of the devotion granting additional attack to your board is a notable boon, especially in a deck that can easily cycle through Warriors, while the second ability granting Plunder to all Warriors conscripted from your deck pairs perfectly with Into The Blastforge.
Elemental Frozen Avalanche also plays very nicely with the list, making it a bit safer to let your opponent go first, by providing a unique piece of disruption to threaten to shut down an entire defensive line.
Whilst the deck remains risky, there's plenty of reward for players willing to put in the reps with the deck. The less touched nature of the deck also offers room for more customization and tuning. The version of the list that Lukas brought to the tournament dived into some pieces of the Frost engine, including Welcoming Of Wintertide and Windenmere Island.
These tools help to augment the deck's central gameplan with options for deck stacking and on-demand revival/sacrifice effects. Additionally, the Frozen package also offers the deck more midrange power to fight through grindier positions where the more all-in versions may more often falter.
One of my favourite tech pieces in Lukas' list is Plateau Of The Prevailing Winds. In a deck looking to let it's opponent go first, and looking for ways to clear it's own board, Plateau offers a sweet way to reshuffle Warriors back in, whilst forcing your opponent to get rid of bits and pieces of their own board.
Our first place finisher is a Warlord who's had plenty of power hidden behind a smaller number of top 8 finishes. Sh'Lara Mystic Fire Ramp is an overwhelmingly explosive 'ramp' style deck with the ability to build up incredible boardstates and card advantage, all whilst ripping the other side of the board to shreds.
The version brought by Sylas includes the "Zoo" additions to the deck, notably Dragon Portal To Pandesha Island and Awakening Of The Jinn. These additions help to splash in some Dragon and Jinn Warriors to provide more incremental & explosive value, as well as removal capabilities. In both cases, these mini-archetype pieces have access to one value Warrior (Merv & Quase, Mystic Fire Eclipse Dragons / Zim'Zuma, Time Twister Jinn) and one powerful Exalted removal piece (Lady Darksky, The Dusk Dawn Dragon / Mesu, Jinn Of The Mysterious Mists).
These mini packages compliment the main Mystic Fire engine of the deck, especially through the multi-archetypal Warriors in the list, and also offer easy access to forms of removal the list otherwise may not easily have. Lady Darksky offers incredibly convenient removal power in a way that's entirely unreliant on other destruction effects, while Mesu's Trickery ability helps deal with Warriors and Active cards that can't be normally destroyed.
Whether the Zoo version of the list is the best option remains to be seen, but Sh'Lara remains an incredibly strong Warlord option, ready to prove her tier-list placement whenever necessary.
Our 5th-8th finishers consist of 2 Mortis lists and 2 Angelica lists, but the similarities for both start to fall off, right after Warlord selection.
AJ's 5th place is a largely stock build of Mortis, featuring the newest undead Guardian, Kasavaka, Soul Forsaken Veneficus. A few new tools can be seen in the maindeck, including Amethyst Amulet, Unholy Trinity, and Hissy. The sideboard too shows off the new Putrid Parasol as a blowout piece against decks reliant on specific Warriors and/or armaments.
In 8th place, Jacob's build of Mortis dives into some of the various packages easily available to the Grimm Midrange including the Grimm Grimoires, and the big Warrior synergy with Mania, Grimm Goddess Of Death. Whilst neither Mortis deck made the top 4 cut, they both show off the range and variety within the archetype.
6th place was claimed by Jasper, venturing into the other half of the Mortal Realm with Rogues Tempo. This list was largely untouched through Empires On The Rise, lacking relevant unique pieces to separate it from Angelica Dice Combo and Fandorian Midrange. The addition of Rogue Dynamite Dice in Guardians' Creed however, has been enough to make the list a unique and notable, if still unfinished, option in the metagame.
In 7th place, Sapphire Storm makes another appearance since its impressive debut at the Port Credit Siege Series. Although the list didn't find another first place finish, it did find another top 8 finish, notably, another competitor did pick up the deck, but Hunter was the only of the two pilots to make the top 8 cut. It'll be interesting to see how Sapphire Storm continues to perform into a metagame much more prepared to face against it.
Matchup Matrix
With 11 distinct archetypes represented across 14 players, how did the various decks perform, and how did they matchup?
Do note that the numbers here are based on a small sample size, and therefore can have a lot of fluctuation. Regardless, I find it fun to look at numbers. :)