An unsurprising top placement, Mal'ady gardens has continued to make it's mark on the metagame with consistent tournament appearances, and consistent tournament placements. With the Critical Hit Siege Series, the deck found a second Siege Series first place finish for GCD, and it's a list posed to be potent into the upcoming RTR tournament. The deck retains it's powerful combo of control tools in the staxy strength of the Twilight package, and the removal supplied by Mal'ady's Putrid archetypal pieces. This strong gameplan has proven to be a difficult one for many lists in the meta to play against, and has some notable strengths against other top lists, especially against some of the strongest aggro & combo decks.

Gaia also continues to be a pain for aggro decks trying to fight through the metagame, with new results continuing to show of the deck's potential. Although the deck received a slight hit against Jasmine, The Unstoppable Water Beauty to slow down it's card-draw potential, the deck will still continue to truck along, with the ability to churn cards aggressively. With the ability to shut out attacks, decimate boards, and threaten constant pressure kills through Gaia's Unstoppable Presence and burn pieces like Magic Mask - Three Eye Dark, I expect this deck to continue to rise to the top when it appears in tournaments.

The ever present S-Tier competitior, Sharn is definitely in a less solid placement for the time being. At the moment I still continue to consider the deck an S-Tier list with plenty of speed and consistency, but Sharn is fighting into a metagame more hostile to her than any before. Despite this, Boars remains arguably the most consistent aggro deck in the game, even if it's speed is now contested by Blastforge Aggro and Sapphire Storm. Where Sharn continues to hold ground is in two spots. Her solid removal & interactive tools which offer blowout capabilities and more grindy options, and the consistency of powerful openers letting her almost always hit the ground running.

Ethelhime has stayed as a strong list through GCD, and one which has now eaten 3 different SRL hits. My initial list placed Ethel in the top 4 of S-Tier, but at the moment I'm not convinced that the deck has shown enough strength to hold it's spot. Whilst I still completely believe it to be in the top 4 of the metagame, Mal'ady, Gaia, and Sharn are just slightly ahead enough in my opinion due to their consistency. Out of the top 4 lists, Ethelhime is the one most prone to collapsing from well timed interactive pieces, and is the deck most reliant on the synergy of it's individual pieces. Even with this weakness however, Ethelhime remains an unbelievably explosive deck that can threaten kills like almost no other.

Michael has proven himself to be a more consistent powerhouse than I expected, in both Sanctify and Seraphim archetypal builds. I initially expected there to be a touch more distinction between the two archetypes, but that has not proven to be the case. As a result, Seraphim Control and Sanctify Midrange have been compiled into the same archetypal tag. Both builds continue to leverage Michael's existing strong suite of control tools, now paired with additional pieces ranging from sideboard tech like Tethered To The Chaos Divine, and generic powerhouse control tools like Radiant Orb Of Divine Light. Although not a deck that has found a top 2 finish in GCD's meta, Michael shows no signs of staying away from top 8 and top 4.

A deck with a hit-or-miss record, Fandorians continue to be solid, with some of the strongest midrange tools in the game. The combination of board pressure, card advantage, and unique interaction makes Fandorians a deck that can be incredibly difficult to deal with, or to find tech pieces to fight against. The deck hasn't had the same consistent string of finishes compared to Michael, but with loads of potential, continued top placements, and frequent tournament appearances, the deck still sticks around as a meta threat with the ability to tackle almost any other strategy, and to challenge for a top placement.

Sh'Lara remains as possibly the laziest top-tier deck here, disappearing for several tournaments before coming back out of the blue to pick up a first-place finish. The deck continues to be the same explosive, lethal, card-churning engine that it always has been. The list can still be held back by being a touch clunky, and DCM hungry, but it's packed with plenty of viable options and builds ranging from Zoo style midrange, to pure Mystic Fire. At the moment, the most crucial element for Sh'Lara seems to be in efficiency. Regardless of what subarchetype you dive into, Sh'Lara rewards a clean deckbuild the trims the fat of unnecessary inclusions. Just because you can tutor for a card, doesn't always make it worth the inclusion.

In my opinion, Sapphire Storm has successfully made it through it's testing grounds impressively well. Receiving a small SRL hit, the deck continues to be a constant clock on the meta, ready to punish any archetypes that dare to skimp on interaction. Whilst this placement for the deck may be a touch high, it's managed to find consistent top placements, even into more prepared lists and metas. I'm expecting this archetype to drop in the tierlist more than I'm expecting it to climb, but whilst it continues to make or fight for top 4 placements it's hard to drop it too far. Whilst players continue to fail to respect the matchup, Sapphire Storm will keep sitting pretty at the top half of the meta.

With the recent Critical Hit Siege Series, Castiel has finally found a solid placement post-GCD with a third place finish. The deck sits in an incredibly interesting spot with the ability to flex it's gameplan between more Midrange, Tempo, and Burn focuses by shifting Guardian. The Combination of Wooley and Alexandria makes for the most consistent counter generation for fuelling Oblation, while the DCM recovery and 80 AP of Azrael finally makes the cost of Empyrean Purification Wave much more affordable. Whilst the deck now faces more hate through Ariyus, The Soulbound Warlock, it looks to have enough flexibility to survive through the hate.

Onoskelis remains knocked down a peg, having gone from one of the most blisteringly consistent control decks, to one much more vulnerable and clunky. That being said, the control tools that have always been strong in Onoskelis are still here, and now complimented by a whole new selection. This selection of tools looks to be propping up Onoskelis's gameplan still, giving her plenty of choice when it comes to interactive options, and alternative packages such as the Mount Bane additions. Onoskelis is still struggling to find a top spot in comparison to Gaia and Mal'ady, but the deck is certainly still popular and powerful.

One of the most exciting rising starts in the meta right now, Blastforge has had an explosive set of tournaments between the Snapshot War Of Attrition #1, and the recent Critical Hit Siege Series. The deck has been heavily refined from earlier iterations pre-GCD, with the ability to both push aggressive lethal plays, and setup heavy tempo focused first turn boardstates. With Secret Savannah, Blastforge Xtreme, and the engine of Into The Blastforge, the deck has the ability to build a much more notable backline than one might expect from an aggressive deck. This is one list that I think has easy potential to keep moving up.

A rock-solid archetype with historic precedence, an array of strong build options, and a complete and utter lack of play in any recent competitive events. At the moment, Quartzheart's placement is largely holding on by legacy status, but the deck remains one primed to place well in competitive events. Notably, Blastforge aggro has been making strong appearances recently, and recent builds of Blastforge have moved closer in appearance to more traditional Frost Tempo Lists, leveraging Mount Fingar and Windenmere Island. I do still believe that these archetypes are notably distinct, and Frost Tempo offers some unique strengths to reward any pilot looking to ressurect the archetype on the tournament level.

Another victim of a lack of love, Adramelech was previously a tyrant in the metagame, being both a powerful competitor, and a favourite of the competition. In more recent tournaments however, Adramelech has fallen off. To some degree I do think this is a result of the shift of player interest, but I do think that Adramelech is in a slightly more tedious position. The addition of new campaign promos like Ariyus, The Soulbound Warlock pose as a strong tech piece, whilst the rise of Secret Savannah in various decks will likely coincide with the need to fight through Concrete Catacombs more often. I still believe that Adramelech is notably solid, with a strong linear gameplan and the ability to deny certain combo decks crucial cards.

Before I had compiled deck success data from GCD, if you had asked me which archetype would have one of the best game winrates, Grimm Midrange would have been as far possible from my list of guesses. As it stands however, Grimm Midrange stands defiantly against a metagame filled to the brim with tools to knock it down a peg. Additionally, with one copy of Welcome To The Grimm Graveyard returning with the recent SRL list, the deck has picked back up the ability to rip apart hands. Whilst the deck still lacks impressive placements to push it out of B-Tier, it remains a cockroach that the meta just can't seem to kill, which demands a sort of respect for the archetype alone.

Prometheus is one deck brought in an interesting direction as a result of GCD. With no new Primordial or Arion tools, I expected the deck to flounder, but Prometheus has been able to adapt by incorporating more generic interactive tools now available to Titans. Unstoppable Extraction, Topaz Amulet, and Land Of Dreams all let Prometheus play a much more tempo focused gameplan, using these one sided stax pieces to control the game out, rather than needing to brute force through. This archetype may move upwards, but it'd require a significant array of successes.

The other Mythical Beast warlord, Merrisod is receiving about the same amount of attention as Sh'Lara. The deck has a similar amount of explosive power, but I've found Dragons to appear at least a touch tighter and faster. As an archetype with a Warlord attack lethal, and a desire to blow up it's own boards, I'd be incredibly curious to see how Merrisod can fight into Mal'ady and Gaia. Ultimately, it's hard to move the deck up without much in the way of relevant results, but it could easily find a step towards the higher end of the meta.

One list which saw touches of experimentation early in GCD, this archetype hasn't seen a particularly high degree of attention past the local level, making it more difficult to evaluate it's potential and powerlevel. It does have the capability of leveraging strong bounty control/burn tools like Twilight Magnolia, and Twilight Princess, Hyacinth, but the deck struggles to find a relevant identity in between the more traditional fast damage of Sharn Aggro Boars, and the staxy tools of Mal'ady Gardens.

Marianas has seen touches of attention, and continues to be an aggro/midrange archetype with plenty of flexibility. With the current leaning of Campaign Promos being entirely bounty, Marianas acts as a continuous potential home to play these new cards and packages in. The addition of Ariyus, The Soulbound Warlock is one great new bonus, giving Marianas access to an Effect Damage mist effect against Castiel and Adramelech. Still, the deck hasn't changed too much past shifting tech options.

Rogues has popped up a bit in tournament play, but suffers from being a similar, but less powerful version of Fandorian Midrange. The interactive tools are comparable/relatively matched, and whilst Rogue Dynamite Dice offers a uniquely fast kill, the new Fandorian Darkwood Dryad, Fulillia provides Fandos with plenty of damage of their own. The list certainly isn't bad, but it'll need new tools or tech to stand out against the better positioned hero lists.

Alero Walls or Statues has appeared in a few recent tournaments as a sidegrade to Alero Fandorian Midrange. Whilst the deck is certainly closer to the power-level of Fandorians in A-Tier than it's neighbours in D/Rogue, the strengths of the deck largely leverage from the same tools as Fandorian Midrange. This then begs the question of how the deck compares to Fandorian Midrange. Whilst Stronghold Of The Mortal Flame offers an impressive amount of board presence, it still competes with the Mortal Beacon, arguably the best Synergy in the game.

Similarly to Alero Statues, Mount Bane midrange isn't necessarily a deck that looks bad, but rather relies on an engine utilised better by another very similar archetype. Some Mount Bane tools have even seen experimentation in Fallen Control builds, helping to prop up some of the power lost as a result of multiple SRL hits. Whilst Mount Bane may be a solid option, it's questionable what advantages are gained from fully delving into the archetype, rather than including a small package alongside the stronger options provided by Fallen.

Maus Combo remains left abandoned with Garden Stax staying as the definitive best build of Mal'ady on the market. The un-suspension of Welcome To The Grimm Graveyard does make Maus Combo a slightly more appealing prospect however, as one list able to leverage the strength of activating Grimm Graveyard multiple times with Sir Grimm Crimson, The Undead Prince. Whilst the list needs a complete rebuilding before anything can be said for sure, it does have potential.

Duxvox was an interesting list coming out of the GCD meta, with various support tools. At the moment however, the deck remains clunky. There are an impressive number of strong synergies and combos available, but each requires jumping through a number of hoops, and it still seems that the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

Angelica Dice Combo joins the roster of largely untouched decks. Whilst the deck may still have a solidly consistent turn 3 kill, it finds itself vulnerable by even more hate cards, whilst not picking many relevant tools. The deck just isn't currently appealing in comparison to similar combo/aggro archetypes like Sapphire Storm, Blastforge Aggro, and Lost Messiah Tempo.

A personal pet-deck, I'd love to see Cold Brew chilling at a higher tier, but the list remains in a tenuous spot. The Frozen pieces have yet to see enough experimentation to warrant a full surrounding build, and the small package of Alehouse pieces including Exit, Skoal, and Moonshine, have all seen SRL hits.