Blastforge has continued to impress in tournament results, and I'm much more confident now to put it in higher standing. With aggressive early starts comparable to Sapphire Storm, and the ability to consistently setup a powerful back line on the play, there's a lot to like about Blastforge in the meta right now. 

As an aggressive near-combo style deck, it can be vulnerable to a variety of different hate pieces and control tools, but it's proven to have enough resilience so far to stand up to the competition!

All things considered, Seraphim continues to be a rock-solid competitor amongst the competition. Whilst it may not quite hit the top echelon with the rest of the control powerhouses, I believe that it makes up in flexibility, with plenty of incredibly strong generic and archetypal tools available for Michael.

Additionally, Seraphim has plenty of tools with unique ways to hate out the metagame like Radiant Orb Of Divine Light and Cerebral, The Bound Seraphim Mind.

Alehouse stands as a solid list that can shift between more Storm oriented and Tempo oriented builds. While Sh'Lara is the deck with the best ability to blow boards to smithereens, Ethelhime boasts a similar power, with the benefit of being able to shuffle cards away against Holy Counters, and certain indestructible ACTs.

The deck has had some difficulty in translating it's potential power into top 8 results, but it remains explosive and as a list that can spiral out of control faster than you expect in the hands of an experienced pilot.

Boars has finally dropped out of S-Tier, largely out of a lack of results, rather than any specific hit against the deck. While the drop in attention could be, and likely is a a result of player interest shifting towards other archetypes, I do think that the rising tide from EOR and GCD has successfully pushed the rest of the metagame into a much more comparable power level.

Effectively, Sharn is now facing a much more level playing field, and a new plethora of tech cards and flexible interactive pieces able to break up the deck's early aggression.

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.

Sapphire Strom has continued to be a strong storm list, but I believe that it's fallen behind in competition behind Blastforge Aggro. Blastforge had an impressive showing in the 2024 RTR, with very similar speed for it's combo style kill, but better access to control tools.

Sapphire Storm still has an arguably more refined gameplan, and potentially the ability to break through backlines more aggressively, but the metagame has been able to the deck's gameplan.

The deck still has a strong and consistent gameplan, and could very quickly find success in a tournament where players are unprepared to face against it.

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 fueling 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.

Prometheus has seen a degree of increase in play accompanying the addition of more generically powerful stax tools available to the Titan realm. Topaz Amulet and Land Of Dreams are both used to their fullest extent in Gaia, but they've proven powerful as well in Prometheus where early aggressive starts can be accompanied by powerful hate pieces to shut down opposing player's early plays.

The deck could prove more effective with even more attention and testing, and at the moment has proved to be a Tempo list with quick lethal potential, and powerful control tools to interrupt opposing players.

Two things have pushed Merrisod up slightly in the tiers for me, that being local success with the archetype, and it's increasing potential strength into the top decks in S-Tier. Having access to strong incremental damage pieces such as Dragon Tail Beatdown gives the deck plenty of strength against the tools available to Gaia, Mal'ady, and Onoskelis. At the moment, the deck will still need some more attention to truly push it's rank, but early spoilers for ELP look to power up the deck's incremental damage gameplan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.