The Light! It burns!
This past Weekend Ranked event was more of the same, with Light and Nature leading the way in terms of usage and win rate. Let's take a look at the top deck for each god, and how the mortals performed piloting them.
Heal Light - 63% win rate
Not only was Heal Light the best performing deck, but the 2nd-most popular archetype as well. It uses high-tempo early game cards like Ritual Rod, Light's Levy, and Vanguard Axewoman to control the board early on against aggro decks. In addition, mortals are able to play high health creatures like Pyramid Warden and Veteran Hoplite, and maintain their presence on the board with their god power, Heal. Mortals get a lot of value for 1 mana from Heal, which gives them the ability to trade efficiently and keep their card advantage up against aggro decks. An uncontested Highborn Knight is also a death sentence for most opponents, with a Canonize able to provide the nail in the coffin on the following turn. Even if an aggro opponent is able to deal with those threats, they must finish the game quickly before Ashen Drake or Demogorgon come down at 7 mana.
Master of Indulgences, as well as Lysander's Spear, can help Light against any heavier decks that may give Light a little more trouble. Canonize can also allow for some massive swing trades, allowing Light to trade a smaller creature into a much bigger body, while leaving a threat on board.
I don't see this deck changing much, unless a nerf comes down, since there are no hard counters to this deck at the moment. Look for a possible shift to a slightly more aggro variant to deal with Onslaught or any other control decks that may pop up.
Recommended list by: GreenGuy
Tech options:
+1 Lysander’s Spear -1 Golden Harp
+2 Ashen Drake -2 Demogorgon
+2 Athenian Archer -2 High Thaumaturge
Big Beast Nature - 59% win rate
After Regen Nature got nerfed into oblivion, Big Beast Nature took over as Nature's best performing deck. It uses most of the same high-tempo 2 mana creatures and removal, but instead of trying to finish the game early with Trial of the Hydra, it attempts to win a war of attrition using its premium removal, or value generation. Wildfire is a popular tech to hold off an initial onslaught until the power cards start to come down at 5+ mana, like Avatar of Nature, Black Rhino, Demogorgon, Ashen Drake, or Charging Oryx. If those threats aren't enough to finish out an opponent, there aren't many decks equipped to deal with Echophon AND Dionysus.
Big Beast Nature has been one of the most consistent performing decks for a long time. As long as Nature keeps the strength level of its 2 mana cards, a good nature deck will always exist. Falling behind is the biggest hurdle for this particular deck. If Nature can't find Wildfire or The Hunt, wide boards can be difficult to deal with.
Recommended list by: [TsT]BusinessSocks
Tech options:
+1 Wildfire -1 Helian Elite
+1 Black Jaguar -1 Staff of Roots
+2 Charging Oryx -2 Ashen/Demo
Aether Magic - 61% win rate
My personal favorite deck currently, Aether Magic did not record a particularly high usage rate (around 1%) but definitely proved effective in the games it did appear in. Created by [tst]themudman as a counter to Regen Nature, Aether Magic is still relevant in the current meta thanks to its high tempo tools. Dimension Looper is the reason this archetype exists, providing 3 damage worth of removal/burst on a decent 4 mana body (which goes through ward, a usual weakness of Magic). Magic can also cheat out multiple bodies on turn 1 with the help of Assistant Alchemist. Combined with its 2 mana removal spells, Starshard Bolt and Tracking Bolt, this deck is a high tempo early game monster. Add Aether Herald for burst, and Sky Reaver for card draw and you have a highly adaptive and skill intensive deck.
However, Heal Light is at best a 50/50 matchup with the abundance of ward, high health creatures, and its ability to Heal out of burst range. This will keep Aether Magic in check, as will Onslaught War if it increases in popularity.
Recommended list by: [tst]themudman
Tech options:
+1 Skeleton Heavy -1 Wyrmbreath
+2 Academy Familiar -2 Wyrmbreath
+2 Time Bomb -2 Wyrmbreath
Aggro Deception
Probably the best answer to Heal Light in this current meta; Hidden Rush Deception puts out threats like Shadow of Lethenon and Jinxblade Duelists that can be awkward for Light to deal with. Throw in the almighty Switch Duelist, as well as synergy plays like Student of Society and Mugging, and you have a high skill cap deck full of early-game threats. Arguably the most difficult aggro deck to play optimally right now, a single micro-decision can be the difference between eeking out a close win, or taking a tough loss.
However, Blastwave is an easy hard counter to this deck, and Big Beast Nature with Leech Life is a decent counter as well. As long as these God Powers are popular, this style of Deception will have a place in the meta, but will never be able to outright dominate.
Recommended list #1 by: ????
Recommended list #2 by: Logo
Apollo's Tech Takes:
"Hunting Trap, Dark Knives, Dryder Sailweaver, Wild Hog, and Hydna, Reef Raider can all be integrated into the deck fairly easily. Umber Arrow works extremely well if the meta is leaning towards aggro. Sleep Dart is always good, Makeshift Shiv is good, Felid Assassin is good. Because of all the options available, different iterations of the deck can look very different, while maintaining the same goal. Logo’s list differs greatly from the first list, but plays out much the same way."
Zoo Death
Another aggro deck that has seen success after the nerfs to Regen Nature and Board Wipe Death, Zoo Death has a lot of reach and can create explosive boards and card advantage in the mid game when their health drops below 15. Although Zoo Death had a positive win rate (57%) there can be inconsistencies on closing out games with the varied burst that they have.
Not a top tier deck at this moment, but it performs decently in the right matchups. Skull Scepter left untouched shortens games significantly, but even a 1 mana tempo loss in the early game can be the difference in keeping the applied pressure.
Recommended list by: cryptoznewb
Tech options:
+1 Skull Scepter -1 Deuteria
+1 Neferu, Champion of Death -1 Deuteria
+1 Neferu's Will -1 Deuteria
Onslaught War
Sporting the highly controversial, and generally disliked God Power, Deadly Control Onslaught War might be the best meta breaker deck out there right now. Not much to say about this deck as it is almost exclusively reactive, unless it's playing against a combo deck, or any archetype that doesn't rely on creatures. Manage your removal and defeat your opponent by destroying their stuff until they run out, or simply concede out of boredom. It has manageable matchups across the board, but will struggle if more control/combo decks resurface.
Recommended list by: Aldous
Tech options:
Other creatures.. anything with Deadly or more than 0 attack.
Here are some decks on the cusp of popularity that you may want to watch out for in the coming weeks:
FoU OTK Magic:
Quite possibly the most explosive aggro deck and slowest combo deck are both built around the same card, Form of Unity. Both are high skill, low floor decks where the right pilots can (and have) boast an 80%+ win rate. Will see more play in a control based meta, but high end players can bust this decklist out, successfully, at any time.
Amazon Nature:
Like most Nature decks, as long as their arsenal of tempo-ridden 2 mana cards stays intact, Amazons will always have a presence in the meta. The second best tribal synergy in the game coupled with high burst potential means a continuously competitive archetype.
Board Wipe Death:
BWD, although it received a bunch of nerfs, is still waiting in the background with its plethora of late game clears for a slower meta. If Onslaught becomes popular again, expect BWD to rise up to take advantage of its favorability in that matchup.
Thanks for checking out this week's TST Gods Unchained meta report!
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Written By: BusinessSocks
BusinessSocks is a competitive Gods Unchained player for TST. From sports to TCGs, he likes to delve into the stats and analytics to decipher the story behind them. Find him in the [tst]lounge or the RNG Discord at @BusinessSocks#4792.
w/ contributions from: Apollo, Bonk, cautionfun, Freedan, Mirage88, and themudman.
All data and deck lists courtesy of gudecks.com.
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