Every weekend, tens of thousands of players put up their best decks to compete in the Weekend Ranked event for a chance at free packs. Every week, I post about my experience playing during this heated event.

After the list of changes in the Divine Order set got announced, I thought to myself that I had to get my 17-win Weekend Ranked this week before the Nature nerfs kicked in. I strategized the best time to play my games and tried to obtain every tiny advantage that I could. That meant looking up the opponent's decks whenever possible, obscuring my own name with a non-Latin character, and playing sometime after the event had started instead of playing right when it started. Finally, I got rewarded for my efforts with a 17/25! Let's delve right in, shall we?

Deck Overview

Deck Link: GUDecks

The decklist is a pretty standard Mid-Range nature deck that I've been running for the past two weeks. I won't explain how this deck works, because there have been many variations of this deck with great explanations of why certain cards are included. I'd just like to highlight the one change that I made from the deck that I ran last weekend.

I took out 2x Black Jaguars to include an additional copy of Low-Hanging Fruit and a Munosian Infiltrator. This was mainly because I didn't enjoy Black Jaguars defying whatever I told them to attack and thought that it might be better to slip in more cards with immediate effects or damage. I've been a major proponent of taking fewer Confused creatures due to how often they cost me games on crucial turns and replacing them with creatures with lower stats.

With the upcoming Finnian Fruitbearer and Giant Pangolin nerfs, the deck now costs a mere 0.0318 ETH or 80 USD. Pretty cheap considering its strength, although it can definitely be more fine-tuned. For a full deck review on the earlier version of this deck, you can check out my other post here.

Performance and Matchmaking Breakdown

Starting Rank: Mythic
Wins: 17/25
Reward Packs: 1x DO Rare, 1x DO Legendary
Theoretical pack value based on current pack prices: $27.48

Opponent Deck	Score (Wins / Total Games)
Nature	8 / 11
War	5 / 7
Magic	0 / 0
Death	1 / 1
Deception	2 / 5
Light	1 / 1
Total	17 / 25

I played my games about 12 hours or so after the event started, which did feel easier to play in rather than right at the start of the event. Playing even later into the event might be even easier as more high-rankers reach their rightful MMRs but I was just a little too impatient to wait that long.

This time around, most of my match-ups were still against Nature and War, but there's a visible spike in the number of Deception decks that I faced. Previously, I would face only one or two of them, but this time there were five! Perhaps with the upcoming nerfs to Nature and War decks, people are starting to try out alternative decks that wouldn't be hit too hard by the nerf hammer.

The mirror match set-up wasn't anything special as usual. Just playing optimally got me an 8/11, with most opponents running similar decks, albeit with more Confused creatures.

With War, I found that there seemed to be more players running War decks that had late-game cards like Hector, Prince of Troy and diverging from the much more aggressive version. I'm not sure whether a late-game shift for War helps its win rate, but with the reduced early-game consistency, I had a much better chance that they didn't have a target for Sole Survivor on the 6-mana turn to win 5/7 times.

Thankfully, I faced only one Board Wipe Death deck that I won by lucking out and no Magic decks. This deck doesn't fare too well in these two match-ups, and I was glad to not see them while playing this deck. I hardly faced any Light decks too.

The major problem this week was the surge of Deception decks. I'm not sure if some top-tier player started popularizing Deception, but it definitely felt like I was seeing a lot more Deception decks. They weren't expensive decks, but I somehow found myself unable to deal with their threats while they slowly built up a hand full with cards from my deck with cards like Ludia's Dedicant. Pretty annoying, to say the least.

I was definitely in maximum tryhard mode for every game, and even more so for the last two games since I only had 15 wins in my first 23 games, losing my 22nd and 23rd game consecutively. Thankfully, I managed to get the right draws to win the last two remaining games for a score of 17/25, netting me the coveted Divine Order Legendary pack!

Highlights and Game Footage

vs Board Wipe Death (W)

Opponent Deck: GUDecks

I chose this match just to show what a magnificent topdeck can do 😂

For the first two turns, I witnessed the opponent putting down heavy hitters like Pyramid Warden and an Iron-tooth Goblin which removed 3 durability of my Faeflame Blade. On turn 2, I was already prepping for a loss. Thankfully, when I played my Faeflame Blade I also conferred the Confused keyword to my opponent's Pyramid Warden, causing him to mis-hit and allowing me to get back into the game.

The next few turns involved me putting down strong units only to be decimated by my opponent's Neferu. With only one remaining creature in my hand, I prayed hard that my opponent couldn't deal with it. Thankfully, he had nothing to deal with a Sudden Bloom-ed Svart Basilisk which dealt 9 damage to his face.

With just 7 health remaining, my opponent landed the dreaded Demogorgon, putting my Svart Basilisk to sleep and healing himself for 3 damage. Oh no! With no answers in my hand, I was about to throw in the towel when...

I topdecked my second copy of Svart Basilisk. Talk about lucking out and believing in the heart of the cards! With Svart Basilisk's sleep removal, I awaken my sleeping Svart Basilisk and finish my opponent off. No remorse for topdecking at all.

vs Control War (W)

Opponent Deck: GUDecks

It's always fun to see how cheap decks can win against expensive decks, especially so that people who whine that GU is P2W can see that it's not always the case (although admittedly, expensive decks tend to have higher win rates in general). Even though I'm no pro, I want to show that these match-ups can be won - you just need a decently formed deck and some luck.

The first few turns weren't anything special. My opponent plopped down a Pyramid Warden and tried to fight for board control. Against Pyramid Wardens, my strategy has always been to ensure that its drawback is activated. Although it can't be controlled sometimes, I often find Pyramid Warden to be a liability to my opponent when it brings back something like a Skeleton Heavy for me.

My opponent was doing pretty well until the 7-mana turns when he couldn't deal with my Giant Pangolin. At this stage, leaving a creature alive on my side would almost definitely spell his demise due to the strength of Sudden Bloom. With most of his quick removal already gone, he could only watch helplessly as my Giant Pangolin ravaged the board and took his life total down to 10 HP.

Even the last-minute Hector with Blitz, Protected, and Leech couldn't help him jump back. The buffed Giant Pangolin was just too strong.

Historical Performance

This week was great, although a little anxiety-inducing as I fought relentlessly for my last two wins. With a 17-win run before any of the nerfs, I can finally say that I had a decent performance with a budget Nature deck! Since win rates are largely skewed by match-ups, perhaps it was lots of luck that led me to this score. I'm not complaining though. Next week, I might try a different deck (with a God that isn't Nature or War no less!) - let's see if another 17/25 can be achieved.

Even though my score was shown as 15/25 on GUDecks last week, the official spreadsheet that the GU team uses seemed to have recorded 16 wins - yay for more packs, I guess? I think one of the games where my opponent failed to connect was recorded as a win.

Past Weekend Ranked posts and performance in order of recency:

Time Period	Deck	Score (Wins / Total Games)	Starting Rank
Jan 2022 W4 (Current)	Mid-range Nature	17 / 25	Mythic
Jan 2022 W3	Mid-range Nature	15 / 25	Mythic
Jan 2022 W2	Mid-range Nature	11 / 25	Mythic
Jan 2022 W1	Aggro War	18 / 25	Mythic
Dec 2021 W4	Aggro War	19 / 25	Mythic
Dec 2021 W3	Aggro War	16 / 25	Mythic
Dec 2021 W2	Aggro War	21 / 25	Twilight Shadow

Concluding Thoughts

This was a pretty good Weekend Ranked for me all things considered! After three grueling weeks of trying to obtain that elusive Weekend Legendary pack, I finally got it and can put my claim to no longer being a one-trick pony with War. One eventual goal of mine is to hit at least a 17/25 for each God so that I can stake my claim to being a good player. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that by forming decent decks for cheap with the currently depressed card prices.

How did your Weekend Ranked matches go?

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