VML Season 12 Week 5 Metagame Update

Hope everyone at RC Dallas had fun and played well this past weekend!

Last Week’s Results

Last week’s most successful deck was VML fan-favorite 4-Color Slogurk, with a 75% win rate across 8 players. It was followed closely by last week’s most popular deck, Temur Amalyst, with a 71.4% win rate across 16 players.

Dimir Control was the most successful control deck of the week, with its 6 players achieving a 66.7% win rate. Gruul Aggro and Boros Convoke both had good weeks, with Gruul’s 8 players earning a 62.5% win rate and Convoke’s 13 players earning a 53.9% win rate.

Long-time meta decks Esper Midrange and Azorius Control both had a bit of a struggle last week. Esper’s 12 players had a 41.7% win rate, while Azorius’s 15 players ahd a 36.4% win rate.

Top Decks vs Top 3

Each week, I list the deck archetypes that have been the most successful against last week’s popular decks in VML. The suggested counterpicks are based only on data from VML season 12. As the season goes on and we get more data, this segment will get more accurate. Starting this week, the counterpicks have at least 3 wins in addition to a positive win rate against the “top 3” deck.

Temur Analyst

Counterpicks: 4-Color Slogurk (73.3% win rate vs Temur Analyst), Bant Toxic (66.7% win rate), Gruul Aggro (53.3% win rate)

Current Overall Win Rate: 55.7%

Azorius Control

Counterpicks: Esper Midrange (66.7% win rate vs Azorius Control), Temur Analyst (59.3% win rate)

Current Overall Win Rate: 49.7%

Boros Convoke

Counterpicks: Temur Analyst (80% win rate vs Boros Convoke), Azorius Control (66.7% win rate), Mono-Red Aggro (55.6% win rate)

Current Overall Win Rate: 53.9%

Week 5 Decks

Week 5, and the meta seems to have settled into its current state. The most popular deck this week is once again Temur Analyst, with 16 players and a 12.9% metashare. Esper Midrange and Boros Convoke round out the top three, with 13 players and a 10.5% metashare each.

Azorius Control and Golgari Midrange also linger near the top. Azorius Control has 12 players and a 9.7% metashare this week, while Golgari Midrange has 11 players and a 8.9% metashare.

Dimir Control, which has quietly been one of this season’s most successful decks (overall, it has a 63.5% win rate across 21 total matches), has fallen to only one player this week.

Spice Corner

This week’s most unique decks include Cora Stobie’s Boros Humans, Josh’s Naya Dinos, and hotsoggy’s Orzhov Blink.

Cora’s “Thalia Fangirl Association” deck is an aggressive Boros deck with a human kindred theme. With plenty of powerful human creatures to choose from, this deck’s 28 creature cards include the namesake Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , human ward lord Coppercoat Vanguard Coppercoat Vanguard , and haste-enabler Imodane's Recruiter // Train Troops Imodane's Recruiter Train Troops
. Removal like Lightning Helix Lightning Helix makes up the bulk of this deck’s 10 non-creature spells, but it also includes a playset of “technically a human once it flips” Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano Kumano Faces Kakkazan Etching of Kumano
.

Josh’s “Fight Rigging” deck is, as the name suggests, a Fight Rigging Fight Rigging deck aiming to cheat out big dinos like Trumpeting Carnosaur Trumpeting Carnosaur and Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness Etali, Primal Conqueror Etali, Primal Sickness
. The deck takes advantage of discover effects from Geological Appraiser Geological Appraiser and Quintorius Kand Quintorius Kand to cheat out Fight Rigging, a splash of removal, Angelfire Ignition Angelfire Ignition , and Pugnacious Hammerskull Pugnacious Hammerskull to quickly access Fight Rigging’s free card.

hotsoggy’s “SANTA BROUGHT IT EARLY” is a blink deck using Fortune, Loyal Steed Fortune, Loyal Steed and Getaway Glamer Getaway Glamer to get repeated ETB effects, or to turn a 3/3 Phyrexian Fleshgorger Phyrexian Fleshgorger into a 7/5. Some of the ETBs, like Hollow Marauder Hollow Marauder , focus on making the opponent discard their hand, while others like best doggo Spirited Companion Spirited Companion provide card advantage (and the 3 copies of Hostile Investigator Hostile Investigator do both!).

Full weekly stats can be found here.