Season 12 By The Numbers

With playoffs starting and new set previews around the corner, let’s take a look at the stats from season 12’s regular play! (Including interactive charts! On each chart, you can click on a deck’s name in the legend to highlight it.)

Deck Archetypes

This cluster chart shows the overall popularity of each archetype. The size of the circle correlates to the number of decks within an archetype.

Out of the 874 decks played this season, there were 67 unique archetypes, 13 of which were played at least 10 times. Blue was the most popular color to play this season, in 65% of decks played, while Black was the least popular, in only 43% of decks played.

Top 10 Most Popular Archetypes

• Temur Analyst: 115 decks, 13.2% metashare
• Esper Midrange: 98 decks, 11.2% metashare
• Azorius Control: 80 decks, 9.2% metashare
• Boros Convoke: 72 decks, 8.2% metashare
• Golgari Midrange: 69 decks (nice), 7.9% metashare
• 4-Color Slogurk Legends: 54 decks, 6.2% metashare
• Gruul Aggro: 52 decks, 6% metashare
• Domain Ramp: 52 decks, 6% metashare
• Bant Toxic: 49 decks, 5.6% metashare
• Mono-Red Aggro: 41 decks, 4.7% metashare

This line chart shows the popularity of deck archetypes by week.

Most Copies of a Deck Submitted in One Week

• Temur Analyst: 22 copies in week 1
• Esper Midrange: 19 copies in week 3
• Temur Analyst: 17 copies in week 3

Win Rates

Overall, there were 1,062 games played across 437 matches, about 2.4 games per match.

This chart shows archetype win rates compared to the number of decks. The circle size is relative to the number of decks within each archetype, and the height of the circle is the win rate.

Top 10 Decks by Win Rate

This section only includes decks that were played 5 or more times this season, and only accounts for non-mirror matches.

• 5-Color Slogurk Legends: 85.7% win rate, 7 total decks, 3 weeks in the meta
• Orzhov Midrange: 77.8% win rate, 9 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Dimir Explosive Combo: 71.4% win rate, 7 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta*
• Dimir Control: 63% win rate, 27 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Boros Convoke: 61.4% win rate, 72 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Temur Analyst: 56.2% win rate, 115 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Esper Midrange: 54.7% win rate, 98 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Domain Ramp: 54% win rate, 52 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Azorius Control: 52.8% win rate, 80 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta
• Bant Toxic: 51% win rate, 49 total decks, 7 weeks in the meta

*Shout out to wolfennar, who spent the whole season running an original and unique deck and ended up with the 3rd highest deck win rate on her own!

Best Counterpicks for Popular Decks

Continuing the “Top Decks vs Top 3” segment, here are the best decks to play (based on VML stats alone) if you find yourself in a match against the five most popular decks:

Playing vs Temur Analyst

Overall, Temur Analyst had a 56.2% win rate. The decks with the best record against Temur Analyst are:

• Bant Toxic: 73.3% win rate vs Temur Analyst, 10 total matches
• 4-Color Slogurk Legends: 57.1% win rate, 14 total matches
• Boros Convoke: 53.3% win rate, 10 total matches
• Gruul Aggro: 53.3% win rate, 5 total matches

Playing vs Esper Midrange

Overall, Esper Midrange had a 54.7% win rate. The decks with the best record against Esper Midrange are:

• 4-Color Slogurk Legends: 73.3% win rate vs Esper Midrange, 5 total matches
• Domain Ramp: 61.1% win rate, 6 total matches
• Temur Analyst: 59% win rate, 13 total matches
• Azorius Control: 54.2% win rate, 8 total matches
• Bant Toxic: 53.3% win rate, 5 total matches

Playing vs Azorius Control

Overall, Azorius Control had a 52.8% win rate. The decks with the best record against Azorius Control are:

• Dimir Midrange: 88.9% win rate vs Azorius Control, 3 total matches
• Temur Analyst: 52.8% win rate, 12 total matches

Azorius Control, notably, had 27 unique matchups, the highest of any archetype this season, which makes the data very spread out across archetypes it faced only once or twice.

Playing vs Boros Convoke

Overall, Boros Convoke had a 61.4% win rate. The decks with the best record against Boros Convoke are:

• Esper Midrange: 72.2% win rate vs Boros Convoke, 6 total matches
• Mono-Red Aggro: 60% win rate, 5 total matches
• Azorius Control: 53.3% win rate, 10 total matches
• Dimir Midrange: 52.4% win rate, 7 total matches

Playing vs Golgari Midrange

Overall, Golgari Midrange had a 47.9% win rate. The decks with the best record against Golgari Midrange are:

• Domain Ramp: 80% win rate vs Golgari Midrange, 5 total matches
• Azorius Control: 66.7% win rate, 5 total matches
• Temur Analyst: 63.3% win rate, 10 total matches
• Bant Toxic: 58.3% win rate, 4 total matches
• Esper Midrange: 55.6% win rate, 9 total matches

All the weekly stats can be found here. If you’re a playoff player interested in matchup data for any deck, please feel free to DM me on Discord (username: nohrg, VML server: Noah R-G (he/they)), and I’ll be happy to provide that for you.