VML Season 12 Week 7 Metagame Update
It’s the last week of season 12 regular play, and players are flexing their deckbuilding muscles! (Seriously: this week sees 37 different archetypes, 25 of which have 2 or fewer players.) Good luck to everyone in contention for playoffs!
Last Week’s Results
Last week was midrange’s time to shine! Golgari Midrange continues to be on the upswing, with its 10 players earning a 70% win rate. Esper Midrange follows closely behind, with 13 players earning a 69.2% win rate (nice).
Azorius Control had a good week with a 66.7% win rate across 9 players. Domain Ramp (5 players, 60% win rate), Boros Convoke (12 players, 58.3% win rate), and 4-Color Slogurk (7 players, 57.1% win rate) also had positive win rates last week.
Temur Analyst, one of the most popular decks throughout the season, had a rough week, with only a 33.3% win rate across 15 players. This continues its downswing from last week, as opponents can now more easily predict and counter the combo.
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. Each counterpick has at least 3 wins in addition to a positive win rate against the “top 3” deck.
Temur Analyst
Counterpicks: Bant Toxic (74.1% win rate vs Temur Analyst), 4-Color Slogurk (66.7% win rate), Gruul Aggro (53.3% win rate)
Current Overall Win Rate: 51.5%
Esper Midrange
Counterpicks: Dimir Control (77.8% win rate vs Esper Midrange), 4-Color Slogurk (73.3% win rate), Domain Ramp (66.7% win rate), Temur Analyst (59% win rate), Bant Toxic (53.3% win rate)
Current Overall Win Rate: 54.2%
Boros Convoke
Counterpicks: Esper Midrange (75% win rate vs Boros Convoke), Mono-Red Aggro (60% win rate), Azorius Control (53.3% win rate), Temur Analyst (51.9% win rate)
Current Overall Win Rate: 55.9%
Week 7
With the end of the regular season in sight, players are experimenting and trying out whatever decks their heart desires! 27 players (22.1% of the meta) are playing a combined 25 archetypes with 2 or fewer copies in the pool.
As for the popular meta decks, Esper Midrange is on top with 15 players and a 12.3% metashare. Temur Analyst follows that with 14 players and a 11.5% metashare, and Boros Convoke rounds out the top three once again with 13 players and a 10.7% metashare.
Spice Corner
This week’s most unique decks include Violet_Starmine’s Dimir Toxic, janMelantu’s Jeskai Eggs, and Kawaiit Riot’s Simic Merfolk decks.
Violet_Starmine’s “hi nicole” Dimir Toxic deck is a proliferate deck hoping to get just one poison counter onto her opponent, then just proliferate, proliferate, proliferate. Once her opponent’s at 3 poison counters, Anoint with Affliction
Anoint with Affliction
becomes extremely efficient removal and Bring the Ending
Bring the Ending
reliable countermagic. Drown in Ichor
Drown in Ichor
and Experimental Augury
Experimental Augury
offer value tapes to proliferate effects, and both Venser, Corpse Puppet
Venser, Corpse Puppet
and Voidwing Hybrid
Voidwing Hybrid
get additional benefits when you proliferate.
janMelantu’s “God I wish cranial ram was legal in this format” hopes to flood the board with cheap, sacrifice-able artifacts to grow Gleaming Geardrake
Gleaming Geardrake
, Patchwork Automaton
Patchwork Automaton
, and Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
into huge threats. Esoteric Duplicator
Esoteric Duplicator
lets them double up on sacrifice effects, and both Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko
Michiko's Reign of Truth
Portrait of Michiko
and Dowsing Device // Geode Grotto
Dowsing Device
Geode Grotto
‘s back half further buff creatures by how may artifacts they control.
Kawaiit Riot’s “gentlewoman’s agreement to play merfolk in our match?” is a merfolk kindred deck that wants to do what merfolk does best: go both wide and tall with counters and difficult-to-block creatures. Nicanzil, Current Conductor
Nicanzil, Current Conductor
is ramp and additional counters off explore effects, Deeproot Pilgrimage
Deeproot Pilgrimage
generates tokens every time they attack, and Vodalian Hexcatcher
Vodalian Hexcatcher
is a great way to use those tokens and cheap merfolk to counter spells (I use this guy all the time in Modern Merfolk). Vodalian Mindsinger
Vodalian Mindsinger
is a fun and funky way of stealing your opponent’s creatures (and Cavern of Souls
Cavern of Souls
lets them pay for the red kicker cost!), and I’m happy to see it get some play (if only because I have 4 of these things in paper and need to find a use for them).