VML Season 13 Week 2 Metagame Update

Duskmourn prerelease is nearly here, and I hope every VML player going to a prerelease has fun! (Reminder to players, Duskmourn cards are not legal for VML play until week 4.) Now, let’s dive into the results from our first week of play!

Last Week’s Results

Last week’s big winners were Rakdos Lizards, with a 75% win rate across 4 players, and Jeskai Convoke, with a 71.4% win rate and 7 players. Though small player bases currently, these are both decks to watch out for in your matches.

Golgari Midrange showed that it’s one of the most popular decks for a reason: its 19 players earned a 70.6% win rate last week, against 10 different matchups. The other popular midrange option, Dimir Midrange, only earned a 53.3% win rate across its 19 players. At least for now, Golgari Midrange reigns supreme in the battle for the title of best midrange deck.

Rounding out the top decks of the week are Domain Ramp, with a 69.2% win rate over 13 players, and Gruul Prowess, with 11 players earning a 66.7% win rate. Domain is definitely not dead post-rotation, and with the upcoming Overlord of the Hauntwoods*, it might only be getting better. Gruul Prowess, of course, proves why it’s currently the top aggro deck, able to dish out large amounts of damage while protecting its creatures from removal.

*Sadly the card linker does not work for unreleased cards.

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 13. As the season goes on and we get more data, this segment will get more accurate.

Golgari Midrange:

Counterpicks: Gruul Prowess (66.7% win rate vs Golgari Midrange, 2 matches), Domain Ramp (55.6% win rate, 3 matches)

Dimir Midrange:

Counterpick: Golgari Midrange (53.3% win rate vs Dimir Midrange)

Domain Ramp:

Counterpick: Unfortunately, there is insufficient data to suggest a counterpick for Domain Ramp this week. The decks that won a single match vs Domain last week were Azorius Control, Gruul Prowess, Rakdos Lizards (also 1 loss), and Golgari Midrange (2 losses).

Week 2

This week, Golgari Midrange has eclipsed its Dimir counterpart. 21 players are running Golgari Midrange, for a 17.2% metashare. Domain Ramp moves into second place in the popularity polls with zero changes to its player count (13) or metashare (10.7%). Dimir Midrange clings on to its place in the top 3 with only 12 players and a 9.8% metashare, down from 19 players last week.

Orzhov Midrange is elbowing its way into the battle for midrange superiority, with 10 players and an 8.2% metashare this week (up from a single deck last week). Gruul Prowess remains the top aggro deck, also with 10 players and an 8.2% metashare.

Spice Corner

Each week, I showcase some of the most unique decks in the VML meta (defined as “there is only one person playing this deck” and, as much as possible, showing brews from different players). This week’s most unique decks include Skye’s Bant Ramp, Freddie’s Dimir Rats, and Talia Bael’s Boros Midrange.

Skye’s “Serving up more Just Deserts” is a desert-focused ramp deck hoping to bring out Bonny Pall, Clearcutter Bonny Pall, Clearcutter as fast as possible for that big beefy Beau token. Colossal Rattlewurm Colossal Rattlewurm and Dance of the Tumbleweeds Dance of the Tumbleweeds round out the threats, with Doppelgang Doppelgang to double, triple, or even quadruple up on them. This deck takes advantage of the desert-specific land fetches from OTJ, though the high number of tap lands can be tricky to navigate if Spelunking Spelunking isn’t out.

Freddie’s “Rats, Rats, We’re the Rats” is a rat-based kindred deck aiming to hit face with unblockable, toxic rats (and occasionally very powerful rats; Persistent Marshstalker Persistent Marshstalker can be very difficult to fully get rid of if you don’t have exile-based removal). Karumonix, the Rat King Karumonix, the Rat King provides an alternate win condition through giving every rat toxic, as well as some potential card advantage, while Azure Beastbinder Azure Beastbinder can lock out their opponent’s most powerful creature. The deck runs plenty of removal (it’s a black-based deck, of course it does), and Vren, the Relentless Vren, the Relentless , my favorite card from Bloomburrow Limited, means that all those removal pieces also turn into relentless rats for you.

Talia Bael’s “Not Enough Birds” is a midrange deck hoping to take advantage of powerful ETB effects and discover to out-value her opponent. This deck runs a Builder's Talent Builder's Talent package to buff the smaller creatures the deck runs in order to reach the mana to cast the big dinosaurs Trumpeting Carnosaur Trumpeting Carnosaur and Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness Etali, Primal Conqueror Etali, Primal Sickness
. The fun combination of blinking Urza's Sylex Urza's Sylex with a Guardian of Ghirapur Guardian of Ghirapur lets her fetch either best girl The Eternal Wanderer or best elephant boy Quintorius Kand Quintorius Kand for difficult-to-remove value.

Full and up-to-date weekly stats can be found here. This season, all my stats articles will be posted the day after decklists are released, due to my schedule this semester making Tuesdays hellish.