*Two decklists are missing: Andrew Jeffries (14th) and Andrew Lillig (18th). TomCourtenay said Jeffries is on AN, I'll take his word for it.
Combined
Jund/Abzan/Rock 1111111
Affinity 111111
Merfolk 11111
Naya Burn 11111
UG Infect 11111
Scapeshift 11111
Jeskai 11111
Abzan Company 1111
Bant Eldrazi 111
Ad Nauseam 11
Goryo's Vengeance 11
RG Tron 11
Blue Moon 11
Suicide Zoo 1
Bushwhacker Zoo 1
BG Elves 1
GW Tokens 1
GW Hatebears 1
Company Zoo 1
Bant Knightfall 1
Kiki Chord 1
Grixis Delver 1
Grixis Control 1
Comments:
- The top tier is the same as it's always been. Jund, Affinity, Burn, Infect are all up there. Merfolk goes in and out of tier 1 all the time.
- Blue-based decks are doing much better thanks to AV and Nahiri. Blue Moon and Grixis (Delver/Control) both make great use of it, especially when you draw Goblin Dark-Dwellers after unsuspending it . Nahiri is pretty much the stock wincon of Jeskai now. Sometimes it's paired with AV, sometimes it's not, sometimes AV is SBed. There even was one Jeskai deck that mained AV without Nahiri.
- Sword of the Meek was a bust as far as unbans go. I stand by what I've said in the Indianapolis thread: Nahiri is just a better wincon. The cost for playing Nahiri is minuscule: you just have to put 1 Emrakul in your deck and play red. With Thopter Sword, you have to replace a bunch of 7/10 cards with cards that can vary from 3/10 to 10/10 - cards like Muddle the Mixture, Academy Ruins, Thirst for Knowledge. It's just higher variance. Nevertheless, no harm was done by unbanning Sword, so no objections there.
- Eldrazi is still a deck. You can convert a pre-ban Eldrazi deck into one that's legal now: UW becomes Bant with Ancient Stirrings and Noble Hierarch, while RG is the same as it was before, just with more Bolts.
- There are fewer RG Tron/RG Valakut decks than there were at SCG Indianapolis. In particular there were 0 RG Valakut decks in the top 32 of either event. I think the deck was overhyped for Indianapolis, it's a decent tier 2 deck which got a consistency tool in Oath of Nissa, that's all.
- Ad Nauseam winning GP Charlotte was the high point for me. In hindsight it seemed like a good meta choice: it beats blue decks pretty handily due to its instant-speed win and endless Pact backups. Company decks are also good matchups; the main advantage that Company decks have is being able to outgrind removal with the namesake card, but against a spell-based combo like AN, Company loses its shine since AN won't be actively killing creatures, and it isn't fast enough to race AN. The AN player who won the GP lost only 1 game in the top 8, and the cause of the loss was his own deck crapping on him (Spoils of the Vault exiling both wincons).
GP LA Day 2, all numbers in %s
Abzan Company 13
Affinity 10
Merfolk 8
Naya Burn 8
Infect 6
Jund 6
Jeskai w/ Nahiri 5
Grixis 4
RG Tron 4
Elves 3
Abzan 2
Bant Eldrazi 2
4C Scapeshift 2
GW Hatebears 2
The top deck by % here is Abzan Company. In Charlotte* it's Affinity. HUGE contrast from SCG Indianapolis, where there were 0 Abzan Company and 2 Affinity decks. That should teach you NOT to take a single event as an indicator that deck X sucks in the format now.
6 De La Torre 27 Affinity (?)
8 Li 25 UB Mill
12 Chapin 24 Grixis (AV, Goblin Dark-Dwellers)
14 Holiday 24 Affinity
15 Nass 24 GW Tokens w/ Nissa
19 Armstrong 24 Abzan Company
20 McClain 24 Abzan Company
43 Eckhoff 24 UG Infect
67 Lossett 22 RG Tron
74 Pardee 21 Bant Eldrazi
81 Hwang 21 RG Tron
84 Phillips 21 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
85 Son 21 UG Infect
95 Yasooka 21 Abzan Company
97 Ichikawa 21 Jund
100 Montoya 21 Merfolk
103 Nokes 21 Mono-green Stompy
109 Wu 21 Affinity
110 Froehlich 21 RG Land Destruction
112 Rietzl 21 Blue Moon
114 Donati 21 Goblins
132 Edel 21 Abzan
159 Weitz 21 Bant Eldrazi
168 Brown 21 Ad Nauseam
219 Clark 21 Kiki Chord
266 McMartin-Rosenquist 19 Temur w/ Pili-Pala combo
274 Sacher 19 Jeskai w/ AV and Nahiri
300 Li 18 Abzan
326 Macurda 18 RG Eldrazi
340 Boyd 18 Nacatl Burn
355 Egashira 18 UG Infect
464 Chu 18 Bring to Light Scapeshift
502 Shimada 18 UG Infect
562 Jew 18 RG Valakut (Khalni Heart Expedition + Scapeshift + Omen, no Breach)
575 Velazquez 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
576 Beardsley 18 Mono-blue Tron
640 Huey 18 Naya Zoo
GP Charlotte:
Note: since there's no video coverage for this event it's harder to confirm who's playing what. The upside is that this GP is an SCG event and several players have records at previous SCG events, which lets me make an educated guess.
1 Ingram 27 RG Tron (?)
4 Dilks 27 BW Eldrazi (?)
5 Braun-Duin 27 (Something with Siege Rhino, most likely plain Abzan)
11 Kastel 27 Abzan (?)
30 Cohen 24 Suicide Zoo
43 Wescoe 24 Mardu Humans
45 Syed 24 Zoo (?)
48 Nelson 24 Jund
52 Araujo 24 Nacatl Burn
55 Costantini 24 Ad Nauseam (?)
60 Donaldson 24 Storm
65 Nguyen 24 (T8ed a GP with RG Valakut)
66 Nikolich 24 (Plays UR a lot, so probably Jeskai w/ Nahiri)
78 Majlaton 24 Affinity (?)
89 Pendergast 22 Mono-blue Tron (?)
95 Walter 21 Storm (?)
101 Stokes 21 RG Tron
123 Scherer 21 Affinity (?)
184 Mize 21 Abzan Company (?)
188 Nance 21 Merfolk (?)
216 Cox 21 (Some kind of Zoo?)
229 Bowman 21 Slivers (?)
260 Huang 21 Ad Nauseam
307 Lerch 19 BW Eldrazi & Taxes
310 Whitehouse 19 Grixis Control w/ AV and Goblin Dark-Dwellers (side note, Blue Jund is a dumb name)
335 Ekendahl 18 Living End
353 Speth 18 4C Jeskai Ascendancy with mana dorks & Wish
403 Maddalena 18 Affinity
487 Wade 18 Temur Moon
501 Donegan 18 Grixis Control (?)
512 Roohi 18 Burn (?)
561 Gniadek 18 White Weenie
566 Hott 18 Mono-blue Turns
569 Orange 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
614 Kesselman 18 Grixis Delver w/ Death's Shadow
615 Egan 18 Naya Burn
Fun fact: Finkel is at 499th place with 18 points. A Mike Long is at 647th with 18 points, not sure if it's THAT Mike Long.
Any sufficiently advanced combo deck is indistinguishable from magic.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
RG Tron 11
Jund 11
Bant Eldrazi 1
Affinity 11111
Abzan Company 11
Grixis Control 1
Jeskai Nahiri 1
UG Infect 111
GW Tokens 1
BTL Scapeshift 1
BG Rock (not even Lingering Souls) 1
Naya Burn 111
Blue Moon (with AV) 1
GW Hatebears 1
Grishoalbrand 1
RUG Scapeshift 1
*Paul Rietzl's Blue Moon was incorrectly classified as Grixis Control.
Company Zoo 1
Jund 111
Kiki Chord 1
BTL Scapeshift 111
Bant Knightfall 1
Suicide Zoo 1
Bushwhacker Zoo 1
UG Infect 11
Bant Eldrazi 11
Grixis Delver 1
Blue Moon (with AV) 1
Naya Burn 11
Affinity 1
Abzan Company 11
Jeskai (AV, no Nahiri) 1
Jeskai Nahiri 111
Grixis Goryo's 1
Abzan 1
BG Elves 1
*Two decklists are missing: Andrew Jeffries (14th) and Andrew Lillig (18th). TomCourtenay said Jeffries is on AN, I'll take his word for it.
Affinity 111111
Merfolk 11111
Naya Burn 11111
UG Infect 11111
Scapeshift 11111
Jeskai 11111
Abzan Company 1111
Bant Eldrazi 111
Ad Nauseam 11
Goryo's Vengeance 11
RG Tron 11
Blue Moon 11
Suicide Zoo 1
Bushwhacker Zoo 1
BG Elves 1
GW Tokens 1
GW Hatebears 1
Company Zoo 1
Bant Knightfall 1
Kiki Chord 1
Grixis Delver 1
Grixis Control 1
- The top tier is the same as it's always been. Jund, Affinity, Burn, Infect are all up there. Merfolk goes in and out of tier 1 all the time.
- Blue-based decks are doing much better thanks to AV and Nahiri. Blue Moon and Grixis (Delver/Control) both make great use of it, especially when you draw Goblin Dark-Dwellers after unsuspending it . Nahiri is pretty much the stock wincon of Jeskai now. Sometimes it's paired with AV, sometimes it's not, sometimes AV is SBed. There even was one Jeskai deck that mained AV without Nahiri.
- Sword of the Meek was a bust as far as unbans go. I stand by what I've said in the Indianapolis thread: Nahiri is just a better wincon. The cost for playing Nahiri is minuscule: you just have to put 1 Emrakul in your deck and play red. With Thopter Sword, you have to replace a bunch of 7/10 cards with cards that can vary from 3/10 to 10/10 - cards like Muddle the Mixture, Academy Ruins, Thirst for Knowledge. It's just higher variance. Nevertheless, no harm was done by unbanning Sword, so no objections there.
- Eldrazi is still a deck. You can convert a pre-ban Eldrazi deck into one that's legal now: UW becomes Bant with Ancient Stirrings and Noble Hierarch, while RG is the same as it was before, just with more Bolts.
- There are fewer RG Tron/RG Valakut decks than there were at SCG Indianapolis. In particular there were 0 RG Valakut decks in the top 32 of either event. I think the deck was overhyped for Indianapolis, it's a decent tier 2 deck which got a consistency tool in Oath of Nissa, that's all.
- Ad Nauseam winning GP Charlotte was the high point for me. In hindsight it seemed like a good meta choice: it beats blue decks pretty handily due to its instant-speed win and endless Pact backups. Company decks are also good matchups; the main advantage that Company decks have is being able to outgrind removal with the namesake card, but against a spell-based combo like AN, Company loses its shine since AN won't be actively killing creatures, and it isn't fast enough to race AN. The AN player who won the GP lost only 1 game in the top 8, and the cause of the loss was his own deck crapping on him (Spoils of the Vault exiling both wincons).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpla16/top-100-day-1-players-archetype-breakdown-2016-05-22
1 Amulet and 1 Dredge.
Dredge at GP Charlotte: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpcha16/dredge-with-kenan-diab-at-grand-prix-charlotte-2016-05-22
Featuring a mana base of 4 City of Brass, 4 Mana Confluence and 4 Gemstone Mine. YOLO
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Abzan Company 13
Affinity 10
Merfolk 8
Naya Burn 8
Infect 6
Jund 6
Jeskai w/ Nahiri 5
Grixis 4
RG Tron 4
Elves 3
Abzan 2
Bant Eldrazi 2
4C Scapeshift 2
GW Hatebears 2
The top deck by % here is Abzan Company. In Charlotte* it's Affinity. HUGE contrast from SCG Indianapolis, where there were 0 Abzan Company and 2 Affinity decks. That should teach you NOT to take a single event as an indicator that deck X sucks in the format now.
*top 100
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
The dream is dead but at least we'll get an article out of it
P.S. Charlotte Day 2 top 100 is out
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpcha16/day-2-metagame-breakdown-2016-05-22
Top deck = Affinity
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Chapin's match: 2h 27m 48s
Decklist: 2h 49m
No Goggles.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
8 Li 25 UB Mill
12 Chapin 24 Grixis (AV, Goblin Dark-Dwellers)
14 Holiday 24 Affinity
15 Nass 24 GW Tokens w/ Nissa
19 Armstrong 24 Abzan Company
20 McClain 24 Abzan Company
43 Eckhoff 24 UG Infect
67 Lossett 22 RG Tron
74 Pardee 21 Bant Eldrazi
81 Hwang 21 RG Tron
84 Phillips 21 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
85 Son 21 UG Infect
95 Yasooka 21 Abzan Company
97 Ichikawa 21 Jund
100 Montoya 21 Merfolk
103 Nokes 21 Mono-green Stompy
109 Wu 21 Affinity
110 Froehlich 21 RG Land Destruction
112 Rietzl 21 Blue Moon
114 Donati 21 Goblins
132 Edel 21 Abzan
159 Weitz 21 Bant Eldrazi
168 Brown 21 Ad Nauseam
219 Clark 21 Kiki Chord
266 McMartin-Rosenquist 19 Temur w/ Pili-Pala combo
274 Sacher 19 Jeskai w/ AV and Nahiri
300 Li 18 Abzan
326 Macurda 18 RG Eldrazi
340 Boyd 18 Nacatl Burn
355 Egashira 18 UG Infect
464 Chu 18 Bring to Light Scapeshift
502 Shimada 18 UG Infect
562 Jew 18 RG Valakut (Khalni Heart Expedition + Scapeshift + Omen, no Breach)
575 Velazquez 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
576 Beardsley 18 Mono-blue Tron
640 Huey 18 Naya Zoo
1 Ingram 27 RG Tron (?)
4 Dilks 27 BW Eldrazi (?)
5 Braun-Duin 27 (Something with Siege Rhino, most likely plain Abzan)
11 Kastel 27 Abzan (?)
30 Cohen 24 Suicide Zoo
43 Wescoe 24 Mardu Humans
45 Syed 24 Zoo (?)
48 Nelson 24 Jund
52 Araujo 24 Nacatl Burn
55 Costantini 24 Ad Nauseam (?)
60 Donaldson 24 Storm
65 Nguyen 24 (T8ed a GP with RG Valakut)
66 Nikolich 24 (Plays UR a lot, so probably Jeskai w/ Nahiri)
78 Majlaton 24 Affinity (?)
89 Pendergast 22 Mono-blue Tron (?)
95 Walter 21 Storm (?)
101 Stokes 21 RG Tron
123 Scherer 21 Affinity (?)
184 Mize 21 Abzan Company (?)
188 Nance 21 Merfolk (?)
216 Cox 21 (Some kind of Zoo?)
229 Bowman 21 Slivers (?)
260 Huang 21 Ad Nauseam
307 Lerch 19 BW Eldrazi & Taxes
310 Whitehouse 19 Grixis Control w/ AV and Goblin Dark-Dwellers (side note, Blue Jund is a dumb name)
335 Ekendahl 18 Living End
353 Speth 18 4C Jeskai Ascendancy with mana dorks & Wish
403 Maddalena 18 Affinity
487 Wade 18 Temur Moon
501 Donegan 18 Grixis Control (?)
512 Roohi 18 Burn (?)
561 Gniadek 18 White Weenie
566 Hott 18 Mono-blue Turns
569 Orange 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
614 Kesselman 18 Grixis Delver w/ Death's Shadow
615 Egan 18 Naya Burn
Fun fact: Finkel is at 499th place with 18 points. A Mike Long is at 647th with 18 points, not sure if it's THAT Mike Long.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.