The ETS Open is a tournament series run by RNGEternal every Saturday. The preliminary rounds of the tournament are Swiss rounds, followed by a break into the knockout rounds. Naturally, this leads to a high number of games played – ripe for statistical analysis.

The tournament on the 14th of October saw 54 participants bringing a diverse field of decks – ranging from typical metagame choices to wild, innovative decks.

Archetype Numbers % of field Argenport Midrange 9 16.67 Armory 5 9.26 Tavrod Armory 4 7.41 Tavrod-less Armory 1 1.85 0.00 Praxis 5 9.26 Praxis Midrange 4 7.41 Praxis Ramp 1 1.85 Xenan 4 7.41 Xenan Killers 2 3.70 Xenan Ramp 1 1.85 Xenan Midrange 1 1.85 Combrei 4 7.41 Big Combrei 3 5.56 Combrei Midrange 1 1.85 Chalice 3 5.56 Stonescar Burn Queen 2 3.70 Burn Queen 1 1.85 Jito Queen 1 1.85 Elysian 2 3.70 Elysian Midrange 1 1.85 Elysian Dinosaurs 1 1.85 Other Control Decks 6 11.11 Feln Control 1 1.85 JPS Control 2 3.70 FJP Control 1 1.85 4f Control 1 1.85 FTJ Control 1 1.85

The results, however, told a different story. This tournament was truly the coming out party for Argenport Midrange. Powered by Tavrod, Auric Broker, this deck aims to end games through weapons like Lethrai Falchion and Bloodletter stapled onto minions, coupled with a dose of Bartholo for additional un-interactivity.

Of the 9 Argenport Midrange pilots that entered this 54-man open, an astonishing 4 of them made the Top 8! This result truly speaks to the strength of the deck: the hard to remove Tavrod, coupled with the difficult-to-remove Bartholo, creates a pro-active game plan that many decks have difficulties dealing with.

The following table shows the win-percentages of the two Tavrod decks that have taken root in this metagame, Tavrod Armory and Argenport Midrange.

Take note, of course, that this tournament includes a sideboard – hence, the statistics may not necessarily reflect the percentages that may occur on Ranked ladder. However, given most of the deck remains the same post-sideboard, the numbers should give some indication of the deck’s chances on Ranked ladder.

As can be seen, Argenport Midrange crushed the metagame, with positive win percentages against the major archetypes. An extremely notable one would be Chalice, where it won all 4 of its games. I personally feel that Chalice has a decent matchup against Argenport Midrange, due to its many answers to Tavrod, as well as 4 Harsh Rules. However, it could be that Bartholo is just too difficult to handle with the 4 Desert Marshals as the deck’s only efficient way to remove Aegis. Further, with most Chalice lists only running 5 or 6 spot removal answers to big minions (some combination of Vanquishes and Eilyn’s Choice), it could be that these removal spells are taxed too heavily by weapon-ed up early units. More exploration of this matchup will have to be done to fully understand it.

Tavrod Armory did not fare so well in this tournament, posting a fairly poor record against the field, and no copies of the deck making the top 8. It seemed to post a negative record against Argenport Midrange, which I find interesting – I’ve always found the matchups to be 50-50, with relic weapons as early answers to Bartholo and Slay as an efficient removal spell against other threats. However, given how almost every copy of Argenport Midrange had the full 4-of Sabotages in sideboard, it is clear how the win percentage would suffer in tournament play.

Tavrod Armory, however, is still Armory; this deck still definitely crushes low unit-count control decks (Like Feln, or the recent JPS Control list that saw 3 copies in the Open).

Of course, we can’t continue the analysis without looking at the winner of the tournament, Darkness3827, and his Jito Queen list. It is clear the deck’s plan is to “go under” the plethora of midrange decks in the metagame and win early, with Shadowlands Guide as the deck’s value engine to continue the plan of going wide to deal the final points of damage. Darkness3827 won the tournament with a 9-1 series record, dropping a series only to Big Combrei. As with most winning tournament decklists, be prepared to see a spike of this deck on ladder.

Other interesting archetypes that appeared was Xenan Killers piloted by Bradykin and Shedd, with Bradykin making the Top 8. This list showcases another way to handle Bartholo – just fight it early! I have seen this list appear more on ladder after the tournament. While I personally feel it struggles with consistency against more aggresive decks, it definitely demonstrates another way to build Xenan Midrange, and further demonstrates another way of dealing with Bartholo.

In the aftermath of the tournament, what has changed in the metagame? More importantly, how do we handle Tavrod? The great minds playing this game may have already innovated an answer that has appeared in the SPG Weekly and on ladder as well. More on that tomorrow.

Till next time!