Explorer Tier List Update – July 7, 2022
An explanation of the movements and placements in this week's Explorer tier list.
CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST-OF-THREE TIER LIST
CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST-OF-ONE TIER LIST
Best-of-three
S Tier
No changes were made to decks in S Tier this week.
A Tier
Rakdos Sacrifice (Stable) – While Rakdos Sacrifice didn’t move on the tier list, the deck itself has changed enough in the past couple of weeks for us to mention it here. Likely a carryover from the Pioneer side, the deck has dropped the Oni-Cult Anvil strategy entirely (on the Pioneer side, this was largely due to Karn, the Great Creator’s recent dominance of the format. Karn being much less prevalent in Explorer, this is a sign to me that Explorer players are following the Pioneer meta and decklists to some extent). Replacing the anvil strategy is a much more creature-centric sacrifice one, including the ability to sacrifice opposing creatures with three or four copies of Claim the Firstborn in the maindeck.
UW Control (Up from B Tier) – Azorius Control jumped ahead as the top-played deck in the new season, boasting a 61% winrate. While we’re not “resetting” the tier list or the cumulative data at the beginning of each season, this playrate spike is important to note and keep track of, especially as the Pro Tour RCQ season starts and more people start using Explorer to get in reps with the deck they intend to qualify with.
B Tier
No changes were made to decks in B Tier this week.
C Tier
No changes were made to decks in C Tier this week.
D Tier
4c Adventures (Up from off-meta) – 4c Adventures took the spot of second most-played deck in best-of-three in the new season, but maintained a relatively low winrate at 56%. With a somewhat small data set as far as the new season goes, it’s also entirely possible that the playrate is representative of one person who played the deck extensively. Even still, we’re comfortable moving it onto the tier list this week.
Best-of-one
S Tier
No changes were made to decks in S Tier this week.
A Tier
No changes were made to decks in A Tier this week.
B Tier
No changes were made to decks in B Tier this week.
C Tier
No changes were made to decks in C Tier this week.
D Tier
Simic Flash (Tier list debut) – This deck attacks on a similar axis to Mono-U Spirits, as its eight to twelve two-mana interaction and flash threats make it really easy to get ahead early. That does come with the downside, though, of if it ever falls behind in a match, it will heavily struggle to catch up. Simic Flash has popped up in our data off and on and this time it finally had the numbers with the season rolling over to justify making onto this week’s list. We are interested to see if this sticks.
