Explorer Tier List Update – May 26, 2022

CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST-OF-THREE TIER LIST

CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST-OF-ONE TIER LIST

BEST-OF-THREE

S TIER

Rakdos Midrange (Up from A): Rakdos Midrange continues to be a strong deck against most decks in the format, while not having strongly favored matchups against much outside of mono-red. It remains the most-played deck on the Explorer best-of-three ladder.

A TIER

Mono-Red Aggro (Down from S Tier): The premier aggro deck in the format, mono-red maintained its position as the second most-played deck in Bo3 this week, while losing a bit of winrate. Still, it remains at 59%.

Rakdos Anvil (Down from S Tier): Anvil looks to be falling slowly out of favor in terms of play rate, but kept up a strong 61% win rate and remains the third most represented deck in Bo3.

Mardu Greasefang (Stable): Fully overtaking the Esper variant at this point, Mardu Greasefang has seen a strong rise in play rate over the last two weeks and remains stable in A Tier with a 59% win rate.

Mono-Blue Spirits (Stable): With a 63% win rate (the highest on the entire tier list), Spirits could very well end up being the sleeper deck in the Explorer format, even without Mausoleum Wanderer. Its relatively low play rate keeps it in A Tier this week.

Jund Food (Stable): Honestly, this one confuses me, as I have not seen more than two copies of Jund Food in my 300+ matches on the ranked Bo3 ladder. Still it is apparently the fifth most-played deck in Platinum and up, and boasts a 60% win rate.

B TIER

Izzet Phoenix (Stable): Phoenix continues to be middle of the pack without its missing cards from pioneer

Jeskai Agent (Stable): The hype around agent was short lived last week as the deck has not don’t much better then weeks prier even if it is a fine deck over all.

C TIER

UW Control (Down from B): Rapidly decreasing in win rate in both Pioneer and Explorer, Azorius Control finds a home in C Tier this week, largely propped up by its historical play rate and win rate data pre-Winota ban.

GW Humans (Stable):Combining Thalia with a quick clock continues to provide some game play but due to it being picked apart by removal the deck still faces its issue

GWx Angels (Stable): While better in BO1 GWx Angels has a variety of different splashes that the community is trying out to push it up the rankings. But its too early t tell if those will pop off.

GB Rigging (New): This archetype has had its first Break-Out week sporting over a 66% win rate but with a middling sample size it will be interesting to see if that can hold up once the play rate goes up.

4C Elementals (Down from B): Elemental saw a big degrees in play over the last week but the shell remains powerful. We will be looking to see if it can move up next week with it’s good RB Midrange match Up

D TIER

Izzet Prowess (New): With the second-highest win rate on the whole tier list at 62%, this Pioneer S-Tier deck premiers on the tier list in D Tier solely due to its low sample size and play rate. This deck has nowhere to go but up from here.

Grixis Control (Up from Off-Meta): This deck pops up again as a fan favorite in having just enough to make it on to the list

Boros Heroic: It’s new tool Illuminator Virtuoso has allowed for this deck to have even faster start and provide enough card advantage that outside of the grindy match ups feather is no longer needed.. While It is missing some of its major pieces in Monastary Swiftspear and Favored Hoplite it seems like its fast clock and the best removal in the format Reckless Rage can still get some work done.

BEST-OF-ONE

This week is a super simple change of moving GWx Angels to A tier due to its increased play rate while also keeping its 60% win rate in that change. It looks to be trying to target the Head Honcho Mono red while also not being dead to turn 3 Greasefang Combo due to both the amount of life it games and flying blockers.