Explorer Tier List Update – September 1, 2022
An explanation of the movements and placements in this week’s Explorer tier lists.
The Best-Of-Three Explorer Tier List
The Best-Of-One Explorer Tier List
Legend
- S Tier: Decks in this tier are the most heavily played and format dominant. These decks are the core that the rest of the meta revolves around. Players should be prepared to face these decks multiple times throughout a given event.
- A Tier: Decks in this tier are on generally on the same power level as those above it, and consistently post top results at events. However, due to certain factors like deck population or weakness in a key matchup they are not as format dominant.
- B Tier: Decks in this tier are proven performers with strong finishes that will reward good player skill/dedicated play. However, they generally lack a certain level of power/consistency to take them to the winners podium on a regular basis.
- C Tier: Decks in this tier are on an average power level for the format, or are heavily underrepresented. Like our B-tier these decks can reward dedication to the archetype, but they will require a more concerted effort. Players should be aware of these decks, but not over-tune for these matchups.
- D Tier: Decks in this tier will find the current meta hostile to their overall game plan. These decks can find success in the right environment, but the winner’s podium will be few and far between.
Best-Of-Three
S Tier
Rakdos Midrange (Down) – Though still a dominant force in the format, it has come time to eliminate Tier 0 and move Rakdos Midrange down to S Tier. Azorius Control has done a fair bit of catching up with Rakdos’ representation, and as the format is about to be shaken up with a new set and the end of the season, many people are trying new things and have diversified the meta this week. Rakdos Midrange is particularly good at dominating the meta it knows – in uncharted waters, its efficiency is watered down.
A Tier
UW Control (Down) – In a similar vein as Rakdos Midrange, a wider meta this weeks means that top tier decks and answer-heavy decks will take a downshift in ranking as they try to solve the rogue decks creeping their way into the end of season. With Rakdos moving down into S Tier, so too does the only deck that was in S Tier at the time, as Rakdos still justifies holding court above everything else.
Rakdos Sacrifice (Stable) – Conversely to Azorius and Rakdos Midrange, Rakdos Sacrifice doesn’t care what the opponent is doing and will do its thing every time regardless. This has seen better success this week as a result and remains stable in A Tier.
Abzan Greasefang (Up) – Abzan Greasefang preys on a meta that is trying new things. It will sit there and play solitaire all week while people try their end-of-season and new set brews. Greasefang doesn’t care what’s happening around it – as long as people aren’t playing mass graveyard hate, which the most recent two weeks of decklists have been lacking. The addition of Liliana of the Veil to this will likely make it a force to be reckoned with.
Mono-Blue Spirits (Stable) – Spirits has remained the third most-played deck in best-of-three since Mausoleum Wanderer was printed into the format – never higher and never lower. What has shifted throughout, though, is its winrate, and this week it climbed to a point where the removal of an entire tier above it did not affect its standing.
B Tier
Mono-Green Stompy (Down) – Stompy’s slide down has less to do with its representation or winrate as it does the shifting of the tier list itself in the removal of Tier 0. It remains one of the most-played decks on the best-of-three ladder and boasts a fairly strong winrate at 59%. Stompy decks tend to be strong choices going into a new meta, and we would expect this deck to improve – though, players might be more keen to try Gruul variants now that we have the red/green pain lands.
Jund Food (Stable) – Similarly to Rakdos Sacrifice, Jund Food represents a strong midrange strategy that can hold down aggressive decks and outgrind many midrange and even control matchups. We expect Jund Food to do well in the first few weeks of Dominaria United, despite not having any blatently obvious new cards to play with outside of Liliana of the Veil, which might end up seeing play in the sideboard of Food decks at least.
Abzan Humans (Stable) – As far as decks that got new toys to play with, Abzan Humans is certainly one of them. We kept the deck in B Tier this week but fully expect its playrate to increase with the new set and season. Check out Jaffer’s first crack at a build here!
C Tier
Green Devotion (Down)- In true Green Devotion fashion, the deck put up an impressive winrate this week. Unfortunately, however, it held a much smaller metashare than last week or the week before and, therefore, drops to C Tier.
Fight Rigging (Up)- Fight Rigging continues to push itself to the forefront of the meta by sneaking stronger and stronger finishes in the top-tiers of play and boasting a hugely impressive 65% winrate. We have eschewed our strong consideration of playrate when it comes to this change this week (the deck is still seeing infrequent play) and moved it up the tier list due to its high winrate and matchups against some of the top-tier decks.
Mardu Greasefang (Down) – Abzan truly seems to be becoming the more consistent Greasefang deck of choice and continues to push Mardu further down the tier list this week. With the printing of Liliana of the Veil, Mardu Greasefang decks with a Kroxa/midrange backup plan might end up pushing the deck higher.
UR Creativity (Up from off-meta) – Creativity is a deck that continues to battle its way onto the tier list only to be knocked off soon after. This week, the deck was the eighth-highest played deck in the format and boasts an impressive 60% winrate.
D Tier
Four-Color Elementals (Stable) – The various Omnath/Risen Reef decks barely hang onto their spot on the tier list this week, seeing drastically reduced playrate and only a fair winrate at 58%. Still, Rakdos Midrange players hate to see an Omnath, Locus of Creation on the other side of the board. Unfortunately, Spirits players don’t.
Keruga Fires (New)- Various builds of Keruga Fires of Invention decks have made a resurgence in the meta, punishing players who flock to Rakdos Midrange and other slower decks without countermagic. PlayingExplorer’s very own rose-emoji boasts an impressive 79% winrate after 38 best-of-three games with his Grixis list, and others have had great success with varying Grixis and even four-color variants.
Enigmatic Incarnation (Up)- 5C Enigmatic Fires is another deck that thrives against midrange decks without countermagic, and with the printing of Leyline Binding coming today, we saw an uptick in Enigmatic’s playrate as players gear up to cheat out Titan of Industry and Agent of Treachery.
Mono-Red (Stable) – Mono-Red’s outlook is improving, and going into a new meta is usually a good time to be playing aggro or burn decks. Mono-Red players also got a few new pieces in Dominaria United to test out, and we’ll keep an eye on the settled builds and the deck’s performance in the days and weeks to come.
Selesnya Angels (Stable) – Another deck that barely held onto its spot, CoCo Angels is a powerhouse in best-of-one, but has a hard time keeping angels on the board in the best-of-three meta. It’s very likely this deck slips off the tier list next week.
Vampires (Up)- Another old favorite returns to the tier list this week as, again, we believe people are trying some more fun strategies and different brews at the end of the season. Vampires is one we all know and love and it’s great to see it creeping its ugly head back into the tier list!
Best-Of-One
S Tier
No Changes
A Tier
No Changes
B Tier
Temur Ignus Combo (Up from C Tier) – Ignus saw an uptick of play this last week while keeping a comparable winrate to the rest of B Tier. This archetype also has a chance of getting better with the printing of Defiler of Instinct in Dominaria United today.
C Tier
Esper Greasefang (Down from B Tier)- As we talked about a few weeks ago, Mardu/Abzan Greasefang taking over most of the play of this archetype has led to another downtick in play this week again. There is a chance that Greasefang decks as a whole see a power boost with the printing of Liliana of the Veil but we expect that to do more for the Mardu or Abzan variants than Esper.
D Tier
No Changes
