Top Twenty Decks of Legacy

[Justin]

I was curious as to the top twenty decks in this format. I had some time on my hands and did some research using Petter_Rotten's thread of top eight finishes for 2008. There were 84 large tourneys reported in North America, Europe, and Japan. It was hard to categorize some of the decks and I defined most of them pretty broadly. It's a very healthy-looking format with the top deck only appearing in 13% of the top eights. Anyway, here's my list.

1. Threshold 87
2. Landstill 78
3. Goblins 49
4. Aggro Loam 43
5. Stifle Naught varients 41
6. Ichorid 39
7. Rock 34
8. Survival Advantage 24
9. Goyf Sligh 18
10. Painter's Combo 17*
11. Belcher 15
11. Countertop Control 15
11. Tendrils Combo varients 15
11. White Stax 15
15. Dragon Stompy 14
15. Fish 14
17. Faerie Stompy 10
18. Aluren 9
18. Burn 9
18. Deadguy Ale 9
18. Mono Black Aggro 9
18. Mono Blue Control 9

* You can probably double Painter's win total considering that it's only been in existance for half the year so far. Although it had only the tenth most top eights, it's probably at least a top 7 deck.

[SuckerPunch]

Are you sure that Eva Green didn't make the list at all? Or was it grouped in with Black Aggro?

Thank you for all that work you put in.

Assuming you have all the total in an excel spreadsheet, what would be a very interesting number to find out about these top 20 deck is...

# of Top 8 Placements/Total # of times played in those tourneys.

That would give you the actual probability you have of top 8ing with a deck if you play it in a tournament.

I think that's a stronger measure of just how good a deck actually is.

[Forbiddian]

# of Top 8 Placements/Total # of times played in those tourneys.

That would give you the actual probability you have of top 8ing with a deck if you play it in a tournament.

I think that's a stronger measure of just how good a deck actually is.


I mean, basically everything skews the numbers, these data show more like, "What decks have the good players been playing for the last year?"


Also, the highest percentage T8s are going to be metagame choice decks. Countersliver, Suicide Black, and Mono-White control I'd guess have better ratios than the "best" decks because they're only played in metagames where they can clean up.

[Justin]

Are you sure that Eva Green didn't make the list at all? Or was it grouped in with Black Aggro?

Thank you for all that work you put in.

Assuming you have all the total in an excel spreadsheet, what would be a very interesting number to find out about these top 20 deck is...

# of Top 8 Placements/Total # of times played in those tourneys.

That would give you the actual probability you have of top 8ing with a deck if you play it in a tournament.

I think that's a stronger measure of just how good a deck actually is.

Thanks for your input. I don't know if most tourneys keep stats on the number of decks that enter a tourney. I was just going on Top Eights. I also agree with the criticism that this list does not necessarily reflect the top decks in exact order. The point about ratios and metagame choices is a good one. For example, goblin decks may have more top eights than aggro loam decks, but more people probably play the former in tournaments. Thus, it may be inaccurate to say that goblins are the better deck.

Dividing the decks into groups was much harder than I anticpated. For example, the top decks (threshold, landstill, goblins, etc.) have been different versions that splash different colors. Some threshold decks are more aggressive and tempo-based, while others rely on more control. I decided just to group them in broad categories for simplicity. I lumped TES and Iggy Pop decks together as "tendrils combo," although one could make an argument for keeping these separate. Another problem was that some decks overlapped. For example, "dreadstill" is very popular. I was wondering if I should make a unique dreadstill category, a non-dreadstill landstill category, and a non-landstill stifle-naught category. Instead, I categorized all control decks playing standstill, Mishra's factory, etc. as "landstill," while lumping all stifle-naught decks into the same category.

The point of this exercise was just a first cut to give some indication of what decks are being successful in Legacy this year. Maybe I'll clean up some of the labelling issues and do another report at the end of this year.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

The problem here is the lack of a convenient measure of deck variance. Does "The Rock" include basically every non-blue deck with Deed? What did all the Painter's combo decklists look like? What are "Countertop Control", Monoblue Aggro, and Survival Advantage? Does the latter, in particular, just mean every deck with Survival?

I'm worried for this reason about whether such a list is going to be accurate enough to even be helpful.

[SuckerPunch]

I think it's interesting information and I really appreciate the work put into arriving at it. It basically sums up what decks have been in the Decks to Beat forum over the past year. I don't see it as designed to change our understanding of the meta.

So, no, I don't think splitting up into subcategories would be that helpful either. What would UGW thresh having more top 8s than UGR Thresh lists packing the instant win Swans combo prove. We already knew that. UGW is more popular than UGR Swans. That doesn't mean it's a better deck. To establish that we pretty much have to see what percentage of the UGR Swans lists top 8ed versus what percentage of the UGW lists top 8ed.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

I blame Zach for not playing Enchantress enough.

[Omega]

informations are very appreciated. While not saying which deck is better, it clear says what decks are more played and more successful

Robert

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

We already knew that. UGW is more popular than UGR Swans. That doesn't mean it's a better deck. To establish that we pretty much have to see what percentage of the UGR Swans lists top 8ed versus what percentage of the UGW lists top 8ed.

We could apply this to any deck, really, whether or not it's true. "Top twenty decks of Legacy" is a misleading term, then.