Meta evolution since 2013

[Nielsie]

I made a little Spider to scrape data from TCDecks in a quick and efficient way.

So far I scrape the most played cards and the tierdecks. All this data is compiled into an excel sheet:
- most played cards (top20): TCDecks provides absolute numbers, I just recalculated them into a percentage so you can compare every month. 100% means that every top8 deck played a full set of the card.
- tier decks: TCdecks provides tier decks with a score, I recalculated these also as a percentage so you can compare months. The percentages of all the tier decks add up to 100%.

In the Excel you can easily filter the graphs to try and make more sense out of them.

I don't realy know what conclusions to draw on this data, but I am sure other people will. Only conclusion I could draw is that since Treasure Cruise a lot of people have jumped onto the Brainstorm + Ponder bandwagon and even after the Treasure Cruise ban have stayed loyal to their other cantrips. I also have the feeling that the DTT meta is even worse now than when TC got banned.

Oh well, enjoy your numbers!

Excel:
https://docs.google.com/uc?authuser=0&id=0B7diBsK_VJ0cX28wLVF6X084RlU&export=download

Cantrips graph preview:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7diBsK_VJ0ccmJEcHFWLVhGWDg/view?usp=sharing

(I hope these google drive links work, otherwise I will host the files somewhere else)

[Barook]

The sudden jump in Ponder with the beginning of the TC meta certainly is interesting, considering it stayed high even after the ban of TC.

[iGrok]

This looks awesome! Thanks for putting this together.

[Amon Amarth]

The sudden jump in Ponder with the beginning of the TC meta certainly is interesting, considering it stayed high even after the ban of TC.

Perhaps it has something to do with a lot of Miracles pilots adopting Ponder? Personally, I was very skeptical of the Ponder versions but when I played them the deck felt much smoother overall with the added benefit of digging deeper for SB cards which is nice.

[TheArchitect]

I believe it was ponder increasing in miracles and deathblade and Shardless BUG (pretty much the only non-ponder, brainstorm decks) getting killed by reds upsurge in the legacy meta.

[Nielsie]

When you look at the excel, it's also strange to see that Ponder replaced Wasteland. Ponder gained a boost and Wasteland got a drop. If you cross-reference this with tier decks, I think it has to do with RUG and Team America losing ground in favor for Miracles.

[Julian23]

People played less Wastelands the minute Treasure Cruise entered the format. Rather than attacking your opponent's mana, you'd rather have more lands to cast more Cantrips in a single turn, to get to the next TC / DTT faster.

[Barook]

Wasteland also made mana denial strategies less potent because you gave them free Delve fodder to draw out of the mana denial.

[Lemnear]

Wasteland also made mana denial strategies less potent because you gave them free Delve fodder to draw out of the mana denial.

Tbh DRS + Wasteland + DTT is a powerful combination to run. Mana denial for your opponent and acceleration for your own DTT. Criminally underused as the whole "uh, Wasteland/Hymn is bad because it fills opponents graveyard" was and is a highly overrated and misleading argument. Hymn + TC in a single deck was just a crushing cardadvantage even opposing TC can't ever made up

[aluisiocsantos]

Nice infos but, no Goyf in the recent past?

[jrw1985]

Gotta remind myself to check this data out!

[iGrok]

Sent you a pm, interested in more data!

[Nielsie]

Nice infos but, no Goyf in the recent past?
Goyf has disappeared since the TC-meta.

But remember that the data cuts of at Top20 cards per month. So if goyf was number 21, it doesn't show up for that month. Overall card number 20 always seems to be around 19-20% Top8 penetration.

If we want more data, I would have to scrape every individual deck posted on TCDecks. I am looking into this but at that point it's simply much more efficient to kindly ask TCDecks for their database...

[Whitefaces]

Thanks very much for compiling this! Very interesting analysis.