Metagame Snapshots: April 2024

This league is not over yet, there is still today left and the big Monthly Street Tournament. For those of you who feel that it has been a rough ride these past few months, we want to remind you that while we are in Beta, we want to do our best to provide a healthy, entertaining, challenging game while looking out for the value of your assets. The card balancing process is ongoing and although we have made substantial progress, there is still some fine tuning to be done. We close this introduction by reminding you that it is our intention to reseal the cards so that they are fixed. This should happen after all OTK Legendary, rare and uncommon cards have their L2 version on sight. By then we will do the last balancing iterations to finally close the respective OTK and ULK cards so that you can be sure that those cards will not change again. Once we get to that point, the work on a new set will begin.

11 HQs and their versions

This time we have not been able to see all the HQs achieve glory. While the rosters have been refined and there are no longer so many variants, we can notice a balance between the factions. Stoneward has proven to be not attractive enough and we have decided to prepare a rework before the league 7 starts. The following is a graphical representation of the percentage of different decks we saw at the top of the podium grouped by HQ.

Winning Decks

All factions were represented and most decks had multiple versions. But there are some that stood out more than others and each faction had their favorites. This time we are going to review decklists starting with those HQs that have won the most tournaments so far in the current league.

After the last balance sheet patch, Dogana defined its focus much better.

Organized shooters, solid technologies, range of tricks available. Disruptive maneuvers. Healing. Chaski’s home has it all. But this is not the only version of the deck. We know that a Dethroner L2 can be hard to come by, so if you want to experience Dogana at a competitive level and are looking for alternatives to Dethroner L2, here are some other Dogana lists that managed to win tournaments without this card.

This list seeks to compensate for the lack of Dethroner with multiple instances of Riot to take advantage of the faction’s best healer. With Slot 2 as a sweetspot to connect to Amir Elnaiem allowing him to take Lysso’s eyes for a devastating result. It is not difficult to build this deck and is a good version for those who want to play Dogana and don’t have the pieces for their Dethroner L2 yet.

Binder Tattoo Studio has become the dominant green HQ. It has become Nightress’ home since Alec recruited her but not all the winning lists have her enlisted.

This is a less intuitive deck and requires a lot of attention to the positioning of both your own and your opponents’ lines. It is a deck we like because when piloting it one can evidently notice how Deviants Factions is a game of fine strategy. It seems that Binder Tattoo Studio is in a similar situation as The Elephant was, not because it deserves a Nerf, no sir, we believe that Binder Tattoo Studio is very close to finding its break-even point. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how we can see a head-on combat list like the one above and also see a direct damage list like this one:

This is a solid proposal, with attack concentration on the right flank and multiple instances of HQ damage. It responds very well to the current meta and proposes a different approach to BTS. Entertaining to pilot and very difficult to anticipate. Its biggest advantage is the existence of other versions of the same HQ with left focus. This allows you to get up early to players who support their strategy in important Strucks for Slot 1.

This is a beautiful example of when the paths blazed by the development team become a joke. From being the undisputed best HQ in the metagame in January, it turns into a Frankenstein’s monster that is still scoring wins.

With the arrival of BTS direct damage and the underuse of The Elephant’s ability it has become clear that this is not the focus for this HQ. There will be a rework of this HQ before the start of the next league. We will clearly keep its Non-binary line, but we will try to explore other strategies.

This is a list that has not stopped winning tournaments since January. Substantially easier to assemble, if we take into account that the hardest piece to get is the Murder of Crows that you need to assemble your L2, and it is less than 7 USD in the IMX market.

Attentio Prima is still one of our favorite HQs. Today those blue days of Awaken glory are in the past. We have emerged from a meta strongly dominated by green to one where it is Yellow that is narrowly in the lead.

While 3-tech decks initially proved unable to compensate for the loss of space against extended tables, this does not seem to have been a major problem for this particular list. This list seeks to turn the first 3 slots into one’s own field.

Each HQ has tended to focus on a certain number of variables that are still worth exploring. The development of the game has aimed at many cards fulfilling the same role in a formation in different ways and it is increasingly evident that the multiplicity of variants for each archetype is due more to the variety of player styles than to a lack of consensus.

WPD continues to lead the red machine. This HQ is still taking shape and red’s consistency in concentrating its fire in the first slot has given it a clear first place among its brethren.

This list has a strong focus on the left with one of the best [STRUCK] in the metagame at the moment.

This is a much more defensive list. It seeks to dizzy the best attacking opponent while holding high defenses against the rest of the enemies.

We are happy with Reene’s new face. This HQ is one of the most entertaining but also one of the most difficult to pilot. You have to be very attentive and make quick decisions to do the right thing at every turn.

With tricks on half of the cards in the deck, the star duo of Moonlight and D4nt3 continue to do their job.

Os Ares is the HQ of Red Technologies with an aggressive approach.

With Red Council as Technology lead under Isabel Bennett’s L2 plan, this is a solid left-focused list. It trades WPD disruption for more firepower.

The Women’s Sanctuary has not lagged behind in this league. Their improvement has been felt now that their members do not depend on being damaged to receive help from Alexandria.

Nasrin L2 is the one who gives meaning to this formation. The low presence of Blue in the current metagame allows this list to make use of Lara Domain L2 without shooting itself in the legs. It is easy that in lists like this one we can see Nasrin L2 surpassing 400 ATK.

The Unifier made sense this time, but we believe its potential is not quite there. We recognize that with its release, the focus given to this HQ was harshly restrained. It is very likely that this card will see improvements before the next league starts.

It no longer carries Blasters, but it does kick. The Unifier won tournaments with this blue-red melee amalgam that aims to punish direct damage decks hard.

The Home of Berserkers proves its worth once again in this league.

A green list that has chosen the path of violence. It has good matchup against decks that rely on [STRUCK] triggers and has the ability to break formations effortlessly.

Kutuzov Hold received good news in the last patch, although Sredoje failed to live up to expectations. It is very likely that this archetype will receive improvements before the next league.

While this roster has what it takes to win tournaments and proved it during this league, Kutuzov Hold still suffers greatly against the strongest [STRUCK] in the format.

Cards with most 1st places

In this last section of the article we review the two cards that won the most tournaments in each of the 5 colors that make up Deviants Factions.

Awaken

Thanata (4.93 USD) is a direct damage to HQ character, it is often accompanied by Tadashi, Fyodor Volkov, Sadiq and other cards that seek to hit the opponent’s HQ without having to deal with the opponent’s line first. It is important to note that although it is cheap for being rare, it belongs to the OTK base set and by nato everyone can use it without needing to have the NFT.

4lt & T4b L2 is not on the market as such, but you can get its base card for 1.71 USD. 4lt & T4b is an Echoes 1 card that is part of the list of 10 cards in that set that have a low-cost ULK recipe version. It is a tough female deck support that gathers attack during the game to become a heavy late game hitter.

Entropy

Breeze (174.43 USD) has dethroned Milly & Gilly. Its position as the card with the most trophies is not surprising when you consider that beyond being a loyal soldier of Alexandria, its grip, offensive stats and eventual Riot make it a good candidate to carry no matter which of the yellow HQs you are using. This is another card from the Base set that you can use even if you don’t have the NFT..

Mitrovic L2 is not on the market but you can gather the necessary pieces for his recipe for less than 10 USD. He is currently keeping Double Boomer L2 at bay and is a very important piece of every yellow deck.

Inhuman

Nightress L2 (285,60 USD) is a tank that you can carry in any of the green HQs. It is a clear example of where ULK tanks are heading north.

First Grader L2 is a card that you can craft for less than 8 USD. It gives Inhuman high firepower and fits well on any green list.

Owner

Admiral Galazzio L2 is currently the strongest Character Owner available. While it is not in stock, we are surprised that the main ingredient of its recipe (Admiral Galazzio base) is listed for less than 7 USD.

Baranov L2 (34.59 USD) is an uncommon ULK that can be created for less than 10 USD if you buy the pieces separately on the market, today it closely follows Admiral Galazzio L2 and it is not uncommon to see both cards together on red lists that have won tournaments.

Undeviant

Shinjuku Gang (0.32 USD) is the Undeviant card with the most trophies in this league, which has been marked by the strong presence of single-faction decks. Important asset if you want to beat the HQ quickly.

Pocket Land L2 (2.77 USD) is still winning tournaments today. It is the second Undeviant with the most trophies and no one can deny its great work as an answer to heavy hitters and other early Slots threats.

We end this article with a gallery of the 9 cards that were found in the most different lists of tournament-winning decks during this league. Starting with the one that was in the most different decks.

This was the April 2024 champions analysis. We were able to see how the current metagame is open and allows for the incursion of innovative strategies and different lists. We could also see how many of the championed lists are easy to build and require small investments. All card values listed in this article correspond to the price of those cards on the IMX market as of today.

We hope you enjoyed the article as much as we enjoyed writing it.