{"id":430,"date":"2026-01-22T21:25:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/?p=430"},"modified":"2026-01-23T02:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:38:26","slug":"season-1-metagame-breakdown-1-11-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/season-1-metagame-breakdown-1-11-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Season 1 Metagame Breakdown – 1\/11\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We have had three sizable preseason tournaments, but the game has finally launched and Manifold TCG has now concluded its first Cash Prize tournament of Season 1. There were 11 participants in this event, which is a small enough number that we can mention each player and archetype. The decklists for each player can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Peele – Sylvestra and Starlet in Yellow \/ Green Bully<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambrose Ingram – Chryssy, Nina, and Yuseth in Blue \/ Yellow Proselytizer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin Halvorson – Ramorand, Alric, and Karrsey in Monoblue Sacrifice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eileen Lee – Lucca Alson and Rylo Octain in Red \/ Blue Attachment Aggro<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Larson – Ramorand and DADO-14 in Red \/ Blue Sacrifice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Ferguson – Eurus in Mono Blue Sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LL Hubbard – Eurus in Mono Blue Sacrifice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucinda Ottum – Sylvestra and Athena in Red \/ Yellow Structures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Mutchler – Chryssy, 11C-All, Nina Tullus in Red \/ Blue \/ Yellow Flagship Attachments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pete Irving – Lucca and Barica in Blue \/ Green Attachments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Boston – Starlet Sylvestra in Yellow \/ Green Bully<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top four consisted of Alex Peele, Eileen Lee, Nick Mutchler, and Steven Boston, with Eileen winning the grand prize. (Congratulations Eileen!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eileen Lee<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Color Supremacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the whole field<\/strong> of 11 players: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 players included red<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 players included yellow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 players included green<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 players included blue including a whopping 3 mono blue decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the top 4<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Players included Red, including the player who ended up winning the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Players included Yellow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Players included Green<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Players included Blue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to the previous PAO <\/strong>in the preseason, which had:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Red Players<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Yellow Players<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Green Players<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Blue Players<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tournament not only represented a greater skew than we have seen before, we also see Blue jumping from the least played color (though, just barely) to the most played color. That did not result in an excellent top 4 conversion rate though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

67% of green players qualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

60% of yellow players qualified<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50% of red players qualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25% of blue players qualified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a little unscientific of a number, because decks are multiple colors. Hopefully after a few of these essays I come up with a better methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Support Saturation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since there were 8 blue, 4 red, 5 yellow, and 3 green players, the maximum number of support cards in each color are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue – 24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red – 12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow – 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green – 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no surprise, then, that 5 of the top 6 support cards played were blue, with <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excommunicatus – 20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change the Tide – 18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Augur\u2019s Auspice, Federation Battlemage, and Protection of Belief – 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then we get Docide Thug with 15 copies. That means every yellow deck played 3 copies of Docide Thug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top played cards in each color beyond blue are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Docide Thug – 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enthusiastic Harmonist – 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continued Training, Energy Retracer – 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge, Radar Servo – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambush, Declaration of War, Fragmentation Grenade – 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witchfire – 9 (Maximum possible)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wasteland Stalwart, Wasteland Requiem, Diplomatic Meeting, Engulf in Stone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examine the Specimens, Relic Seeker  – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support Conversion to Top 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The most played cards in the top 4 by color are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambush – 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Docide Thug, Continued Training – 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Retracer, Enthusiastic Harmonist – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witchfire, Wasteland Stalwart, Wasteland Requiem – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engulf in Stone – 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excommunicatus – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change the Tide, Blessing of the Cloth – 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means in the top 4, Every Red deck played 3 Chain Plasma Rifle and Overcharge, 
every Yellow deck played 3 Continued Training and Docide Thug,
every Green deck played 3 Witchfire, Wasteland Stalwart, and Wasteland Requiem, and
every Blue deck played 3 Excommunicatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A whopping 25 support cards had a 100% conversion rate to the top 4. This means every player that had any copies of these cards in their deck made it to the top 4. Largely, these are cards that saw a relatively few number of copies played. Smoke Bomb was only in Nick\u2019s deck, for example, so given that he made the cut, Smoke Bomb has a 100% conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By color, the cards with 100% conversion rate are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red – Chain Plasma Rifle, Overcharge, Ambush, Search and Destroy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spotter\u2019s Scope, Battle Ready, Follow the Trail, Concussive Blast, and Melt Down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow – Continued Training, Too Cute to Die, Magnite Studios, Sleight of Hand, Disrupt Communication, Animus Golem, Lifecrafter\u2019s Art, Back Alley Deal, Heirloom Cittern, Smoke Bomb, Back Alley Conjurer, Black Market Profiteer, Operahouse Critic, and Angel of Music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green – Wasteland Stalwart and Wasteland Requiem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue – None.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue cards with the highest conversion rate were:
Blessing of the Cloth – 67%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Templar Armaments – 50%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sever the Ties and Templar Squire – 33%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is mostly a consequence of blue making up such a large portion of the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Aggressive Red cards performed at a very high level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow \/ Green Bully has sufficient answers for a diverse metagame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be prepared to play against blue sacrifice decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Boston is still very good at this game (but CAN be beaten).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading. I know this is a tight turn around to leverage this information for the Discordia PAO in Bremerton on the 24th, but maybe it can help you out before Paradox Trading Post\u2019s event on the 31st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have had three sizable preseason tournaments, but the game has finally launched and Manifold TCG has now concluded its first Cash Prize tournament of Season 1. There were 11 participants in this event, which is a small enough number that we can mention each player and archetype. The decklists for each player can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[56,55,54,53],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-competitive","tag-decks","tag-metagame","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}