September saw the release of new Reinforcement Packs for Malediction.
With these new cards there were hopes of new life for some Seekers and exciting new strategies for others.
There were 11 events held in September and over 100 additional games logged on Malediction Stats, how did each Seeker fair and were there any interesting outcomes?
Disclaimer: While this data is compiled from 261 games, do not take these results as fact. Use this data to test and reinforce your theories, not to replace them. Do your own research, play your own games, and see whether the results hold up at your table.
Thundersteps was September's top performing Seeker way overperforming his previous 46% win rate, boasting an 80%! win rate in September's tournaments.
Polinore, Prime Archivist followed close behind with a 64% win rate with six top-three finishes from nine entries, including a win at Echoes of a Dying God.
Vorendal, the Dreadheart was tied for most played and played the most games (14% of the meta) but only won 47% of his matches. Don't be fooled by these results, this points towards people testing with him.
Londriel, Spellwarden went 8–17–1, a 32% win rate, and losing all four games against Polinore to be the lowest performing Seeker for September. Similar to Vorendal's results, don't read this as Londriel is a bad Seeker.
A lot of top players have shelved her in favour of other Seekers to test out new cards, read this as people testing with her since she performed really well in a few large events not too long ago.
The meta is open, 11 events produced 7 different winning Seekers. Read more below to dive deeper into these results and for what to keep an eye on in October.
Thundersteps performed very well in September. The new reinforcement cards have given him some great tools to help push that little bit of extra damage needed to turn the corner. Maybe people do read my articles... How to play Thundersteps and Win
Checkout VictusDrake's Thundersteps list that went 3-0.
Griza performed fairly well in September. While only boasting a respectable 47% win rate in official events, combine the casual results and Griza saw, for the first time ever, a 54% win rate.
If you want to learn more about how to play (and win with!) Griza checkout Pat from Seekers of The Malediction's Griza deck review. Pat piloted this deck 3-0 in the Trials of The Everlasting TTS event.
Kar-Mamok took first in the Trials of The Everlasting event going 3-0, piloted by Wapotes.
It has been a bi of a rough start for the Seeker, as they have had a less than stellar win rate over the last few months of 42%.
But... With this performance, there is hope. Take a look at the deck and maybe give it a try!
We reached out to Wapotes to ask him to break down the decks plan: The plan is to get 1 or 2 relics and play it like Londriel where you fall back. Its a very defensive deck with the goal of doing damage through spells, making sure I have enough units and activations to move Kar-Mamok last
The Side Deck is mostly spells against Londriel/Griza with Natures wrath, and against Thundersteps/Sigrith with Retribution
Auric is starting to see two archetypes form. The tried and true Equipment focused build, and the new Swarm Build.
G piloted this new aggressive Auric build to 4-0 victory at the Black Knight Games Sept tournament. It runs a leaner Equipment package and focuses on more cheap units. Is this the new Auric deck that will start seeing some really good results?
In'Gor continues to be a strong pick, but with a meta share of 3.5% he is starting to become a more of a strong sleeper pick. He has consistently put up good results while not seeing a lot of meta share.
Valcarist Priest was the most-included card (24 of 59 lists), and decks which included Citadel Crossbowman won the most often among commonly used cards.
Decklists were submitted for 59 of the 86 event entries, so card data is partial. Card win rates mostly track the Seekers that play them, so read them as "what winning decks share", not as proof a card is strong on its own.
Most Seeker pairs met only once or twice. These pairs played three or more games.
Starcast Halls is the most-played tournament terrain and sits at exactly 50%.
Noxious Fleshgardens has the best record in both tournaments (63%) and casual games (55%, level with Astarian Pathways).
Deathshroud Mire is even in tournaments but wins only 42% of casual games.
Terrain was missing for about 12% of tournament player-games.
New Reinforcements cards are everywhere: 43 of the 59 submitted decklists (73%) run at least one, averaging 2.4 per list, and every one of the 28 new cards appears in at least one list.
Triumvirate Liturgy is a staple. It is the most-adopted new card 59% of eligible Seekers were running it with Griza and Sigrith leading the way.
Ymirian Rage is the breakout card. It ties for the most-adopted new card (11 lists) and has the best record of the four most-played new cards, 24–11 (69%), across Auric, Thundersteps, In'Gor and Kar-Mamok.
Liastrum Research Reinforcement Pack performs well. Liastrum Decimation finished top three in four of its six lists. Liastrum Accumulator and Crackling Trap appear together in the same three Kar-Mamok, Polinore and Londriel lists, which went a combined 7–2.
Choice of Malady is not seeing a lot of success. While drawing three cards is great, the amount of times this will happen is low.
Putting all 261 games together, Polinore leads at 61%, followed by Morrida (56%).
Thundersteps (55%) and Griza (54%) follow up the two top performers while also being very popular picks with high meta share.
Keep an eye on his performance, it was great in September, but is it just specialists performing really well?
Going 16–4 in tournament games, wins at Argentina's first tournament (4-0), Husks of Asgard (3-0) and the Reinforcement's league (3-0). Seven of its eight entries finished in the top three.
The one warning sign is casual play, where it wins only 42%, this tells us that he is not an automatic win still.
Polinore has consistently put up good numbers in both tournament and casual play. If he continues to do this for a few more months it would be hard to not crown him the best Seeker for both new and experienced players.
Six top-three finishes from nine entries, including a win at Echoes of a Dying God, a clean 4–0 against Londriel and 3–0 against Vorendal, and the best combined win rate (61%) once casual games are added.
Auric saw some good results in September. This new swarm archetype may have some legs. Continue to watch it and maybe even give it a try.
You juts may find its the push that helps you pick Auric up a bit more.
A lot of people wanted to see Vorendal do really well with the new cards. We see that in the high meta share.
The results are not there yet at tournaments, but read that as people are testing him out and soon we will see better results form him.
Will October be his month to dominate?
These findings are hereby entered into the Grand Archive.