It’s been said that one of the strengths of the Vs. System environment is that it supports more than just one or two top decks. Though Common Enemy, Big Brotherhood, and Teen Titans/Arsenal Abuse are tearing up metagames worldwide, there really is a wide range of playable decks that verge on being first-tier. The Mexico City TNT 8 $10K was an awesome example of how diverse a single major tournament can be.

Here’s a breakdown of the decks the sixty-six competitors used.

Common Enemy: 11
Big Brotherhood: 10
New Brotherhood: 6
Teen Titans: 6
Wild Vomit: 5
League of Assassins: 5
Spider-Friends: 4
Sinister Syndicate: 4
GK/Doom: 3
Doom Control: 2
X-Men: 2
Fantastic Four: 2 (1 Equip, 1 Acceleration)
Other: 6 (Mutant Nation, Doom/F5, GK, The Brave and the Bold, Arkham Inmates)

Common Enemy being the most-played deck was expected. It’s the most proven deck in the environment and is comparatively easy to play when set against decks like Teen Titans, The Brave and the Bold, or Syndicate Rush. It’s been explored and tested to utter perfection, so it’s not a surprise that it was the most popular deck choice in Mexico City. In fact, the real surprise might be that it wasn’t more popular. With the relative freshness of serious Vs. System play in Mexico, it’s remarkable that more players weren’t playing Common Enemy.

The popularity of Brotherhood decks, be they Big Brotherhood, New Brotherhood, or Mutant Nation was another non-surprise. Again, the decks are proven to be reliable, and the cards are extremely easy to get for the most part due to the X-Men vs. Brotherhood starter sets.

Teen Titans could have gone either way. It’s a headache to play but is quite proven in serious competition. With just under 40% of the field committed to major Brotherhood and Common Enemy builds, six players running Titans seems to be a solid middle ground—not enough to totally sweep the tournament, but enough to likely turn some heads and make an impact in the Top 8. Though Common Enemy is the deck to beat, it’s likely that Titans will be handing out a lot of the beatings.

Five players running Wild Vomit is about average, if not perhaps one player higher than most would estimate. The presence isn’t a surprise, but the lack of Sentinel Curve decks is in some aspects. The fact that Sentinel Curve decks were totally unrepresented was likely due to two factors; the first being the much-talked-about freshness of Vs. System in Mexico, and the second being the fact that the deck really has not yet proven itself in major competitive events.

Spider-Friends, Syndicate, GK/Doom, and League of Assassins are the real winners of the event. All four of these decks have been seeing testing in most circles as of late, and Mexico City represents another benchmark in their entrance into the money scene. Though the builds of Spider-Friends and Syndicate seemed somewhat half-developed and not yet decided on a final direction (none could be classified by the current archetypical definitions for these teams), their mere presence makes a statement about the future of these decks in the environment.

If those four decks were the “winners,” then Doom Control was the loser. Since Common Enemy can exploit the late game potential of the Doom team affiliation better than Doom Control can due to the inclusion of Silver Surfer, fewer and fewer players are sticking with strictly-defined Doom decks. Despite the potential of Purple Man, the siren call of the curve-breaking numbers of F4 characters is just too tempting given the current environment.

X-Men, Fantastic Four, and a handful of other affiliations made nominal showings. The shocker of the bunch, to some at least, was the lack of a decent presence from The Brave and the Bold, a deck which some feel has the potential to be the best deck in the current environment. However, it’s arguably even more difficult to play than Arsenal Abuse, so perhaps to some the effort just isn’t worth the unproven payoff.

Whether or not this metagame will be indicative of the type of line up we see from Pro Circuit So Cal is difficult to judge at this point. With the Pro Circuit just five weeks away, opinions are forming fast, and it’s possible that Teen Titans might overshadow Common Enemy as the most popular strategic choice. Time will tell, but for now, Common Enemy has retained its dominant presence in Mexico City.