The numbers are in, and Squadron Supreme is dramatically the most popular deck for Day 1 of Pro Circuit Atlanta. With 122 people choosing to burn through their hand and their opponent’s defenses, it represents about 37% of the field. Within the archetype there are various interesting new inclusions, with The Evil Eye being popular, and Firestar, Hellion making quite a splash.

The beatdown flavor continues with Avengers Reservist, Brotherhood Reservist, and various mixes of the two. These deck types show very efficient use of resources, as any replacement effects more or less end up reading “draw a card” rather than “replace a resource.” The most common cards seen in all the versions are Wonder Man, Black Panther, T’Challa, and various reservist combat pumps. Make no mistake, these decks are fighting to go toe-to-toe with Squadron.

There are 21 Morlocks decks in the field, pummelling faces with a slightly different rhythm, but still going for the throat. Many people questioned the power of the Morlocks Physical deck in the face of Mutant Massacre, which can blunt the deck’s edge, but it is hard to argue with the raw attack power. This is one deck that is not concerned by System Failure.

Faces of Evil, a deck that this weekend has most commonly included a strong X-Men element (for powerful small characters) and, in many cases, Blackbird Blue, is much more concerned about System Failure. There is a lot of to-and-fro among the top decks in terms of matchups, and the inclusion or omission of a single card can definitely swing the victory. System Failure is just one example of such a vital card. The key strength of the Faces deck is consistency. With a huge amount of search effects (Yellowjacket, Ape X, Beetle, Armorsmith, Archangel, Angel, X-Corp: Amsterdam), it can get what it wants when it wants it, beating down all the while. Tricky to build and play, Faces is a power player in the metagame, and has been championed by many top players, including Neil Reeves, Adam Prosak, and Dean Sohnle.

The one nod toward defense is the X-Men(tal) deck. It sits back and defends against the flurry of attacks coming from all the aggressive beaters in the format, using powerful defensive twists to nullify as many of their attacks as possible. Its win is almost incidental, after it stops opponents from doing what they are planning to do, which is to win big and win fast.

The full metagame breakdown is as follows:

Squadron Supreme                       122

Avengers Reservist                       52

Brotherhood Reservist                   37

X-Men(tal)                                  28

Morlock Beats                              21

Faces of Evil                                20

Hellfire Club                                 15

Brotherhood/Avengers Reservist      14

Physical Beats                              2

Masters of Evil/Morlocks                 2

Mutant Energy                              2

Mutopia                                       2

Blackbird Blue Beats                       2

Burn                                           1

Kang                                          1

Kang/Hellfire                                1

Faces of Evil/Brotherhood               1

Multiple Man Special                      1