Metagame Breakdown

Out of the 90 competitors at the event, here is how the metagame was split.

Titans – 13
Curve Sentinel – 12
Common Enemy – 6
F4 – 6
TNB - 6
Cosmic Cops – 5
X-Stall – 6
Mutant Nation – 3
League of Assassins – 3
Big Brotherhood – 4
Brave and the Bold – 3
Brotherhood/League of Assassins – 3
X-Men - 2          
Brotherhood/GK – 2
Arkham Inmates – 2

The following decks made singular appearances (14 decks total):
Wild Vomit, F4/GK, Prophecy Fulfilled, Phantom Phonebooth, Darkseid’s Elite, Syndicate/Revenge Squad, F5/Arkham Inmates, Revenge Squad/F5, Spider-Friends, LOA/F5, Syndicate Rush, Doom Control, Rigged Elections, New Gods/ F5.

It was anticipated that Titans and Curve Sentinel would be huge, but there are some interesting trends that go against the grain of the North American metagame. Common Enemy is still going strong in Germany, and European players have adapted it with some interesting tech to keep it strong. Robot Destroyer made a strong showing in particular, but Wolverine, New Fantastic Four and even Human Torch, Hotshot saw play as well.

Many local players felt that X-Stall was under-represented in Germany, and the $10K seemed to further prove that, as X-Stall was rivaled by several other decks in popularity, including the relatively new Cosmic Cops. 

The proliferation of Brotherhood teamup variants was somewhat unique to the metagame. Mutant Nation was surprisingly popular, but it's pretty interesting that teamups with the League and Gotham Knights saw their way into multiple players’ decks. The Brave and the Bold continues to be an under-played deck in North America, and the fact that it was matched in popularity here by Brotherhood/League demonstrates that this trend doesn’t seem likely to be reversed any time soon.

The solid showing from straight Fantastic Four decks and Big Brotherhood was of note as well, with most builds being similar to those played at PC Indy. In an environment that was predicted to be behind North America and the UK, these two decks were really the only way in which that speculation came true.  Overall, the metagame was current and then some, featuring not only the best current archetypes but also a great deal of innovation to keep some older decks competitive.

The only deck really missing from the metagame was TNB Blitz, since none of the six TNB decks present at the event focused on direct damage.

Overall the metagame was extremely varied, and due to the presence of a high number of Curve Sentinel decks, as well as more Gotham Knights than usual and a bit of Spider-Friends, the environment was very negation-heavy. Many players were playing to beat Titans, and as a result many decks relying on activated effects had a difficult time competing in the early rounds.