https://duelspot.com/the-2019-duelyst-power-rankings/
I say most of what I want to say in the intro of the article, but I hope people find this useful and appreciate the effort of everyone involved. Feel free to discuss what you think is wrongly ordered or missed out etc. And please let me know if you spot any errors or have other feedback.
Take care until next time.
Poor Vanar⌠only a single slot (whereas every other faction gets at least three), the only faction whose Wanderer deck didnât make the cut, and one of the only two factions who didnât get in for generic âAggroâ.
(On that note, what on Earth happened to Aggro Ragnora? In the previous Power Rankings (Novemberâs), it came in at position 11 out of 20, and now itâs off the list entirely. My guess is that voters wanted to give more representation to Vetruvian, and maybe some of its votes got cannibalized by Eggs and Burn even though theyâre really different archetypes. Still, itâs got to be stronger than Aggro Sajj, as intriguing as that deck looks.)
Honestly, I wish that all of the Wanderer decks would be lumped together into one slot. While I understand that theyâre different enough to be listed separately, they do overlap a lot in their neutral core (more so than any other cross-faction archetype), and they all seem to play pretty similarly (as a sort of idealized midrange). Mostly Iâd just like to see what people think about other decks kept off the list due to Wandererâs predominance.
Finally, a minor mistake: Freudâs Aggro Reva list got duplicated into the decklists for Arcanyst Shidai.
Think Iâve fixed the decklists that you mentioned. Thanks for mentioning it.
Essentially for Raggro yeah, got cannibalized back. Even though the deck is still good and all it doesnât really have the representation of people playing it as far as Iâve seen, and combined with how itâs overlapping heavily with eggs and slightly with decispikes I just felt that it wasnât right to include it. So it was not voted on at all.
Honestly Iâd like to have a more robust process for this kind of thing, but if you split everything up and include every existing variation of mech wanderer, titan, aggro, etc in every faction etc etc nobody is going to want to sort through that to order whatâs best. Duelyst has a LOT of decks at this point in itâs life and if I include one thing I should include another. I have to draw a line somewhere, but I donât always get it right.
The community vote actually put Faie Aggro at #15, which I mentioned in the intro, and I think Aggro Faie & Vetruvian were super close with Faie in at #21. Iâd go up to 25, but it was already hard enough to get 20 lists, some of the fringe deck types donât really have specialists or champions, at least not that I am aware of. I think this will just get harder for me if I do another one next year as over the last month Iâve greatly decreased my playtime, and that may continue. At least for laddering, I still intend to keep up with any tournaments that the community runs, but as people have started taking up banlists it just disconnects a little from the ladder experience that I aim the article for.
Out of interest, what were the decks from 21-25 that just missed out? I kinda agree to a certain degree with NH3 that Wanderer decks should be lumped together. In that you could just put what the top/best Wanderer deck and mention the variations with other generals/factions, since Wanderer decks take 5 out of the 20 places. Which kinda takes away the diversity or chance to show other decks. But its just a minor thing.
Trash rankings, no meld combos anywhere, author is a hack, must be a wanderer main.
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Thanks for the read bud
Personally I feel that multiple Wanderer decks correctly convey their strength and grip on the meta, and that it is worth showing the relative perceived power. I know for sure some people are happy to play their wanderer general, but do not like say a certain green Lizardâs dominance. If you had it as one entry that doesnât really show very well how Ragnora is King, while Vanarâs is arguably not even their best midrange deck.
Not quite what you asked but these are the community votes, which were used to narrow down what I asked everyone to vote on, culling from the bottom up of course. so 21-26 are the ones missing of the article down to Kaleos.
So much gosh darn wanderer. My god, I didnât know it was this bad.
Itâs funny how Duelyst has gone full circle since 2 draw. It started out as a Magmar + Vet dominated meta, with minimal Vanar presence, and ends with a Magmar + Vet dominated meta with minimal Vanar presence.
Well what people think is strong doesnât necessarily translate into what people play. I donât see that many other wanderers beside Ragnora.
I believe that ranking decks from 1st to 20th doesnt really gives a clear portrait of the meta. Having all lists separated in tier ranking (tier 1, tier 2, etc) with no preference inside the single tier is much better imho
No offense but what is the point of this ?
It is not like anything changed much since the last tierlist
Playing devilâs avocado here but thatâs not how metaâs work m8. Itâs entirely possible and has in the past been proven time and time again that decks fall in and out of favor and get worse/better over a period of time despite no cards being added to the cardpool.
I get not much has changed, but a lot of people went to great strides to put this together. Itâd be a shame to have it go to waste. 
Besides, the meta just represents whatâs played on ladder, not the strength of decks. It can change from time to time.
Did someone discover a new forbidden fruit 
?
Iâve been thinking more about this topic and I think this gets to the crux of the issue. Of course the Power Rankings donât, and shouldnât, exactly line up with whatâs popular on the ladder. Decks with unique mechanics and interactions get played way more often than would be justified based on raw power level (most prominently Trial decks, especially Xor); whereas decks that are perceived as âunfunâ are underplayed relative to their power level (I see a decent number of Fault decks, but nowhere near the number you might expect for one of the two Tier 0 decks in the meta). This is natural in this twilight period for Duelyst, and having more deck diversity and a lower overall power level certainly makes the ladder experience more fun.
However, I feel like this separation is especially pronounced when it comes to Wanderer decks. I have no argument with their rankings as measures of abstract power level, but speaking subjectively for a minute (and given that we donât have access to actual play data), hereâs my personal experience on the ladder encountering Wanderer as a regular S-ranker:
If I had to guess whatâs going on, Iâm going back to what I said above: due to the large amount of overlap amongst the neutral core of the deck, the Wanderer âexperienceâ can feel pretty similar across factions. Given that, if the deckâs playstyle appeals to you, youâre going to be inclined to play the best version of it, e.g., Ragnora.
So I guess what Iâm questioning is how âmetaâ these non-Ragnora Wanderer decks actually are: theyâre definitely strong, but it doesnât seem to me that they actually see that much play.
(And of course, all of this may just be confirmation bias on my part: Niklaren mentions above that amount of play was taken into consideration in the rankings, and itâs plausible that there are dedicated non-Magmar Wanderer players that I just havenât been running into.)
Alright, so I think I should answer this first and then expand it a to what @nh3maser was bringing up.
When I finished the last Power Rankings I was already knowing that Duelyst was in itâs âtwilight periodâ, the Rankings definitely had no business going monthly, but I didnât know that the duelyst central site was going to go offline. When that happened I transferred the final Power Rankings to Chuqwertyâs pretty new site, Duelspot. I really liked how it ended up looking actually, I think that site is great, how sweet it would have been earlier in Doolyâs history. Hacker got a job at CPG and one month stopped posting the top 50 lists, myself and big credit to @boronian also, for a few months kept this up, but one month I was away on holiday, then we decided it was not worth the effort to collect lists, then I forgot to take the screenshot. I will try and remember to get it this month. Iâm getting off topic. The previous PR was probably not widely known to have been moved across to Duelspot. The Power Rankings was, I feel, always a resource that people could go to if new or returning, or any reason, asking the question âhey, whatâs good in duelyst right now?â
So firstly, I didnât feel like people knew or were being directed to itâs new home on Duelspot. Be honest how many people know Duelspot has an article section? Secondly, that âright nowâ was not being fulfilled, yes very little has changed, but that too is valuable information. Just because that was the result, doesnât mean it was guaranteed to be so. I personally feel Kaleos & Ciph should have climbed onto the list. Creating a new piece of content for the game to some of you will seem like very little, but I dunno, enough people still play this game for some reason. A little bit of me belongs here too. Guess I still care. For the people still playing checking the article and seeing itâs only a few months old, not a year or two, I hope that means something.
Thirdly, actually, given the âTwilightâ nature of the game, and my aforementioned caring, I wanted to leave something I thought this game deserved, the last one in Novemver '18⌠okay so usually we set a deadline, and if a writeup wasnât in on time or no one could be found, well no biggie the lead (me) would just fill in. I remember asking a couple of people to write for Obelysks, which inexplicably made it into #20, before just having to do it myself. This game has seen some good players and a diverse cast, I wanted 20 unique authors. People that were experts, that had passion for these decks, maybe that I remembered or associated with them. Itâs not like I tried to get in touch with Dragall to writeup Burnhorn, but I at least tried to ask Jay for Mantra, Freud for Arcs/Agg Cass, TM87 for Maehv. I didnât pester some people as much as others, some people I just donât know that well. But I did the best I could for my connections and the current playerbase.
At any rate, since I donât know if and when the next Rankings will come I wanted something that I could honestly say I felt was a good resource that was very worthwhile for people to check out from now until the servers go off.
So that is the point of this, you can call it futile, you may be right. But I really did feel like, maybe not what itâs become, but what this game has been, deserved at least when people ask âwhatâs good right nowâ, that they get a good answer.
Given that I hope it answers why, even though I totally agree with you, and really do value your input. I simply feel like the question of âwhatâs goodâ is answered best if the Wanderer decks are split. As you say Rag is best, and therefore more popular. In the last MDl Flash, Lance & Rae were banned. next best is reva/lili, titan and still somehow Vetruvian.
The Wanderer decks do objectively have their own power levels, and necessarily their own faction cards. Rag having access to Flash IS a cut above, Vanar with itâs weakest BBS synergy IS the worst for Wanderer. i canât pretend theyâre equal.
BUT you have caught me, from previous Power Rankings I have learned that if itâs a deck that sees no ladder play people will question why itâs there. The Power Rankings have the luxury of not HAVING to just be whatâs good in the meta, like you say, itâs hard to disagree with the âabstract power of wandererâ, man, every time I play that deck I get taken aback with just how smooth it feels. Like youâre running on easy mode sometimes. Of course the game still has RNG and counters, itâs not like a free win and you definitely see players on ladder hoping to collect free wins, but not getting them. Itâs never that easy, even on easy mode, particularly if youâre relying on what F8 coined as âtraining wheels gameplayâ.
I guess what it comes down to is Iâm probably just biased from playing all Wanderer factions on my smurf. :3 :3 :3
The Rankings (clueâs in the name) was never about this. Even if my some miracle we all agreed on the tiers (unlikely) I think the rankings really force some tough decisions, most people are pretty settled around the top, but in the mid rankings deciding if you really think Ice Age Walls are better than just going generic midrange Vanar is telling. And if most of your peers disagree with you and think midrange is better, thatâs pertinent information. I will leave tier lists to individuals.
I certainly deserve no credit of coming up with the Power Rankings. I am just continuing the work of those before me, I would be delighted if someone took up the torch, I would gladly hand over the reins, and lend my support to a successor. But at the risk of beating a dead horse the gameâs probably not in a state where thatâs to be expected.
@terrarius There is always a point for new content even if it is just confirming what was known but that isnât the case here. There are some changes but also a different way in which the votes were collected. But that isnât even important.
A lot of work went into that one and I for one really appreciate that and I find it also a sign of respect to recognize the work and effort whatever you may think. Especially now our community and the game lives from people going the extra mile and showing there is still stuff happening (e.g. Duelyst World Cup).
So thanks a lot @niklaren and everybody who contributed to it!
Thatâs totally fair! Youâre the one running the project, so editorial decisions are yours to make.
My bias cuts in the opposite direction since Iâve never really played Wanderer besides some minor experimentation when the Trials set first released, but I think all of this discussion has convinced me to try him out again for my ladder climb next season. I guess Iâm set with decklists for most factions, but does anyone have a Kara list theyâd like to share?
