You may remember that the 5 most popular Decks at YCS Toronto were Gladiator Beasts, X-Sabers, Blackwings, Quickdraw Dandywarrior, and Gadgets, in that order. Although YCS San Jose had the same 5 most popular Decks, the order of their popularity was different.

Fresh off their win from YCS Toronto, X-Sabers were the most popular Deck used in San Jose, comprising of 15.4% of the field. Gladiator Beasts were bumped down to second, making up 12.5% of the field. Blackwings remained the third most popular Deck, despite a small dip in representation to 11.5%. Quickdraw Dandywarrior and Gadgets swapped places in popularity since Toronto, with 7.2% of the Duelists in San Jose running Gadgets, and 6.7% of the Duelists in San Jose running Quickdraw Dandywarrior. Of these 5 major Decks, only Blackwings maintained its popularity rank from Toronto, indicating an ever-changing game.

Top Deck diversity has clearly risen since Toronto. In Toronto these 5 most popular Decks made up 64.6% of the field. But weeks later, at YCS San Jose, these same 5 Decks only made up 53.3% of the field. That means almost half of the field was running a different creation, including the 6th most popular Deck, Lightsworn, comprising of 5.6% of the field, or the 7th most popular Deck, Infernities, making up 4.2% of the competition.

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Analyzing which Decks you’re likely to encounter in a tournament is important when picking a Deck to run, but thinking about which cards you’re likely to encounter in any Deck can be helpful when you’re deciding on a play or thinking about using a specialized card in your Deck. Check out some of the card statistics from YCS San Jose and some of the trends that have been emerging since YCS Toronto, and think about how they may affect some of your plays or card choices.

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