Penny Dreadful: Season 25 Metagame Analysis & Decklists

With a long season, we are approaching the middle of Season 25, starting the 11th week in the middle of July (15/07). We expect to rotate the format on September 15th, right after the launch of the new Standard set: Dominaria United.

We had some losses in the last rotation due to the sudden price increase, driven by the rise of Pioneer (at the time of rotation). But on the other hand, we've seen several cards that are often staples return, such as Declaration in Stone, Chain Lightning, Desperate Ritual, Arcbound Ravager and Hymn to Tourach, which together with a good base of multicolored mana with checklands, allows for different decks of all archetypes.

Summary

season: 25

Current week: 11

Weeks until rotation: 9

Number of events so far: 70

Number of players: 217

Types of decks used: 128

Changes to Schedule

During this season, we've had some changes to the schedule of the format's weekly events. The events on Wednesdays that started earlier focused on the European public were discontinued, as well as the PD Limitless on Tuesdays that already had few participants.

Despite these losses, we had the regular event back on Tuesdays at standard time, with an event every day except Wednesdays (perhaps the day we have fewer events, as there is usually an update).

With a good turnout, this season we've found an average of 15 players per event with an interesting variety of decks and archetypes. Not unlike previous seasons, Aggro decks appear in the majority, followed by Midrange and Combo.

However, the one with the most winning percentages is the Aggro-Combo, which counts almost all of its participation in the most used deck so far this season: Trickbind Dreadnought (115 out of the 148 of the archetype).

Regarding colors, we can see it reflected in the top 20 most used cards: As usual, blue tops the list in terms of number of cards used, with powerful supports such as Treasure Cruise, Ponder and Gitaxian Probe.

In second and third, black and red , with black being widely used as a hate/sideboard to fight opposing strategies. Also, a strong deck that appeared with the return of Hymn to Tourach and that has shown that the basic black always goes well is the Mono Black Midrange (which is often more aggro than control). White and green appear as the least used colors.

Honorable mention to Lantern of the Lost, which appears as first on the most used list (practically all sideboards use at least 2 to 3 copies). It was the best alternative for graveyard hate, since we don't have Soul-Guide Lantern and Tormod's Crypt, both out of more than 5 seasons (S17 and S20 respectively). Without a fast hate, two combo decks managed to rise: Necrotic Ooze and Oops All Spells.

When we look at the number of decks, one seems to be the one chosen to be the darling of the crowd this season: Trickbind Dreadnought. 36 players have used it so far, no wonder: out of 115 participations, in 75 it was successful reaching the top8, 32 in finals.

The deck is easy to pilot and wins fast if left unanswered. When it is, it ends up losing with some ease. Your main strategy would be to use the two cards that give the deck its name:

But what draws attention is that the deck has been molded to the Metagame, leaving the combo as an option for victory. Some lists resemble a Blue Tempo with the addition of this combo, making use of Delver of Secrets and Tempest Djinn to solve the job. Vedalken Shackles returns to the format after a season out after first appearing in the format, and as a potent weapon against creature decks, the deck can handle the entire Metagame very well.

What about the second and third most used decks that, like the first, are still the ones with the most Top 8? Both are the famous "are you in doubt which deck to choose? Go with one of these that can't go wrong".

AggroSlide, also called Boros Cycling, never had a season out of the spotlight, without losing any of its pieces - sometimes it is left out, but whenever it appears, it manages to reach the top without much difficulty, since the best hate against is the rarely played Uba Mask and the main side against it, Stabilizer, went out of format after the deck's first debut season (S16, when Ikoria brought us over 70% of the main deck — just 3 of the 10 main deck nonlands were not released in Ikoria).

Mono Black Midrange, as I mentioned, was boosted with the return of Hymn. It is also often called Mono Black Devotion, due to its specific costs of various black mana on most cards. Certain lists run Gray Merchant of Asphodel along with cards like Vampire Nighthawk, Sign in Blood and Dark Ritual to speed up and maybe cast a Demigod of Revenge on 1 or two Hymns in a row, drying the opponent's hand.

Within the Top 10 with the highest participation, we have two Izzets that share colors, but play very differently. While one is a combo, for the joy of the combo players on duty, you can see the Storm being viable and well positioned - 4th in quantity and 4th with the highest position in top8. The other is more of a Tempo deck, with good game control and that can also kill fast when not fought.

RDW, despite being the 5th most used, has a somewhat faded season. Not being able to find a gap in the middle of many extremely fast combo decks beyond their Achilles heels, the Midranges/Control, which have appeared in a certain amount, as is the case of Azorius Control and Jund Midrange.

On the other hand, Azorius Control, which appears in 5th of the most Top 8 conquered, despite being mostly without entering the Top 4, the deck doesn't seem to be able to stop the combos this season, but it still has 64% of use.

And for the last 2 of this Top 10 most used list, we have two aggros: Affinity and White Weenie. Here I open a parenthesis to comment that, although Aggros are in greater quantity as we saw above, there is a huge diversity of decks - therefore, this archetype has become more diverse.

When the talk is winrate, we find some well-positioned decks running around, like Esper Control and Jokulhaups, very used in recent seasons, both above 60% of wins in tournaments. Also, the appearances of these two contenders are fine, 10 out of 11 for Esper and 5 out of 7 for Jokulhaups.

The two combo decks that rely heavily on the graveyard to win, Oops All Spells and Necrotic Ooze, show the justification for the ever-present serious hate, with Ooze appearing in the top 8 in 13 of 17 entries, and Oops having 9 tops of 11.

As every Penny player already knows, we have the end of season tournament always with a huge pool that adds up to 500 tix in prizes (if you didn't know, now you do!).

And with the date of Dominaria United released, we have the date set for the next PD500: September 10. With free entry, just have an MTGO account, a legal deck and register on the tournament page when it opens, at Gatherling.

It's worth remembering that every player who manages to win a regular tournament in the season starts this event with a bye!

Prizes:

1st -----------130 tix

2nd-----------90 tix

3rd–4th-----60 tix

5th–8th-----30 tix

9th–16th---10 tix

In credits to the Cardhoarder account.

For more information about the event and the format, visit official page.

Trickbind Dreadnought

Mono Black Midrange

Izzet Spells

Aggroslide

UG Merfolk

Elves

White Weenie

Mardu Hero

Naya Hero

Oops All Spells

Izzet Storm

Necrotic Ooze Combo

RDW

Jeskai Ascendancy

Rakdos Aristocrats

WUBR Jokulhaups Control

Jund

I hope you enjoyed the content! Leave it in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions, and until next time!