Skirmish Season 6 Meta Analysis: Week 1

Skirmish Season 6 is in full swing, and although things have only just kicked off we are seeing the beginnings of a very diverse meta, with a few top dogs smiling down from the mountaintops.

In this series of Blitz Meta Analysis, we’ll be focusing more on the big picture rather than specific numbers, graphs, and percentages. Each Skirmish season has a story that unfolds, and we’re excited to share that story with you.

More than a hundred Blitz Skirmish events have taken place so far, with a wide spread of classes represented, each with strongly favoured/unfavoured matchups.

Iyslander has ushered in the season with a cold reception, taking out the lion’s share of the wins.

She is followed by four other heroes who sport extremely effective aggressive strategies to blast their opponents to smithereens, or powerful control tools to run their opponents into the ground.

Two of the OG heroes from Welcome to Rathe have returned to put up a decent fight, and several other rogue underdogs have managed to make a small but noticeable dent.

Lastly we’ll take a look at an unprecedented event in Skirmish history - Data Doll in the winner’s seat!

Iyslander

Despite losing access to several Wizard, Elemental Wizard, and Ice cards on the banlist, Iyslander has boasted the most impressive win streak this week.

Her ability to disrupt aggro and combo strategies with cards like Channel Lake Frigid at instant speed allows her to keep the game-ending turns at bay, forcing heroes to play slow and inefficiently while she chips away with small packets of arcane damage. It doesn’t take long until you end up in her kill range, which usually involves a triple threat of arcane damage from the arsenal, from the hand (using Storm Striders), and activating Waning Moon.

While many may be familiar with the Wounded Bull and Fyendal’s Fighting Spirit packages that have carried over from Classic Constructed, we’re also seeing pure arcane-focused builds perform well, utilizing reds like Ice Bolt, Emeritus Scolding, and even Voltic Bolt in place of attacks to pour out arcane damage faster and broaden the kill range.

The two heroes that seem to have the best fighting chance of surviving the winter wonderland are Dash and Prism, which are both able to pivot between playing fast and slow, and pack extra resources to power through the frostbites. Dash in particular can output decent damage and force Iyslander to play proactively or risk decking out. Prism packs heaps of cheap heralds to throw at the Ice Queen, while the threat of sticky auras looms overhead.

Kassai, Oldhim, Dash, and Chane

Kassai is steadily taking names this season, having finally received the last piece of the puzzle needed to become a formidable threat. Blood on Her Hands gives Kassai a worthy goal to work towards, and actually adds relevant weight to the copper generation from her weapon swings.

As a Warrior, Kassai is well-equipped with chunky armour, able to trade blows with her opponent until the combo is assembled, then throw the kitchen sink at their attacks and completely obliterate them on the crackback. Kassai is growing to be a popular choice against aggro decks like Dash and control decks like Oldhim, but seems to fall short against arcane tricksters who manage to find the gaps in her armour.

The frosty giant himself remains a powerhouse in Blitz, exhausting many heroes beyond their limits. Oldhim’s absolute nutbusting tank of an armour set grants him huge survivability into aggro decks, while Winter’s Wail and the range of disruption available to Guardians lets him play massive turns to always keep heroes like Dash and Chane on the back foot.

But the old man isn’t without his weaknesses. Prism continues to be a thorn in Oldhim’s side, running out endless auras to punish his slower playstyle. Wizards are also proving to be more than capable of exploiting Oldhim’s one-trick turn cycles, blocking carefully and stacking combo kills in their deck to push over the mass of arcane barrier.

Some Oldhim builds are cutting down on defensive tools like Sink Below, Oasis Respite, and Sigil of Solace, in favour of more disruption such as Oaken Old, Endless Winter, and Glacial Footsteps, as well as a higher blue count - this is likely a response to his worst matchups, trying to seal the deal before being overwhelmed by auras or arcane combos. One notable tech choice is the use of Snapdragon Scalers in conjunction with Enlightened Strike, granting some powerful aggressive utility.

Dynasty has really broken down the fence for Dash, and she’s ready to let loose. Dash’s boost strategy is an easy one to grasp, but a tricky one to perfect. In a format where disruption can be game-deciding, Pulsewave Harpoon adds a whole extra level. Now you can actually punish your opponent for taking all the damage by ripping a key card out of their hand.

Dash can go head to toe with a large spread of the Blitz field, which is probably why she’s a popular pick. The use of Teklo Core and Teklo Pounder give Dash the extra resources and damage she needs to push over the top. She has been performing decently well into aggro decks like Chane and Briar, comfortable racing them to the finish line, and also into Iyslander and Kano, as she is able to consistently threaten lethal damage each turn and limit the Wizard’s much-wanted breathing room.

But every road has a few speed bumps. Being forced to block by Warriors like Kassai and Dorinthea keep Dash from fully embracing her gameplan, and Guardians like Oldhim and Bravo are packing enough defense to run her out of gas.

The most favoured weapon continues to be the classic Teklo Plasma Pistol, but due to the sideboarding limitations of Blitz, many Dash decks are opting not to run any pistol support items such as Induction Chamber and Plasma Purifier, as they can be really awkward in the aggro boost strategy.

Even without Seeds of Agony, Chane is bringing the pain. With such a unique and exploitable hero ability, Chane has so much room for innovation. Chane has claimed quite a few souls so far, able to race Dash and Kassai with huge Blood Debt turns, and despite the historically bad matchup against Oldhim, appears to be finding new ways to further close the gap.

Having a good aggressive strategy is the best way to protect yourself against the everpresent Kano menace, but things get a little dicey when it comes to Iyslander. It can be really hard clearing your Blood Debt cards or making use of your hero ability with the constant disruption that Iyslander puts out, and her tendency to drop it on you after you’ve already committed to a play can leave Chane in some really awkward spots.

We’re still seeing the essentials such as Howl from Beyond, Rift Bind, and Art of War, along with several powerful Runeblade staples, but there are also several tech cards being sneaked in to help against the biting cold. One particularly nifty trick is the use of Tome of Fyendal with Spellbound Creepers, allowing you to extend your turns or draw some extra blocking cards, while also gaining a sizeable life bonus. Another innovative little number is using a single copy of Last Ditch Effort, with the goal of placing it in arsenal so that when your entire deck has been banished, you have an 8-power attack with go again waiting in the wings.

Dorinthea and Bravo

The supreme swordswoman has cut herself a decent slice of the pie so far. Perhaps not as much as the aforementioned heroes, but a noticeable chunk nonetheless. Dorinthea is able to force aggro decks to do the one thing they don’t want to do - block. The threat of Dawnblade allows her to take control of the ebb and flow of the game, until she sees powerful bombs like Steelblade Supremacy or Glistening Steelblade. She appears to be doing moderately okay against Oldhim, and chances are she’ll be able to pull off those crucial power turns more easily if Oldhim players continue to remove defense reactions from their decks.

Where Dorinthea finds it truly rough is with Illusionists and Wizards. Both Prism and Dromai make things extremely awkward for the golden girl, as her lack of phantasm poppers and reliance on targeting the hero for attacks make it an uphill battle every time. And the age-old shenanigans of Warrior vs Wizard come back to haunt Dorinthea, with her attack reactions often getting outpaced by instant speed plays.

One particularly interesting new tech popping up in some Dori lists is the use of Rouse the Ancients alongside a new card from Outsiders - Gore Belching. With no other attack actions in the deck, this essentially turns Gore Belching into a 0-cost 7-power attack every time, which is huge value off the back of a Dawnblade swing with go again.

And the crowd cheers as Bravo lands on stage once more - although this time perhaps in a more supporting cast role. Bravo’s ability to throw huge attacks with debilitating effects allows him to force block after block from almost every deck in the game, which in turn gives him more opportunities to force damage through with dominate.

Not much has changed about how Bravo plays in Blitz - we’re still seeing a high blue count with the usual suspects of Crippling Crush, Spinal Crush, and Pummel, among others.

Bravo is an experienced veteran when it comes to crushing random encounters with oddball heroes, and this generally favourable spread is likely why the die-hard Guardian fans continue to rep him. Like Dorinthea, Bravo has claimed a small but significant foothold in the early stages of Skirmish Season 6, stealing wins here and there from unlucky Chanes and Dashes, and even the odd Wizard. But many of his games still seem to come down to whether he can consistently pull off back to back crushes before he gets Blitzed off his feet.

Lexi, Briar, Kano, Prism, Rhinar, and Uzuri

Each of these heroes has a few victories under their belt so far, due to one or more of the following:

• They put out decent disruption
• They have consistent ways to close out games
• They counter a specific popular deck

These heroes are able to ride the outskirts of the Blitz throng, picking up wins from their good matchups, and hopefully dodging their bad ones. However, each of them struggles against either aggressive decks like Chane, Dash, and Kassai, or against disruptive decks like Iyslander and Oldhim.

It’s still early days, so the opportunity for one of these underdogs to break the meta wide open is still possible, and we shall see how they adapt and perform over the coming weeks.

Data Doll

Be careful who you pick on, because there’s nothing worse than being dumpstered by the hero you’ve just been trash talking.

Data Doll has made it onto the board - this is not a drill.

While I do believe we are still a fair few centuries off from the Data Doll renaissance, it’s great to see that with some careful preparation, skillful play, and a teeny bit of luck, pulling off an event win with the doll is possible. The lower intellect of Data Doll is a massive drawback, coupled with the lack of block value from items, but there are many plays you can make to navigate your way through these disadvantages.

Micro-processor has revitalized the deck, adding some critical consistency that the deck was missing. Now you can dig further for items, filter the items you draw, and extend your evergrowing armada of machines. Data Doll wins by swarming the field with items that will generate resources, damage, and hand/deck filtering. Teklo Foundry Heart, Hyper Driver, and Optekal Monocle are all crucial parts of this engine, as you want to be able to play boost attacks from hand, yeet a Metrix tonne of items onto the field, and finish with a few pistol shots.

There is always going to be an inherent challenge to playing Data Doll into aggro decks with on-hit triggers, and disruptive strategies that squeeze you for everything you’ve got like Iyslander can be an extremely painful experience to go through - but with enough luck in the matchup lottery and careful maintenance of all your moving parts you may find yourself landing a win streak like no other.

We’ve only seen one event win from Data Doll so far this season, but I, like many others, will be keeping a keen eye on the lil ‘engine that could’ to see how far she progresses.

Final Thoughts

We’ve started off in quite the Cold Snap, with Iyslander taking a strong early lead in both representation and wins. But players are resilient and love a good challenge, so there's a chance she won’t be sitting pretty at the top of the peak for long. If she’s not dethroned, it’s gonna be a long winter.

Underneath the icing on the cake are a variety of flavours, some more pronounced than others.

We haven’t seen a lot so far from the newcomers Uzuri, Riptide, and Arakni, Solitary Confinement. But these heroes haven’t been out for long and newbies always need a bit of time to settle in and figure out their place in the food chain.

Pockets of Ninjas are popping up here and there, with some new toys from Outsiders, but aren’t quite there yet. The same goes for Azalea, who is performing extremely well in Classic Constructed but seems to fizzle out too often in the modern Blitz arena. Brutes are still praying to the dice gods, but we haven’t entered a new age of savagery just yet.

As the meta shifts and solidifies, windows of opportunity will open up for these misfits and hopefully they’ll make some noise.

Tune in next week to catch the next chapter of our Skirmish Meta Analysis series!