GDI War factory works overtime – Top 50 Deck Analysis July 2019

Welcome to the monthly Rivals meta analysis: What units and commanders do the top 50 players in the ladder play? This time, I released GDI and Nod data at the same time, you can find the Nod version here.

• Please find the raw data here, incl. a full list of the decks including nicknames, if you want to find a player who plays a certain unit or deck.
• Average deck level was constant at 13.5, which could indicate that players switched units (that are not as levelled-up) or that new players made their way into the top50. The first aspect does play some role, as we see quite some under-levelled Scatterers and even MSVs.
• 1.9 infantry (-0.2), 2.0 vehicles (+0.2), 1.0 air (-0.3) and 0.8 (+0.2) tech units make up the average deck (changes to last month in brackets)

Now to the main data, the unit frequency. How to read the table below:

• "Frequency" is the share of Decks that run this unit or commander. First, the frequency in % over last 4 months is shown. Then, a bar chart visualizes the June frequency. Third, there is a small line chart that shows the trend over the last 4 months.
• "Δ vs average winrate" is how the winrate decks utilizing this unit/commander deviates from the average (e.g. Sniper decks had a 7 percentage point higher winrate than the average deck)
• "Δ vs average levels" is how the levels of decks utilizing this unit/commander deviate from average (e.g. decks utilizing the Shatterer are -0.9 levels under the average)

Observations:

• Winners
• Slingshots tripled in usage to 30%
• Shatterers made a strong w
• War Dogs made a comeback and are now at 38% usage, likely driven by the overall shift to war factory
• MLRS made a small comeback, especially in decks that are very factory-heavy. Maybe this was also inspired by the SHOWDOWN event, where MLRS were a key unit for most GDI builds
• Every fifth deck now contains a Mammoth Tank, the most expensive unit in Rivals
• Titans are now seen in a surprising 10% of the decks
• Mohawks nudged up from 8% to 14%, possibly from players looking for an alternative to Orcas
• Zone Troopers and Wolverines went up to 14% each, showcasing that Tech overall did become more viable with the latest changes
• Losers
• Orca fell from 34% to 14% after it was nerfed
• Droneswarm went from 38% to 16%
• Unsurprisingly, this also means the APC went down, as the meta APC deck relies on support from both Drones and Orcas.
• Pitbulls fell from 80% to 60%, likely more due to the rise of the Slingshot than due to their recent nerf
• Usage of Grenadiers and Snipers went down, yet the decks that still utilize them sport strong winrates

Unit Type Distribution

This chart shows how many decks contain how many units from which building. 

• Few decks do without Infantry, and >50% have exactly 2 Infantry
• There's even decks with 5 or 6 vehicles, thanks to the newest GDI units Slingshot, Shatterer and MSV
• There's only few Air decks left in GDI (i.e. decks with 3+ Air units)
• Tech has gotten more frequent and comes in many different forms

Click here to switch to the Nod analysis