GDI Top 50 November -- Talon, Zones and Razorback grow in popularity

Every month, I analyze the decks of the Top 50 Nod and GDI players in Rivals. This is the November 2019 issue for GDI. Please find the Nod version here.

You can find the raw data here, including a full list of the decks including nicknames. The Average deck level went down by -0.1 to 13.8, possibly related to the new unit (Razorback) and more Tech units.

In the chart above, you can see how deck composition by unit type changed from October to November. You can e.g. see that there's now some 5-vehicle decks again. Also, we can see that last month, while about a third of decks had exactly one Tech unit in, only very few had more. This month, there's now 9 decks with two Tech units.

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

• "Frequency" is the share of Decks that run this unit or commander. First, the frequency in % over last months is shown. Then, a bar chart visualizes the June frequency, and a +/- number shows the change to the previous month. Lastly, there is a small line chart that shows the trend over the last months.
• "Δ vs average winrate" is how the winrate decks utilizing this unit/commander deviates from the average (e.g. Hammerhead decks had a 7 percentage points higher winrate compared to the average)
• "Δ vs average levels" is how the levels of decks utilizing this unit/commander deviate from average (e.g. Jackson decks had -0.6 lower levels compared to the average)

Units with most usage gain:

• Razorback +14 percentage points
• Talon +14
• Zone Trooper +10
• Slingshot +10

Units with most usage drop:

• Droneswarm -18 percentage points
• Pitbull -16
• APC -14

Observations:

• Zone Trooper / Titan is a surprisingly popular combination, with 3 of the Top 10 players fielding this combo (namely BIKERUSHOWNZ, Benven2 and BobbyBouche)
• Mammoth Tanks are still popular at 16% and either come alone or paired with Zone Troopers. They don't have a great win rate in the Top 50, but I still feel that for the sake of lower leagues, they and Tech in general probably should be nerfed.
• Razorback has made a strong entry with 14% usage in the first month. The Razorback also performed very well in recent tournaments, especially in the competent hands of srpss. Below, find a good video from 13lade showcasing Razorback play.
• What's interesting is that while War Factory usage overall increased, two of the units widely considered as very strong dropped in usage: Pitbull and APC. This combination, along with the decline of the usage of Droneswarms, hints at a specific deck having fallen a bit out of favor: The quintessential Suzaku APC deck (Suzaku talks about the deck in this interview). Now, there's just 4 of them in the Top 50, or 6 if we count Mohawk and Razorback variants. Last month, it was 11!
• Pitbull usage is at an all-time low, and the decks that chose to do without it come in all forms. Of the 24 decks, 13 "replace" it's anti-air role with Slingshot. This leaves 11 decks with neither Slingshot nor Pitbull. Most of them do without war factory altogether, usually Tech or Orca Bomber decks. But there's also two decks with War Factory but neither Pitbull nor Slingshot: LemonLyman's Missile/Sniper-Dog/Shatterer-Hammerhead/Borca deck and Tommy's Rifle/Missile-Tank/APC-Talon/Mohawk deck.
• Less Suzaku APC also means less Strongarm. The 6 percentage points decline in Strongarm didn't go to Liang, but Jackson. Unsurprisingly, 8 of the 10 Jackson decks are Tech Decks (How to beat Tech decks).

Player highlights:

• VictorBansemer from Brazil and dice from Uzbekistan have the lowest levels with 11.8 each. VictorBansemer plays a standard bomber deck with Liang - Missile, Sniper - War Dogs, Pitbull - Hammerhead, Borca on 66% winrate and dice plays a crazy Jackson - Jumpjets - Dogs, Shatterer, Slingshot, MLRS - Talon deck
• GGGG is also in the top 5 lowest-level decks, and annoys a ton of people with his Air Mammoth deck, winning 63% of the games that he's usually under-levelled
• TizzleJizzle had a crazy 82% winrate with L12.6 and Liang - Missile, MG, JJ - Slingshot, Talon, Borca
• Magni delivers an incredible 90% winrate on L14.2 with an "oldschool" deck: Missile, Shock(!) - Dogs, Pitbull, Predator Tank - Talon
• jordan has a 79% winrate on a L13 3-0-3 deck with Jackson - Rifle, Missile, MG - Talon, Hammerhead, Orca Bomber
• 13lade shows that the Suzaku APC is still viable, with 89% winrate on L13.8.
• Unsurprisingly, AliciaDestiny and BIKERUSHOWNZ are the two players with winrates of more than 95%

Click here for the Nod Top 50 Analysis November 2019