GDI Top 50 in April 2020

Since more than a year, I regularly analyze the decks of the Top 50 Nod and GDI players in Rivals. This is the April 2020 issue for GDI. Please find the Nod variant here.

You can find the raw data here, including a full list of the decks including nicknames. The average deck has a level of 14.5, 2.2 infantry units, 1.6 vehicles, 1.7 air units and 0.5 Tech units. 30 of the top 50 decks employ exactly 2 infantry, and also 30 decks employ exactly 2 air 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 frequency this month. A trend line illustrates the change over time, and the ppt change compared to previous month is given as a number at the end.
• "Δ vs average winrate" is how the winrate decks utilizing this unit/commander deviates from the average (e.g. Shock Trooper decks have a 6 ppt lower winrate compared to the average)
• "Δ vs average levels" is how the levels of decks utilizing this unit/commander deviate from average (e.g. Orca Bomber decks had 0.3 levels lower compared to the average)

More used compared to February

• War Dogs +12 points to 32%, not far off their all-time high of 38%
• Orca +12 points to 26%, often swapped in for Mohawks;  they also have some play against Stealth Tanks due to their burst
• Jumpjet Troopers +10% to 38%, an all-time high;  quite remarkable for a unit that recently was unchanged and a lot of people called bad only a few months ago
• A number of units with +8 point increase: Pitbull (for Slingshot), APC, Hammerhead, Orca Bomber

Less used compared to February

• Mohawk a whopping -34 points down to 6%. Whilst they of course supremely suffer from the Stealth Tank meta, they feel over-nerfed: They were only really oppressive in combination with Razorback, and the nerf seems to have made them pretty useless
• Sandstorm -18 points after it's recent significant hitpoint nerf
• Missile Troopers -18 points, with many players wanting Jumpjets but no 3rd infantry unit. Back in the shade days, this was impossible, but now it's more viable if you e.g. have Pitbull/Talon as an anti-air combination

Players to watch:

• AgentShadow again rank 1 with even lower levels (L12.7) than with his Nod deck. His deck around Missile, Razorback and Borca allows him to leverage his incredible control along with the Borca that can overcome some key opponent units even at a level disadvantage
• AliciaDestiny for her crazy 96% winrate
• paflagon 2, for competing in the top50 with an L12.3 deck and 2 tech units

AgentShadow's popcapping prowess

Game number statistics:

• Alejandrito has racked up 1,432 games so far this season with his GDI
• He, and 3 other players ahve moe than 800 GDI wins this season
• taiga2 and renardin switch decks so often that their most-played GDI decks just represent 12%/13% of their wins
• heroic farmer and blitz played 100% of their GDI games with the same deck

13lade Tiers: If you're interested not just in this quantitative analysis of unit frequency, but also a qualitative assessment of unit strength, I highly recommend this video: