Top 50 Nod – 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 Nod. Please find the GDI 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, 2.1 infantry units, 2.3 vehicles (+0.4 vs February!), 1.6 air units and 0.1 Tech units. 38 of the top 50 decks employ exactly 2 infantry, whereas the diversity of vehicle and air numbers from 1-3 is significantly larger.

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. Fanatic decks had a 3% 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. Fanatic decks had 0.2 higher levels compared to the average)

More used compared to January

• Fanatic usage is up +12 points to 36%, an all-time high
• Stealth Tank usage is up +12 points to 44%, the highest since September 2019
• Scorpion Tank +12 points to 30%, the highest since October 2019
• Inferno +12 points to 22%, an all-time high

Less used compared to January:

• Phantom -16 points to 34%, as more players opt for the Stealth Tank.
• Shade -14 points to 20%; the last issue was just shortly after the patch, so it makes sense that the nerf effect intensified
• Avatar -14 points to 0
• Venom -10 points to 20%;

Other observations:

• Air diversity is now very high, with the air unit frequencies being at 20%, 20%, 20%, 22%, 26% and 34%
• Tech usage has went down, mostly driven from Avatar and Cyborg. It doesn't feel like it though, with many of the top players playing at least some Rock Worm or other tech decks throughout the season. It's just that it's rarely the most-played deck. I.e. if we had a more complete picture of all decks used (vs the most frequent decks of each player), I think we'd see Rock Worm and Confessors more frequently than in the past.
• Commander diversity is decently high, with even Kane at 10% and Oxanna and Seth both at 36%

Players to watch:

• AgentShadow again rank 1, and now getting scarier with his L13 deck (2 months ago, it was L12.1). See a video of his Nod play below.
• Fortis with his 3 infantry, 3 air deck around Marauders and Inferno, who has the lowest deck in the Top50 at L12.9
• srpss with an impressive 88% winrate at L13.9 with his Marauder / Chuggy deck

AgentShadow vs 13lade

Game number statistics:

• Noid Hex and LukoZade both racked up more than 700 Nod wins this seaso
• samsthedog and taiga2 rotate decks so much that their most frequently played Nod decks represent just 12% / 13% of their Nod wins
• blitz, paflagon 2 and Elmoi sticking to their guns with 98%+ of their Nod wins with a single 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: