League Cup Statistics: January 11-12, 2020

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42

Click to view rankings + statistics Google doc 
(You can always view the current week's rankings and statistics at the Weekly Cup Data tab, and can check back on previous weeks with the archive.)

Notes
  • If you're wondering why we haven't been publishing Expanded results for the past few weeks, it's on its way soon. Tomorrow or early Wednesday we will be publishing our complete BLW-CEC Expanded League Cup statistics, just in time for Dallas Regionals. 
  • Malamar is back on top! After Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX was the #1 deck last weekend, it was interesting to see it take a backseat to two archetypes with historically subpar Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX matchups--Malamar and Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox. Malamar probably succeeded because of the sizable increase in both Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel and Blacephalon UNB decks this weekend, as well as having other favorable matchups such as Mewtwo & Mew-GX still prominent in the metagame.
  • Those Blacephalon decks were really out in full force this weekend, and last weekend's meta of Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX is to blame for that. We saw Stéphane Ivanoff win Bochum Regionals with the Green's Exploration build of Blacephalon UNB, which is stronger in the Mewtwo & Mew-GX and Malamar matchups since damage spread is not a reliable way to beat it. Other players at Cups still succeeded with the Pidgeotto version. "Big Blacephalon" was also a top deck this weekend, in fact the most notable climber in the rankings (up from #12 to #5). 
  • The #2 and #3 decks held strong from the previous week. Last week's #1 dropped down to #4. 
  • Another notable drop was ADP/Keldeo-GX down four spots to #10 as even more players opted for the Bird Trio variant of ADP instead of the Keldeo-GX build. We also saw a decrease in "rogue" ADP variants (such as with Buzzwole & Pheromosa-GX or Quagsire) from the previous weekend. 
  • In fact, rogue decks in general didn't have as strong a showing as in the previous week. Quagsire, Excadrill, Whimsicott-GX, Raichu, and others all made up 0% of this sample after earning at least a few CP in the previous one. 
  • We're continuing to distinguish between the Roxie/Weezing and no-Roxie variants of Giratina & Garchomp-GX/Mismagius, in keeping with our previous decisions to separate variants of decks like Blacephalon UNB or Reshiram & Charizard-GX. With that in mind, it now seems clear the Roxie build is the one preferred by most players, as it stayed in basically the same position in the meta as last week while the no-Roxie build dropped eight spots in the rankings. 
  • Control is still proving it can win Cups if it isn't respected. This is the third straight week Oranguru/Pidgeotto Control has ranked in the top seven; Doll Stall actually hopped up another spot from the previous week; and we even saw some rogue control archetypes such as a Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX/Pidgeotto deck.