Welcome to the first official meta-analysis of the Gem Blenders Organized Play program. This data comes to us from the December Invitational, in which 24 of Gem Blenders’ best and brightest came together to compete for the title of Gem Blenders champion. We will begin with an analysis of the top 4 ranking decks, before breaking down the top cards and tactics seen in the meta.
Table of Contents
4th Place - Fowl Tempo
In 4th place we have an aggressive deck that plays cheap blends like Fowl, Glacier, and Hornet to gain an early lead, before cashing in for value to play a late-game bomb like Verve Conflictor or Gale Tracer. The actions support this strategy to control the board, with a slew of Cancels and a Dissolve keeping the opponent off-footing until it’s too late. An interesting synergy being used is Gloria along with a wide variety of LV2 and LV3 blends to discard for gems.
Starting Heroes
1 GLORIA
1 HICKORY
1 MARCI
1 WINONA
Bench
1 BRENNA
1 ELEANOR
1 LAUREN
1 PEYTON
Gems
6 AEROGEM
3 CRYOGEM
3 TERRAGEM
3 ELECTROGEM
3 NOCTURNAGEM
Actions
3 CANCEL
3 GEM SEARCH
1 DISSOLVE
1 SUPER CANCEL
1 SUPER BLEND SEARCH
2 DRAW
2 BLEND SEARCH
Blends
2 ELECTRON
2 HORNET
1 GALE TRACER
1 VERVE CONFLICTOR
2 SIGNAL CORRUPTOR
3 CONE
3 FOWL
2 SILVER GULL
3 GLACIER
3rd Place - Angel Aggro
In 3rd place we see an even more aggressive deck, utilizing the free attack from Kula along with all-gas-no-breaks cards like Angel, Blaze Angel, and Shard Buster. To gain fuel for the fire, we see lots of ways to search for blends including Blend Call, which synergizes with Bishop to potentially give you a 6 for 1 value exchange. This is important both to get the blends you want to play, and also to get plenty of blends to deblend-to-block, considering there is no other defense in this deck.
Starting Heroes
1 CARTER
1 KULA
1 MARCI
1 ERICA
Bench
JERICHO
MONICA
HICKORY
LAUREN
Gems
5 AEROGEM
5 PYROGEM
4 CRYOGEM
3 CAPROGEM
5 LUCIOGEM
Actions
2 SUPER BLEND SEARCH
1 BLEND CALL
1 SUPER DRAW
3 GEM SEARCH
2 BREACH
2 BLEND SEARCH
1 DRAW
2 COLLECT
Blends
1 SHARD BUSTER
3 POWDER ANGEL
1 CHROME ROCKET
2 BLAZE ANGEL
3 BISHOP
3 ANGEL
1 ROCKET
2nd Place - Anchor Combo
If you have been playing in local events, you’ve probably seen this decklist terrorize a tournament or two. This combo aims to play 3 Anchors and a Flurry Shifter, effectively putting up 9 defense and dealing 9 unblockable damage every turn. Since there are no other blends, this deck relies on a ton of actions to disrupt the opponent’s gameplan and make it impossible to find a way out of the lock, including full playsets of Stun, Struggle Stun, Struggle Switch, and Cancel.
Starting Heroes
1 SELMA
1 FIONA + ISABEL
1 HICKORY
1 KOHDOK
Bench
1 CHAO
1 BRENNA
1 KULA
1 LAUREN
Gems
7 CAPROGEM
9 AQUAGEM
4 LUCIOGEM
4 CRYOGEM
Actions
3 GEM SEARCH
1 DRAW
3 CANCEL
1 SWITCH
1 SUPER DRAW
1 SUPER CANCEL
3 STUN
3 STRUGGLE SWITCH
3 STRUGGLE STUN
1 COLLECT
Blends
3 ANCHOR
1 MOUNTAINEER
2 FLURRY SHIFTER
1st Place - Crasher Control
A relatively new decklist, rumor has it that Crasher Control was brewed specifically to counter the Anchor Combo, which definitely paid off in the finals of the Invitational. First, it tries to stop aggro decks through an Anchor of its own, before removing critical blends with Signal Corruptor. The ultimate goal is to have a Torrent Crasher and Data Cipher out to loop the blend destruction of Torrent. Since these gem colors don’t have many value options, we see an action-heavy build utilizing Flush in order to churn through the deck without worrying about the action meter.
Starting Heroes
1 CARTER
1 SELMA
1 JUDITH
1 MATTHEW
Bench
1 BRENNA
1 YOSHI
1 ABBEY
1 PEYTON
Gems
3 TERRAGEM
5 AQUAGEM
4 NOCTURNAGEM
5 CAPROGEM
4 ELECTROGEM
Actions
2 SUPER DRAW
1 SUPER BLEND SEARCH
2 COPY
3 COLLECT
3 FLUSH
3 DRAW
1 STRUGGLE SURGE
3 GEM SEARCH
Blends
2 ANCHOR
3 DATA CIPHER
3 TORRENT CRASHER
3 SIGNAL CORRUPTOR
Meta Breakdown
Looking at the tactical breakdown, I think this is exemplary of a healthy and balanced meta. Typically Midrange and Aggro are the tactics that the game is “meant” for, while Combo, Mill, and Control are focused on strategies that push the limits of what would normally be a battle-centric card game. A good takeaway from this is to be prepared for aggressive strategies, and have a game plan for decks that come out of the gate swinging. You might not have has many turns to set up your strategy as you think!
This is an interesting graph, as it shows the popularity of Angel and Ram decks, particularly Pearl Deceptor and Hive Enforcer, which are also two of the four preconstructed starter decks available. This may also correlate to the aggressive trend of the meta, as Herald strategies are typically more late-game oriented. It will be interesting to see the development of the school breakdown in the future, and to see if this is the beginning of a trend where Herald becomes the unpopular kid at the lunch table.
With most gems coming in at relatively similar percentages, the one call-out here is that Pyrogem is a clearly underrepresented gem type. This is a surprise to me, as I was expecting more Bishops in the meta. Meanwhile Cryogem ended up as the most popular — it seems like in the everlasting rivalry between fire and ice, this tournament has made its choice clear.
Top Cards
Below are top 10 lists of cards and the percentage of decks in the 2024 December Invitational that used at least one copy of that card.
Top Actions
Gem Search | 95.83% |
Collect | 66.67% |
Blend Search | 50.00% |
Super Draw | 50.00% |
Cancel | 45.83% |
Super Blend Search | 45.83% |
Draw | 41.67% |
Switch | 41.67% |
Super Cancel | 33.33% |
Breach | 33.33% |
No surprises that Gem Search takes the top spot. Very interesting to see the predominance of Cancels — definitely something to be prepared for.
Top Blends
Usher | 33.33% |
Cone | 29.17% |
Angel | 29.17% |
Hornet | 29.17% |
Glacier | 25.00% |
Silent Usher | 25.00% |
Hive Enforcer | 25.00% |
Pollen Angel | 20.83% |
Drone Buzzer | 20.83% |
Royal Buzzer | 20.83% |
Here we can see that the plurality of Hive Enforcer decks has dominated the top 10 blend count. Interesting that Usher can break through the mold to become most popular.
Top Starting Heroes
Carter | 45.83% |
Hickory | 37.50% |
Gloria | 33.33% |
Marci | 29.17% |
Erica | 29.17% |
Maria | 25.00% |
Selma | 25.00% |
Judith | 20.83% |
Kula | 16.67% |
Jewl | 16.67% |
No surprises here — the value and stat bonus of Carter makes it an excellent pick for a LV4 hero. Definitely surprised by Maria, however this is probably due to the popularity of the Hive Enforcer start deck.
Top Bench Heroes
Brenna | 45.00% |
Lauren | 40.00% |
Winona | 20.00% |
Marci | 20.00% |
Yoshi | 15.00% |
Eleanor | 15.00% |
Hickory | 15.00% |
Kathy | 15.00% |
Chao | 10.00% |
Sage | 10.00% |
Brenna is always a popular choice to counter starred-action-heavy strategies. Something that I will personally start using in my decklists is Lauren, which is an excellent option when needing to reuse gems after the first or second round.
Conclusion
My key takeaways:
1. Be ready for aggro decks, especially Hive Enforcer
2. Expect combo and control decks, especially as you get closer to top 4
3. Look out for Cancels
4. Consider Lauren as a top-tier bench pick
All in all, this appears to be a healthy meta, with even some of the most “toxic” deck types running into strong resistance and counterplay. It will be interesting to see how this develops, so tune in next time when we conduct a meta analysis for 2025!
Cheers,
Ben