Road to Nationals 2026 Week 4 has put us well over half way. The format has already taken one hero off to the realm of Living Legend, and the power vacuum has already been filled by other decks.
Each set of results from each Road to Nationals event has been so radically different.
Road to Nationals 2026 Week 4
If we ignored the absence of Florian here, the rest of the data from the top performing decks are such a radical departure from last week's results.
The week 3 results gave the impression of the steady decline of Arakni, Marionette and the immense surge of Oscilio, Constella Intelligence.
These results are reminiscent of how things were before the bannings, and the sudden surge of Florian. It's December again. My Time Machine Works!!
Verdance
Now that aggressive Florian is out of the format, Verdance, Thorn of the Rose is the premium Earth deck in the top of the metagame.
The vast majority of Verdance deck building has moved away from Healing Potion and Rampant Growth||Life, in favour of proactively walking down the life total while blocking efficiently, using the Earth power cards to disrupt, and then ensuring the kill with Storm Striders and either Burn Bare or Light Up the Leaves.
What may be an issue for Verdance is Necromancer. The uptick in Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter may be a real thorn in her side. Obvious pun intended.
What's interesting is just the level of success Verdance has received considering her appalling conversion rate at higher level events, such as Calling Columbus. At higher levels of play, there are certain heuristics that those players will know, and will therefore avoid: don't attack them on turn 0, how much AB to present, how to handle a Felling of the Crown (which is to say, put your best card on the bottom and block 3 cards - let them see if they can convert a full hand). That said, the return of Verdance may have been down to people forgetting her existence. Only time will tell if she's still a meta contender.
Gravy Bones
The Necromancer, with his positive matchups into both Verdance and Marionette repositions him as the best deck in the format.
Board state decks such as Gravy and more traditional Illusionists act as gate keepers for a certain kind of deck that otherwise may exist. While certain aggressive or midrange styles of play have struggled into this archetype in the past, they thrive at the targets that gain value "on hit". Decks that have fewer actions per turn struggle to threaten the board state and the Necromancer's life total.
Gravy Bones has suffered a considerable number of bans, which has greatly affected the deck's damage output, Gold generation, and win ratio. However, at higher levels, players are inclined to play the deck much more conservatively and for value, with the possibility of spike turns thanks to Prismatic Leyline.
For as long as the deck exists, I suspect that Gravy Bones will be relevant in any meta that is without go wide aggro.
Marionette
The only consistent thing between metagames is that Mario has been consistent across metagames. The reaction speed aggression of Mario means the deck will always present value propositions that are hard to play into.
It's all about implied, face up value, stapling the disruption onto the few different Agents of Chaos.
The wider metagame is evolving to handle the presence of Marionette, by including a higher number of Defence Reactions to handle the reaction speed aggression, but there's only so much one can do in the face of a deck like this.
Cindra
Cindra, Dracai of Retribution's win rate was heavily effected by the ban of Brand with Cinderclaw and Wrath of Retribution.
With the departure of Florian, what many considered to be a positive matchup, it's surprising to see Cindra accelerate as high as she did.
The current deck building philosophy could be in either of two directions. Decks are either entirely Draconic with Oath of Loyalty, and finding spare Fealty tokens to enable one of the Art of the Dragon cards. Other builds may be more efficient 0 for 4 attacks using the to ensure chain links count as having hit for [card]Mask of Momentum.
Cindra was once the premium aggro deck in this format, but now there's real deck building to be done.
Other Decks
The new Fatigue variant of Pleiades, Superstar has truly climbed the standings based on the results of Road to Nationals 2026 Week 4.
It's my speculation to say that Florian's departure saw the increase in other, fairer Midrange decks coming out to play. Decks such as Kassai of the Golden Sand and Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty posted respectable results this week, since they're now able to function without Earth Runeblade oppression.
What's surprising is Oscilio's relative drop off compared to previous weeks, and other pundits of the game (myself included) calling it one of the best decks in the format. Oscilio is a very feast or famine deck; while it can produce absurd amounts of damage, it is very fragile to pressure and disruption.
Wrap Up
As we wander into the final week of 2026 Road to Nationals, there is still so much to play for. Be it XP or a top 4 to qualify for Nationals. These results will inform the snapshot of the meta before we go into the Compendium of Rathe season.
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