Ashes Custom Deck Stats!
Which dice and cards are the most popular?
Three weeks ago, we published our Ashes Card Browser and Deckbuilder at the new Play Plaid site. Ashes fans have been over there customizing decks and logging games since then.
Ever wonder what the most prolific cards are? The rarest? The most popular die type? Look no further!
I'm using all legally built decks to research these stats, even decks that haven't been published for all to see. There are 306 legal decks in our system, with 139 being published.
It's still early! I'll be curious to run these numbers again just before we make the first expansions available to see where the base set meta ends up. As The Main Action podcast knows, trends and opinions are forever ripe for change.
Dice: Ceremonial FTW
There is no unpopular die type. Charm, which is the die type least likely to appear in a custom deck, still appears in 63% of decks. Ceremonial, the most popular, appears in 73% of decks. (Natural: 64%, Illusion: 67%.) So they are all close!
I also ran stats on how many of each die is in a deck. So this measures not just whether a die type is included but how much of that die type is included. When we look at the total pool of dice and average out them all, we end up with a 10-die pool that includes 2.9 Ceremonial dice, 2.6 Illusion dice, 2.3 Charm and 2.2 Natural. (rounded). Once again, it's close, with Ceremonial being the most popular.
Finally, how common are single, double, triple, and quadruple magic decks?
A die pool of all one type is uncommon: Only 10 mono-decks have been built. There are 5 Ceremonial-only decks, 3 for Illusion, and 1 each for the other two. Decks with two die types are more common: 110 such decks, with many combinations of each duet. Triple-die pools are the most common, with 154. And decks with all 4 die types are not rare at all, with 32 built with all 4 kinds of dice!
Card Rankings!
The card rankings show how likely a card is to appear at all (even 1 copy) in a deck. The highest percentage is 37.25%, speaking to the great balance of this game. There is no card that is truly "must-have" or even "most-have."
I'll note that the die manipulation cards are quite popular, and I'm not surprised as there are only 4 of them. As more options for manipulating magic appear, I expect their percentages will go down. The most popular summon spell is Summon Sleeping Widows at #12 and the most popular Ally is the almighty Anchornaut at #3.
Bring Forth and Summon False Demon bring up the rear. I believe in you, Demons!
What cards surprise you? What do you think is overrated/underrated? Comment below!
Click here to visit the Play Plaid site to browse cards, build your own decks and log games!
| Ranking | Title | Count | Percentage |
| 1 | Hidden Power | 114 | 37.25% |
| 2 | Shifting Mist | 112 | 36.60% |
| 3 | Anchornaut | 111 | 36.27% |
| 4 | Expand Energy | 103 | 33.66% |
| 5 | Open Memories | 98 | 32.03% |
| 6 | Chant of Revenge | 98 | 32.03% |
| 7 | Molten Gold | 96 | 31.37% |
| 8 | Final Cry | 90 | 29.41% |
| 9 | Iron Worker | 84 | 27.45% |
| 10 | Call Upon the Realms | 81 | 26.47% |
| 11 | Leech Warrior | 79 | 25.82% |
| 12 | Summon Sleeping Widows | 78 | 25.49% |
| 13 | Root Armor | 77 | 25.16% |
| 14 | Fade Away | 77 | 25.16% |
| 15 | Sympathy Pain | 75 | 24.51% |
| 16 | Summon Gilder | 70 | 22.88% |
| 17 | Redirect | 70 | 22.88% |
| 18 | Enchanted Violinist | 69 | 22.55% |
| 19 | Rose Fire Dancer | 68 | 22.22% |
| 20 | Summon Mist Spirit | 67 | 21.90% |
| 21 | Summon Butterfly Monk | 67 | 21.90% |
| 22 | Bound Soul | 67 | 21.90% |
| 23 | Sleight of Hand | 66 | 21.57% |
| 24 | Steady Gaze | 65 | 21.24% |
| 25 | Stormwind Sniper | 63 | 20.59% |
| 26 | Hypnotize | 62 | 20.26% |
| 27 | Undying Heart | 60 | 19.61% |
| 28 | Transfer | 59 | 19.28% |
| 29 | Summon Blood Puppet | 55 | 17.97% |
| 30 | Mist Typhoon | 55 | 17.97% |
| 31 | Hammer Knight | 54 | 17.65% |
| 32 | Refresh | 53 | 17.32% |
| 33 | Summon Three-Eyed Owl | 52 | 16.99% |
| 34 | Small Sacrifice | 52 | 16.99% |
| 35 | Shadow Counter | 51 | 16.67% |
| 36 | Living Doll | 51 | 16.67% |
| 37 | Massive Growth | 50 | 16.34% |
| 38 | Seal | 49 | 16.01% |
| 39 | Abundance | 48 | 15.69% |
| 40 | Protect | 45 | 14.71% |
| 41 | Golden Veil | 45 | 14.71% |
| 42 | Empower | 42 | 13.73% |
| 43 | Blood Archer | 39 | 12.75% |
| 44 | Summon Iron Rhino | 38 | 12.42% |
| 45 | Strengthen | 38 | 12.42% |
| 46 | Reflections in the Water | 33 | 10.78% |
| 47 | Purge | 32 | 10.46% |
| 48 | Blood Transfer | 27 | 8.82% |
| 49 | Spiked Armor | 24 | 7.84% |
| 50 | Out of the Mist | 22 | 7.19% |
| 51 | Strange Copy | 19 | 6.21% |
| 52 | Cut the Strings | 18 | 5.88% |
| 53 | Summon False Demon | 17 | 5.56% |
| 54 | Bring Forth | 15 | 4.90% |
