After working with Teija last month, players turned to Kojo in June to find a new meta at the start of the Whispers from the Maze season. Sigismar and Afanas both refused to give any ground as the first-place victories this month echo April’s spread.

This monthly snapshot is an effort to give players a high-level view of the trends going on in competitive play across the season, developed from stats and decklists from 39cards.com. These are unofficial details based on results reported to 39cards.com, and may not accurately reflect official standings reported to Equinox. These statistics, which include mainly online and some in-person events, only represent competitive play and shouldn’t be taken to inform trends for other modes of play. While some stats are shared directly, others are intentionally vague. These notes are meant to provide context around competitive recaps as well as spark ideas for new approaches and deckbuilding.

This snapshot begins our coverage of the Whispers from the Maze season, beginning May 30 to the present. Because the season’s launch holds so closely to the start of June, the “season-to-date” and June stats are presented together this month. In May’s snapshot, players went after Sigismar and Afanas following the WFM season patch, pulling at least one victory for each faction and confirming Sigismar as the overall winner for the TBF season.

Hero distribution

June/season-to-date hero distribution

1. Kojo ↗ 2
2. Sigismar =
3. Teija ↘ 2
4. Afanas =
5. Fen ↗ 2
6. Atsadi =
7. Basira ↗ 1
8. Gulrang ↗ 2

Kojo was the clear favorite for June as players continue to try to sketch out the Whispers from the Maze meta, though he’s only ahead of Sigismar in second pace by 45 decklists. That’s nowhere near the pressure that Teija put on the post-patch lineup at the end of May or the dominance that Sigismar had over the field in April. Teija and Kojo swapped places for June while Sigismar and Afanas have maintained their rank from last month. Fen is at the lead of the first notable drop (a 2.5% cliff past Afanas) in fifth place, moving back up from where she fell last month. Roughly the same percentage of players ran with Atsadi this month as last as he holds fast in sixth. It’s great to see a new deck archetype and hero crack the top eight, but he hasn’t caught on as heavily as any of the established heavy hitters just yet. Basira picked up another rank in seventh, and Gulrang makes her debut in the set at eighth.

Competitive hero distribution for June 2025

There’s clearly instability in the top spots here at the beginning of the WFM season, even if there aren’t many new faces in the group. Teija and Kojo have led an assault on the lead position over the course of the last six weeks while Sigismar and Afanas have absolutely refused to give up their ranks. The percentages across the top four heroes are more narrow than last month, with none of them allowing more than 2.13% between them (equal to almost 3.5 times the number of Arjun decks played in the past month). The Bravos heroes taken together make up about 25% of all competitive decklists for the month, which actually increased from the 23% share of all competitive play tracked by 39cards.com they held in May. Yzmir as a faction had built some momentum last month but backslid slightly. Afanas’s gains nearly made up for Akesha’s losses, as players seem to have left her behind in favor of the older warmage.

Across the top five ranks, five of the six factions are represented, though you have to scout all the way down to ninth place to find Sierra, the highest-placing Axiom hero. Once again, even if all three Axiom heroes work together (9.89% total) they wouldn’t crack the top four. Though both have slightly more of a share to work with this month than last since the distribution is tighter overall, Waru and Arjun are again the clear losers with totals still not breaking a single percent.

While the ranks are different, the top five heroes for June are the same top five from the TBF season taken as a whole.

Top cards

These card rankings are determined by total number of instances of a card across all top-eight decks for a faction, as opposed to the percentage of top-eight decks that include a particular card. A “number of months” indicator means the number of consecutive months that a card has remained in the top three cards (since the Blog began tracking snapshots in March), though not specifically at that rank. A star indicates the card’s first appearance in tracked decklists altogether.

Axiom

Common

1. The Grems ★
2. Frozen Delivery ↘ 1 / 4 months
3. Foundry Mechanic ↘ 1 / 4 months

Rare

1. Hooked ↗ 3
2. Brassbug Hive ↘ / 2 months
3. Bug-Out Bag ★

The Grems make their debut at the top common spot for Axiom from among the new batch of cards, combining a 2-mana cost with near stat-parity and some versatility. Its removal options take a little pressure off of Kelon Burst to do the work, but the restrictions run tight: not only is the target hand cost gated at 3 or less, but getting an extra Brassbug out of it costs the Axiom engineer a permanent. Beyond that, in order to get any benefit from it, it has to be played from reserve, meaning that in net, the player is spending 4 mana total (or another route to get The Grems into reserve) and risking sabotage and timing for a single extra 2/2/2 token (plus the mana cost of the permanent that was sacrificed) or a limited removal option. Compared to other removal/token options added in WFM, there are a lot of ways for this to go wrong or be interrupted, but Axiom is likely grateful for the additional versatility. Frozen Delivery and Foundry Mechanic each move down one place to make room, but have remained in the top three Axiom commons since February.

Hooked appears for the first time in the top rare spot for Axiom, providing the faction’s most classic form of player interaction and giving the resource-hungry group another card to work with. In a meta that seems to trade heavily in recruits and mana moths or stats running low to the ground, an expedition swap could mean the difference between a win and a loss. In second, rare Brassbug Hive is still Sierra’s main way of adding threat to the board despite how easily it can be knocked out by cheaper removal. The rare form of Bug-Out Bag, which is keyed specifically for Sierra (but somehow more expensive and weaker than its Ordis out-of-faction version) makes its debut for WFM in third. Once it has released a Brassbug, it could potentially act as scrap for The Grems to work with.

Bravos

Common

1. Haven Seiringar = / 4 months
2. Fire Rabbit = / 4 months
3. Haven Bouncer = / 2 months

Rare

1. Tiny Jinn = / 4 months
2. Mighty Jinn ↗ 1 / 4 months
3. Duel of Grit ★

Even as Bravos continues to apply pressure across hero distribution, their top cards haven’t seen much difference from where they started with TBF. WFM didn’t make a change in the top commons at all, as Haven Seiringar holds the rank he’s kept mostly since February. Fire Rabbit, similarly, hasn’t left the top three since then. Haven Bouncer continues to hold her spot over Chiron. In fact, a WFM common doesn’t show up in Bravos this month until Talarian Skater rolls in at sixth, with less than half of the total frequency of Seiringar and about 60% of the frequency of Fire Rabbit. The Mess is in seventh at 43% of the frequency of Seiringar. Boosts and Scout are nice, but Bravos players need to secure card availability without losing tempo and add some 1-drop versatility to their decks.

That’s partially the role that Tiny Jinn continues to play as it keeps the same position that it’s held since February. Mighty Jinn has remained in the top three since then as well. Though to give an idea of just how necessary rare Tiny Jinn is in Bravos decks, Mighty Jinn in second place is running at 60% the frequency of Tiny Jinn in Bravos decks. Even the new WFM entry to the rare list in third place, Duel of Grit, isn’t run at even half the frequency of Tiny Jinn. It does, however, shove Haven into fourth place, finally bringing Bravos mana-efficient straight removal for a single character that doesn’t put the card back into the opponent’s hand to trigger again or require mana destruction.

Lyra

Common

1. Hathor = / 4 months
2. Twinkle Twinkle ↗ 2
3. Anansi ↘ 1 / 2 months

Rare

1. Magical Training ↗ 1 / 4 months
2. Ouroboros Inkcaster ↘ 1 / 4 months
3. Aloe Vera = / 4 months

New WFM cards didn’t show up at all in the top three cards for Lyra in either common or rare. Among the commons, Hathor has been the top option since February, never even changing rank. This month, Twinkle Twinkle, which was only otherwise in the top three in April, moved back up into second with a cheap, versatile option for offense or defense as well as cost reduction. Anansi moved back down one rank, but as one of Lyra’s most dangerous characters, he’s only been out of the top spots once, in April. All three of the top-played commons in Lyra are running at near-parity in frequency, meaning that if you played Lyra in the past month, your deck likely had these three cards somewhere regardless of which hero you ran with. The first WFM card to show up among the Lyra commons is Lyra Contortionist in sixth place.

The top Lyra rares have remained unchanged, and have done since February with the exception of Magical Training and Ouroboros Inkcaster swapping spots. They’re played at nearly the same rates, which means their individual ranks will be determined by a handful of decks, and that it’s tough to draw meaningful deck trends from their rotation. The first WFM rare to rank for Lyra is the Tech Lab Unit in fourth place, which might mainly serve to make Anansi even more threatening while providing resupply.

Muna

Common

1. Floral Tent ↗ 2 / 4 months
2. Muna Druid = / 2 months
3. Muna Caregiver ↘ 2 / 3 months

Rare

1. Aloe Vera = / 4 months
2. Spindle Harvesters ↗ 1 / 4 months
3. Spindle, Muna Bastion ↗ 1

Likewise to Lyra, the top three common and rare cards for Muna have no representation from WFM in June. It’s no surprise that Floral Tent is back in the top position among Muna commons this month, considering all of the removal added to the game through WFM. Not only does it serve as minor defense, it can work as an after-you and also buy extra resupply. Muna Druid retains its position from last month alongside Caregiver, both of which combo with Floral Tent to add protection without losing tempo. They’re played at nearly the same frequency, creating a package that works equally well for each of the Muna heroes. The first WFM common appearing on Muna’s list is Requiem in sixth, a gated removal card that is one of Muna’s first common options behind Lost in the Woods and Mana Reaping.

Aloe Vera has too much versatility for the faction to leave its position at the top of the rare list, between self-anchoring and feeding cards into reserve. Spindle Harvesters bring a similar energy, this month climbing over Ogun to find second. The Spindle itself finds its way into the top three for the first time, again likely a response to the powerful WFM removal options that could otherwise wreck a Muna hero’s garden. The first WFM rare on Muna’s list is Sap Duende in sixth place, providing some capability to manage boosts across anchored characters. It’s running at 25% of the frequency of Aloe Vera, so its impact isn’t heavily required by players just yet.

Ordis

Common

1. License Withdrawal ★
2. Teamwork Training ↘ 1 / 4 months
3. Monolith Legate ↘ 1 / 4 months

Rare

1. Ordis Attorney = / 4 months
2. Ordis Trooper = / 2 months
3. Jack Frost ↗ 2

Ordis marks the only faction other than resource-desperate Axiom to have a WFM common debut at the top spot, and it’s not hard to see why. License Removal may cost 3 mana, but its range is staggeringly broad and its effect is wildly powerful. It can target any permanent without any kind of hand-cost gating or any character with a boost, hitting anything carrying the most common status in the entire game. Not only that, it doesn’t just send them to reserve or back to the opponent’s hand, but discards them outright. The card is gruesome in its capability and mana efficiency, doing the work of a Banishing Gate for less mana, and a stronger effect than an Off You Go for a tiny increase in mana cost in a faction that already has numerous other cheap removal options among commons with the card draw to always have them available. If it isn’t dealt with in an upcoming patch (and it should be), it has a promising future of remaining one of the most-included Ordis commons.

It stands to reason, then, that it pushed Teamwork Training into second place among Ordis commons this month. But don’t worry for Teamwork Training’s feelings. The two removal options are played at near-identical frequency, with fewer than 10 inclusions splitting them. Playing against an Ordis hero, if you see one of these, you’ll almost certainly see the other. Teamwork Training remains potentially the most powerful removal for the mana cost in the game, and is wielded even more efficiently by Sigismar than the others. Monolith Legate similarly provides options for repeated removal, further hamstringing an opponent or forcing them to make the choice to allow the Ordis hero to move forward unopposed. The Ordis approach to its commons has remained the same since February, and proves to continue on with the same now in WFM: Cheap or free tokens will provide the stats, gameplay should be focused on removal.

Ordis’s rares have seen some shift over the past month as players have worked around Baba Yaga’s suspension in the WFM season patch. Ordis Attorney continues to buy cards or threaten to force expedition progression in the top spot, where she took over for Baba Yaga last month. Ordis Trooper gives a 1-drop after-you with stats. Jack Frost is testing out his role in third place, providing two rounds of exhaustion with stats for 2 mana. The first WFM rare on Ordis’s list is the Mesektet in 10th place, just behind Grand Endeavor.

Yzmir

Common

1. Off You Go = / 4 months
2. Tooth Fairy = / 4 months
3. Studious Disciple = / 4 months

Rare

1. Magical Training ↗ 3
2. Beauty Sleep ↘ 1 / 2 months
3. Baba Yaga = / 4 months

Not only have Yzmir’s top commons not been impacted by WFM, the top three cards have barely changed rank at all since February. Off You Go is crafted with surgical precision to be highly threatening in the game’s current 1-3-cost-focused meta. Tooth Fairy damages reserves at a similar cost, and Studious Disciple makes each of the other spells cost less while serving as a cheap spell boost focus for Afanas or sacrifice for Lindiwe. A WFM common doesn’t show up until Evanescence wakes up at 10th place, coming behind other spells like Conjuring Seal, Moth to a Flame, Rime Frost, Banishing Gate and Magical Training.

Magical Training takes the top spot among Yzmir’s rares for the first time, cleanly fitting the 1-drop gap left behind by Helping Hand’s suspension in the WFM season patch. Beauty Sleep slots in alongside it in the same 1-drop group after having jumped to the top last month. Baba Yaga still practices her work here in Yzmir, adding even more card advantage alongside stats. She should be a little cautious, however, as Ordis’s License Withdrawal obviously goes out of faction to Yzmir and slots into fourth place among the rares. It showed up even more often than the otherwise popular rare Kadigiran Mage-Dancer, now in fifth (and watchlisted).

Hero standings

June/season-to-date first-place victories by hero

Total competitive first-place wins by hero for June 2025

Teija may have closed out May with the most decklists and Kojo might have led June’s distribution, but neither hero managed to convert that pressure into anything even close to resembling a shift in the meta when it comes to competitive victories. In a performance that looks similar to April’s standings when Sigismar and Afanas were at the height of their power, they once again took the definitive majority of wins in competitive play. Neither hero has been slowed even slightly by the effects of the WFM season patch; Sigismar, in fact, has overachieved in spite of it. Kojo and Teija added together don’t even catch Afanas in second place, much less Sigismar’s continued conquest. Given the upheaval in the hero distribution over the past two months, it’s clear that players are trying new tactics in an effort to unseat the two dominant factions. They just aren’t enough to challenge packages with high mana efficiency and card advantage that have only gotten more efficient and agile as the sets have progressed, and heroes with abilities well-aligned to those packages.

The first month of WFM’s season isn’t all Ordis and Yzmir domination, however. Victories spread out more in June than in any other month in the game’s history, with 12 of the 18 heroes scoring at least one first place. That includes Waru, thanks to a performance by AQZ’s Runefolk in the AQZ Blitz series (with a deck including uniques that could draw a blistering two, three and three cards, respectively, multiple times). Beyond Kojo and Fen’s tie for third place, Treyst, Atsadi, Nevenka, Teija and Lindiwe all secured two wins each. For Treyst and Nevenka, that’s already double the number of victories they had in the entire TBF season. For Atsadi, it’s his first appearance on the list altogether. Bravos and Yzmir both have all three heroes represented among this month’s victories, and Ordis and Lyra both brought two (though that Waru really is an outlier). Muna and Axiom are still struggling to give their other heroes any capability to show up. It’s still possible that one of the heroes shaking up the distribution will break through Sigismar and Afanas’s hold on the top spots. With all the action there, players are at least seeing more matches that aren’t only the meta. That’s hopeful.

Kojo was the most common second-place finisher in June, and Fen, Teija and Afanas were in third more often than anyone else.