Crimson Cup Meta Report: Van Helsing the most banned, Pigs the most brought in AMER #1

The numbers Koin published

After the first Crimson Cup qualifier, AMER #1 of 19 October, Koin Games published two tables on its official Discord: the ban phase of every Legendary and the most played cards in the decks submitted. They are totals: decklists stay hidden until the top 4 (the rules), so they don't show the single lists, but they say what players feared and what they trusted. We gathered them, next to the ladder, on a new page: the Crimson Cup numbers.

The ban: Van Helsing first, Merlin right behind

In the Crimson Cup you only see your opponent's three Legendaries, then you ban one of their decks. The ban rate is how many times a Legendary was banned out of the times an opponent found it at the ban.

Van Helsing was banned almost one time in two. Merlin is the surprise: brought far less (71 decks), but when it showed up it got banned 42.2% of the time, even though in the ladder it wins 48.1%. Ten Legendaries out of eleven had a deck in round 4, the round of the 32 qualified: only Wicked Stepmother stopped at round 3.

Pigs, the most brought

Three Not So Little Pigs is in 168 decks, 23.3% of those counted in Koin's table: almost one deck in four, more than any other Legendary. It still gets banned 32.8% of the time, so whoever brings it often has to win with the other two. Van Helsing follows with 135 decks (18.7%), then Merlin (71) and Legion of the Dead (67); at the bottom Dorothy (23) and Wicked Stepmother (11).

Robin Hood, the least feared

Robin Hood is the least banned of the Legendaries seen at least 30 times: 8 bans out of 68, 11.8%. Yet in the ladder it is one of the three strongest: it wins 60.6%, next to Pigs (60.7%) and Van Helsing (59.8%), and in our Meta Report of 19 October it was the one that beats Van Helsing. In the tournament it was brought less (52 decks, 7.2%) and almost never banned. Our reading: right now it is the Legendary that most often stays on the table.

The cards in almost half the decks

Share of all the decks submitted that contain the card, as Koin published it: it counts everyone who entered, not only those who played a match.

Baby Bear was already the most played card of patch 0.7 in the ladder, and in the tournament it is in almost half of the decks. Koin publishes the top 20: the other cards are not in the table and we don't estimate them.

Tournament vs ladder

Next to the ladder, that is the matches recorded with OriginsMeta Tracker on patch 0.7 (read on 20 October), the gaps say what players trust when it counts:

• Pigs and Van Helsing are brought to the tournament more than they are played in the ladder: 23.3% of the decks against 17.4% of the ladder appearances, and 18.7% against 13.2%.
• Legion of the Dead goes the other way: 15.3% in the ladder, 9.3% of the tournament decks; Dracula 10.6% against 7.4%.
• Among the cards, Obliterate (34.9% in the ladder, 20.9% in the tournament), Golden Egg and Mummy drop the most; Shahrazad and Scarecrow rise. The two measures are different (decks submitted, recorded games), so compare the cards with each other more than the single gap.

What it means for the next qualifiers

Our reading for EMEA #1, AMER #2, APAC and EMEA #2:

• bringing Van Helsing or Pigs means expecting a ban, almost one time in two for Van Helsing: the third deck counts as much as the first two;
• Robin Hood is rarely banned and in the ladder it beats Van Helsing: it is the Legendary most likely to stay on the table;
• Merlin draws bans well beyond its ladder results: in a trio it can take the ban away from your other two decks.

A page for the Crimson Cup

From today Analytics has a Crimson Cup page with Koin's official numbers qualifier by qualifier: ban rate, decks, most played cards and the comparison with the ladder. The pages of the Legendaries and of the most played cards show their Crimson Cup numbers too, like Van Helsing and Baby Bear. We add each qualifier when Koin publishes its numbers.

Where this comes from

• The tables Koin Games published on the official Discord after the AMER #1 qualifier, read on 20 October 2026.
• The ladder: matches recorded with OriginsMeta Tracker on patch 0.7, normal and ranked together, read on our Crimson Cup page on 20 October 2026.