Archetypes and The Meta
Archetypes
The "butt" post- The "milkshake" analogy
ImpossibleGerman's
The top"Meta"
The "meta" in Ashes is not as well defined as it is other card games such as Pokemon or Magic The Gathering. This is in part due to the depth and viability of the listscard articlepool for deck building, the nature of it being an extendable card game without rotation, and a smaller community resulting in a lower volume of data.
That said, there are definite trends in Phoenixborn and cards that get repeated play and have shown across multiple tournaments that they are always competitive. Here's a listing of articles written by various community members on the topic: