March 2013 Format

Hey Internet, 

    With the passing of YCS Austin many of us are left wondering what are the top tier decks of the meta and what should we look out for at regionals, YCS, and even locals.  Well needless to say Kuriboh and Batteryman will not appear on this list.       

Top Tier 

Evilswarm...The New Macro Rabbit

A deck that has not even become legal as of yet, the Evilswarm Deck is changing the TCG Meta. Slowly as April comes closer, TCG Players are moving away from high level monsters and moving closer to more consistent low level decks like Wind-Ups and Fire Fist. The ability to drop Ophion, a 2550 atk monster, and sit on protection with outs to spells and traps consistently already warrants it to be a contender in the meta. With a hefty beat-stick, accessibility to the best

removal and disruption cards in the game for both

main and side, Evilswarm becomes the best "anti-meta" deck of the format. Simplistic in nature, the deck maintains presence on board while protecting its monsters. It rarely has any bad match ups.

Mermail/Atlantean...Old Man Fish

Untouched by the bans list, the Water Deck remains as one of the faster decks of the format. What it has going for it? Consistency and speed... With effects that work through cost, there are few plays a player can make to stop the deck before it OTKs. With the absence of the third Thunder King, the deck can continue to plus and search uninterrupted. Against this deck some players have replaced Thunder King all together and play banisher with D-Fissure and back row... As fun as that sounds it does nothing against the sheer speed of the deck once its already rolling. Siding with this deck is always a hassle as it runs not only a larger monster count but a small trap line up that is crucial for the deck. With the coming of Evilswarms and other fast decks, old daddy Water may hang up its hat pretty soon.

Fire Fists...Tiger King and His Boys 

The control deck of the format, Fire Fists main play is consistency. No matter how its built it will always be consistent. With so many builds and much player preference running around, it comes down to understanding what the deck does. And what it does is beat down and destruction. Gorillas and Bears allow constant destruction, the normals have hefty attack, Dragon gains advantage, while Rabbit is still hero deep. Like Evilswarms, the deck is filled with monsters that maintain presence and spells and traps that facilitate that presence. They rarely have bad match-ups where they auto lose (except against Sams) and are able to side into nearly anything with out destroying its own constancy.

Will be Top Tier 

The 3rd Axis...Kingless Fist

Personally I don't advocate this deck as it has no outs to LAD but... Chicken Fie Fists or 3-Axis as it is called is variant of Fire Fist that revolves around Fire Fist Chicken, Synchro summons of LV 6s, and Rank 3 XYZs. "abuses a very strong rotation mechanic, where by fire formations can be tutored easily to fit the situation." - Lamby, High Level Gaming. With repetitive turn by turn plays, net advantage, and access to some really broken effects in the Rank 3 and LV 6 Extra Deck monsters, 3 Axis is a more versatile Fire Fist Deck suffering from Toolbox mentality.

Elemental Dragons...The Destroyer of Formats

The destroyer of Formats.... Done....With 4 different attributes, Elemental Dragons are able to work together in a deck, tutor other similar attribute dragons, constantly thin the deck, gain/replenish hand advantage with its own draw engine, churn out huge monolithic beat sticks, make multiple big eyes, and drop LAD first turn wit ha 80%-95% success rate if you as the opponent did not open Veiler. Did I mention it makes Gold Sarco a busted duality. The deck is breed to OTK and makes Red-Eyes Darkness Metal irrelevant but oh so much more plus. Each dragon has its own spell like effect: Earth is Reborn, Water is Foolish Burial, Fire is MST, Wind is Rota for Dragons, and each one can be a ROTA for their attribute. On the fair side they can only activate one effect per turn...which is nullified by the fact that not only can they special summon themselves from grave, their baby/chibi versions special summon them from deck. Welcome to the Dragon Format...it just makes Evilswarm such a good deck.

Prophecy...Judgement Magician 

Evilswar....I mean Prophecy is the long awaited tier deck of the format. "Super Sayin" Spell book Judgement Day turns a simple solitaire deck into the most unfair deck of the format. With a one card game changer, the Prophecy deck can go from bad hand to next turn OTK in a matter of turns. Because of rarity and shuffling, the constancy of the deck is unlike any other. Normally a deck would not draw the pieces needed to change games but because most cards in the deck are either secret, ultimate or ultra, first turn hands are usually Judgement Day and Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. A spell driven deck, side outs against the deck are relatively simple but dependent on the attribute of the deck it is facing. Epidemic Virus has become OCG staple tech alongside Droll and Lock Bird, but TCG players may find it difficult to put such cards in Mermails and Fire Fists.

Tier 2

Thunder Family...All in the Family

The unexpected, un-sided for deck sweeping the nation. Thunder Family is a deck sole dependent on normal summoning and XYZ summoning Rank 4 monsters. The release of Starliege Paladynamo has pushed this deck from being a fun deck into an "anti-Meta" preference of choice for many competitive players. Consistent draws, ability to get a double summon for a Thunder King, access into light based XYZ monsters, and being unaffected by Cosmos, make Thunder Family a good call in a format dominated by Water and soon to be dominated by dragons. The only reason why Thunder Family is not tier 1 is because of speed vs advantage. The dynamic of the deck allows it to go fast but at the sacrifice of hand advantage. Like wise you can sacrifice speed for hand advantage but its slow game becomes extra slow as both duality and seahorse force players not to special summon their beefy XYZ monsters. This balancing act is both its biggest advantage over decks that must over commit and its biggest flaw versus decks that can play a better slow game. Its a good deck but it leaves players just wanting a bit more. As soon as the next pack comes out it will become much better with the additional Constellar XYZ.

Gadgets....Gadgets..... 

Has not changed since the beginning of time. Advantage, advantage, advantage... A deck of floaters is always good and with new innovations coming on the horizon, the Oldest Meta deck of Yugioh will get even faster. Tin Goldfish allows the deck to get into Gagant plays faster but at the cost of revealing hand advantage to your opponent. Not as much a plus one as it is digging deeper into your deck, Goldfish becomes an extra Veiler target that baits out your opponent. Also being a water, worst case scenario he becomes an instant Bahamat Shark which is 50 stronger than Ophion, a very relevant deck some this April. Ironically Ophion is also why this deck is not tier 1. Evilswarms side or main eradicator with XYZ reborn for the Prophecy match up; an easy 2-3 card side of deck devi, the easiest virus to get off in any deck, shuts down the entire deck if there are no Machinas. Being 2550 Ophion is still stronger than Fortress and to make matters even worse, Forbidden Dress will protect him from being targeted by Big Eye. Gadgets is a great deck but needs an impressive side to compete against the coming meta.   

Monarchs....LAD  

Another old deck...but surprisingly good come the next set. Proven by the Elemental Dragons, most decks cannot handle LAD. Having to exhaust so much to get rid of one card is very advantageous for a deck that needs time to gain more useful cards. And the monarchs themselves are able to immediately answer problems that would other wise cripple most players. Monarchs are a stable deck minus the Monarch Lock that some players suffer from, hands of monarch after monarch with no tribute fodder make the deck a painful memory for most players who have picked it up prior. But the deck is consistent and can match the tempo of mostly any deck. ....Funniest side ever, play frog monarchs, side into macro monarch...YOU TIGHT!

Young Money Rouge 

Six Samurai....SPAM-urai

With the coming of Diagusto Emerald and EvilSwarm Oroborous (hope I spelt it right), Six Sams has become the deck to fear. Bolstering a hand loop, a burn loop, and the might Shi-en, Naturia Beast, Naturia Barkion, Shock Master, Excalibur OTK, Armed Ninja OTK, Sams is a terrifying deck. At least it would be if all those plays did not require so much commitment and so many cards. I put Sams as a Rouge deck because it requires both masterful hands and massive amount of luck to resolve any of the mentioned combos. Sams suffer from having no monsters, top decking no monsters, and drawing cards that are completely irrelevant with no monsters. But when Sams get their combos going it requires much skill to take apart what they've set up and most players just scoop. Going foreword if you think you have what it takes to go 9 flights with Sams I recommend you try because at the end of the day Sams is a very explosive deck with a ton of outs to any given situation.

Wind ups....Plants 

The new plants....end of story.

E-Hero....Super Poly

Not the pick everyone expected, but if anything it is a constant deck. Combo-ish in nature, Elemental hero hold in their hands one card that destroys every deck, Super Poly. Super Poly cannot be negated and there is no response to it. Simply it is the ultimate card that suffers from Banlist worthy traits yet never gets band as your opponent negs 1 to use it. The only issue is that all the fusions are high level monsters, Abyss Gaios stops them from attacking and Ophion/Dyna on the field stops your opponent from even activating super poly. Why? Cause with Dyna and Ophion, you cannot even attempt to special summon. Otherwise, it has always been a solid deck. Issues that have arisen with the deck is that, for most players, its too slow. Other variations like the Alive hero/destiny hero build are also complained about...for being too fast and not having enough outs. Still others like Fusion gate which did well in YCS Austin may not do well in future events due to awareness and again first turn Ophion or LAD.











Wind ups...Actually 

Ok Well....Wind-ups are still a deck because at its core, Wind-Ups are just monsters and traps. The deck is not really married to any trap played so siding is super simplistic. Moreover, as long as the solid engine is still functioning the Wind Up player can do anything to his board. Torrential...T.T....and continue my loop. Why? Because Rat and Photon Papiloperative can tool box the grave, Rabbit can refresh/save a monster, the best traps in the game can protect their monsters, and any tech can help mitigate the board....I'm looking at you Fire Fist Bear. But whether Wind Ups are a deck or not, you have to acknowledge one simple fact...there are no match ups Wind Ups can't handle. This simple truth has bamboozled people into thinking it is the best deck of the format. While still a good deck, actually the bets its been in a long while, Wind Ups is a reactive deck now. A subpar loop, with calculated plays, Wind Ups forces a player to be better than they actually are. The Wind Up player has to have full knowledge of the current meta, an impressive side, and well placed/timed plays in order to win versus most decks. This is why although affordable now, most new players should shy away from the deck as it more complicated than it looks.

I hope you enjoyed this first blog...ran kind of long but the information is definitely worth reading.

Play pro Yugis, It's morphing time and I'm out!!!

Jin829jeet, the Red Ranger