Welcome to Week #0 of the OCG 2020.01 format.

This preliminary report will cover 90 top-performing decks from 13 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 21 – 31 December 2019, played under the new OCG 2020.01 Limit Regulation.

New Product Release

Legendary Gold Box

Premium Pack 2020

Jump Festa Limited Pack 2020

V Jump February 2020 promotional card Flame Noble Knight Renaud



Metagame Breakdown

11 Mythical Beast Endymion

9 Orcust: 8 mono Orcust 1 Dragoon Orcust

8 Zefra

7 SPYRAL

6 Invoked: 5 Dragoon Invoked 1 mono Invoked

5 Dragoon

5 Subterror: 4 mono Subterror 1 Dragoon Subterror

5 Thunder Dragon: 4 mono Thunder Dragon 1 Dragoon Thunder Dragon

4 Altergeist: 2 mono Altergeist 1 Dragoon Altergeist 1 Mekk-Knight Altergeist

4 Cyber Dragon

4 Salamangreat

3 Infernoid: 2 Grass Lair Infernoid 1 mono Infernoid

3 Sky Striker

3 Shaddoll

3 Zoodiac

2 Dragon Link

2 Trickstar

1 Danger Dark World

1 Gizmek Orochi Da Eiza

1 Lunalight

1 Magician

1 Mekk-Knight

1 Train

Endymion

With Outer Entity Azathot and Topologic Gumblar Dragon forbidden in the OCG 2020.01 Limit Regulation, combo decks are no longer as dominant, giving rise to Pendulum decks.

Pendulum decks like Endymion thrive in a beatdown format as they want to run the minimal amount ‘hand traps’ in the deck, allowing them to focus on just flooding the board.

Shoui (ショウイ) went 8-2 and finished 2nd in “13th Tetsu Championship ~Cosmos in the Lostbelt~” which had 188 participants.

He ran 1 Secret Village of the Spellcasters and 1 Necrovalley in the Main Deck as his Field Spell Card toolbox to shutdown Spell cards and to shutdown the graveyard.

Amorphage Sloth in the Main Deck could stop Special Summons from the Extra Deck, but it is vulnerable to Dark Ruler No More. Dragon Buster Destruction Sword when equipped using Union Carrier‘s effect is considered a Spell card and thus would not be negated by Dark Ruler No More. However, the opponent might be siding in Typhoon instead that could then destroy it directly.

Orcust

Only slightly weakened by the OCG 2020.01 Limit Regulation, Orcust remains as a top contender.

Imai (イマイ) went 7-2 and finished 2nd in “YCCS ~Yu-Gi-Oh! Chiba Championship~” which had 62 participants.

He has 3 Dark Ruler No More and 2 Anti-Spell Fragrance in the Side Deck against Endymion.

The rising popularity of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon has also made him include 2 Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju in the Side Deck.

Dragoon

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is a new card from the Legendary Gold Box that has taken over the metagame.

Dragoon Beat runs various 1-card into Link-2 monster packages to turbo out Predaplant Verte Anaconda, whose effect can then send Red-Eyes Fusion and Fusion Summon Dragoon of Red-Eyes.

The Trickstar package is the most popular choice. Normal Summoning Trickstar Candina and then using Candina’s effect to add Trickstar Corobane from deck to hand, follow by Special Summoning Corobane would provide 2 materials for Link Summoning Predaplant Verte Anaconda. Trickstar Light Stage contributes to the consistency of opening with Trickstar Candina.

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects, a very troublesome threat that has players running more Kaiju to answer it.

Kamito (かみと) went 8-1 (excluding 1 bye) and finished 1st in “13th Tetsu Championship ~Cosmos in the Lostbelt~” which had 188 participants.

Dragoon Invoked

Similar to Dragoon Beat, Dragoon Invoked also uses the Trickstar Package, but devotes the Normal Summon to Aleister the Invoker instead to end the board with an additional Invoked Mechaba.

Trickstar Corobane would be Special Summoned first, before Normal Summoning Aleister the Invoker, whose effect would add Invocation from deck to hand. Trickstar Corobane and Aleister the Invoker is then used to Link Summon Predaplant Verte Anaconda. Invocation would be used to Fusion Summon Invoked Mechaba by banishing Aleister the Invoker and Trickstar Corobane from the graveyard, before using Predaplant Verte Anaconda‘s effect to Fusion Summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.

Having 2 threats on the field, Invoked Mechaba and Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, makes it harder for the opponent to answer with just Kaiju.

Kizami (きざみ) went 8-1 and finished 3 – 4th in “13th Tetsu Championship ~Cosmos in the Lostbelt~” which had 188 participants.

He ran quite a number of Kaiju in the Main Deck, as well as 2 Super Polymerization.

Against Dragoon Beat, Super Polymerization would use the opponent’s Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and Predaplant Verte Anaconda to Fusion Summon Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.

Against Dragoon Invoked, Super Polymerization would use the opponent’s Invoked Mechaba and Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon to Fusion Summon Invoked Elysium.

Conclusion

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon has quite an impact in the early OCG 2020.01 metagame.

Combining Dragoon Beat’s 5.6% and Dragoon Invoked’s 5.6% would place it at 11.2%, between Endymion and Orcust.

Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon is also heavily splashed in many different decks such as Dragoon Orcust, Dragoon Thunder Dragon, Dragoon Altergeist, Dragoon Subterror. Simply by running Predaplant Verte Anaconda in the Extra Deck, and Dark Magician, Red-Eyes B. Dragon and Red-Eyes Fusion in the Main Deck would enable access to Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.

Dragon Link is also able to bring out Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon by using Muddy Mudragon.

As Dragoon is now a serious threat, we are going to be seeing more Kaiju and Super Polymerization.

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