Welcome to Week #3 of the OCG 2018.07 format.

This report will cover 53 top-performing decks from 9 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 14 – 17 July 2018.

Despite having a good number of participants, the following tournaments only allowed cards that were released on and before 13 July 2018, and this meant that cards from Soul Fusion which was released on 14 July 2018 were not allowed.

Since the purpose of this report is to evaluate the impact of Soul Fusion in the OCG competitive scene, these 4 tournaments are excluded from this tabulation.

Fortunately, 16 July 2018 is Marine Day (Umi no Hi), a national holiday in Japan, and thus there were a few tournaments being held on this Monday to bring up the tournament count.

New Product Release

Soul Fusion

Jump Victory Carnival 2018 promotional card “C” Ranger Shine Black‎‎



Metagame Breakdown

16 Sky Striker

9 Altergeist

7 Thunder Dragon

5 ABC: 4 Mono ABC 1 Greener HERO ABC FTK

5 Gouki: 3 HERO Gouki 2 Malicious Gouki

2 Greener Lair Infernoid

2 Trickstar: 1 Mono Trickstar 1 Sky Striker Trickstar

1 Cyber Dragon

1 Greener HERO Plant

1 Herald

1 Junk Doppel

1 Performapal Supreme King Magician

1 SPYRAL

1 Zefra

Sky Striker

Toki-kun (ときくん) finished 1st in “41st Adachi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

The impact of Thunder Dragon can be seen in the deck building of Sky Striker as running 3 Infinite Impermanence in the Main Deck is now the standard build.

Thunder Dragon Colossus is extremely effective against Sky Striker as it denies Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! from being played. Only with 3 Infinite Impermanence along with 3 Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor does Sky Striker stand a chance in stopping Thunder Dragon Colossus from locking them out.

Toki-kun took a pro-active approach in dealing with Thunder Dragon, by running the full 3 copies of Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion in the Main Deck. Ghost Belle has already been proven to be relevant in the current metagame, being able negate Sky Striker Kagari, Sky Striker Mecha – Shark Cannon against Sky Striker and negate Soul Charge, Monster Reborn, Firewall Dragon, Gouki Re-Match, A-Assault Core against Gouki and ABC.

Against Thunder Dragon, Ghost Belle can be used to negate the Special Summoning effect of Avian Thunder Dragon, and this would deny the 1 non-Fusion Thunder Effect Monster required to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus.

His pro-active approach is further illustrated in his choice to run 3 Dimensional Barrier to preemptively deny the opponent from performing any Special Summoning of Fusion Monsters.

Altergeist

Ryuppy (りゅっぴー) went 7-1 and finished 1st in “41st Adachi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

Altergeist is largely unaffected by Thunder Dragon Colossus as they do very minimal adding of cards from deck to hand.

Both Thunder Dragon Colossus‘s and Thunder Dragon Titan‘s destruction substitute effect are useless against Altergeist Silquitous and Altergeist Meluseek.

The heavy Spell hate of Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Anti-Spell Fragrance and Imperial Order that were originally used against Sky Striker, are also relevant against Thunder Dragon by blocking out their Gold Sarcophagus play.

Thunder Dragon

Zigen Yuuhei (次元幽閉) finished 1st in “23rd 193 Osu Shop CS” (Team 3v3) which had 14 teams (42 participants).

Thunder Dragon Colossus has a very powerful effect that denies the opponent of adding cards from the deck to hand. This in particular affects Sky Striker significantly as their whole game plan revolves around Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!. Colossus also hampers Gouki and ABC, but this requires Thunder Dragon going first to setup.

Both Thunder Dragon Colossus and Thunder Dragon Titan come with destruction substitute effect, making them very difficult threats to answer. As such, Super Polymerization and Forbidden Apocrypha are some popular Side Deck cards against Thunder Dragon.

Conclusion

Thunder Dragon has a notable impact on the metagame right on its debut, especially by putting Sky Striker in check. This in turn opens up the opportunity for other decks to compete.

Dinowrestler Pankratops is a new card from Soul Fusion that has been gaining popularity in the Side Deck. A high ATK combined with a Quick Effect destruction ability makes it a very flexible and versatile removal.

In the current competitive scene, Pankratops is useful against Altergeist and their Secret Village of the Spellcasters. It can be Special Summoned to attack the Spellcaster monster, and if the attack fails, then its effect can be activated to destroy Secret Village.

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