This is the last Tier List for this Top Player Council. Next week’s Tier List will be written by our new TPC.

Tier 1

TPC Comments

Autumn Leaf

Darklords are unquestionably the best deck in Side Deck tournaments with a consistent search and draw engine in and as well as a staple Side Deck Skill in . With the majority of Darklord having the ability to pay 1000 LP for their effects, Darklords are given easy access to tech cards such as , , and through – often leading to OTKs without giving their opponent the chance to respond.

The counter-trap build of Desperado provides the deck with a very strong turn one play against many decks in the current meta. Counter-traps including , , and are excellent against the Darklord and Spellbook match-ups. Other cards such as are tech’d in for Darklords and the mirror match along with (which more players now have access to since its Main Box release).

Luke Tyler

Competitive events continue to prove that Darklord is a prevalent force amongst the meta. The deck boasts immense power alongside a relatively flexible engine that allow it to prevail in a competitive environment. Despite the deck having a target on its back, a good pilot is able to pioneer the Darklord strategy through various counters. Strong performances from Darklord at a high level are expected to continue.

Since the variant of Desperado emerged from the KC Cup, Desperado has continually performed well in competitive events on a large scale. Counter Trap Desperado is a menace to be reckoned with, most especially when it takes the first move. Darklord found this matchup to be a challenging adversary.

ShinySopheon

The only argument for Darklords not being Tier 1 is that it should be Tier 0. Darklords continue to force the meta to revolve around them, and consistently top despite every deck teching/siding heavily against them.

Desperado is arguably the best counter to Darklords, is a very solid choice in this meta. Being able to plus for free with to set up your plays and fuel your myriad of Counter Traps is extremely strong, making this the only other Tier 1 deck.

zaidking

It’ll be interesting to see how Desperado adapts to this upcoming meta. They don’t want the Invoked engine to rise in popularity as they have almost no way to deal with their board once it’s been set up. They’ll be reliant on techs such as or in addtion to having negates set up to have a chance

Tier 2

TPC Comments

Autumn Leaf

The release of and have quickly cemented itself as the new way to play Spellbooks in the current meta. With the synergy of the skill , Spellbooks has easy access to and thus , turning what was one of worst matchups in Desperado into an auto win in most circumstances.

Luke Tyler

A powerful enough hand from a Six Samurai deck is able to annihilate even the strongest of meta contenders. Upholding a good showing in the competitive scene despite its consistency issues, the deck remains at tier 2 for now. In regards to deck building trends, most Six Samurai players are using as their skill of choice. In doing so, is then able to meet relevant thresholds.

ShinySopheon

Despite some consistency issues, Six Samurais are still topping tournaments and have decent matchups across the board. While is typically the skill of choice, the deck has flexibility in side deck skills (mainly ), as well as the sometimes overwhelming board of just + .

Spellbooks have a new toy in the form of the Invoked engine. In addition to the already scary + , makes it even harder to out. SM + Cocytus stops , and Cocytus alone practically auto-wins the Desperado matchup. Spellbooks will only continue to get better as the meta advances.

Snyffus

Spellbooks got a new engine to play with: Thanks to the synergy with they added to their decks, giving them a better grind game as well as improving their Desperado match-up a lot, thanks to .

zaidking

Spellbooks have greatly benefited from the new Invoked engine giving them stronger pushes as well as a much better grind game, as of now my opinion on ratios is 2 and one .

Tier 3

TPC Comments:

Luke Tyler

Fortune Lady continues to prove its relevance in the competitive scene, though not the same extent that it had in previous events. The deck has been lacking in multiple strong results recently. Thus, demotion seems appropriate. This may be a case of the deck needing to adapt more to handle the current popular decks in tournaments. is a titan of a Synchro - equipped with devastating non-removal and self-recursive abilities. When paired with strong backrow the deck is a terrifying force to be reckoned with.

A solid deck in the meta, Triamid is able to perform well in competitive environments. Most commonly paired with , it’s able to change the traps to appropriately adjust to the format. With Desperado moving away from Canadia, and the matchup is very much so in the favour of Triamid. When adapting appropriately, Triamid is able to withstand Darklord opponents too - though still to an extent of difficulty.

ShinySopheon

Fortune Ladies struggle from consistency issues, and they don’t really have any matchup that they just counter. This makes it hard to justify playing them over Darklords or something more consistent like Desperdo or Spellbooks.

Triamids find their niche in having a favorable matchup against Desperado. They can struggle against Darklords, however, making Tier 3 a good spot for them.

Snyffus

Fortune Lady just aren’t consistent enough to do well. Sometimes you can have unplayable hands and just setting a few traps isn’t always going to save you.

High Potential

TPC Comments:

Luke Tyler

Gravekeepers are a control strategy that is able to set up some decent fields. With no way outside of to search , the deck lacks the ability to consistently pull one-sided wins through the use of the powerful field spell - but the deck has other ways of strong Turn 1 set ups nonetheless. One of it’s most notable weaknesses is going second vs Desperado and Darklords, but perhaps optimisation will improve this. It will be interesting to see how Gravekeepers perform in the upcoming week.

Invoked is the fusion archetype from the newest box - Dark Dimension. The deck functions through summoning attribute-devoted fusion monsters with a constantly recyclable engine in . From the 3 Invoked fusions we received, has been deemed the best of the three by far - hence the inclusion of multiple water monsters in Invoked-related strategies to make Cocytus the main focus. Untargetable and undestroyable are incredibly strong traits for a monster that’s not hard to summon to have. Many decks, Desperado especially, have a very hard time dealing with it. Without being in the game, Invoked is mainly referred to as a decks core components when is played in order to make it the orientation of the strategy. The exception to this is Spellbook, where Aleister is more so a tech card in a Spellbook deck rather than the other way around. Invoked is mainly reffered to as an engine (instead of a core component) when its being played without a way to get to Aleister other than hard-drawing the initial 2-3 copies in the deck. An example of this would be the Neos Invoked deck, which has been performing incredibly well over the past few days.

is an immensely powerful card that came out in the most recent EX Structure Deck. It ties many Neos variants together with consistency that would otherwise not be as viable. Most notably - the Invoked Neos deck is abusing Keeper of Dragon Magic to facilitate its fusion summon capabilities. Not only does Keeper have a strong recruiting effect upon its summon, but it’s second effect to reccur an or from the graveyard at no expense is super useful. Despite not being terrible, Keeper of Dragon Magic is most certainly the more competitive card from the structure deck until the format warps into something more suitable for Magician of Chaos. Neos variants are expected to be more prevalent on the release of such a strong card as Keeper of Dragon Magic.

The most popular and best performing deck from the new box and EX structure deck is an Invoked Neos hybrid featuring , (as the water monster for ) and an arsenal of powerful backrow. It uses in order to meet relevant attack thresholds. Furthermore, Beatdown also gives Invoked Cocytus a really nice offensive boost. The deck has already performed well without even a week of legality yet. Strong performances from this deck are expected to continue.

Snyffus

Neos got support with and the Invoked engine. This makes their decks a lot more versatile and a lot stronger too. also helps a lot in getting over big monsters.

zaidking

The new Invoked Neos deck has performed the best out of any new deck from the release of the new world, its consistency has risen so much more and theres the Invoked engine to back it up in many matchups where it would be needed, its definitely looking like a Top Tier deck soon enough.

Removed

TPC Comments:

Luke Tyler

Amano Stun suffers from hands without . Without drawing the card it struggles immensely to beat a vast collection of decks. Furthermore, the deck is very prone to commonly used side deck cards - in the instance of Darklord. This on top of lack of representation has lead to demotion.

Subterror is held back by its reliance on having to constantly be dealt above average hands to compete against higher-up meta contenders. is the most successful version of the deck, and even then there are elements that the deck is notably vulnerable to - most notably going second against established boards without a power play of its own such as . This in addition to lack of representation has lead to the demotion of Subterror. However, Subterror is far more likely to return to the Tier List than Amano Stun due its better ability to adapt to the meta.

Vendread lacks the power and consistency to rival the decks higher in relevancy. Another constraint with Vendread is its inability to fit in many tech cards. Though not a bad deck, it’s underperformance and underrepresentation in competitive environments is a reflection of its inability to consistently do well.

Snyffus

Amano has one big problem: Not opening . Sure you can auto win if you go first with it but if you don’t see it then this deck is very weak. Also it loses to popular Side Deck cards like .

The version of Subterror isn’t consistent enough and if you want to run Darklords then pure Darklords are the better option.

Vendreads are neither powerful nor consistent enough to keep up with the Top Decks.

zaidking

Vendreads and Subterrors cannot keep up well enough vs the meta as they are getting powercrept while also having consistency issues which further removes them from Tier List status

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