Yahallo, lads and ladettes, its me its your best friend its CanYouSayG, and youre reading the CanYouSayBlog, where we learn how to be a better cardfighter.

Today, we will be taking a quick look at the current Premium Standard format, seeing what decks are around, what example decklists from around the world look like, as well as quickly go over the decks core strategy and their win condition.

Hopefully this will allow you to have a better understanding of the format and find one or two decks that interest you to give it a try.

For players whom have not been keeping up with much Premium Standard developments lately and want to be quickly updated with the latest metagame, or are looking for a good deck that suits their play style to join into Premium Standard with, this is the article for you.

The Premium Standard environment at the World Championship this year is set to be very similar to the current environment, so this will also give you insight into the potential decks that will be played at the World Championship! Be sure to have a quick read and get to know some of the decks and what they aim to do so you can enjoy watching the world championship even better.

Our current Premium Standard has many viable decks in the format, with Gold Paladin boasting the most wins and tops of any of the decks.

Of the majority played decks, there are Gold Paladin Ezel, Neo Nectar Plants, Dark Irregulars Gastille Combo as some of the most played decks of the format, but also in the topping category are Spike Brothers Beatdown, Kagero Overlord, Oracle Think Tank Tsukuyomi, Shadow Paladin Luard, Palemoon Songstar, Palemoon Silverthorn, Nubatama, Megacolony Gredora, Granblue Cocyutus, Dimension Police and Great Nature.

And these are only the builds that have been topping.

If youre looking for an example decklist for your clan, be sure to jump straight to it!

Gold Paladin Ezel

Example decklist from Champion of WGP Indonesia, CEO of Wirab Cardfight Consulting, Daniel Wirab

Example Decklist of BCS Cebu winner Derick Dao of Wirab Cardfight Consulting

Gold Paladin Ezel is highly regarded as the current top of the format, easily boasting the most tops of all the other decks, but is by no means unbeatable. A lot of other decks of the format have been building to counter this deck.

Removing the consistency of old Kryph and reducing the ability to superior ride to Grade 3 when the opponent is at Grade 1, but they can achieve very similar outcomes without it.

The main strategy of Ezel is to be faster than the opponent. Faster to grade 3, Faster to re-riding and opening accel circles, and faster to stride.

They will aim to superior ride or normal ride up to grade 3, then use Wonder Ezel to superior ride multiple times, opening more and more accel circles when you are just on Grade 1 or 2, limiting your options to counterattack. Then, they will continue with striding into Spear X Dragon to fill up their board, and attack with multiple additional attacks from Accel Circles.

Do note that a lot of builds do play White Lion, as well as Howell in order to give themselves extra damage, then counter charge it back to access 2 open counterblast even when you leave them at one damage to try to deny the Spear X play.



A common play they will also go for is the combo of Platina Ezel and Spear X Dragon, first using Platina Ezel's ability before swapping to Spear X Dragon to fill the field, then get an extra 3 attacks that turn while searching for triggers.

Be sure to watch out for Ultima, as even if its not their finisher, they can still finish off the game off of Platina Ezel's skill alone.

Neo Nectar Plants

Example decklist from winner of BCS Ho Chi Minh City, Team TripleCriticalTriggerS Dr. Seiji

Neo Nectar Plants is one of the other common decks of the format owing to its ease of access, requiring only one stride combined with a lot of Standard cards from the highly popular recent set Ultra Rare Miracle Collection.

Neo Nectar is an aggressive deck, with access to higher power columns than any other deck for that turn number, and using those to push damage and hit the opponent from as early as turn 1. Green Katrina is an excellent follow up to this plan by having high powered multiple attacks, allowing the player to aim for the win as early as first or second stride.

By filling their field with Plant Tokens, they are able to transition into Green Katrina, their main stride, and execute multiple attacks by superior calling more units out to attack. Amongst these will include Maiden of Gladiolus, which allows the Neo Nectar player to superior call one more time during the battle phase, dealing one more attack for the cost of one counterblast.

Generally, the more plants they have, the better field they can construct when they stride.

Do watch out for Maiden of Trailing Rose, as riding her will create two plants, then Katrina will create one more plant. This totals 3 plants generated before the battle phase, meaning they only had to have two plants from previous turns to have a full ideal field. However, if they are unable to ride Trailing Rose, they may have to go into their multiple attacks with only 2-3 plants, significantly cutting down their potential attacking output.

Another key point to fighting Plants is that they have a maximum of 5 attacks, unless you give them counterblast, of which they can get one additional attack off of one counterblast, totaling 6 attacks if they have 5 plant tokens.

Plants are also very likely to try to stay at Grade 2 to fight for a few turns, aiming to try to be the second player to ride to Grade 3 in order to get the first stride and hit very hard.

For a more in depth discussion regarding Premium Plants, playing, and adaptation to incorporate newer cards from VEB10 The Mysterious Fortune, be sure to check out this article

Dark Irregulars Gastille Combo

Here we have Dark Irregulars Gastille Combo, with our example deck played by Kyo Togen of Wirab Cardfight Consulting whom won BCS Germany

The Gastille Combo deck is a deck that aims to perform a high powered multi attack combo on first stride by using Gastille Demonas to power up the frontrow units with as much as 5-10 cards sent to soul, as well as use abilities it copies such as No Life King Death Anchor, or Master of Fifth Element to give the high powered units even more chances to attack.



One important ruling to remember when playing against this deck is that when they copy No Life King with Gastille and use its ability to CB1, soul in 3 RG and 1 from hand, then re-ride a unit from soul, not only can they pick any grade of unit (Re-ride to G2 to deny G Guardian, etc) but the 4 cards going to soul put Gastille's power up frontrow ability on standby. The opponent will re ride to the new unit first before the power up is applied, giving the unit that they ride into an additional 12k power!

You can expect the rear guard columns to be attacking with upwards of 40k+ power, not something easily stoppable without G Guardians or null guards.

One of Dark Irregulars weaknesses is how they often have to choose between their high utility triggers, such as Hysteric Shirley or Monochrome of Nightmareland, and high defense high power triggers without abilities. This results in their defensive guarding, damage triggering, and early game offense sometimes being lacking, especially compared to decks such as Ezel and Plants which boast a full line up of high powered triggers.

Spike Brothers Beatdown

Next up we have Spike Brothers, with the example decklist of Cyrille Boneau whom topped BCS London.

Spike Brothers is a powerful beatdown deck with similar early game presence to Neo Nectar, but ultimately is less popular both as a clan as well as due to the difficulty in obtaining parts for the deck.

Able to deploy out a field very easily thanks the Grade 2 lineup, as well as gain power from their own abilities, it is very hard to be on the receiving end of the beatdown in the early game. Like other spike brothers decks, their early game defense is very much lacking due to having to preserve shield value for stride turns as well as having very few draw options while a lot of their abilities require the use of hand.

Once they stride, beware of the Bad End Dragger striding into Good End Dragger combo. By having no empty rear guard circles when Good End's ability goes off, they instead superior ride two Grade 3 units onto their V as rest. Riding twice also means TWO MORE Force Gift, and by riding onto Bullspike at the end, they are able to move those two Force Gift around. Additionally, thanks to Bad End's on ride ability, they can superior call out that bad end dragger (and the one from deck that was ride from Good End Draggers ability) to become attackers, an easy 5 Attacks finishing with two attacks of 43k power.

Once they get striding, their defense improves greatly as they will aim to use their G Guardians to open many G Zone thanks to their Heal Trigger being easily searched out via Jelly Beans/Mecha Trainer.

The decks finisher is either hitting hard and fast and following up with Good End Dragger for multiple Force markers and moving them around, or using their GB8 Hellhard Eight to finish off the opponent.

While the channel is split between Standard, Premium, and other content, I very highly reccomend LivingProof's channel for more information and in depth discussion regarding Premium Spike Brothers.

Kagero Overlord

This is the decklist of Vietnamese Representative Hoang Khoa whom piloted it to a 2nd place Finish at BCS Vietnam and then a Top 4 Finish at BCS Singapore with back to back BCS Tops.

Kagero is a deck that heavily counters many other decks thanks to Denial Griffon being able to remove rear guards, and thus battle phase combos, with ease. This makes Kagero a force to be reckoned with once both players get to Grade 3. Additionally, in the early game it is hard to bring them into a G2 fight as not only do they have good access to their powerful G3s that have impact when you ride into them as first ride, but also heavy retire in the G2 slots, easily counter attacking hard when you aim to be aggressive against them,

The main combo of the deck is to legion Dragonic Overlord the X with Dragonic Overlord the End, using The End's ability to restand twice in one turn after sending back many triggers to the deck. This results in a total of 6 drive checks in one turn. Combine this with the pressure of Dragonic Overlord if they rode to G3 first, or Dumjit if they ride to G3 second and stride, and it becomes incredibly difficult to hold off their high powered multi attack with high trigger rate.

Do note that Kagero has some of the best deck filtering by way of draw power, superior call, and Conroe. Combined with legion, this can create a situation where the trigger chances are very high.

Oracle Think Tank Tsukuyomi

Oracle Think Tank Tsukuyomi is a deck that has recently come into the spotlight with multiple back to back BCS and WGP wins in the face of an overwhelming Ezel prescence. This example decklist is from Mohammad Abumahula when he won BCS France.

Tsukuyomi's main win condition is, as before, using Ichikishima together with Silent Tom in order to secure an unblockable attack. Combine this with Tsukuyomi's deck stacking or Victorious Deer to easily set up the double or Triple critical in order to deal at least 4-5 unblockable damage to the opponent, but do not be fooled into thinking it is the only win condition they are aiming for.

Do watch out for Protect markers, as those can still be used to guard the Ichikishima + Silent Tom combo.

Tsukuyomi, thanks to the abilities of G1 and g2 tsukuyomi, is able to get at least 2 cards extra into their hand from the ride chain, and the abundance of draw support cards such as Rectangle Magus helping them face off against more aggressive decks.

One of the more frightening parts of the deck, only having 8 G1, is mitigated by both G Assist as well as playing Akizuki, which can function as additional copies of G1 Tsukuyomi.

Shadow Paladin Luard

Shadow Paladin Luard is a very powerful deck with card power levels bordering overpowered, but has very few tops in recent months due to the popularity of its many bad matchups. Here we have Karan Patal's deck from winning BCS Chicago.

Luard boasts an incredibly powerful early game if they are able to draw into Nemain, easily filling up their board and using the units to be aggressive early while drawing into their key parts such as G3 Luard and Dagda. This combined with easily playing Macha, Charon allows them to beat down early and often times win off of just the early game tempo.

Once they get to striding, they will aim to use Dragwiser Morfessa combined with Dragfencer Dagda to do multiple high powered, 2 critical attacks with Guard Restrict, as well as thinning the deck to increase rate of drive checking into a stand trigger, giving them four to six attack with Morfessa's ability.

Due to inherently playing null guards, using Nemain to search out Fallen Dive Eagle, and generally having access to more draw power than most other standard based decks, Luard can often boast an almost unbreakable defense. Of note, do remember that Fallen Dive Eagle can be returned to the deck every turn, allowing players to call one out via Nemain every turn. Keep two up against Ichikishima + Silent Tom and you'll find you will be easily able to survive this 'unblockable' combo.

Palemoon Songstar

Here we have Yuwei Peng of Strictly Broken TCG's Songstar loop deck from 3rd Place BCS Toronto.

The Songstar loop aims to create a loop between Songstar, Flying Peryton, Rain Element Tear and several open Cray Elemetntals in the G Zone to perform a semi infinite loop, attacking infinite times.

Do keep in mind that unless your deck can superior call Honoly from your hand at the correct timing, they will just send it to soul with Tricky Assistant, a move that also allows them to remove units from your board.

Being a combo deck, Songstar loop will often aim to keep on the defensive while setting up their combo, often times involving opening up cray elementals in the G zone.

Due to being a combo deck and relying on several moving parts, it can be hard to survive against the faster decks of the format such as Neo Nectar, Gold Paladin and Dark Irregulars, but any player confident in taking it to a large event will be very versed in playing against these decks.

Palemoon Silverthorn

Next up we have another option for Palemoon players, Premium Silverthorn.

This deck, piloted by Zapp of Team TriCriTS, recently won Brave VGCS in Japan.

Premium Silverthorns is a lot more honest in its approach to victory, using the new stride Darkside Princess combined with Masquerade Master Harri to perform multiple attacks. This, combined with Accel Circles to give extra power as well as units such as Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer Luqier whom can gain even more power, allow for many attacks on first stride.

One of the key points in playing the new Purple Trapezist is its combo with Doriane.

If you have One Doriane on R and one on V, you can set both on standby on the same turn.

First, use the Doriane on V to send everything to soul, then add a G3 Silver Thorn from soul to hand and draw a card. Then, use Purple Trapezist to superior call out units such as Flying Peryton, Cat Knight in High Boots, Miss Direction, and other units, while still in your end phase.

Then, as you have yet to resolve the effect of Doriane that *was* on R, use that ones ability to draw cards, and add a G3 from soul to hand. Since the Doriane is not on R (it was sent to soul from the first doriane on V), it is not retired but you still get to eat that cake.

For players wanting to learn more about this deck, click here to find Zapp's blog entry regarding the deck

Nubatama

Nubatama is in a difficult spot recently with decks such as Ezel, Luard, Spike Brothers and Plants being able to be aggressive against Nubatama's slow start, but Jamyoukongou breaking hands down to 4 cards and other effects further taking away hand can easily turn the tides.

The example decklist is from a shop tournament in Korea, featuring both Jamyoukongou as well as Kokushigarasu to take away many cards from the opponents hand at once, ideally aiming to leave them at 1 card or less.



With the addition of some of the new token makers from the new set, Nubatama has increased its early and mid game survivability.

One key point to remember is that Evil Decoy Tokens can be retired as cost for Magatsustorm, which helps you on the defense!

Another potential finisher combo is the use of Mizukaze to provide guard restrict together with Shiranui Rinne to guard restrict the grade of the units called from hand! This makes it easy to deal multiple damage at once as its hard to stop so many attacks with critical when you cant call most of your hand!

When facing Nubatama its important to try to identify which build the opponent is playing, either Rinne or Jamyoukongou, in order to properly play around the correct deck.



While not a win, 4th place WGP Nagoya is an example of the build that incorporates the newer cards from VBT07

Megacolony Gredora

Next up we have Megacolony Gredora. This example decklist is from Weiye Lok whom piloted the deck to a Top 8 at BCS Indonesia.

Gredora stands to counter a few of the decks in the metagame, and counter them very hard by locking the opponnent out of calling and forcing them to re-ride every turn just to fight.

While it hasnt been doing too great in the current metagame, with limited tops, once Megacolony Gredora managed to stop your momentum its almost impossible to come back.

In terms of win condition, some players give up defensive triggers in favor of Gyze as their win condition, while other players will use Hell Demise which stands a rear guard when its called by Gredora G4 to do multiple attacks to hit the opponent to 6 damage.

Be sure to hit them hard and early, as once your superior calling has been locked out, your chances at victory will disappear very fast.

Gredora is also notably extremely weak to Gold Paladin Ezel, which is currently one of the most prominent decks of the metagame.

Granblue Cocyutus

Next up we have Granblue Cocyutus. This deck is from Joseph Lopez whom won BCS Manilla.

Cocyutus is slow to start up and set up, but do not underestimate the draw power or defensive power of this deck.

The win condition they will be aiming to set up is by having several Skull Dragons in the drop zone, then using Ultimate Stride into Megiddo to have massive powered Skull Dragons attacking with upwards of 60k+ power.

One of the key points of Cocyutus is that they dont usually like to fight at G2, instead riding up to G3 and drawing multiple cards while setting up with Cocyutus. This quickly fills their hand with a protect and other cards via Ripple Banshee while leading into a G Guardian into powerful stride next turn, before the early game aggression can push them into an unfavorable situation when taking their opponent's first stride.

Cost control usually doesnt work against Cocyutus, as they have access to Grenache once they get to the striding game, easily opening up more counterblast for them every turn.

Dimension Police Dimension Robo

Next up we have Dimension Police, this deck piloted to the 2nd place finish in WGP Nagoya by Rokuno.

Dimension Police is a deck that will usually try to do a powerful one shot kill deck, aiming to have multiple critical on their vanguard at a ridiculously high number that is almost unblockable, with or without restanding in the mix as well.

To this, the stride X Gallop, the G1 Commander Laurel and G3 Dailiner are all key players.

They do also have access to a superior ride in the form of their starter Goyusha, so if you are going second against them be ready for them to jump to grade 3 at the cost of much cards in their hand and for them to stride on you next turn.

Be sure to check out Differentfight's video on Premium Dimension Police here for a more expert opinion of the deck

Great Nature

Here we have Great Nature, this example decklist from BCS Huston 3rd place Matthew Preston of Team Pyrocon.

Great Nature aims to be very flexible early game to combat Neo Nectar Plants and Gold Paladin Ezel, with both steady sources of searching as well as opening of accel circles to set up future turns.

Once they stride, they can easily build back up the card advantage via Crayon Tiger, Balaurl, and their G Guardians.

You can see this deck playing Hamusuke as the main engine of the deck to open more Accel Circles earlier in the game, but the build playing Leopald to fill up your board is also readily played.

Keep in mind that because of Mikesaburo to search your Grade 3 Ride easily, this deck can easily access re riding and their ultimate stride cost for Zoa.

The combo between Zoa, Monoculus Tiger and Talented Rhino to create an unblockable attack is something you should always account for.

One of the strongest aspects of Great Nature can be seen in Bicolor Baku and Compass Lion, both of which are 11k base power Grade 2s. By riding these two units, Great Nature has a higher chance of riding into a higher-powered G2, helping slow down aggression from other decks. Most notably riding into an 11k power Grade 2 helps against Neo Nectar massively, as their main Vanguard power line is often 15k power, enough to no pass with a 15k shield.

If the opponent has Ride Isabel, one of the combos to look out for is a G Guardian superior calling out a Daring Scientist Marimarten. While it would normally be left to chance, with Isabel, Marimartens ability to retire a column becomes confirmed, allowing you to retire a whole column at will during the opponents turn, which will disrupt or potentially shut down Dark Irregulars, Gold Paladin, and Neo Nectar.

Conclusion

With very intense gameplay and the ability to exhibit your knowledge and skill, Premium Standard has continued to be a popular format with veterans of the game.

Today, we have gone over as many as 14 different decks that have been proven to be powerful in the format!

I hope this article has helped you understand and discover a deck that you like or makes you interested in building.

While a lot of the recent tops have been gold paladin, our current Premium Standard meta game does has a wide variety of decks out there, with many more decks being discovered and proven at BCS and WGP events around the world. Perhaps your great idea is the next big thing!

Thats all for today, I hope you learned something new or had a chance to renew your insight into the various decks. Join us back again soon on the CanYouSayBlog, where we learn how to be a better cardfighter.