Welcome to Week #0 of the OCG 2019.01 format.

Happy New Year!

This preliminary report will cover 76 top-performing decks from 11 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 23 – 30 December 2018, played under the new OCG 2019.01 Limit Regulation.

New Product Release

V Jump January 2019 promotional card God-Eyes Phantom Dragon

20th Anniversary Duelist Box

Jump Festa Limited Pack 2019

Premium Pack 2019

Metagame Breakdown

25 Salamangreat

10 Sky Striker

9 Dinosaur Thunder Dragon

6 Subterror

5 Thunder Dragon

4 Zefra: 3 Mono Zefra 1 World Chalice Zefra

3 Magician

2 Gandora-X FTK

2 Infernoid: 1 Grass Infernoid 1 Traptrick Infernoid

2 Invoked

2 Phantom Knights Burning Abyss

1 Altergeist

1 Blue-Eyes

1 Invoked Shaddoll

1 Kaiju Luna Mekk-Knight

1 Phantom Knights Orcust

1 Sky Striker Invoked

Salamangreat

Salamangreat is able to quickly swarm the field and setup some basic disruption in the form of Salamangreat Rage or Salamangreat Roar.

They are also able to bring out Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir. Bagooska is especially impactful in the mirror match to negate Salamangreat Gazelle, Lady Debug, Speedroid Terrortop and Salamangreat Miragestallio.

With multiple different ways to open using Salamangreat Gazelle, Salamangreat Spinny, Lady Debug or Speedroid Terrortop, Salamangreat is currently one of the most consistent deck, especially when the theme comes with its own searcher too – Salamangreat Circle.

Hinkinson Louis Takashi “ふぇ” is one of the Japanese representative that competed in this year’s World Championship 2018. He went 5-0-1 and finished 1 – 4th in “Japan YU-GI-OH Tournament 2019 with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which had 72 teams (216 participants).

As Salamangreat is currently the most popular deck in OCG 2019.01, running Super Polymerization for Salamangreat Violet Chimera is one of the most popular Side Deck choices since it cannot be negated by Salamangreat Roar.

Sky Striker

kazuma went 4-0-2 and finished 1 – 4th in “Japan YU-GI-OH Tournament 2019 with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which had 72 teams (216 participants).

His teammates Aroma (アロマ) and Aoi Ui (あおい うい) were running a similar build and went 6-0 and 4-1-1 respectively.

With Sky Striker Ace – Kagari currently limited, the current most popular solution to reuse Kagari is by running Pot of Avarice.

In the old standard play for Sky Striker is to open with Sky Striker Ace – Raye to go into Sky Striker Ace – Kagari and then Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku.

By simply running through Sky Striker Ace – Hayate and Sky Striker Ace – Kaina in the steps between Kagari and Shizuku to fill up the graveyard with monsters, Pot of Avarice can then be activated as soon as the next turn, shuffling back Kagari for another use.

Dinosaur Thunder Dragon

Pokkerio (ポッケリオ) went 6-0 and finished 1 – 4th in “Japan YU-GI-OH Tournament 2019 with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which had 72 teams (216 participants).

Thunder Dragon Colossus‘ effect is quite effective against both Salamangreat and Sky Striker.

Salamangreat relies on searching with Lady Debug, Speedroid Terrortop and Salamangreat Balelynx, while Sky Striker relies on searching with Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! and Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero.

As a countermeasure, both Salamangreat and Sky Striker are running the full 3 copies of Infinite Impermanence in the Main Deck.

Conclusion

Salamangreat is currently the most popular top performing deck and is without a doubt the deck to beat for the early OCG 2019.01 format.

Sky Striker and Dinosaur Thunder Dragon follows behind, but they are lacking in consistency when compared with Salamangreat which is untouched by the OCG 2019.01 Limit Regulation.

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References