The previous OCG 2019.10 was quite a diverse and healthy format. With only minor changes made to the top decks in the OCG 2020.01 Limit Regulation, many were expecting the metagame to remain relatively the same.

But the debut of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon changed the OCG.

Compiled from a total of 408 top-placing decks from 62 competitive tournaments held in Japan, Asia, China, Korea and Vietnam, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2020.01 format.

Metagame Breakdown

86 Orcust (66 Orcust, 18 Dragoon Orcust, 2 Sky Striker Orcust)

44 Sky Striker (35 Sky Striker, 9 Dragoon Sky Striker)

33 Altergeist (31 Altergeist, 2 Dragoon Altergeist)

28 SPYRAL (21 SPYRAL, 6 Dragoon SPYRAL, 1 Dragoon Grinder SPYRAL)

24 Thunder Dragon (18 Thunder Dragon, 4 Invoked Thunder Dragon, 1 Dragoon Thunder Dragon, 1 Dragoon Invoked Thunder Dragon)

20 Dragoon Invoked

17 Danger Dark World (16 Danger Dark World, 1 Grass Danger Dark World)

15 Subterror (9 Dragoon Subterror, 6 Subterror)

14 Dragoon (10 Releaser Dragoon, 4 Dragoon Beat)

12 Endymion (11 Mythical Beast Endymion, 1 Odd-Eyes Mythical Beast Endymion)

11 Dragon Link (10 Dragon Link, 1 Dragoon Dragon Link)

10 Cyber Dragon

10 Zefra

8 Mekk-Knight (7 Mekk-Knight, 1 Invoked Mekk-Knight)

8 Shaddoll (4 Invoked Shaddoll, 3 Dragoon Shaddoll, 1 Shaddoll)

8 Trickstar (3 Orcust Trickstar, 2 Trickstar, 2 Dragoon Trickstar, 1 Dragoon Orcust Trickstar)

7 Dinosaur (4 Dinosaur, 2 Releaser Dragoon Dinosaur, 1 Grass Dragoon Orcust Dinosaur)

6 Infernoid (4 Grass Lair Infernoid, 2 Lair Infernoid)

6 Magician (4 Magician, 2 Dragoon Magician)

6 Salamangreat (5 Salamangreat, 1 Dragoon Salamangreat)

5 Eldlich (2 Eldlich, 2 Dragoon Eldlich, 1 Grass Eldlich)

4 3-Axis Synchro

3 Code Talker

3 Lunalight

3 Magical Musket

3 Zoodiac (2 Zoodiac, 1 Artifact Zoodiac)

2 Dragonmaid

2 HERO

1 Dragoon Burning Abyss

1 Dragoon Grinder Kaiju

1 Gizmek Orochi Da Eiza

1 Gizmek Orochi Zeroboros

1 Invoked True Draco

1 Madolche

1 Mekk-Knight Crusadia

1 Six Samurai

1 Tenyi

1 World Chalice

Orcust

With only a small hit to Orcust, they remained a popular choice. But the release of Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight propelled them to the top.

Not only was Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight was a better Armageddon Knight due to the additional synergy with Orcust cards, it was also able to generate a Token, making it a 1-card starter to Galatea, the Orcust Automaton. Girsu greatly boosted the consistency of Orcust, and they became the top contender by a huge margin.

While many decks have to make adjustments against Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Orcust has Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star. They could answer Dragoon even before Side Decking and that was a big advantage.

OCG 2020.01 → OCG 2020.04 Limit Regulation changes:

Orcust Harp Horror 2 → 1

2 → 1 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton 2 → 1

The OCG 2020.04 Limit Regulation weakened Orcust by another notch as Harp Horror and Galatea took another hit. Orcust remains as the top deck, but many has switched to the Dragoon Orcust variant.

Sky Striker

Sky Striker relied on Mystic Mine to shutdown both Dragoon and Orcust.

They were also packing multiple Monster Effect negation in the form of Effect Veiler, Ghost Mourner & Moonlit Chill, Infinite Impermanence to effectively disrupt Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight and Predaplant Verte Anaconda.

Nearing the end of the format, Sky Striker started adopting the Dragoon package into their build.

Although the OCG 2020.04 Limit Regulation left Sky Striker untouched, the limitation of Red-Eyes Fusion was a hit to the Dragoon Sky Striker variant. Sky Striker is still among the top contender, but has fallen quite a bit.

Altergeist

Altergeist had a boost from Altergeist Pookuery, but it was not until the release of Linkross that they took off.

Linkross provided them a way to trigger Altergeist Hexstia during their own turn, which in turn searches for an Altergeist card, greatly improving their consistency.

Skill Drain became one of the popular build as a method to answer Dragoon. Altergeist Marionetter and Altergeist Hexstia into Linkross allows Altergeist to consistently open with Altergeist Protocol which prevents the activated Monster Effects of their own Altergeist from being negated by Skill Drain.

At the dusk of the format, Altergeist begun running the Dragoon package in their Side Deck.

OCG 2020.01 → OCG 2020.04 Limit Regulation changes:

Linkross 3 → 1

Having Linkross limited to 1 meant that there is a risk that it could be banished by Pot of Extravagance. Altergeist might have to choose to hold Pot of Extravagance for a turn as they setup with Altergeist Hexstia into Linkross first.

Conclusion

Out of all 408 decks, 34 decks were based on Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, namely Dragoon Invoked, Dragoon Beat and Releaser Dragoon.

75 decks were running the Dragoon package (Dark Magician, Red-Eyes B. Dragon, Red-Eyes Fusion, Predaplant Verte Anaconda) in either the Main Deck or Side Deck, or using Muddy Mudragon to Special Summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon to complement their strategy.

299 decks were not using Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.

Based on the numbers, it may seem that Dragoon is not quite dominating, but it had warped the metagame. Decks had to run Super Polymerization and/or Kaiju to answer Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, or just straight up lose to it. Many decks such as Sky Striker, Altergeist, Subterror were steering towards incorporating Dragoon as it provides them with a game-winning threat. If you can’t beat them, join them.

OCG 2020.01 → OCG 2020.04 Limit Regulation changes:

Dragoon of Red-Eyes 3 → 1

3 → 1 Predaplant Verte Anaconda 3 → 1

3 → 1 Red-Eyes Fusion 3 → 1

Limiting Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and Red-Eyes Fusion puts a wench in decks that rely on Dragoon as their winning condition such as Dragoon Invoked and Dragoon Beat. However for decks that splash Dragoon such as Dragoon Orcust, they are largely unaffected.

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