This Tier List is being made with respect to the upcoming KC Cup Stage 2 this weekend.

Tier 1

TPC Comments

Deadfun

Darklords have proven their strength through the whole week and topped several tournaments including the MCS. The ability to setup 2 Monster Effect negations on your first turn makes decks like Blue-Eyes, Cyberdarks, Triamids, Flower Cardians and Magnet Warriors basically unplayable, because they heavily rely on their monster effects. also puts a lot of Pressure on Desperado decks with its non-destruction removal.

Desperado is probably the 2nd best deck in the current format. It is able to main cards like / , which have a major affect on the Darklord strategy. It stops them from summoning their monsters and activating their effects. But the downside is, if you dont open those counter cards you have a very hard matchup against Darklords.

Luke Tyler

Recent tournaments, the MCS especially, has proven that Darklord is a dominant force amongst the meta. The deck boasts immense power alongside a relatively flexible engine that allow it to prevail in a competitive environment. It is expected to be the most represented deck in the event.

Desperado is able to adapt its tech cards to comfortably defeat Darklord in the KC Cup. Suggestive of such, a possible trend would be the inclusion of tech cards like in the main deck. Being the flexible deck that it is, Desperado is a good pick for the KC Cup.

Tenma

MCS 22 proved how dominant Darklords can be. It’s going to be the deck to beat during the KC Ccup, however what is considered the best deck going into these events rarely wins.

Thanks to powerful side deck cards like used in the main deck is able to keep up with Darklords. The deck is definitely a solid choice for the KC Cup.

Tier 2

Currently there are no Tier 2 Decks

Tier 3

TPC Comments:

Deadfun

Amano Stun is a new added deck to the Tier List, which is able to negate all monster effects on field, hand and graveyard, that on its own makes Darklord unplayable. Problem with the deck is if you dont open you have to stall until you draw it and by then you’re probably already at a huge distvantage.

Luke Tyler

When dealt good enough hands the deck can prove very troublesome to many meta decks. Being such a useful tool in the format, some variation of an deck could do quite well in the KC Cup.

Ancient Gear saw a severe decline in relevance once Darklord became dominant. However - should the popular decks rotate to being primarily anti-Darklord strategies, then Ancient Gear has the opportunity to thrive.

Though quite slow when not drawing Calling/Vision, Fortune Lady are backed up by an arsenal of powerful backrow. Their boss monster, Every, is a big threat to many decks out there with its solid built-in-removal and recursive ability.

Similar to Amano Stun, Neos Decks thrive on the popularity of Darklord. The deck can adapt quite well to take advantage of a popular decks weakness. A Neos deck well equipped for the KC Cup Meta has the possibility of doing well.

Though the deck is not as consistent since the banlist, Six Samurai still has access to two very powerful tech cards - Dual Wield and World Legacy Clash. Alongside being the normal strong contender that it is, there is a good possibility that Six Samurai could perform quite well in the KC Cup.

Tenma

Amano Stun is a pure antimeta strategy that - with the right hand - can beat most of the decks on the tier list. Very solid choice as a kc cup deck.

The introduction of Darklords shaked the meta and added a hard counter to the Ancient Gear strategy. It might play a role if the meta becomes backrow heavy and centered to counter Darklords.

Fortune Lady is a very fun and powerful deck if it manages to get into its Synchros early in the game. The non-targeting removal given by and can be very hard to deal with and that’s why this deck might play a role in the kc cup.

Neos is another antimeta strategy that might be successful. Compared to Amano Stun the games will likely end faster making it, arguably, a better KC Cup deck.

The nerfs reduced the consistency of Six Samurai but the access to and makes the Darklord matchup very interesting. It might be the dark horse of the KC Cup.

Spellbooks remain competitively viable if you are an experienced player. However the matchup vs both Tier 1 decks is unfavorable. Going first against Darklords with and is necessary to stop them from flooding the board and set-up negations, and going second makes the matchup an uphill battle. Tier 3 deck that will likely see some play from veterans in the KC Cup.

Removed

TPC Comments:

Tenma

Consistency issues and some poor matchups against the top tier decks have made Blue-Eyes less competitively viable. Off the Tier List for the time being.

The meta shift caused by the introduction of the latest set has caused a lot of problems to the Cyberdark strategy because they can hardly deal with the Continuous monster effect negation from Darklords and the continuous Banishing from . At the moment Cyberdarks are a rogue deck that can steal some wins but that struggles to compete with the Top Tier decks.

Not having a Turn 1 play is the main issue of Flower Cardians; for the time being it’s not Tier-worthy.

Magnet Warriors are another deck that revolves around monster effects struggles against Darklords. Off of the Tier List for the moment

Subterrors are another victim of Darklords - the deck is too fast and consistent for Subterrors to overcome the effect negation offered by .

Triamids struggle against big Darklord monsters that can also negate the recycle effect of their field spell thus completely stopping their main engine. Unfavorable meta for now, they might come back in the future.

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