Ola senor and senoritas, and welcome back to the Canyousayblog, where we learn how to be a better cardfighter.

Today we have another Premium Watch, this time it is the one year anniversary of the Premium Standard format, and we will be quickly going over every deck played in the meta, so you have an idea of what sort of decks you want to build in the near future!

With the upcoming release of Premium Collection and Revival Collection bringing key cards and strides to all players in an easy set to buy, the interest across the globe for premium standard and getting into the format is at an all time high. If youre looking for a good way to get into premium standard, today is the day!

Premium collection is already bringing many powerful cards to the table for each clan, so dont miss out!



If you just want to know what decks are the strongest in the meta, well, heres a tl;dr for you: There are over 25 meta decks in the current Premium Standard meta.



Over 25, with *almost all* clans having a viable build with regular tops at tournaments! Pick your favourite clan and find the build that suits you!



While not all the decks we will go over today are necessarily the most popular builds out there, all of them have shown the power, stability, speed, and play required to make top cut and win tournaments.

United Sanctuary:



Royal Paladin:



Blasters:

The blaster deck has changed very little since GBT05, with the introduction of Floral Paladin Flogal, but changed by adding newer cards, higher power, more versatility and more stability to get to your end goal: Call a big blaster blade, restand it with flogal, and hit the opponent so fast and so hard that they take 6 and die.

The deck plays Monarch Sanctuary Alfred for advantage and getting blaster blades, Tarna to get multiple force markers in one turn, Blaster Javelin Larousse to find Packgals and Flogals to chain more attacks, and the all important blaster blade and critical triggers.



Example decklist: Shanghai Asia Championship Qualifier 4th Place

Oracle Think Tank: Ichi-Tom and OTT Gyze

Oracle Think Tank is up, with two decks being widely played in the Premium Standard meta.

The first is Ichi-Tom, the face of Oracle Think Tank in premium and one of its most iconic. The combo of Ichikishima and Silent Tom as your finisher means that one attack cannot be guarded by anything except Protect gift, and early game draw and cost management allow the deck to draw while deploying units to get the attacking pressure on and keep it on early.

Lately, the deck has been playing units such as Tetra Magus, and Hexagonal Magus to draw more cards with counterblast, while using Cone Magus to bring the cost right back, but the core of the deck remains the same: Drive opponent to 4 or 5 damage, finish with the Ichikishima-Silent Tom move.







OTT Gyze

Our second Oracle Think Tank deck in the meta is OTT-Gyze. While it was by far one of the pillars of Premium when it first started one year ago, with consistent hitting of triggers and drawing into that high defensive power with your draw engine, OTT Gyze has dropped in popularity, being played less and gyze players favoring other styles of the deck instead, given its presumed simplicity of play. However, as results from BCSs Worlds, and WGP have shown, OTT Gyze is still the powerhouse it was in the format, and is definately a choice to pick up as your deck.

Angel Feather:

Metatron-Gyze:

Angel Feather in the western and english speaking world has been mostly confined to Metatron-Gyze, a deck that uses Metatron and a lot of the other standard cards to keep healing your damage, while using Gyze as your finisher. A stable and frequently played deck, it has risen to become one of the most common builds for Gyze decks around.

Gavrail-Ultima Loop

Another deck that recently had a boom in popularity and a topping finish at Asia Championship Shanghai was the Gavrail-Ultima Loop. This other build of angel feather spends just as much time controlling your damage and keeping the tempo away from your opponent, while using a loop instead of Gyze as your finisher. You can find more information about the details of how to actually do the combo.

Shadow Paladin: Luard

Shadow Paladin has become one of the pillars of the premium standard format with Luard, a deck that has consistently frequented the top tables of every major Premium tournament. While builds have evolved and adapted to the meta shifts across the year, Luard still remains one of the most stable and flexible decks of the meta, easily adopting the newer support into the deck.

A lot of players are hesistant to enter Premium Standard because of the incorrect perception that their main vanguards from the G Era are not as powerful as the newer ones with gifts, but Luard is the prime example that this is not the case.

Set to receive Morfessa in the premium collection and their other insanely powerful stride: Dragabyss getting a reprint in Revival Collection, Luard is not only one of the top decks in Premium at the moment, it is likely to continue to be on top and continue to be one of the easiest decks to put together.

Gold Paladin: Ezel

Gold Paladin Ezel is another commonly played deck in the format. Using Beumains and Kryph to superior ride Ezel when the opponent is G2, to getting multiple accel circles and hitting full speed before the opponent can start their game plan, Ezel is regarded as one of the agressive and fastest decks of the format. With core deckbuilding and play being straightforward with a lot more to learn when playing at higher levels, Ezel is one of the decks highly reccomneded to players whom play gold paladin in Standard, while wanting to give Premium a try, owing to the few older cards in the deck required.

Decklist Winner Trigger Twice VGCS



Genesis: Tahro Wiseman Loop

Genesis is a deck that has not had much popularity in Standard nor premium in the recent months, despite being a powerhouse that takes down VMC qualifiers with ease. In Premium standard, the deck still has low popularity, despite being very stable and effective at its game plan.

The most prominent deck in Premium Standard is of course the Wiseman-Tahro loop deck. The combo has existed since GBT09, but the deck employs new tricks such as Himiko to get that extra draw off early, playing Pelione to set up soul effectively, using newer support to draw into your parts while soulcharging, cumin to more readily retrieve cards sent to damage or draw to put them to soul, and sneakily hiding Witch of Frogs Melissa to mill your opponents to death if they are not careful.

The Wiseman-Tahro loop deck continues to be a strong deck in the format, easily taking down some of the slower decks around with upwards of 20-30 high powered attacks, but does have some weakness in speed against the faster decks of the format. Perhaps Genesis will change in time with the premium collection.

Example Decklist: BCS World Finals Hank Hwang Decklist

Kagero: Overlord

Kagero is in a peculiar spot in the meta in Premium Standard. While it does not have the flashy combos or tricks and interactions that other decks have, it does have the answer to all of them in their G Guardians.

A stable and consistent deck that controls the tempo and flow of the game, Kagero is a deck that boasts multiple finishers in the same deck: tanking attacks with Nouvelle, high powered Waterfowl, using Zeigenburg to restand, or 5 drives with The Purge are all common things to see the kagero player swap between in the course of a single game.

This, combined with the superior ride combo of Cruel Dragon to ride up to 3 and stride before the opponent make kagero a consistent deck in any meta.

BCS Chicago 3rd place Decklist

Nubatama: Rinne-Crow Discard

Nubatama is a clan that has had very poor showing in standard, both in player popularity as well as wins.

However, in Premium Standard, its a totally different story. VBT03 brought Nubatama to the stage and Premium Standard has been taking full advantage of it. By playing Kujikirikongo and its support, the nubatama deck can force the opponent to discard many cards from as early as the G3 ride turn. One of the key cards is the new card: Kokushigarasu to discard 5 cards from the opponents hand and field. While the 3 soul and 2 sentinel cost may seem hard to come by, you must remember that protect gifts also count as one sentinel to discard, meaning all you need is the soul and null guard.

This combined with impactful strides such as Shiranui Rinne tear through the opponents hand at a very fast pace, making most decks be unable to fight back.

Tachikaze

Of all the clans in Premium Standard, unfortunately Tachikaze is the one single clan whoes build has not shown premium standard results.

The build for Tachikaze premium is the Rex build, using the new support as well as "Rex" support to deliver high powered multiple attacks while maintaining card advantage.

http://canyousayg.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/08/13/190000

Murakumo: Infinite Attack Infinite Power Loop

Murkumo, the laughing stock of G-Era, but the king of Standard.

Murakumo has dominated the scene since its introduction in VBT02 and has not slowed down thanks to the introduction of Shirayuki. However, in premium standard the deck revolves around the infinite attack/infinte power loop. As a combo deck, it spends most of the game trying to not die while it assembles its combo, and then pulls off its combo to win the game on the spot. Murakumo holds a precarious spot in the meta. While not popular, it also is a combo deck that can take an unsuspecting meta by storm, and is by no means inconsistent.

You can find more details on how to pull off the loop on youtube.

Narukami

Narukami has previously been covered on the Zero damage gaming blog, and the deck has maintained its consistency. While not popular, it is present in the meta owing to cards such as Detonics Stinger Dragon and Rising Pheonix, and its ability as a deck to work around the opponents plays via cards such as Imepede Dragon, Bulwark Dragon, and Sweep Command Dragon, while using binds and beatdown from VBuster and Voltage to take the game away. Narukami has not shown any top 8s at big events yet, but has frequently taken the wins at local events and medium sized events across the globe.

Link: Premium Watch Narukami+OTT

Nova Grappler: Asura Victor

Nova Grappler in Premium is a force to behold, using Victor support to achieve multiple attacks and maintaining card advantage, as well as controlling your own cost well via Zubat Battler Victor, the deck flows well and is consistent in winning, not stopping with much.

Previously, the deck would run Asura kaiser as their secondary G3 to give the deck an option to open accel circles via their gift, but Nova Grapplers in VEB06 got Beast Deity Azure Dragon, a unit with an on-ride skill that gives you access to multiple more attacks, easily synergizing with Stride.

If you loved your Victor deck in G-Era, this deck is definately for you, being a deck capable of taking down all of the commonly played decks of the format.

Example Decklist: Asia Championship Indonesia 3rd place

Dimension Police: Dimension Robo

Dimension Robo is a deck that uses a lot of newer Standard cards in the main deck to synergize perfectly with the stride mechanic, being all about pumping up your vanguard to be as big as possible via Laurel, and achieving the high powered 2 crit restanding vanguard attack on the first stride.

The introduction of Final Daimax as both a unit to gain you field as well as a finisher in premium collection is sure to bring about changes to the deck and meta, but for now Dimension Police is, as it was always, a stable and powerful deck in the meta.







https://zerodamagegaming.com/blogs/0dmg-blog/premium-watch-narukami-oracle-think-tank

Messiah-Deletors: Messiah Deletors is definitely one of the most interesting decks of the format. The deck itself is a hybrid between both of Ibuki Kouji's decks: Messiahs and Deletors, and has its main win condition with Given. The main plan is to use Messiahs to lock the opponent and draw cards, and once you assemble your required pieces, to ride Greidoll to delete the opponent, stride over it, and use Given to restand your vanguard with triple drive.

One of the smartest tricks to do is to take advantage of the Messiah strides. Integral messiah unlocks all of your cards regardless of what your hearts is, so during the turn you ride Greidoll, you can attack with give, use its skill to restand your vanguard, use another skill to lock Given, attack with your vanguard to then unlock given (in stand) again, use given to once again restand your vangaurd to attack up to 3-4 times in one turn with triple drive.

An interesting deck, Messiah-Deletors takes great advantage of the myriad mechanics link joker have available to them.

Example Decklist: BCS France Shop Qualifier top



Chaos

Yeah thats right Chaos is still around!

As more and more decks move towards basing their builds around Standard builds, less decks have easy access to unlock, less decks are playing the low power but high advantage cards, and less decks have easy access to the answers to lock and chaos that they had at the end of G-Era. Chaos Breaker is a deck that is the knife that stabs right at this weakness. The more decks that start gravitating towards more power and speed related builds, the more Chaos Breaker will thrive. However, certain decks, especially Trois Ange are very popular and have built in counters to the chaos deck, limiting its popularity.

One of the newest tech options the deck has is the inclusion of the new G2 Gravity Collapse Dragon. If you ride this unit, on hit, you can search the top 7 cards of your deck and ride a Cyber Dragon from among them. As Chaos Breaker is a Cyber Dragon, this allows you to directly ride into it, giving you the option to stride next turn regardless of the opponents grade. Imagine being G2 and having your hand torn away from you onto the field as lock!





Spike Brothers Beatdown

One year ago, spike brothers was not on the radar at all, but following LivingProof's win of the ARG Circuit with Spike Brothers beatdown, the spotlight has been on the deck. While its defense leaves much to be desired, high power output from very early on the game and multiple attacks from the first stride give this deck massive presence and make it very hard to turn the tempo around from their beatdown. Despite this very simple straightforward plan, the spike brothers deck actually hides plenty of nuance and variety of plays, especially once you hit striding, with many lines of play to be discovered using the multiple strides.

Spike Brothers remains one of the cheaper decks in standard, and the spike brothers deck in Premium requires very little key cards from older sets to run, with the majority of them being C, R, or RR. For a player looking to get into Premium Standard and experience the format, while wanting to play a deck with a good win rate against a variety of decks, Spike Brothers is the deck for you. Being a deck with a cheaper price tag is simply bonus.

Dark Irregulars: Darkness

Dark Irregulars may have dominated the format for a few months prior to the limitation of Enigmatic Assassin that took the NoLifeKing-Assassin deck from being the dominating oppressive force that it was down to a memory, but Dark Irregulars is still live and potent in the meta, but with Darkness.

Based off the Darkness build in GBT14 that garnered a lot of advantage and won via guard restricts and high power multiple attack, the Darkness deck is still around and potent.

First, by using their null guard that can recycle itself it can get around G0 Guard restricts and match the guarding capabilities of a protect gift deck, while Baleful Repressor can get around the high shield values from the new critical and front triggers.

Its finisher remains either Balaam or Bladermaus, but the use of the VBT02 card Blood Sacrifice Ruthben is perhaps the most impactful on the deck. This allows you to more readily access G2s in soul, put Weretiger Yaegers from drop zone to soul, and most importantly to recycle units that have already been soul blasted by Gastille, allowing gastille to put in more work without fear of running out of effective grade 2s to copy effects of. Doreen the Thruster being the other key unit to be added to the deck, giving the deck much needed high power output on rear guards.

from Spring Fest Jakarta Top 8

Palemoon: Harri/Nightmare Multiple Attack

Palemoon is another deck that isnt very popular but seems to be topping fairly often. Through the use of Magia to assemble the combo pieces easily, the deck wins through multiple attacks.

There are actually multiple lines of play through which the deck can get its multiple attacks, from the use of Peryton + Haddy to CB1 to get 1 more attack, to using Nightmare Doll Leslie + Nightmare Doll Alice to string even more attacks, to even using both engines in a single deck.

One of the coolest tricks the deck has is to use Peek-A-Boo to send the opponents Honoly to the soul during battle phase, bypassing the card that would otherwise shut down your combos!

Example Decklist: BCS Malaysia Winner Decklist

Gear Chronicle

Zodiac Time Beast:

Zodiac Time Beasts are still in the meta, as they were one year ago. This powerful deck uses the high cost effectiveness of Chronojet Dragon Z alongside the ZTB support to maintain multiple attacks, very consistent power lines, a steady flow of advantage to win.

Some players choose to play the newer triggers for the extra power and guard, but you should keep in mind that they are not ZTB cards and therefore cannot be called via Avenir Pheonix and added to your hand via Cruising Dragon. If you had this deck from before, you should consider purchasing some of the new triggers to add to the deck for that option of extra power.

Fang Tiger-Mystery Gyze

One of the newer members of the neighborhood is Chronofang Tiger-Mystery Gyze, a deck that made its debut by taking a top seat in Singapore only recently. While the concept of combining Mystery Flare's extra turn ability with ultimate stride to deal 5 damage to the opponent before they have a chance to fight back, this was the first time it was combined with Chronofang Tiger and the bind support in GC to provide a draw and advantage engine. The deck also readily uses UrWatar to gain advantage and time leaps into grade 1 to replenish soul and recycle triggers into the deck.

With access to two different forms of extra turn, and being a gyze deck that isnt afraid to try to win by damage, this style of GC is one to look out for in the coming months.

Granblue

Granblue continues to be a stable and powerful force in the meta. Owing to its powerful G-Guardian plays and access to protect markers while not giving up attack power thanks to Skull Dragon, nor multiple attacks with Columbard and Nightstorm, Granblue is an all rounded high powered deck with high utility, managing its cost well at all stages of the game. Given its flexibility, it can handle many situations, but the reliance on counterblast makes it vulnerable to Gyze decks that deny damage.

Bermuda Triangle: Trois Ange

First developed by Kevin Ajolt Nyugen in America, Trois Ange continues to be both one of the most popular as well as one of the most consistent decks in the format. While by no right oppressive, the decks flexibility, searching ability, and overal popularity has given it multiple tops across the world. With the addition of the Bermuda triangle trial deck to the mix bringing the deck early aggression and advantage with Liselotte, as well as the much needed 15k defence vanilla triggers, Trois-Ange is currently shaping the diverse meta to being a trois ange dominated one.

Example decklist: Asia Championship HongKong Winner

Given the rising of Trois Ange as a popular deck, more and more players are taking steps to dodge the trois engine half of the deck by denying damage. If Trois Ange continues to become more and more popular, card choices such as Stezza, and Eno that can clear your own field during your turn to deny the opponent gaining advantage off of Ange, as well as cards such as the Fina-Potpurri loop or other melody cards may become more used in the meta.

Aquaforce

Aquaforce is one of the decks that has shown some potential, especially when they first came out, but low popularity has kept them from winning in events otherwise. The common build for Aquaforce is the Ripple deck, that uses accel circles to maintain good advantage and beatdown throughout the game.

BCS Malaysia Top 16 Decklist

Megacolony: Darkface Control

Megacolony is one of the anti-meta picks that is in the game. With gredora giving access to locking down columns and stealing counterblast, and strides such as overwhelm giving good access to draw and power pressure, the deck is a well rounded pick that can counter almost any deck if you pilot the deck to do so. This gives it a position in the meta similar to Kagero, keeping other decks in check. Megacolony boasts a powerful finisher in the form of Zoa combined with Antlion to deliver an unblockable game winning shot in one attack.

While this deck did see a surge in popularity following Colin Lai using it to win the world championship, its popularity returned to normal, once many players found it too hard to handle.

BCS World Finals WORLD CHAMPION Colin Lai's Megacolony decklist.

Great Nature

Great Nature is a deck in premium that did not seem like it would be popular or powerful, but is. While Great nature lacks any flashy complex instant win combos, it does have stability, consistency, and power. Leopald can find your key parts and fill up your board with attackers easily, while your strides and other cards help maintain a steady flow of advantage. This deck has sneaked into the meta, just as its standard counterpart, and just the same jumped right to the top of the meta.

While the deck does spend a lot of time beating down with multiple high powered attacks and draw power, dont be caught off guard with the instant win combo between the Rhino and Zoa.

Decklist: HongWai's decklist from BCS Jakarta

NeoNectar

NeoNectar: Blue Bloom.

NeoNectar has made a bit of an appearance in the premium standard format, in the form of the upgraded Ahsha deck. The deck plays like the old ahsha deck, but takes advantage of the higher guard numbers of the new cards to maintain a stronger early game.

One of the tricks to do is to use Asha to return plant tokens to the deck for her first skill to draw, giving you easier access to your parts by giving up the plant tokens that were created for next to no cost.

That brings us to the end of todays article. It was a long journey but we did cover all the decks in the format: all 26 of them. These are just some example decklists to take ideas from and to form an idea of the meta to see what is and isnt being played.



We hope you found this article helpful and an important step in the way of starting Premium Standard.