Salamangreat and Orcust, the two best decks of the OCG 2019.04 format, received heavy hits to their key cards, opening up the OCG 2019.07 metagame to new contenders.

With support from the new Rokket cards, Dragon Link rose up to the top and later overtook the format after Starliege Seyfert debuts.

Compiled from a total of 653 top-placing decks from 102 competitive tournaments held in Japan, China and Asia, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2019.07 format.

Metagame Breakdown

201 Dragon Link: 193 Chaos Dragon Link 8 Grass Chaos Dragon Link

135 Sky Striker

62 Thunder Dragon: 61 mono Thunder Dragon 1 Invoked Thunder Dragon

56 Salamangreat

38 Altergeist

31 Subterror

24 Orcust: 22 mono Orcust 1 Danger Orcust 1 Trickstar Orcust

22 Zefra

21 Endymion: 17 Mythical Beast Endymion 3 Odd-Eyes Mythical Beast Endymion 1 Odd-Eyes Magician Mythical Beast Endymion

19 Trickstar: 18 mono Trickstar 1 Sky Striker Trickstar

10 Rokket

6 Gizmek Orochi Da Eiza

5 Burning Abyss

5 Meta Beat: 4 mono Meta Beat 1 Goat Meta Beat

2 Train

2 World Chalice

2 Zombie

1 Atlantean Mermail

1 Cyber Dragon

1 Dinomist

1 Gem-Knight

1 Gouki

1 Grass Phantom Knights Orcust Lunalight

1 Scrap HERO Phantom Knights Orcust

1 SPYRAL

1 Invoked True Draco

1 Wattgiraffe Good Stuff

1 Wind-Up

1 Zoodiac

Dragon Link

The addition of new Rokket monsters from Structure Deck: Revolver and Striker Dragon improved the consistency of Dragon Link and made it a top contender. But it was Starliege Seyfert that pushed the deck over the top, allowing it to dominate for the rest of the format.

The standard combo involves using Topologic Gumblar Dragon to discard 2 cards from the opponent’s hand and Chaos Dragon Levianeer to shuffle 1 card from the opponent’s hand to their deck. During the opponent’s turn, Gumblar will discard another 2 cards, while Borreload Savage Dragon or Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss would negate the last card, leaving the opponent with no plays.

Not only is Dragon Link able to consistently lock out the opponent of any plays, it is also very resilient against ‘hand traps’, often being able to continue with their combo despite being disrupted once or twice.

OCG 2019.07 → OCG 2019.10 Limit Regulation changes:

Eclipse Wyvern 3 → 0

3 → 0 Guardragon Agarpain 3 → 0

3 → 0 White Dragon Wyverburster 3 → 1

3 → 1 Draconnet 3 → 1

3 → 1 Soul Charge 1 → 0

Dragon Link was thought to be dead with the heavy hits and the release of Nibiru, the Primal Being. But by running a small Phantom Knights package in the deck, it could take advantage of The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche to extend with The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine before finishing with Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade. Dragon Link is no longer the deck to beat in the new OCG 2019.10 format and has relegated to rogue status.

Sky Striker

When going first, Sky Striker relied on There Can Be Only One to lock out opponents such as Dragon Link, Thunder Dragon, Salamangreat and Altergeist.

Being able to run upwards of 14 ‘hand traps’ in the Main Deck also gave Sky Striker a fighting chance when going second against Dragon Link.

Despite already being heavily hit from the previous Limit Regulation, Sky Striker remains competitive and leaves many to wonder when would they finally falter.

Thunder Dragon

When going first, Thunder Dragon uses Thunder Dragon Colossus to shutdown several decks such as Dragon Link, Sky Striker and Salamangreat that relies on adding cards from deck to hand.

Similar to Sky Striker, Thunder Dragon Colossus was running upwards of 13 ‘hand traps’ in the Main Deck to stand a chance against Dragon Link.

Unaffected by the OCG 2019.10 Limit Regulation, Thunder Dragon had a strong opening week especially in the early weeks of the metagame slowed down by Nibiru, the Primal Being.

Conclusion

I:P Masquerena saw little play during its debut, mostly being used for Link Summoning Knightmare Unicorn during the opponent’s turn to shuffle a card back into the deck.

As Dragon Link continues to dominate, bringing out Topologic Bomber Dragon with I:P Masquerena became a valid counter strategy. Guardragons effect summons at Monster Zones where Link Arrows are pointing to, and in turn triggering Topologic Bomber Dragon‘s bombing effect.

The other Topologic family, Topologic Trisbaena and Topologic Zeroboros, are also being played with I:P Masquerena against backrow heavy decks to remove the opponent’s Spell/Trap cards.

As the pool of Link Monster increases, I:P Masquerena could only get better.

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