Welcome to Week #5 of the OCG 2018.04 format.

Golden Week in Japan and Duel City Championship 2017 in China.

This report will cover 110 top-performing decks from 17 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 28 April – 1 May 2018.

*Updated with 5 – 8th results from “Duel City 2017 SP5” and “Duel City 2017 SP6”.

Metagame Breakdown

37 Sky Striker

25 Magician: 22 Performapal Magician 3 Performapal Supreme King Magician

15 Sky Striker ABC

9 Zefra: 7 Metalfoes Zefra 2 Mono Zefra

6 Trickstar: 4 Mono Trickstar 2 Sky Striker Trickstar

5 Gouki: 4 Sky Striker Gouki 1 Sky Striker Malicious Gouki

4 Altergeist

2 Burning Abyss

2 Greener Sky Striker Infernoid

2 Sky Striker SPYRAL

1 Invoked Mekk-Knight

1 Sekka Genex Frog Atlantean Mermail

1 Subterror

Sky Striker

Shino (しの) had a great run over the weekend with his unique Sky Striker build.

On Saturday he went 6-0 to finished 3 – 4th in “5th Quality Cup” (Team 2v2) which had 29 teams (58 participants). On Sunday he went 6-0-2 to finished 1 – 2nd in “Itabashi CS” (Team 3v3). And on Tuesday he went 5-2 to finished 3 – 4th in “40th Oretachi Trading Card Division CS” which had 52 participants.

His build runs 3 Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero, 2 Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole, 3 Mystical Space Typhoon and 2 Twin Twisters in the Main Deck.

Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero and Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole are useful for destroying Knightmare Corruptor Iblee that was Special Summoned

by the opponent, while Mystical Space Typhoon and Twin Twisters improves his chances against Anti-Spell Fragrance and Imperial Order.

Destroying his own Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero with Mystical Space Typhoon is also a possible play to Special Summon Sky Striker Ace – Raye.

Performapal Magician

Duel City 2017 is a year-long tournament series held across various cities in China that culminates into the Duel City Championship 2017. Invitations to the Duel City Championship 2017 are awarded only to the champion of each Duel City 2017 tournament, making this a battle of champions.

Duel City Championship 2017 had 31 participants with the following metagame breakdown:

Overall Top 8 8 Sky Striker

7 Altergeist

4 Performapal Magician

3 Metalfoes Zefra

2 Sky Striker ABC

2 Sky Striker Gouki

2 Sky Striker SPYRAL

1 Meta Beat

1 Shiranui

1 Zombie FTK 3 Altergeist

2 Sky Striker

2 Sky Striker SPYRAL

1 Performapal Magician

Tonybear earned his invitation in the morning when he won one of the last chance qualifiers, Duel City 2017 SP5. He carried his momentum from his SP5 victory into the afternoon and went 6-0-1 to finish as the grand champion of the Duel City Championship 2017.

He ran an old school build that is lacking of Glow-Up Bulb and Naturia Beast, a currently trending tech against Sky Striker.

An interview with Tonybear about his gameplan and strategy is available on Duel City’s weibo: 决斗都市2017 访谈录 总决赛·冠军 主流哥.

ABC

Happy (ハッピー) went 6-3 and finished 2nd in “6th Garosu CS with Hatti CS” (Team 2v2) which had 50 teams (100 participants).

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He ran Borrelsword Dragon instead of Borreload Dragon in the Extra Deck, a new trend among ABC players.

This is a new strategy to set up an Extra Link using Borrelsword Dragon, Knightmare Mermaid, Knightmare Goblin, Knightmare Phoenix and Knightmare Unicorn all co-linked together, with a ABC-Buster Dragon, while giving the opponent Knightmare Corruptor Iblee.

This setup is made to lockdown Sky Striker. Knightmare Corruptor Iblee in the opponent’s Main Monster Zone prevents the opponent from playing most of their “Sky Striker” Spell Cards. The Extra Link locks out both Extra Monster Zone, disallowing the opponent from using Iblee for a Link Summon. Finally, if the opponent attempts to suicide Iblee by attacking with it, Borrelsword Dragon would turn Iblee to Defense Position and stop the attack.

Their only out to this is to destroy Iblee with Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero or Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole, both of which could be stopped by ABC-Buster Dragon.

PSY-Framegear Gamma is run in the Side Deck to counter Retaliating “C”.

Conclusion

This weekend was the start of the Golden Week in Japan, and the holiday saw a huge increase in tournaments and turnouts. Meanwhile, China had the grand conclusion of their Duel City Championship 2017.

Together we have hundred of top-placing deck lists across several tournaments, giving us a fairly accurate depiction of the current OCG 2018.04 competitive scene.

The Golden Week continues into Week #6 and we can expect more tournaments on Thursday to Sunday in Japan.

YOT Thailand 2018 will also be happening in the upcoming weekend and you will be able to follow the tournament on Yu-Gi-Oh! Events or Beyond the Duel.

OCG 2018.04 Metagame Report #6 is expected to be delayed as I will be traveling to YOT Thailand 2018.