Welcome to Week #5 of the OCG 2019.04 format.

Welcome to Reiwa!

This report will cover 159 top-performing decks from 27 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 1 – 6 May 2019.

Metagame Breakdown

39 Salamangreat

33 Orcust: 24 Phantom Knights Orcust 4 mono Orcust 2 DARK Warrior Phantom Knights Orcust 2 Scrap Phantom Knights Orcust 1 Atlantean Phantom Knights Orcust

17 Sky Striker

17 Thunder Dragon

11 Altergeist

11 Subterror

10 Zefra

5 Mystic Mine Burn

4 Trickstar

2 Cyber Dragon

2 Gandora-X FTK

2 Magicial Musket

1 Code Talker

1 Invoked

1 Magician

1 Mekk-Knight

1 Meta Beat

1 Shaddoll Train

Salamangreat

Salamangreat build has been dropping the non-Salamangreat Level 3 Special Summon monsters like Backup Secretary, Psychic Tracker, to increase the amount of Salamangreat Traps ran in the deck.

Some of the more popular combinations are {2 Salamangreat Rage + 1 Salamangreat Roar} or 2 {Salamangreat Rage + 2 Salamangreat Roar}.

Salamangreat Rage is ran in 2 copies as it is an answer to Mystic Mine. By sending your only Salamangreat monster on the field to the graveyard, it can be used to destroy Mystic Mine. And even if it was negated, it would cause both players to control no monsters, resulting in Mystic Mine to self-destruct during the End Phase.

Makiyou (魔鏡) went 7-1 and finished 2nd in “57th Adachi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

He ran 2 copies of Paleozoic Dinomischus in the Main Deck.

Paleozoic Dinomischus allows him to discard a card to banish a card on the field. Since Paleozoic Dinomischus does not destroy, the effect of Salamangreat Balelynx and Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star cannot be used to substitute.

Paleozoic Dinomischus also allows him to banish Mystic Mine, and similarly Dark Sacrifice cannot be used to negate.

When using the Japanese print of Paleozoic Dinomischus, do note that there is an error in the printed text. The text writes “Target 1 face-up monster on the field” when it should be “Target 1 face-up card on the field”.

This error has been noted on the official website: 「バージェストマ・ディノミスクス」カード効果に関する 誤植のお詫びと訂正のお知らせ.

Orcust

Sea (しい) went 6-1-1 and finished 1st in “57th Adachi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

He refined the Scrap variant build by focusing on just the Scrap Recycler and Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion, and dropping Scrap Wyvern and Scrap Golem.

Normal Summoning Scrap Recycler to send Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion to the graveyard will Special Summon a “Mecha Phantom Beast Token”. This opens up to the standard Knightmare Phoenix into Knightmare Mermaid combo.

But if there is another O-Lion in hand, then the first O-Lion in the graveyard can be banished to Normal Summon the second O-Lion in hand. This would open up to Synchro Summoning Ib the World Chalice Justiciar and in turn fetching World Legacy Succession.

Using Ib the World Chalice Justiciar for a Link Summon later would also Special Summon World Chalice Guardragon, resulting in a very explosive play.

Normal Summoning Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion and then using it to Link Summon Salamangreat Almiraj also opens up to the same combo, so drawing multiple O-Lion not an issue.

Sky Striker

Takeda Naoki “ガリス” (5 – 8th in World Championship 2017) had a good run with Sky Striker in this golden week.

On Sunday, he went 8-0 and finish 1st in “21st HAKATA Cup Team Battle with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

On Saturday, he went 7-0 and finished 2nd in “22nd HAKATA Cup Team Battle with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).

While most Sky Striker are now running 3 Metaverse and 2 Mystic Mine in the Main Deck for the lock down, he has chosen to run only just 1 Mystic Mine and 2 There Can Be Only One.

With 2 layers of lock down, he could stay on Sky Striker Ace – Hayate and slowly grind out his opponent.

Thunder Dragon

Kinnikuso (きんにくそ) went 8-1 and finished 1st in “5th Takatsuki Orbis Cup with Hatti CS” which had 50 participants.

He ran a copy of Denko Sekka in the Main Deck, allowing him to catch the opponent by surprise especially if they were waiting on activating Metaverse to activate Mystic Mine.

Denko Sekka is also useful against Salamangreat and Orcust. Both Salamangreat Roar and Orcust Crescendo are only able to negate activated monster effects, while Denko Sekka is a Continuous Effect.

Conclusion

The golden week was full of Mystic Mine.

The “Duel City Championship 2018” saw a Mystic Mine Burn mirror in the semi-final, and the winner went on to defeat Salamangreat in the final to become the champion.

Mystic Mine is now a standard strategy in Sky Striker, and even some builds of Altergeist, Infernoid, Trickstar are incorporating Mystic Mine in their Main Deck too.

The threat of Mystic Mine results in an increase in backrow removal being played. More Twin Twisters, Mystical Space Typhoon and Red Reboot are being run in the Side Deck.

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References