Check out which Duelists and Decks made it into the Top 32 of YCS Niagara Falls!

1st: Azad Deihim (Sky Striker)

2nd: Dakota Angeloff (Gouki)

3rd: Ryan Levine (Thunder Dragon)

4th: Michael Wisniewski (Paleozoic Frogs)

5th: Hisam Jawhari (Gouki)

6th: Marjanco Gorgievski (Danger! Dark World)

7th: Jake Quinsee (Thunder Dragon)

8th: Esala Wathuthantrige (Thunder Dragon)

9th: Christian Georges (Thunder Dragon)

10th: Partho Bhattacharya (Danger! Burning Abyss)

11th: Bohdan Temnyk (Thunder Dragon)

12th: Rohan Thomas (Pendulum)

13th: John Wilkin (Gouki)

14th: Dirk Wagner (Danger! Dark World)

15th: Yuhang Li (Gouki)

16th: Arvind Rajabhathor (Gouki)

17th: Gabriel Vargas (Gouki)

18th: James Kim (Gouki)

19th: Jesse Kotton (Thunder Dragon)

20th: Christopher Lofton (Altergeist)

21st: Andres Torres Reyes (Thunder Dragon)

22nd: Shawn Rai (Thunder Dragon)

23rd: Joshua Oosters (Danger! Burning Abyss)

24th: Carl Manigat (Thunder Dragon)

25th: Matthew McRae (Gouki)

26th: Chuong Nguyen (Danger! SPYRAL)

27th: Chandler Scott (Altergeist)

28th: John Pedro (Sky Striker)

29th: David Creti (Sky Striker)

30th: Shunping Xu (Sky Striker)

31st: Jeff Jones (Danger! Dark World)

32nd: Bryant Tran (Trickstar Mekk-Knight)

Here are the numbers:

9 Thunder Dragon Decks

8 Gouki Decks

4 Sky Striker Decks

2 Danger! Burning Abyss Decks

3 Danger! Dark World Decks

1 Danger! SPYRAL Deck

2 Altergeist Decks

1 Pendulum-based Deck

1 Trickstar Mekk-Knight Deck

1 Paleozoic Frog Deck

That’s a total of 10 vastly different strategies present in the Top 32!

It’s no surprise that Soul Fusion has shaken up the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME scene. The new “Thunder Dragon” monsters have extraordinary effects, which has allowed Thunder Dragons to become the most represented Deck in the Top 32 of YCS Niagara Falls! Goukis and Sky Strikers are still popular, just as they have been in previous events; but the dominance of Thunder Dragons has made this tournament a bit tough for them to compete in. Once Thunder Dragon Colossus hits the field, both Decks begin to struggle.

Although 8 Gouki Decks made it to the Top 32, there are lots of different Gouki builds present. Some rely on DARK monsters and HERO monsters, while others are comprised of a more dedicated Gouki line-up. All of the Gouki Decks, however, have the same goal of performing an Extra Link as early in the Duel as possible.

The dominance of Danger! monsters this weekend came as a surprise to many Duelists. 6 different Danger! Decks made it to the Top 32, fitting into 3 categories that have very different styles. Burning Abyss and Dark World monsters have a natural synergy with the Danger! cards, causing 5 Duelists to use that combination in the Top 32. One Duelist even included Danger!? Jackalope? and Danger! Nessie! in his SPYRAL Deck, capitalizing on the raw power of the Danger! monsters, even when they have limited synergy with the Deck theme they’re integrated into.

We’ve seen a couple of Altergeist Duelists in the Top Cut of most recent YCS events, and this weekend is no exception! Two Altergeist Duelists made it into the Top 32. A lone Pendulum Duelist, Trickstar Mekk-Knight Duelist, and Paleozoic Frog Duelist (using 3 copies of Trap Trick from Soul Fusion) also made it into the Top Cut, rounding out the Top 32.

There’s some incredible variety in the Top 32 this weekend. At the same time, it’s beginning to look like Thunder Dragons have replaced Sky Strikers and Goukis as “the Deck to beat” in competitive Dueling. Will they prevail in this weekend’s tournament, or will the 9 remaining Thunder Dragon Decks fall to some of the less-represented Decks? Follow the coverage to find out!