Using a statistical approach to analyse the current OCG 2017.10 deck building trends for SPYRAL.

1. Introduction

Tournaments held over the past weekend were heavily dominated by SPYRAL in the OCG competitive scene. While the lack of diversity is disconcerting, the ample amount of top-placing SPYRAL deck lists allow us to have a decent amount of data to perform an analysis.

This small sample size of SPYRAL deck lists is insufficient to draw a comprehensive conclusion, but it would at least provide a good insight into the current deck building trends for SPYRAL in the OCG.

2. Methods

7 tournaments were held in Japan over the period of 23 – 26 September 2017. The tournaments have varying participation rate, ranging from 30 players to 161 players, and the players played either as an individual, in teams of 2s, or in teams of 3s.

37 SPYRAL deck lists that finished in Top 8 or better have been compiled into a spreadsheet in order to tabulate and calculate the popularity and frequency of each card that was played.

3. Results

View on Google Sheets.

4. Discussion

Core SPYRAL package:

3 SPYRAL GEAR – Drone 3 SPYRAL Quik-Fix 3 SPYRAL Super Agent 1 SPYRAL Master Plan 1 SPYRAL Sleeper 1 SPYRAL GEAR – Last Resort 3 SPYRAL Resort 2 SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red 1 SPYRAL GEAR – Utility Wire 1 SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue

On the average, these are the most popular ratios that players are running.

Some players may prefer to run only 2 SPYRAL Super Agent, but they would often supplement with 1 Reinforcement of the Army.

Core support package:

1 Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson 1 Terraforming 3 Set Rotation 1 Dragon Ravine 1 Gateway to Chaos 3 Machine Duplication 1 One for One

While not all SPYRAL decks are running Set Rotation, I believe it is an automatic inclusion due to the huge increase in consistency it brings about from searching SPYRAL Resort.

Running Set Rotation also opens up additional combo branch of going into Dragon Ravine for Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson to Synchro Summon Ancient Fairy Dragon. Ancient Fairy Dragon is essentially a Terraforming and a Double Summon packaged together in the Extra Deck toolbox.

Giving the opponent Gateway to Chaos through Set Rotation is quite a disruptive move in the mirror match. Some players may choose to run Oracle of Zefra instead, but with Zefra finishing in 1st place in the 59th Aichi CS (161 participants), giving the opponent an Oracle of Zefra could backfire.

Notable support package:

1 Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow 1 Soul Charge 1 Reinforcement of the Army

Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow and Soul Charge are largely still in the experimental stages as players are still figuring out the various optimal combos. Outside of opening combos, Gofu and Soul Charge are still respectable cards to top deck when the game develops into a battle of attrition. This is apparent when compared with Double Summon and Foolish Burial Goods.

After much thoughts, Reinforcement of the Army appears to be a strong inclusion for SPYRAL. While it may seem a little redundant in the Main Deck with only SPYRAL Super Agent, but after Side Decking it could search for SPYRAL Tough. Having additional methods to search for SPYRAL Tough is going to be useful for breaking out of sticky situations.

Disruption package:

2 Maxx “C” 3 Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring

Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries is ran in every SPYRAL deck. While 27 players ran it in their Main Deck, the other 10 players have it in their Side Deck.

On a side note, 2 players were not running any Maxx “C”. Those 2 mad men!

Core Extra Deck package:

1 Ancient Fairy Dragon 1 Sylvan Princessprite 1 Number 41: Baguska 1 Linkuriboh 2 SPYRAL Double Helix 1 Code Talker 1 Proxy Dragon 1 Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior 1 Tri-Gate Wizard 2 Firewall Dragon

Every card here is part of a combo, except for Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior. Although Ningirsu is not part of any combo, it is one of the most reliable answer that SPYRAL has.

One of the most important uses of Ningirsu is to send from the field to the graveyard the Gateway to Chaos given to you by the opponent’s Set Rotation. Not only does this breaks out of the Set Rotation lock, it also removes a card from the opponent’s field for free.

Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow is also an indirect 1-card Ningirsu without having to use the Normal Summon.

Notable Extra Deck inclusions:

1 Lyrilusc – Recite Starling 1 Decode Talker 1 Gaia Saber, the Lightning Shadow

Lyrilusc – Recite Starling‘s effect adds a D.D. Crow from deck to hand. D.D. Crow is decently useful in the mirror match, being able to disrupt SPYRAL Quik-Fix, SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red and Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson.

There is a split opinion between running Decode Talker or Gaia Saber, the Lightning Shadow. Decode Talker has the potential to become 2800 ATK or even 3300 ATK, but Gaia Saber, the Lightning Shadow has a more lenient Link Summoning requirement that is more suitable for Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow.

Notable Side Deck inclusions:

1 SPYRAL Tough 1 Artifact Scythe 2 Dark Hole 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster 2 Twin Twisters 3 Artifact Sanctum 3 Torrential Tribute 2 Solemn Strike

SPYRAL Tough is the best answer that SPYRAL can run, and he is so good that some players are simply running him in the Main Deck.

Most of the Side Decks are filled with good generic removals such as Dark Hole, Harpie’s Feather Duster, Twin Twisters, and Torrential Tribute.

The effectiveness of Artifact Scythe and Artifact Sanctum is still questionable as only half of the players are running it. On a positive note, SPYRAL decks can afford to run just 1 Artifact Scythe since it can be shuffled back into the deck by SPYRAL Resort. This would minimize the chances of drawing into Artifact Scythe.

5. Conclusion

Visualising the above data, a typical SPYRAL deck might look this like:

This is not a proper build since it is merely an aggregation of 37 SPYRAL decks. However, it should give a modest illustration of the current popular cards being played in a SPYRAL deck.