Having been away from the competitive scenes for 2 weeks, I attended a casual tournament session with only 14 participants. My friend was hosting it so I accepted the invite. The pool of players were much more casual, and thus not a good representative of our country’s meta. But nevertheless, the experience was worth an article. My deck met with some consistency issues, but in the midst of it, I was able to come up with creative methods to overcome it and still survive in the game.

Round 1 – Vs Aroma

My opponent was a casual player, and his deck choice didn’t receive as much support as Metalfoes did. He built up his field slowly, and had to face Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin’s effect which continuously disrupted his swarming ability. Utilizing fusion summons after fusion summons, I managed to make the first game a fast one and seized my victory.

Not built to adapt to the meta, the lack of Anti-Spell Fragrance in his deck made his deck severely outclassed by mine. He struggled to maintain his resources, while I enjoyed the pendulum game mechanic which made my Extra Deck my second set of hand – a stack of resources I can tap into when needed, while he has to deal with his monsters entering the graveyard instead. Relying on Card of Demise to generate some pluses, he ultimately failed to compensate for the difference in card economics and I won game 2 as well.

Round 2 – Odd-eyes Magician Majespecter

I couldn’t manage much on my first turn and only summoned Majespecter Raccoon – Bunbuku. He summoned his own copy the next and I suspect a mirror matchup. That was proven to be an incorrect prediction when he placed his magician pendulum monsters onto the field. I lost when his Wavering Eyes disrupted my gameplay and he proceeded to perform an OTK the next turn, with Super Polymerization securing the final 2400 damage to my lifepoints.

Jowgen the spiritualist alongside Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin proved to be an extremely potent lockdown, which was difficult for my opponent to get past. I refrained from placing cards on my pendulum scales this game, as I feared a Wavering Eyes (AGAIN). It was via normal summons after normal summons, and chipping off his lifepoints bit by bit. Eventually, I was able to deplete his lifepoints to zero.

He struggled badly and it seemed like he bricked terribly in the third game. My decision to play cautiously demolished any chances of him of winning, as I carefully baited his Solemn Strikes. I carefully summoned my monsters one by one, with Metalfoes Goldriver dealing most of the damage turn after turn. I didn’t fall bait to another Solemn Warning tragedy, which I experienced in the first game, and with that I won game 3, reaffirming Metalfoes’ pride as the best pendulum engine of the format, surpassing Magicians and Odd-Eyes.

Round 3 – Zombie Synchro

DAM SON from my blog. He brought a casual synchro-orientated deck filled with DARK ATTRIBUTE monsters, but broke away from the Synchro DARK norm by not including Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow and Level Eater. His deck has an Infernity engine embedded into it, which provided him the extremely versatile negation card in the form of Infernity Barrier. Plaguespreader Zombie, Destiny HERO – Malicious formed a 2+6 synchro engine, but the former also doubles as a method to place Infernity Archfiend on the top of the deck, and elicit a special-summon-and-search when Stardust Charge Warrior was summoned and the player was allowed a draw.

Masked HERO Dark Law made my life a living hell in game 1, where DAM SON took the initiative for the game, having won the dice roll. Protected by a strong backrow with negation (Solemn Strike) and removal (Compulsory Evacuation Device), the

He entered his own nightmare in the second battle as he drew badly, which was toxic for his Infernity engine. Unable to empty his hand, Infernity spells and traps became dead. I slowly pushed my way through. I got my revenge!

It was a war of attribution in the third, but I broke the standstill and gambled with lady luck but lost the coin toss, as his only set card turned out to be Solemn Strike. 1500LP of his was exchanged for the negation of my pendulum summon, taking away two vital cards from my resources, as Kirin and Metalfoes Steelen plunged to their death. Swords of Concealing Light would once again establish itself as my deck’s MVP card, by delaying my demise for a couple of turns, giving me the opportunity to counterattack. When Concealing’s time on the field expired, its destruction merely gave me a window of opportunity to summon Metalfoes Volflame from my deck, via Metalfoes Counter. Not commonly seen, but it is a valid move. He would eventually topdeck a Monster Reborn, proudly declaring its name as he activates it, performing a retaliation attempt of his own. And Monster Reborn being Monster Reborn, gave him what he needed to win.

With zero answers to stop the incoming onslaught, I conceded, but eventually obtained a win for the round as we realised he did an illegal move. (Something along the lines of not being able to properly synchro summon, since Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss would have self-destructed in the presence of Plaguespreader Zombie) We promised to share the prize pool and I headed to the next game with a 3-0 score.

Round 4 – Shaddolls

I lost the first game due to a combination of a bad hand and the decision to play cautiously. Once again, I seem to always be battling with luck at my final game. It seems so predestined and fated that I sound like I am scripting this tourney report. Well, whatever… It was anything but false. Here is the full story:

I opened with two Jowgen the spiritualist, Maxx “C”, Swords of Concealing Light and Solemn Strike. I summoned Jowgen, and it proceeded to be destroyed in battle by Shaddoll Dragon. I passed my turn, with nothing significant to do, and I got struck by two direct attacks from Shaddoll Dragon during the next, after he normal summoned another one. He was heavily protected with four backrows, so I decided to use Swords to stall for a while as I gathered my resources. I summon my second Jowgen and took out one of the two flipped-face-down Shaddoll Dragon, but had to fork out 1500LP to negate the flip effect to keep Jowgen on the board. Few turns later, I manage to keep Jowgen on the field, to stop him from advancing his plays. Horrendous luck continues, despite Anti-Spell Fragrance not being in his deck, I couldn’t gather my scales. Normal summons and tribute summons later, I bite the dust when he drew into Super Polymerisation, even though I tried to keep myself alive by maintaining my field presence, leveraging on his fusion summons by Metalfoes Combination’s first effect. This all took place after my do-or-die play to pendulum summon four monsters, and they all met with an unfortunate fate – Solemn Strike.

Game 2 saw me open with a better hand, managing to assemble two Kirins and Bunbunku on the field. Kirin was able to keep his fusion summons at bay, but he managed to net the both of them on the turn after that, using a combination of El Shaddoll Shekhinaga to negate Kirin’s effect, and Armades, Keeper of Boundaries to bait my activation of effect. These two monsters of his proceeded to destroy Kirin by battle. However, I managed to net a three card draw from his summons, having reacted with a Maxx “C” chain to Shaddoll Fusion, the card that started his field swarming. The generated card advantage managed to propel me forward to secure my win, successfully bringing the match to a final round. He survived my inital OTK attempt with Shaddoll Falco, but a Mystical Space Typhoon destroying my own pendulum scale to trigger Metalfoes Counter ensured he didn’t have a next turn in the second game.

Game 3 was a true battle of fusions, but the well-designed Metalfoes archetype proved to be more superior than Shaddolls, as I found myself once again taking advantage of his fusion summons with Combination. Combination brought the monsters milled by Painful Decision, and those monsters sent to the grave from hand via a fusion, back to the field and enter the Extra Deck after being destroyed. This slowly increased my Extra Deck monster count, allowing me to bait his Solemn Strikes. The final battle game to a climatic conclusion as I cripples his resources: Vanity’s Emptiness, Torrential Tributes (two of them in fact) were all baited out, via my fusion summons. Shuffling Metalfoes Fusion from the grave back to the deck,, I set it again via a scale’s effect and performed the final fusion summon of the game. Metalfoes Mythriel was my weapon of choice, as I appreciate its recycling capabilities and removal ability. Being able to replace itself with a pendulum monster was also another factor that makes it an outstanding member of the archetype. Mythriel would eventually get rid of a Solemn Strike, and I pendulum summoned for game, with three Kirins and Volflame performing an OTK. My opponent opted to chain Strike to Mythriel, half-heartedly, realizing that either option (to chain or not to chain) would not make much of a significant difference.

And that concluded my journey throughout the day.

Didn’t get any impressive pulls. But below is the picture of my prize packs and what I got.

Casual Games

After the tournament I had a few casual games with friends. I felt it was worth to include it in the article as it was more non-Tier 1 decks, and thus, a new experience.

Dark World

It has been a while since I played against Dark World. The draw and drop approach depleted my hand advantage for a while. Cards I wanted to keep safely in my hand, reluctant to set them and risk them getting destroyed, ironically got eradicated (pun intended) by Eradicator Epidemic Virus. Dragged Down into the Grave and Dark World Dealings contributed to my reduction in hand advantage and the former left me with some hard choices. The game reminded me of Dark World’s ability to contend for the meta, and my opponent went as far as activated two Skill Drains in a chain to keep my Kirin grounded. Talk about brutal. I lost, as Skill Drain was really problematic.

We sided as a form of practice even though it was casual. I got more cautious of his backrow during the second game and tried to empty my hand in order to disallow him from activating Dragged Down. Few Archfiend Eccentrick destruction later, and I was on my way to victory. Solemn Strikes and Skill Drain contributed to his loss as he had to keep paying lifepoints as cost, making it easier for my to end him. Dark Smog wasn’t able to give him a final fighting chance as my grave had to targets for him to resolve the trap’s effect.

I finally drew into Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror the entire day and it got negated by Solemn Judgment. I seized the chance that half the work was already completed and went on the offensive, taking away the 4000LP he had left with Kirin and Volflame. I managed to play around Skill Drain with the aid of Fullmetalfoes Fusion chaining to Bunbuku’s effect.

Tellars

My opponent bricked badly for the first game, drawing many revival traps such as Call of the Haunted, and Oasis of Dragon Souls, but with no monsters in hand. He played cautiously by only setting one trap – Solemn Strike, one which I managed to bait via Mythriel. With no backrow or monsters posing as a threat, I went all in and dedicated all my resources to an assault which won me the game.

He tried to stall and slowly farm for his resources, but even managed to summon his new support: Tellarknight Vatlamyus. I tried another one of my unorthodox methods and sided in Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, and it paid off as Mirror stopped him in his track, unable to resolve his own monsters’ effect. I stalled by repeatedly pendulum summoning monsters to act as a wall to prevent him from attacking directly. When the time was right, I destroyed Shadow Mirror via my pendulum scale effects and advanced my plays. Stellarknight Constellar Diamond was a threat, so I used Swords of Concealing Light to neutralize it, before committing my resources to summon my fusion monsters to counterattack on his turn. Metalfoes Orichalc dealt trampling damage despite his monsters being in DEF mode. The damage didn’t take him out, but the difference in resources left him unable to make a comeback.

Conclusion

Players in the TCG who are interested in a more budget build, or a build revolving around fusion summoning should anticipate the newer support cards. Mythriel really gives the deck an edge by allowing recycling of resources and threat removal. I am considering shifting my deck’s focus and including more synchro options but without the reliance on Ultimaya Tzolkin. The lockdown is too fragile in my opinion.

Another option I wish to consider to add for my deck, and might have to, is Torrential Tribute. It helps in clearing threats, although destruction and sending opponent’s cards to the grave may not be the best course of action in this meta. But it can be used to trigger my own Metalfoes fusion monsters’ effect and provide the opportunity to activate Metalfoes Counter. It might be worth a shot, since it is unlimited here in OCG, and depending on the matchup, might even be effective.

The next day, on 3rd September, I had a horrendous experience at my local’s ranking tournament, and went 2-3. Consistency issues surfaced once more, but I did my best to make the best play out of what I had. I will go more into detail in my next post. But Dimensional Boundary and Solemn Strike are my worse enemies, and dodging these traps will be a tall order. But I managed to find an answer in the form of Performapal Seal Eel, but I am still in the midst of testing. That’s all for now. I will continue to modify and test the available alternative options in preparation for the upcoming OCG’s banlist.

News of the list is likely to be leaked on the net in mid September.