Top Player Council Thoughts

With the conclusion of MCS XV, all competitive attention has now turned squarely on this weekend’s KC Cup. Embracing that theme, this week’s Tier List will be exclusively for the KC Cup’s best-of-1, ladder format.

Tier 1

Koa’ki Meiru has remained in Tier 1. Arguably made stronger by the addition of Ancient Gears, Koa’ki decks have trended towards for OTK pushes through and to get over . Fairly unchanged otherwise, Koa’ki Meiru is one of the strongest decks in the game but will also be one of the most countered. by itself is a guaranteed turn of survival against Koa’ki, and the mirror match is difficult to win reliably against other good players with similar builds. Fortunately Koa’ki is fairly adaptable, but changing techs to improve other match-ups (like using Cosmic Cyclone for Buster Blader and Ancient Gears) will only make the mirror more difficult. An inherent out to stall (simply recycling ) is nice as well, and will likely be relevant at certain stages of the event.

Vampires have been promoted to Tier 1. A very consistent and versatile deck, Vampires can benefit tremendously from a lack of Hero and Control players and focus all their attention on the other top decks. has become the go-to skill with Vampires, drawing at will. With no overwhelmingly favorable match-ups in the meta, Vampires may fall off as the meta narrows in higher DP ranges. Simple counters like exist and can become popular if there ends up being a . A poor Spellbook match-up is also frustrating for Vampire players to deal with, but one of Vampires’ strengths is that they lose to almost nothing for free and experienced pilots can likely take this deck very far.

TPC Comments:

Luke Tyler :

Buster Blader will be able to capitalize off of the presence of multiple Koa’ki Meiru players. The ideal point to be playing Buster Blader would be a DP range where Ancient Gears are lowly represented.

Tier 2

Karakuri has been demoted to Tier 2. A very strong deck when it has access to a side deck, Karakuri has always struggled with the randomness of ladder formats since it relies on tech cards (which it can access very easily) to really do anything. The core of a Karakuri deck simply draws cards, so the deck’s performance is largely tied to the impact that those non-Karakuri cards have on the duel. And when the deck needs to both protect against larger monsters and clear out backrow (having to tech both offensively and defensively), it will be very difficult to find the right balance.

Spellbooks have been added to Tier 2 for the KC Cup. With many excellent match-ups against top decks and a favorable meta (e.g., little current use of ), Spellbooks can be a very strong deck for the KC Cup. An early is as oppressive as ever, and looping is almost enough to just beat Ancient Gears and Karakuri by itself. Koa’ki Meiru or Ancient Gears adjusting and moving to Sealed Tombs would hurt this deck a lot, and Buster Blader can almost win for free with a turn 1 if the Spellbook player didn’t open or . Multiple skills have seen use in the past with Spellbooks, including and , but the most successful version recently uses with a prismatic or , followed up by a glossy Silent Magician. Whether this kind of consistency will prevail over Restart (or over the benefits of Mind Scan) will be interesting to follow during the event.

TPC Comments:

tomvdelzen :

Karakuri is a dominant deck in side-deck tournaments. Without the side deck advantage, it’s Tier 2.

Luke Tyler :

Naturally, Spellbooks is a good deck for KC Cups. It has many good matchups within the current meta - the sheer threat of to many decks means that the deck is now more reliable without drawing .

Tier 3

Control remains in Tier 3, seemingly always around in some form or another during KC Cups. Heavy backrow with good standalone monsters like can annoy decks that struggle with backrow (like Karakuri and Spellbooks), but like Heroes, has a difficult time standing up to Koa’ki Meiru and Ancient Gears.

High Potential

Removed

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