Welcome to Week #6 of the OCG 2018.04 format.

Golden Week in Japan and YOT Thailand 2018 in Asia.

This report will cover 152 top-performing decks from 21 tournaments that were held in Japan and Thailand during 3 – 6 May 2018.

Metagame Breakdown

47 Sky Striker

36 Magician: 35 Performapal Magician 1 Performapal Supreme King Magician

29 ABC: 16 Sky Striker ABC 13 Greener HERO ABC FTK

12 Altergeist

8 Zefra: 7 Metalfoes Zefra 1 Mono Zefra

6 Trickstar: 4 Sky Striker Trickstar 1 Invoked Trickstar 1 Mono Trickstar

3 Gouki: 2 Sky Striker Gouki 1 Sky Striker Malicious Gouki

3 Infernoid: 2 Sky Striker Infernoid 1 Greener Lair Infernoid

2 Mekk-Knight: 1 Kaiju Mekk-Knight 1 Sky Striker Mekk-Knight

1 Invoked Shaddoll

1 Magical Musket

1 Meta Beat

1 Palladium

1 SPYRAL

1 Zombie

Sky Striker

The largest tournament of the weekend was YOT Thailand 2018 and it saw 353 participants in the main event.

Cheung Wing Ho from Hong Kong came out victorious in the tournament with his Sky Striker deck, finishing with an impressive 13-1 (with no byes).

He is running a relatively old school build, using Upstart Goblin and Foolish Burial Goods for Metalfoes Fusion to fill up the graveyard with Spells while drawing into the key components.

He is also using Jet Synchron for the OTK combo using Crystron Halqifibrax and Summon Sorceress to bring out Hi-Speedroid Chanbara.

Shiota (しおた) went 8-0 to finished 1st in “72nd Aichi CS in 193 Osu Shop with Hatti CS” on Friday, and then went 6-0-1 to finished 1st in “74th Aichi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) on Sunday.

He is running the latest trending build of using Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero with Mystical Space Typhoon and Twin Twisters. This build has a higher consistency of getting Sky Striker Ace – Raye to start generating card advantage earlier.

The other new trend is that players are now going for Glow-Up Bulb instead. This is also an OTK, but uses Crystron Halqifibrax to go into Borrelsword Dragon. The condition for setting up the OTK is much more stricter as it requires the opponent to have a monster with ATK 1500 or higher so that Sky Striker Ace – Hayate could suicide into it to send and then trigger Sky Striker Ace – Raye. However, the cost for reviving Glow-Up Bulb is much cheaper and frees up a space in the Extra Deck as Summon Sorceress is no longer required.

Pendulum Magician

Kaito (かいと) went 7-0-1 to finished 1 – 2nd in “Toycomp CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which has 58 teams (174 participants).

In the Extra Deck, he ran Wee Witch’s Apprentice instead of LANpholinkus.

The purpose of LANpholinkus was to provide two Link Arrows for Pendulum Summoning from the Extra Deck in the scenario that the opponent had banished Heavymetalfoes Electrumite using Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries.

Wee Witch’s Apprentice fulfills the same purpose, but also provides an ATK boosts to DARK monsters, which covers a majority of the Magician and Sorcerer monsters.

But more importantly, Wee Witch’s Apprentice is a Spellcaster monster. By using 2 DARK Spellcaster Pendulum Monsters to Link Summon Wee Witch’s Apprentice, the two Spellcaster Pendulum Monsters can then be Pendulum Summon back onto the field at the Link Arrows. Wee Witch’s Apprentice and one of the Spellcaster Pendulum Monsters will be used to Link Summon Summon Sorceress, whose effect can target the remaining Spellcaster Pendulum Monster on the field, and Special Summon a Spellcaster monster from the deck.

Wee Witch’s Apprentice opens up the option of going into Summon Sorceress, and thus developing into a stronger board.

ABC

While Sky Striker ABC still remains popular, the new variant Greener HERO ABC FTK had a good run this week.

Hina (ヒナ) went 5-2 to finished 1st in “7th Gama CS” (Team 3v3) which had 32 teams (96 participants) on Saturday, and finished 3rd in “12th JGP Miyagi with Hatti CS” on Sunday.

Greener HERO ABC FTK main winning condition is using Cannon Soldier to tribute A-Assault Core while Firewall Dragon is on the field. A-Assault Core would then retrieve the other copy of A-Assault Core, which would then be Special Summoned by Firewall Dragon‘s effect. This loop could be continued until the opponent’s Life Points is depleted by Cannon Soldier.

The deck also has a easier time going second with the Armageddon Knight sending Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson to Synchro Summon Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing which would then bring out Mare Mare.

By not running Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones or Shaddoll Fusion, Retaliating “C” cannot be easily Special Summoned against this deck, especially after siding out A Hero Lives.

Conclusion

The conclusion of Golden Week and YOT Thailand 2018 saw Sky Striker and Magician remains as the top 2 decks to beat in the current OCG competitive scene.

This marks the start of the World Championship Qualifier (WCQ) season in Japan and Asia.

Japan is now holding their Block Representative Tournaments where only players who had won a Shop Representative Tournament back during February to April were invited. By winning their respective Block Representative Tournament, they will then be able to join the Japan Representative Tournaments (WCQ). Winners of Japan Representative Tournaments will then represent Japan in the World Championship 2018.

Asia will also be running their Asia Championship 2018 Qualifiers, the last chance for players in Asia to earn their invitation to the Asia Championship 2018. Winners of the Asia Championship 2018 will then represent Asia in the World Championship 2018.

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