wayne kenoff

With the turmoil of last weeks’ Tier List we have decided to go for a much stricter list. This might mean that your favorite deck - while still potenitally viable in the meta - does not represent what TPC would consider your best competitive options in today’s meta.

Tier 1

TPC Comments

Drizzels

Darklords are still dominating the meta and the new Mini box hasn’t changed anything about that. Several new variants are developing, including a build with the newly buffed . More and more people are using as a skill while , and are on the slight decline. We’re not far off from a Tier 0 meta, which may last until the next KC Cup without a new Main Box.

Erikson

Nothing has changed for Darklords since last week - they continiue to dominate the meta and will continue to do so until a new Main Box comes and shakes up the meta.

MedzR

We find ourselves in a more darklord centric meta than before the ban list dropped. Despite being hit by the ban list, a lot of other decks were also affected which has resulted in their demotion from the Tier List entirely, as they simply cannot hold their own against darklords.

Snyffus

Darklords are still undeniably the best deck. The nerfs might have slightly weakened the deck but in the grand scheme of things its dominance didn’t change, especially because other decks also lost important cards.

wayne kenoff

Darklords continue to shape the meta. Dominating side deck tournaments in both representation and Top Cuts despite a general disdain for the deck throughout the community at this point. The nerfing of provided a large boost to Darklords already huge monsters making them much harder to get over.

Tier 2

TPC Comments

Drizzels

Thanks to Fortune Ladies are more likely to unbrick their hands, allowing them to win even with multiple copies of in their hand. Their Darklord matchup is still really good, which is the main reason that this Deck is Tier 2. Tougher matchups like Six Samurais, Desperado and Parshath decks are on the decline which also helps.

Erikson

Fortune Ladies are the only deck in the meta that can give Darklords a hard time because of how limited their negations are in the matchup. The deck has a lot of room for defensive / tech cards and their Extra Deck has a lot of tools for different match ups. Fortune ladies have good matchups across the board and the only thing that holds em back is their consistency.

MedzR

Fortune Ladies remain at Tier 2 due to a strong Darklord matchup. The biggest issue with Fortune Ladies is the consistency of opening your combo to bring out and for that reason, I feel this is the deck’s ceiling.

wayne kenoff

Fortune Ladies continue to be the best deck to counter Darklords and still boast a very powerful Synchro engine with no hard deckbuilding limits from the banlist outside of generic cards.

Tier 3

TPC Comments:

Erikson

Neos is still trying to find its way after the banlist hit. The deck has lost too many irreplaceable cards to maintain their previous power level. However, its consistency is almost the same thanks to . The deck can still be explosive and close out games fast but not in the same way as it used to do before. Definitely not to be underestimated.

Invoked continues to stay in the meta due to its versatility and adaptability. Outside of Fortune Ladies, it has good matchups across the board. Tier 3 seems suitable for now.

MedzR

Invoked is still holding it’s own in the meta with three variants doing the rounds: Neos, Magician Girls and more recently . Will be interesting to see what variant the majority settles on as the best way to play the deck over the coming week.

Snyffus

There have been some new Invoked builds popping up, mainly the version used by players like zaidking . The strength of this deck is being able to access at any time and not being reliant on hard drawing it as opposed to hard drawing it with the Magician Girl version. Without Aleister you’re basically playing a much worse deck so I believe this will be the best version going forward.

wayne kenoff

Invoked has taken a nice place in the meta and continues to adapt and adopt new styles of play mainly due to the powerful and versatile engine. While the Magician Girl engine seemed like the best way to play the deck last week, it seems to have already shifted into more controlling style of play through cards like , , and .

High Potential

TPC Comments:

Drizzels

will give Magnet Warriors big push. It’s a consistency booster that can turn previously bad hands like openings into good hands. Being able to remove cards like , , and Darklords with your smaller monsters is simply amazing. I expect good results in the upcoming weeks.

Erikson

Crystrons have received some much needed support in the recent Mini Box. The 2 new cards boost the deck’s consistency and gives more tools to deal with the opponent’s field. With a good pilot this deck now can deal with a variety of different matchups. The deck still needs more optimization and perhaps in the near future it might see its way onto the Tier List.

is a very nice addition to Magnet Warriors as it allows you to revive your monsters and deal with annoying cards like . Darklords are still going to be hard to deal with though which is one of the biggest obstacles between this deck and the Tier List.

Luxdar

With the arrival of the recent mini box, new Crystron support benefits the deck in ways that are relevant to the times. not only Special Summons a banished Crystron, but zeroes out the DEF stats on your opponent’s side, turning defensive powerhouses of , , and into non-concerns. On top of that, in-grave protection from targeting is far more relevant than in-grave protection from card effect destruction given the prevalence of . Being searchable by is icing on the cake. As for the other new card, , whose ability to search the deck for the right monster is great to have in the same vein, providing another route to fetch when on the field, tag-teaming with Smiger to jumpstart the deck. This all being said, it’s unfortunate that this jumpstart is prey for Darklords, which can sink the deck before it can get going with . There are ways to play around early disruption, like for example, dumping as cost with Sulfefnir pulling out a Crystron from the deck without opportunity for an on-field negate, but how far and how consistently you can go with that is not promising. Crystrons will ultimately need more testing as it’s still fresh from this card pool update, so for the time being we have elected to place it as High Potential.

Ritual Beasts are some months too late to have as big a splash as they would have liked. The nerf and the rise of big defensive bodies put too much pressure on the deck’s biggest attacker, , who caps out at 2600 ATK without aid of a Skill. Its isolating protection effect ignores help from boosting cards, meanwhile can only get it to 2900 ATK which isn’t enough in this meta. Ritual Beasts wish they had a support card like for this problem. Instead, they have to look outward to techs like , , and (On fusions other than Ulti-Apelio) to crack bodies. Jumpstarting the deck is another hurdle, as getting out the pieces to build a Fusion isn’t as consistent as one would hope - it doesn’t help that said Fusion ends up not doing much on its own. The silver lining to the deck, however, is arguably with , as it can potentially bounce up to 2 cards per turn to clear the way for an OTK. For the time being this may be looked down upon with Darklords bearing negation and Invoked bearing targeting immunity, but it’s still a powerful tool to have nonetheless, as for example it can still give and something to worry about. With this in mind, the apt move to make at this time is to leave Ritual Beasts at High Potential to see what else can be done with the deck.

MedzR

Yosenju may see some usage as they have a good Fortune Lady matchup, as can easily deal with a . Personally, I don’t think this will be enough for the deck to become Tiered but the deck has been placed in High Potential this week, whilst players are still trying to optimise the deck.

Snyffus

Yosenjus are similar to Amano Stun. A “cancerous” strategy with the main advantage of having more offensive plays. They have some good match ups so this might be an efficient counter strategy in the future.

wayne kenoff

Crystrons, with the additions of , and in the last two boxes, have received a huge boost in value. Impact has given Crystrons a viable out to the old counter of and while they’re still crippled by the card they’re no longer blown out by it. Impact also maybe the only competitively viable out to .

Magnet Warriors, who have had time in past metas to truly show off their power, get a boost in : A powerful field spell with the ability to Revive whils also giving Magnets an out to pesky monsters such as .

Yosenju has emerged as an interesting Control deck and may possibly be good enough to hit the Tier List. The use of their Dual Wield-esque , direct attacks, and Counter Traps give the deck a nice variety of plays.

Ritual Beass struggle to find an out to 2900 DEF monsters that their boss monster cant get over with generic boosts like or . If the deck is able to find a reliable out in todays meta it has potential and should be further investigated.

Removed

TPC Comments:

Drizzels

The banlist removed a lot of the power Six Samurais had before. The and nerfs in particular drastically worsened their Darklord matchup. Their only decent matchup in the current meta is Fortune Ladies which is sadly not enough to justify keeping them on the Tier List. However, I can imagine they can come back to relevence if one or two synergistic tech cards get released in the future.

Erikson

Ancient Gears are way too slow in the current meta for them to be relevant. being a staple in every deck makes this decks situation even worse.

Desperado was already struggling before the banlist due to the presence of in the meta. The nerf to has made the deck way too inconsistent to be viable competitively.

Six Samurais were one of the decks that were hit the hardest by the banlist. With the loss of and the deck now struggles to deal with a single DEF Position or . Additionally, the deck can’t consistently bring out and , one of their best tools, is easily played around.

The nerf to heavily lowers Spellbooks’ consistency as Turn 1 + set-up (the biggest reason why this deck was Tiered) is less likely to happen.

Triamids’ worst match up is the best and most played deck of the format making it impossible for it to have a place in the Tier List. The only way I see Triamids making a return is if Darklords see a decline which I highly doubt will be any time soon.

MedzR

Six Samurais are not in a good spot right now, following the semi limit of and the nerf. Pre-banlist, Beatdown was being used exclusively as the decks skill to help them get over Darklord monsters. In addition, Clash had excellent synergy with , allowing you to commit another monster to the board then Clash it away, making Dual Wield live. The deck simply doesn’t have enough going for it anymore hence its demotion from the Tier List.

Snyffus

Blue-Eyes is simply too weak to keep up with Darklords. Setting and waiting to summon 3000 ATK monsters might have been good half a year ago but right now Darklords can do that way easier on just Turn 1.

Desperado is not good right now. The 6th coin flip card might still be somewhat manageable but the 7th one is just so horrible that you’re better off with a different deck.

Six Samurais had consistency issues and weren’t able to beat a good Darklord player without drawing statistically unlikely hands before, now all that got a lot worse. was basically the only way to deal with a , without that they can just generate so much advantage in one play. is too weak of a defensive option, it can easily be played around. Without they have massive troubles with swinging over even weakest of Darklord fields, like a in DEF, allowing them to stall easier. On top of all that their consistency issues also didn’t improve.

wayne kenoff

Blue-Eyes is another powerful deck that, like the others mentioned, is a viable competitive option but lacks enough consistency and Turn 1 plays to be kept on the stricter Tier List.

Six Samurais arguably were hit the hardest by the banlist and suffer from the loss of and . Both these things were essential for Samurais to be a truly competitive deck of the format.

Spellbooks lose their consistent with the nerf and for this older deck to be highly competitive it needed access to Silent Magician ASAP.

Triamids suffer from a Darklord meta in which their primary counter is the most played deck of the format. With their access to powerful counters in the side and most decks main decking 2-3 s. Darklords being able to easily swarm the board with large monsters and disrupt Triamid plays leave them on the outside with a stricter Tier List.

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