Master Duel Metagame Report S2

by · 5 March 2022

Welcome to Season 2 of the Master Duel format.

This report will tabulate 166 top-performing decks from 40 tournaments that were held during Master Duel Season 2 (1 – 28 February 2022).

 

Metagame Breakdown

  • 34 Tri-Brigade (20 Zoodiac Tri-Brigade, 14 Tri-Brigade)
  • 25 Drytron (24 Drytron, 1 Grass Drytron)
  • 23 Eldlich (15 Eldlich, 3 Zoodiac Eldllich, 2 Dogmatika Eldlich, 2 Grass Zombie Eldlich, 1 Zombie Eldlich)
  • 16 Virtual World
  • 7 Prank-Kids
  • 7 Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc
  • 7 @Ignister
  • 5 Phantom Knights
  • 5 Shaddoll (4 Grass Invoked Shaddoll, 1 Invoked Shaddoll)
  • 4 Thunder Dragon (3 Thunder Dragon, 1 Chaos Thunder Dragon)
  • 3 Danger Dark World
  • 3 Dragonmaid
  • 3 True Draco
  • 2 Cyber Dragon
  • 2 Dinosaur Atlantean
  • 2 Kaiju Luna
  • 2 Magician
  • 2 Zoodiac
  • 1 Adamancipator
  • 1 Altergeist
  • 1 Dinosaur
  • 1 Endymion
  • 1 Good Stuff Synchro
  • 1 Grass Sky Striker Infernoid
  • 1 Grass Thunder Dragon Zombie
  • 1 Numeron
  • 1 Orcust
  • 1 Salamangreat
  • 1 Sky Striker
  • 1 Subterror
  • 1 Toon
  • 1 Zefra

 

Tri-Brigade

Tri-Brigade continues to be a popular pick among players but we are seeing a bigger split between Zoodiac Tri-Brigade build and mono Tri-Brigade build.

Hirataira (ひらたいら) went 7-1 and finished 2nd in “Koyubi Cup” which had 249 participants.

As the metagame becomes more defined, Crossout Designator is seeing an uptake in usage. In addition to negating the standard ‘hand traps’ such as Maxx “C” and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Crossout Designator has a wider coverage in being able to negate Forbidden Droplet and Infinite Impermanence as well. Crossout Designator is especially devastating in the mirror match when used to negate the opponent’s Tri-Brigade Revolt.


 

Toki-kun (ときくん) went 8-0 and finished 1st in “Koyubi Cup” which had 249 participants.

Mono Tri-Brigade build has seen a significant increase in Season 2. This build has PSY-Framegear Gamma to protect Rescue Cat and Tri-Brigade Fraktall from being negated by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. However, Rescue Cat is still exposed to Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence.

While the deck could still bring out Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder via Sky Cavalry Centaurea using 2 Xyz Materials from Rescue Cat, it is still relatively less consistent when compared with Zoodiac monsters which can be fetched by Fire Formation – Tenki. Instead it relies on Pot of Prosperity to improve its consistency by excavating 3 or 6 cards to find that key Forbidden Droplet or Lightning Storm needed to break the opponent’s board.

 

Drytron

tag went 7-0 and finished 1st in “Mainichi CS 2/28” which had 128 participants.

With No Side Deck in Master Duel, Drytron has taken a more middle of the road approach and are running Maxx “C” and Forbidden Droplet in the Main Deck to improve their odds when going second.

 

Eldlich

Keru-kun (ける君) went 8-0 and finished 1st in “6th MoonyMan Cup” which had 192 participants.

He ran a heavily teched out build that is tuned against the metagame. Super Polymerization and Evenly Match are great when going second to answer the opponent’s opening board. Artifact Lancea stops Tri-Brigade from activating their effects that Special Summons a Link Monster. Xyz Encore takes out Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad. Waking the Dragon is a great counter against the opponent’s backrow removal, Special Summoning out The Last Warrior from Another Planet or Naturia Exterio would often be very difficult for the opponent to answer.

 

Virtual World

rajan went 8-0 and finished 1st in “4th Master CS” which had 235 participants.

Virtual World build in OCG 2021.04 format ran 1 Mystic Mine in the Main Deck as an answer against powerful opening boards to shutdown all their Monster Effects, and is particularly effective against Tri-Brigade. Since Mystic Mine is currently forbidden in Master Duel, he has opted to run 2 Forbidden Droplet in the Main Deck instead.

 

Conclusion

Tri-Brigade remains in the lead, but is shrinking in dominance as many decks are now prepared against them. Drytron has also made a huge stride this season, showing how difficult they are to handle with No Side Deck. Eldlich continues to perform, while Virtual World is slipping down.

The most significant change in deck building is the inclusion of Forbidden Droplet in the Main Deck in almost every deck. Slower decks such as Eldlich are unable to follow up efficiently with Forbidden Droplet and would choose to run Evenly Match instead.

This report will tabulate only tournaments that are played with No Side Deck, which is currently the most prevalent format.

There are many other tournaments that are trying out different tournament formats, such as DLE Damage Step Tournaments has a 15 cards Side Deck, DMC Meta Weekly Tournaments has a two decks Conquest format, and the North America Remote Duel YCS Master Duel Tournaments has a Side Deck which is every card in the collection. These tournaments are not included in the report.

If you enjoyed these Master Duel Metagame Reports, consider supporting Road of the King on Patreon. Cheers!

 

References

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9 Responses

  1. Francesco says:
    6 March 2022 at 1:36 am

    Thank you for your report!
    Seems like Nibiru isn’t used that much? I think it might be a great addition to my Virtual World deck.

    Reply
    • Damjan Dax (@Daxonion) says:
      6 March 2022 at 2:15 am

      Nibiru and maxx C more or less serve the same purpose vs heavy combo decks. So ideally you want to have the number of nibirus + maxxCs to be around 5 in a 40 card deck giving you the ‘optimal’ chance of seeing 1 in ur opening hand and not seeing multiples. In case of control decks nibiru isnt as good whether maxx C can get you 1-2 draws even vs them so people usually tend to cut the nibiru for that reason. Thats the general reason people either play 1 or 0 nibiru and the ‘math’ behind it.

  2. Av says:
    6 March 2022 at 9:50 pm

    Thank you for only including tournaments without a side deck.

    Reply
  3. USS Sandy says:
    6 March 2022 at 11:58 pm

    can’t find any traditional IDS, only grass IDS 🙁

    Reply
  4. Jose says:
    7 March 2022 at 1:20 pm

    Personally wouldn’t play meta the decks toe seem lame

    Reply
    • Momosexual says:
      8 March 2022 at 6:17 pm

      Ok have fun losing 10 games in a row LMAO

    • Lynnsgard says:
      8 March 2022 at 7:23 pm

      Build one of Tribrigade, VW, drytron or eldlich…
      You must have 1 meta deck to reach platinum and get resource…
      After that, you can tactical lose streak and have fun

  5. dang son says:
    24 March 2022 at 5:32 am

    you can’t just drop “toon” in that list and not give an entire deck list

    Reply
  6. Pudding says:
    25 March 2022 at 5:13 pm

    Was the Grass Sky Striker Infernoid list posted anywhere? I checked all the reference links but I didn’t see it

    Reply

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