Master Duel Metagame Report S8

Welcome to Season 8 of the Master Duel format.

This report will tabulate 77 top-performing decks from 23 tournaments that were held during Master Duel Season 8 (1 – 31 August 2022).

 

• 13 Destiny Adventurer Phantom Knights
• 10 Eldlich (7 Eldlich, 1 Destiny Adventurer Zoodiac Eldlich, 1 Grass Destiny Adventurer Eldlich, 1 Grass Eldlich)
• 5 Rose Dragon Adventurer Tenyi
• 5 Prank-Kids (4 Destiny Adventurer Prank-Kids, 1 Adventurer Prank-Kids)
• 4 Adventurer Good Stuff
• 4 Adventurer Virtual World
• 3 Sky Striker (2 Destiny Adventurer Sky Striker, 1 Destiny Sky Striker)
• 3 Destiny Adventurer Zoodiac
• 3 @Ignister
• 2 Dragon Link (1 Adventurer Dragon Link, 1 Grass Adventurer Dragon Link)
• 2 Evil★Twin
• 2 Floowandereeze
• 2 Grass P.U.N.K. Adamancipator
• 2 Grass Shaddoll
• 2 Luna
• 2 Madolche
• 2 Subterror
• 2 Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc
• 1 Adventurer Plunder Patroll
• 1 Adventurer Beetrooper
• 1 Ancient Warriors
• 1 Dinosaur
• 1 Dragonmaid
• 1 Endymion
• 1 Grass Chaos Nemeses Thunder Dragon
• 1 Megalith
• 1 SPYRAL

 

Okayan (おかやん) went 6-1 and finished 2nd in “5th AppMedia Cup” which had 128 participants.

Fusion Destiny, Rite of Aramesir and Water Enchantress of the Temple were pre-emptively semi-limited, resulting in many players counting out Destiny Adventurer Phantom Knights in Master Duel Season 7. So it came as a surprise when Phantom Knights started topping tournaments in Season 8. Most players have chosen to supplement with Level 3 extenders such as Danger!? Tsuchinoko?, Psychic Wheeleder or Psychic Tracker.

There are two school of thoughts when it comes to how Phantom Knights should be adapted to the Master Duel No Side Deck format. The first group chose to cut the Artifact package since Artifact Sycthe has no impact against Eldlich and Floowandereeze. The second group chose to run both Artifact Sycthe and Artifact Lancea in the Main Deck.

Destiny Adventurer Phantom Knights plays slightly differently in Master Duel when running both Artifact Sycthe and Artifact Lancea. Artifact Dadga would be kept on the field so its effect could be used twice, once on your turn and another during the opponent’s turn. This would fetch out both Artifact Sycthe and Artifact Lancea and they could be destroyed by Destiny HERO – Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer to activate their Trigger Effect. Artifact Sycthe would shutdown the Phantom Knights mirror match, Prank-Kids, Virtual World, Adventurer Tenyi and Adventurer Good Stuff, while Artifact Lancea would disrupt Floowandereeze.

Phantom Knights also performed respectably in the Duelist Cup 2022 August. Ren (れん) played Destiny Adventurer Phantom Knights to rank 10th in the final stretch of the Duelist Cup, before being overtaken in the final hour. He eventually finished in rank 12th.

Season 8 → Season 9 Forbidden/Limited List changes:

• Destiny HERO – Celestial 3 → 0
• Fusion Destiny 2 → 1
• Crossout Designator 3 → 1

Destiny Adventurer Phantom Knights was still able to keep up despite the heavy hits to the Destiny HERO package, and won the “Mainichi CS 8/31” which was using the new Forbidden/Limited List. However, it is likely that Phantom Knights would fall off once Branded Despia takes over the scene.

 

Clydestrife went 6-1 and finished 2nd in “DMC Meta Weekly Tournament #26” which had 113 participants.

Eldlich continues to top in the tournament scene, largely carried by the floodgates Skill Drain, Rivalry of Warlords, Gozen Match and There Can Be Only One.

Eldlich also performed decently in the Duelist Cup 2022 August, but they had a hard time going against Virtual World, resulting in the bulk of them placing in the bottom percentile of the Top 100. The highest finish Eldlich had was by Sco (すこ) in rank 19th.

Season 8 → Season 9 Forbidden/Limited List changes:

• Imperial Order 1 → 0
• Vanity’s Emptiness 1 → 0
• Skill Drain 3 → 2
• Pot of Prosperity 3 → 1

The oppressive Imperial Order is gone and Skill Drain is down to 2, but Rivalry of Warlords, Gozen Match and There Can Be Only One are still available at 3. Pot of Prosperity going to 1 is the more significant hit as it lowers the consistency of opening with multiple different floodgates. Rivalry of Warlords will be very effective against Branded Despia as the deck runs a mixture of Fairy, Dragon, Wyrm, Beast and Fiend monsters.

 

ういうい went 6-0 and finished 1st in “Mainichi CS 8/14” which had 73 participants.

Rose Dragon Adventurer Tenyi remains a top contender, but has faltered quite a bit. Its performance in the Duelist Cup 2022 August was also underwhelming, and was outperformed by Adventurer Good Stuff.

Season 8 → Season 9 Forbidden/Limited List changes:

• Crossout Designator 3 → 1

It is going to be much harder for Rose Dragon Adventurer Tenyi to stop the opponent’s ‘hand traps’ with Crossout Designator limited. Although Adventurer Tenyi had the second-most amount of top placements in the OCG 2022.01 format, trailing behind Branded Despia, it is yet to see if they could replicate the same success in Master Duel.

 

Slayzan went 5-1 and finished 3 – 4th in “DMC Meta Weekly Tournament #26” which had 113 participants.

Prank-Kids remains a top contender, and performed exceedingly well in the Duelist Cup 2022 August. jackeylove initially ran with a 60-cards Destiny Adventurer Prank-Kids, but later switched over to the regular 40-cards Adventurer Prank-Kids, and finished in rank 6th.

Season 8 → Season 9 Forbidden/Limited List changes:

• Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu 3 → 1
• Destiny HERO – Celestial 3 → 0
• Fusion Destiny 2 → 1
• Crossout Designator 3 → 1

Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu going to limited is a considerably hit to Prank-Kids. Now they have to choose between leaving Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu in the graveyard so Prank-Kids Battle Butler could activate its effect twice, or shuffle Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu back with Prank-Kids Pranks so the deck could pull off the 1-card combo again on the next turn.

 

Adventurer Virtual World and Adventurer Good Stuff barely missed the cut in tournaments, but they performed exceedingly well in Duelist Cup 2022 August. Notably Virtual World was played by 4 of the Top 10 players, causing True King of All Calamities to become Forbidden in the new Forbidden/Limited List.

Selection Pack Invincible Raid had little impact on the metagame, but it does introduce Guardian Chimera, another important piece to completing Branded Despia. Season 9 would see a metagame shift as Branded Despia gets Branded Fusion, Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon and Lubellion the Searing Dragon in the next Selection Pack The Newborn Dragon.

The Master Duel tournament scene has been dwindling, and was doubly impacted by the Duelist Cup event. Since the start of Duelist Cup 2022 August Stage 2 on 19 August, many tournaments had their participation count falling below 64. The numbers did not recover even after the Duelist Cup ended as many players were burned out from the 72 hours grind. The Master Duel Metagame Report has a strict criteria of including only tournaments with 64 or more participants and played with No Side Deck. The smaller data set for Season 8 makes it difficult to draw any comprehensive conclusion.

With that said, since the Master Duel Metagame Report covers only the No Side Deck format, your mileage may vary when playing in a tournament with Side Deck such as the “Master Duel Tieba Weekly”, “GGtoor x DLE Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Open” or “DLE Damage Step Master Duel”.

 

• 2022-08-31 | Mainichi CS 8/31 (New Forbidden/Limited List) (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-30 | Mainichi CS 8/30 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-29 | DMC Meta Weekly #29 (New Forbidden/Limited List)
• 2022-08-26 | Mainichi CS 8/26 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-24 | DMC Meta Weekly #28 (New Forbidden/Limited List)
• 2022-08-18 | Mainichi CS 8/18 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-17 | Mainichi CS 8/17 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-16 | Mainichi CS Special Cup 8/16 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-15 | DMC Meta Weekly #27
• 2022-08-14 | Mainichi CS 8/14 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-13 | 5th AppMedia Cup
• 2022-08-13 | Mainichi CS 8/13 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-11 | Mainichi CS 8/11 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-10 | DMC Meta Weekly #26
• 2022-08-10 | Mainichi CS 8/10 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-08 | Mainichi CS 8/8 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-06 | Mainichi CS 8/6 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-05 | Mainichi CS 8/5 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-04 | Mainichi CS 8/4 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-03 | Mainichi CS 8/3 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-02 | DMC Meta Weekly #25
• 2022-08-02 | Mainichi CS 8/2 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2022-08-01 | Mainichi CS 8/1 (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)