OCG 2014.04 Metagame (1 Apr – 30 Jun 2014)

Despite having the big Dragon Rulers limited, Dragon Ruler continues to dominate at the top.

However, The Duelist Advent brought along new themes that overturned the metagame. Shaddoll, Tellarknight and Star Seraph would have strong impacts on the metagame, taking multiple tops in various regions’ World Championship Qualifiers 2014.

Compiled from a total of 207 top-placing decks from 26 competitive tournaments held in Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2014.04 format.

• 81 Shaddoll (58 Shaddoll, 14 Chaos Shaddoll, 6 Star Seraph Shaddoll, 2 Artifact Shaddoll, 1 Lightsworn Shaddoll)
• 38 Dragon Ruler (36 Dragon Ruler, 2 Chaos Dragon Ruler)
• 31 Tellarknight (20 Star Seraph Tellarknight, 11 Tellarknight)
• 14 Artifact Chronomaly
• 5 Madolche (3 Madolche, 2 Chronomaly Madolche)
• 4 Evilswarm
• 4 HERO
• 4 Infernity
• 3 Artifact
• 3 Laval
• 3 Mermail
• 3 Prophecy
• 3 Six Samurai
• 2 Bujin
• 2 Dragon Ruler Hieratic
• 2 Dragon Ruler Lightsworn
• 1 Batteryman
• 1 Fire King
• 1 Geargia Karakuri
• 1 Inzektor
• 1 Worm

Shaddoll is a new theme from The Duelist Advent that revolves around Fusion Summoning. Shaddoll Fusion solves the problem of Fusion Summon being negative on card advantage by allowing Fusion Materials to be used from the deck when the opponent controls a monster summoned from the Extra Deck. Not only does it bring out a big Fusion Monster in El Shaddoll Fusion or El Shaddoll Winda, it also generates resources from the Shaddoll monsters graveyard effects when sent to the graveyard.

Chaos Shaddoll is a variant build where it runs Eclipse Wyvern along with Black Dragon Collapserpent and White Dragon Wyverburster for quick access to Dark Armed Dragon. Sending Eclipse Wyvern to the graveyard would trigger its effect to banish Dark Armed Dragon. Then banishing Eclipse Wyvern to Special Summon Black Dragon Collapserpent would trigger its effect to add the banished Dark Armed Dragon to hand. Black Dragon Collapserpent and White Dragon Wyverburster could be used to make powerful Rank 4 plays.

Star Seraph Shaddoll is another variant build that picked up towards the end of the format. It takes advantage of the ruling regarding Star Seraph Scepter and Star Seraph Sovereignty to quickly amass Level 4 monsters to make Rank 4 plays. Star Seraph Scepter could be Normal Summoned and activates its effect on Chain 1, followed by Star Seraph Sovereignty Trigger Effect on Chain 2. Resolving the Chain, Star Seraph Sovereignty would be Special Summoned, then Star Seraph Scepter would add another copy of Star Seraph Sovereignty from deck to hand. The newly added Star Seraph Sovereignty could then be Special Summoned in a Chain. The 1 Star Seraph Scepter and 2 Star Seraph Sovereignty could then be used to Xyz Summon Rank 4 monster such as Number 16: Shock Master or Stellarknight Delteros.

Not only do the Star Seraph monsters generate card advantage, Number 16: Shock Master is also a powerful turn 1 play that could effectively lock out the opponent.

Splashing a small Blue-Eyes package consisting of 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon and 3 The White Stone of Legend enabled Dragon Ruler to compete for another format, despite having only one of each big Dragon Rulers. Blue-Eyes White Dragon and The White Stone of Legend are used as fodder for Trade-In and Cards of Consonance, allowing the deck to dig deep for the Dragon Rulers. Both are also Dragon Monsters and could be banished for the Special Summon of the Dragon Rulers.

After making their opening board, Dragon Ruler could follow up with Skill Drain and Vanity’s Emptiness to lock out the opponent from making plays. Skill Drain also prevents the Dragon Rulers from returning to hand during the End Phase, is difficult for the opponent to deal with without their Monster Effects.

OCG 2014.04 → OCG 2014.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Dragon Ravine 3 → 1
• Dragon Shrine 3 → 1

Dragon Ruler took another major hit to their consistency, effectively forcing them to step down from the competitive scene.

Tellarknight is a new theme from The Duelist Advent that revolves around Xyz Summoning Rank 4 monsters. Summoning Satellarknight Deneb would trigger its effect to add Satellarknight Altair. Then on the next turn summoning Satellarknight Altair would trigger its effect to Special Summon Satellarknight Deneb, which in turn would fetch another copy of Satellarknight Altair. This essentially forms a loop to consistently generate Level 4 monsters to make Rank 4 Xyz Monsters.

Running Star Seraph Scepter and Star Seraph Sovereignty would become the dominant build due to the amount of card advantage that they bring and their synergy with Rank 4.

Soul Charge provides Tellarknight a way to instantly rebuild their board, and enables powerful play such as Xyz Summoning a 5 material Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad.

The Duelist Advent ushered in a new era, bringing Shaddoll and Tellarknight to the forefront of the competitive scene, retiring Dragon Ruler from the top.

Soul Charge begun rearing its head on the metagame and remains at 3 copies, untouched by the new Limit Regulation. A rather paradoxical situation when Monster Reborn is limited.