OCG 2014.10 Metagame (1 Oct – 31 Dec 2014)

The release of Booster SP: Tribe Force saw the rise of Nekroz, and for the first time placing Ritual at the top of the competitive scene.

Compiled from a total of 229 top-placing decks from 29 competitive tournaments held in Japan and Taiwan, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2014.10 format.

• 127 Nekroz
• 28 Qliphort
• 16 Shaddoll (11 Shaddoll, 5 Chaos Shaddoll)
• 15 HERO
• 8 Evilswarm
• 6 Infernity
• 5 Artifact
• 4 Train
• 3 Yosenju
• 2 Batteryman (1 Batteryman, 1 Artifact Batteryman)
• 2 Meta Beat
• 2 Yang Zing (1 Yang Zing, 1 Artifact Yang Zing)
• 1 Bujin
• 1 Dragon Ruler
• 1 Hand Artifact Traptrix
• 1 Heraldic Beast
• 1 Ritual Beast
• 1 Saffira
• 1 Six Samurai
• 1 Skill Drain Barbaros
• 1 Tellarknight
• 1 Volcanic
• 1 4-Axis Fire Fist

Nekroz is a new theme from Booster SP: Tribe Force that revolves around Ritual Summon.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier is one of the most powerful Synchro monsters and its power has been harnessed by Nekroz as a Ritual Monster. Nekroz of Trishula has a similar effect that banish 1 of each card from opponent’s hand, field, and graveyard. Nekroz of Trishula is slightly more restrictive in that it must banish exactly 3 cards, and thus could not be activated on the first turn while the opponent has no cards on field or in graveyard.

Nekroz has incredible consistency, having Nekroz of Brionac and Nekroz of Clausolas to search for Nekroz Monster or Nekroz Spell/Trap respectively. Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, Senju of the Thousand Hands and Preparation of Rites are additional support cards that could search for Ritual related cards. Nekroz Kaleidoscope could also use Extra Deck monster as Ritual Material, which would then trigger Herald of the Arc Light and search for another Ritual card.

The true terror of Nekroz lies in Djinn Releaser of Rituals. While the Ritual Monster summoned using Djinn Releaser of Rituals is face-up on the field, the opponent cannot Special Summon while that Ritual Monster remains face-up on the field. Nekroz could also lock out the opponent’s Extra Deck plays with Nekroz of Unicore which negates the effects of face-up monsters on the field that were Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.

Besides Dark Hole, Book of Moon and Book of Eclipse are ran in the Main Deck to disable Djinn Releaser of Rituals effect.

OCG 2014.10 → OCG 2015.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• Nekroz of Unicore 3 → 1
• Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands 3 → 1
• Senju of the Thousand Hands 3 → 1
• Preparation of Rites 3 → 1

Several consistency hits to Nekroz by reducing their Ritual support cards. This would only reduce Nekroz’s dominance, but it would be the top contender.

The Secret of Evolution gave Qliphort a minor boost with some new support cards.

Qliphort Stealth provides a removal effect that returns a card to hand when it is Tribute Summoned using a Qli monster(s). Re-qliate functions as a fourth Skill Drain that could be searched out by Qliphort Scout.

Shared Ride is much more effective than Maxx “C” against Nekroz due to how much searching they perform to set up their Ritual plays.

Diamond Dust is also a good Side Deck option as most Nekroz are WATER monsters.

Heavily weakened by the new Limit Regulation, Shaddoll had to rely on various generic cards to increase its power ceiling. Mask Change II is used to bring out Masked HERO Dark Law, which is useful to deny the opponent from searching with Herald of the Arc Light and also Ritual Summon from the graveyard with Nekroz Cycle. Masked HERO Dark Law would also randomly pick 1 card off the opponent’s hand when they add a card from deck to hand. Cyber-Stein is used to Special Summon Naturia Exterio which could negate Spell/Trap, effectively shutting down Ritual Summon.

Artifact Lancea is a decent tech card against Nekroz, it stops Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier from banishing your cards, Nekroz Mirror from using materials from the graveyard, and Djinn Releaser of Rituals from being used as Ritual material while in the graveyard.

Thunder King Rai-Oh and Mistake are also strong tech against Nekroz when going first to shutdown their searching effects.

Instant Fusion is used to Fusion Summon Elder Entity Norden, whose effect would then Special Summon a Level 4 monster from the graveyard. Since Elder Entity Norden is Level 4 itself, this is a quick setup for Rank 4 plays. This allows HERO to supplement their Masked HERO Dark Law opening with Number 16: Shock Master.

Swords of Concealing Light has a similar effect as Book of Eclipse that could flip all of opponent’s monsters facedown and disable the opponent’s Djinn Releaser of Rituals effect. Smashing Ground and Lightning Vortex fulfils a similar function since a common play is to discard Nekroz of Clausolas to add Nekroz Cycle from deck to hand, then using Nekroz Cycle to Ritual Summon Nekroz of Clausolas from the graveyard by using Djinn Releaser of Rituals as material. Nekroz of Clausolas has one of the highest DEF among Nekroz monsters and would be destroyed by Smashing Ground.

OCG 2014.10 → OCG 2015.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• A HERO Lives 2 → 3
• Instant Fusion 3 → 1

HERO gains a slight consistency boost with the 3rd copy of A HERO Lives, but loses the ability to spam Rank 4 with Instant Fusion for Elder Entity Norden.

The biggest change to the new Limit Regulation is the swapping of backrow removal, Heavy Storm goes to forbidden while Harpie’s Feather Duster comes back to limited. On the surface this is good for Qliphort since now they benefit more from having a backrow removal that doesn’t destroy their own Qliphort Scout.

OCG 2014.10 → OCG 2015.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• Heavy Storm 1 → 0
• Harpie’s Feather Duster 0 → 1