OCG 2016.10 Metagame (1 Oct – 31 Dec 2016)

ABC opened strong into the format, but the arrival of Zoodiac warped the metagame.

Compiled from a total of 668 top-placing decks from 101 competitive tournaments held in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and China Mainland, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2016.10 format.

• 264 Zoodiac (198 Zoodiac, 50 Kaiju Zoodiac, 16 Artifact Zoodiac)
• 84 Metalfoes (44 Metalfoes, 40 Zoodiac Metalfoes)
• 82 ABC (68 ABC, 13 Zoodiac ABC, 1 Artifact ABC)
• 61 Infernoid (37 Grass Infernoid, 15 Zoodiac Infernoid, 7 Grass Zoodiac Infernoid, 1 Grass PSY-Frame Infernoid, 1 Infernoid)
• 33 Invoked (23 Zoodiac Invoked, 6 Kaiju Zoodiac Invoked, 2 Artifact Zoodiac Invoked, 2 Artifact Windwitch Invoked)
• 26 Kozmo (8 Zoodiac Kozmo, 5 Kozmo, 3 Artifact Kozmo, 3 Metalfoes Kozmo, 3 Speedroid Kozmo, 2 Fire King Kozmo, 1 Artifact Zoodiac Kozmo, 1 Kaiju Zoodiac Kozmo)
• 18 Blue-Eyes (17 Blue-Eyes, 1 Kaiju Blue-Eyes)
• 12 Frog (9 Frog Paleozoic, 2 Frog, 1 Kaiju Zoodiac Frog)
• 12 Darklord
• 10 Lightsworn (3 Grass Zoodiac Invoked Lightsworn, 2 Grass Zoodiac Lightsworn, 2 Lightsworn, 1 Grass Kaiju Zoodiac Lightsworn, 1 Grass Shiranui Zoodiac Lightsworn, 1 Zoodiac Lightsworn)
• 10 Monarch (4 Domain Monarch, 3 Artifact Monarch, 1 Artifact Zoodiac Monarch, 1 Monarch, 1 Zoodiac Monarch)
• 9 HERO (5 HERO, 3 Zoodiac HERO, 1 Artifact HERO)
• 8 D/D
• 7 Yang Zing (3 Speedroid Zoodiac Yang Zing, 2 Speedroid Metalfoes Yang Zing, 1 Speedroid Artifact Yang Zing, 1 Yang Zing)
• 5 Kaiju Zoodiac Yosenju
• 4 Burning Abyss (3 Zoodiac Burning Abyss, 1 Speedroid Phantom Knights Burning Abyss)
• 6 Atlantean Mermail (4 Atlantean Mermail, 1 Kaiju Atlantean Mermail, 1 Kaiju Zoodiac Atlantean Mermail)
• 3 Barrier Statue
• 3 Zoodiac Phantom Knights
• 2 Grass Zoodiac Shiranui
• 2 Madolche (1 Speedroid Madolche, 1 Zoodiac Madolche)
• 2 Shaddoll (1 Zoodiac Shaddoll, 1 Zoodiac HERO Shaddoll)
• 1 Chain Burn
• 1 Cyber Angel Herald
• 1 Dark Magician
• 1 Red-Eyes
• 1 Ritual Beast

The release of Raging Tempest introduced Zoodiac and they swiftly usurped ABC to dominated the OCG 2016.10 format.

Zoodiac is a new theme that revolves around Xyz Summon. Zoodiac has a powerful mechanic that allows them to Xyz Summon another Zoodiac monster by using just 1 Zoodiac monster as Xyz Material. This essentially means Zoodiac is extremely consistent as they require only 1 Zoodiac Ratpier to open their plays. Zoodiac Barrage, Fire Formation – Tenki and Speedroid Terrortop into M-X-Saber Invoker are various ways the deck could fetch Zoodiac Ratpier and these cards are all available at 3 copies.

While Zoodiac Ratpier is an Xyz Material under a Beast-Warrior Xyz Monster, that Xyz Monster gains the effect to detach 1 Xyz Material, Special Summon 1 Zoodiac Ratpier from hand or Deck. This effect could be used multiple times simply by Xyz Summoning another Zoodiac monster. Essentially it would Special Summon 2 Zoodiac Ratpier which could be used to Xyz Summon a Rank 4 Xyz Monster. Daigusto Emeral is the main option to Xyz Summon, it could shuffle back the Zoodiac Ratpier to draw a card, allowing the Zoodiac Ratpier to be used again on the next turn.

The Zoodiac Xyz Monster would go into Zoodiac Broadbull to add Zoodiac Whiptail to hand, before ending off with Zoodiac Drident. Overall, the combo generates multiple pluses while ending with Zoodiac Drident as disruption. Zoodiac Drident has a Quick Effect that destroys a face-up card on the field.

Dimensional Barrier became a popular tech against Zoodiac, by declaring Xyz to stop their play for the turn.

Interrupted Kaiju Slumber is also another popular play in the Zoodiac mirror match. Interrupted Kaiju Slumber would destroy all monsters and then Special Summon a Kaiju monster for each player. Zoodiac Drident would destroy the opponent’s Kaiju, opening up the board to an OTK with a ATK 3300 Kaiju, Gagaga Samurai attacking twice, and the Zoodiac monster with Zoodiac Whiptail as Xyz Material. Due to the prevalence of Zoodiac in the metagame, some players would run Interrupted Kaiju Slumber directly in the Main Deck to have an edge against the mirror match in Game 1.

OCG 2016.10 → OCG 2017.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• Speedroid Terrortop 3 → 1
• Fire Formation – Tenki 3 → 1

Limiting Speedroid Terrortop and Fire Formation – Tenki reduces the consistency of Zoodiac, by reducing their options to fetch Zoodiac Ratpier. Despite the restriction, Zoodiac would continue to dominate with another wave of new support in Maximum Crisis.

Zoodiac Metalfoes became a popular build that takes advantage of the Zoodiac package to generate card advantage. Dragoons of Draconia is a Beast-Warrior Pendulum Monster that could be searched by Zoodiac Broadbull.

The standard opening of Zoodiac Drident and Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin provides 2 disruption. Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin cannot be targeted and destroyed by opponent’s card effect, making it immune to the opponent’s Zoodiac Drident, Dark Hole and Interrupted Kaiju Slumber.

OCG 2016.10 → OCG 2017.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin 1 → 0

Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin going to forbidden is a huge reduction in Metalfoes’ power. Players are testing out Astrograph Sorcerer as it synergizes with Metalfoes. When a Metalfoes Pendulum Effect destroys the other Pendulum Scale, Astrograph Sorcerer could be Special Summoned from hand, and add another copy of the destroyed Pendulum Monster from deck to hand.

ABC and Zoodiac have similar playstyle, but ABC has been largely outclassed by Zoodiac.

ABC-Dragon Buster and Zoodiac Drident are similar disruption that removes a target from the field. However, assembling the 3 ABC Union Monsters is much harder than a single Zoodiac Monster. Zoodiac Drident is also effective against ABC, being able to chain and destroy Union Hanger on activation, denying the search effect altogether.

Zoodiac ABC is a build that splashes the Zoodiac package for the card advantage. However, there are no intrinsic synergy between ABC and Zoodiac, and the deck is much more consistent without the ABC portion.

OCG 2016.10 → OCG 2017.01 Limit Regulation changes:

• Union Hangar 3 → 1

Union Hangar being limited furthers lower the consistency of ABC. We are likely to see most players dropping ABC and switching over to Zoodiac.

From Week #2 onwards after the release of Raging Tempest, there were a total of 581 decks in OCG 2016.10 that made the top cut in tournaments. Out of those 581 decks, 264 were Zoodiac decks, 150 were decks running with Zoodiac package, and only 167 decks were not running any Zoodiac. In total, Zoodiac was played in 71.3% of the decks.