OCG 2017.04 Metagame Report #1
Welcome to Week #1 of the OCG 2017.04 format.
Pulse of the True King Dinosaur.
This report will tabulate 68 top-performing decks from 9 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 1 – 3 April 2017.
Update: Added tournament results from Duel City China Yu-Gi-Oh! Super League SP5 and SP6.
Metagame Breakdown
- 27 True King Dinosaur:
- 26 True King Dinosaur
- 1 True King Yang Zing Dinosaur
- 25 True Draco:
- 17 Demise True Draco
- 3 Invoked True Draco
- 2 Mono True Draco
- 2 Windwitch Invoked True Draco
- 1 Windwitch True Draco
- 11 Kozmo:
- 9 True Draco Metalfoes Kozmo
- 2 True Draco Kozmo
- 2 Zoodiac:
- 1 Mono Zoodiac
- 1 True Draco Zoodiac
- 1 Dinosaur Yang Zing
- 1 Shiranui
- 1 Windwitch True Draco Metalfoes
True Draco
True Draco continues to perform well this week, with Demise True Draco being the more popular build.
Eradicator Epidemic Virus is a strong tech card against a Spell-heavy deck such as Demise True Draco. The combination of Armageddon Knight and Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite not only allows you to reuse Dragonic Diagram, but opens up the options of Rank 4 monsters. Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon is specifically played to enable Eradicator Epidemic Virus.
Dimensional Fissure is another good tech card against True King Dinosaurs. It doubles up in stopping Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit since the activation cost requires Ghost Ogre to be sent to the graveyard. However, it does not stop Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring as the activation cost of Ash Blossom is discarding itself.
True King Dinosaur
True King Dinosaur performed superbly this week.
Kawanami Hayato “アクアボーイ” (“AquaBoy”), World Championship 2015 Japan representative, went 6-1 with a standard True King Dinosaur build.
On the next day, he went with a heavily teched out True King Dinosaur build, but performed much poorer at 4-2-1.
Gateway to Chaos has an interesting interaction with Set Rotation that could lock the opponent from playing Field Spell Cards. Gateway to Chaos has a mandatory effect on activation to add 1 “Black Luster Soldier” Ritual Monster or 1 “Gaia The Fierce Knight” monster from your Deck to your hand. If your deck does not contain any “Black Luster Soldier” Ritual Monster or “Gaia The Fierce Knight” monster, then Gateway to Chaos cannot be activated.
By using Set Rotation to Set a Gateway to Chaos on the opponent’s Field Zone, the opponent would be unable to activate Gateway to Chaos unless they are running “Black Luster Soldier” Ritual Monster or “Gaia The Fierce Knight” monster in their deck. Since Gateway to Chaos cannot be activated and remains Set on the field, the effect of Set Rotation would prevent them from activating or Setting other Field Spell Cards.
Oracle of Zefra and Magical Mid-Breaker Field are some alternative Field Spell Cards that work with Set Rotation to lock the opponent from playing Field Spell Cards.
Conclusion
True Draco Metalfoes Kozmo’s popularity and performance is unfortunately declining, likely due to their difficulty and inconsistency.
True King Dinosaur has finally shown respectable results this week and joins True Draco as a strong contender in the current competitive scene.
Out of 68 decks, only 3 decks (1 Dinosaur Yang Zing, 1 Shiranui and 1 Zoodiac) were not running Dragonic Diagram.
References
- 2017-04-03 | Duel City Championship 2016
- 2017-04-03 | Duel City China Yu-Gi-Oh! Super League SP6
- 2017-04-03 | Duel City China Yu-Gi-Oh! Super League SP5
- 2017-04-02 | 3rd Smile CS in Chihaya (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C | 3rd: A, B, C)
- 2017-04-02 | Tokyo Yu-Gi-Oh! CS in Itabashi with Hatti CS (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C | 3rd: A, B, C)
- 2017-04-01 | 1st ORANGE CS
- 2017-04-01 | 1st Hobby Station Okayama CS
- 2017-04-01 | 4th Hakata CS with Hatti CS (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C | 3rd: A, B, C)
- 2017-04-01 | 1st Oyama Cup
Is it me or that 1 Zoodiac Deck is Playing in April Banlist!?
Yes. The OCG 2017.04 Zoodiac plays like a Meta Beat deck – using a bunch of Continuous Trap Cards such as Macro Cosmos, Mistake, Mask of Restrict and Neverending Nightmare to deny True Draco from playing out their strategy, while direct attacking with a ATK 2800 Zoodiac Boarbow every turn.
Here’s the Zoodiac deck list: https://twitter.com/nogorou566/status/849225988709863424
What about droll and lock bird in TD Dino and deck lockdown in TD decks? What are they for?
Deck Lockdown completely shuts down Dinos from playing, since they search off of Diagram and Oviraptor and summon from the deck with Babycerasaurus, Petiradon, and Miscellaneousaurus.
Droll & Lock Bird is the alt. to Deck Lockdown that TD Dino can utilize to slowdown TD, though isn’t a popular choice. Typically, it’s better to use cards such as Mask of Restrict and Different Dimension Ground vs TD.
True Draco plays a lot of cards that search or draw from the deck – Terraforming, Dragonic Diagram, Pot of Duality, Pot of Desires, Card of Demise.
Droll & Lock Bird prevents those cards from being activated, so there is a very high chance that you could stop their play for the turn. A typical play is activating Droll & Lock Bird right after they resolve Terraforming, and that would stop them from activating the effect of Dragonic Diagram.
Deck Lockdown performs a similar role against True King Dinosaur.
It stops effects that search for a card and add it to hand – Terraforming, Dragonic Diagram, Fossil Dig.
But it also stops effect that Special Summons from the Main Deck – Petiranodon, Babycerasaurus, Miscellaneousaurus.
So, what are best options to side for TD Dino against TD except mask of restrict? I guess DDG is mainly against TD dino and infernoids, dont see how would it work against TD. I saw many side techs like skull meister, fog king, forbidden chalice. I guess chalice is decent so do fog king. But what is your opinion on that?
It’s barely 2-3 weeks into this format, and there’s simply not enough games to conclusively say what are the “best” to side. But so far, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit and Forbidden Chalice are popular Side Deck choices.
Also, these are in addition to Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju that are already in the Main Deck. The Main Deck is actually quite decent against True Draco, so it doesn’t need that many Side Deck cards.
Exists other option to Gateway or Magical Mid-Breaker Field to lock the opponent?
Wonderful artical. Thanks for your summary and I learnt a lot.
May I translate it into Chinese and post it on Chinese forum? I will attach your website url.
Thanks.
Sure. You are welcome.