OCG 2019.04 Metagame (1 Apr – 30 Jun 2019)

Coming from the OCG 2019.01 format, Salamangreat and Orcust were quick to adapt to the changes in OCG 2019.04 Limit Regulation and were neck and neck in being the top contender of the new OCG 2019.04 format.

Compiled from a total of 586 top-placing decks from 98 competitive tournaments held in Japan, China and Asia, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2019.04 format.

• 129 Salamangreat
• 117 Orcust (79 Phantom Knights Orcust, 14 DARK Warrior Phantom Knights Orcust, 10 Scrap Phantom Knights Orcust, 9 Orcust, 3 Tenyi Phantom Knights Orcust, 1 Atlantean Phantom Knights Orcust, 1 Super Quantum Phantom Knights Orcust)
• 63 Thunder Dragon
• 52 Sky Striker
• 39 Altergeist
• 30 Subterror
• 29 Zefra
• 22 Trickstar
• 17 Mystic Mine Burn
• 15 Magician
• 12 Mythical Beast Endymion
• 10 Magicial Musket
• 9 Gandora-X FTK
• 9 Infernoid (6 Infernoid, 3 Grass Infernoid)
• 5 Cyber Dragon
• 5 Invoked
• 3 Code Talker
• 3 HERO
• 2 Burning Abyss
• 2 Gizmek Orochi Da Eiza
• 2 Mekk-Knight
• 1 Blackwing
• 1 D/D
• 1 Frog Paleozoic
• 1 Grass Shaddoll
• 1 Madolche
• 1 Meta Beat
• 1 Shaddoll Train
• 1 Tenyi “C”
• 1 Wind-Up FTK
• 1 World Chalice Rhongomyniad
• 1 Zombie

As Speedroid Terrortop became limited, the Speedroid engine was no longer worth running. Various different Level 3 monsters such as Psychic Tracker, Psychic Wheeleder, Backup Secretary, Crusadia Reclusia, were played as a replacement. But they were dropped eventually in favor of running more Trap cards to control the board.

The rise of Mystic Mine Burn also saw Salamangreat builds running more Salamangreat Rage and Salamangreat Roar.

Kosaka Kouki, the 2019 World Champion, popularized Paleozoic Dinomischus, a very versatile Trap Card that could be used to answer Monster threats such as Thunder Dragon Colossus as well as Spell/Trap threats such as Mystic Mine.

A Trap heavy build running Crackdown, Compulsory Evacuation Device and Solemn Judgment also saw some success later in the format, but it was not as popular as the standard ‘hand trap’ build.

OCG 2019.04 → OCG 2019.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Salamangreat Gazelle 3 → 1
• Lady Debug 3 → 1

The consistency of Salamangreat was greatly affected with both Salamangreat Gazelle and Lady Debug limited, and they had to look towards Flame Bufferlo as replacement. Although still competitive, Salamangreat is no longer dominating.

The limitation of Armageddon Knight meant that Orcust could no longer rely on the Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson build, and they quickly switched to the Trickstar and Sky Striker engine. However, both Trickstar Light Stage and Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! made them vulnerable to Thunder Dragon Colossus.

The Sky Striker engine were eventually dropped in favor of Scrap Recycler and Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion, a different 1-card engine to go into Knightmare Cerberus or Knightmare Phoenix for Knightmare Mermaid. This build also opens up the option to go into Ib the World Chalice Justiciar, giving the deck extra reach with World Legacy Succession.

A Grinder Golem build using Dark Occultism also saw some play but had no success.

OCG 2019.04 → OCG 2019.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Knightmare Mermaid 3 → 0
• Dark Grepher 3 → 2

Without Knightmare Mermaid, Orcust could no longer consistently go into The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche for double Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, a huge drop in power.

Thunder Dragon saw some early success against Orcust, using Thunder Dragon Colossus to deny their Trickstar and Sky Striker engine. But Orcust was able to adapt and switched to the Scrap engine which do not rely on adding cards from deck to hand.

OCG 2019.04 → OCG 2019.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Thunder Dragon Colossus 3 → 1
• Thunder Dragonhawk 3 → 1

It came as a surprise to many that Thunder Dragon was hit even with a mediocre performance throughout the format. Many were quick to deem Thunder Dragon dead, but their death has been greatly exaggerated.

Mystic Mine had a huge impact on the format.

Metaverse and Trap Trick made pulling out Mystic Mine extremely consistent, and Mystic Mine Burn quickly became a notorious deck to deal with. Monsters heavy deck such as Orcust and Thunder Dragon were simply shutdown if they could not draw into their Twin Twisters and Red Reboot.

Outside of the Mystic Mine Burn deck, many decks such as Sky Striker, Altergeist, Subterror, Trickstar and Infernoid were also running Mystic Mine to stall out Orcust and Thunder Dragon.

OCG 2019.04 → OCG 2019.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Mystic Mine 3 → 2
• Metaverse 3 → 1

The Stall Burn deck is dead, but Mystic Mine is still occasionally teched in with Demise of the Land.

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