OCG 2024.01 Metagame Report #0

Welcome to Week #0 of the OCG 2024.01 format.

This report tabulates 71 top-performing decks from 17 tournaments that were held in Japan, China Mainland, Taiwan and South Korea during 27 – 31 December 2023, played under the new OCG 2024.01 Limit Regulation.

Update: Removed data from “Top Deck Vis New Year’s Day Yu-Gi-Oh! 2023 King of Chongqing Tournament” which was incorrectly included as being held on 2023-12-31 when it was held on 2024-01-01. This tournament will be included in the next OCG 2024.01 Metagame Report #1 instead.

• 22 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King
• 7 Branded (4 Grass Branded, 3 Branded)
• 4 Ritual Beast
• 4 Voiceless Voice
• 3 Snake-Eye
• 2 Adventurer Prank-Kids Spright
• 2 Dinosaur (1 Dinosaur, 1 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Dinosaur)
• 2 Floowandereeze
• 2 Horus Naturia
• 2 Infernoble Knight (1 Mikanko Infernoble Knight, 1 Sinful Spoils Mikanko Infernoble Knight)
• 2 Infernoid (1 Grass Horus Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Infernoid, 1 Grass Sky Striker Infernoid)
• 2 Labrynth
• 2 Salamangreat
• 2 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Rescue-ACE
• 2 Sky Striker
• 1 Dogmatika Horus
• 1 Dragon Link
• 1 Grass Horus Eldlich
• 1 Grass Superheavy Samurai Vernusylph Adamancipator
• 1 Ice Barrier
• 1 Naturia Runick
• 1 Nemeses Scareclaw
• 1 Runick
• 1 Superheavy Samurai Dracoslayer
• 1 Supreme King Magician
• 1 Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc

Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King was untouched by the OCG 2024.01 Limit Regulation, and is the main deck to beat in the new format.

Anti-Spell Fragrance has become the prime tech when going first to shutdown the opponent’s Spell starters such as Bonfire and Original Sinful Spoils – Snake-Eye, and is prevents counter tech such as Soul Release from banishing Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames and Sacred Fire King Garunix from your graveyard.

As such Cosmic Cyclone has become more important than ever to prevent being locked out of Spells by Anti-Spell Fragrance. Cosmic Cyclone is also useful in the mirror match to banish Fire King Island which would then destroy all their monsters, or could be Chained to Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon effect when it targets I:P Masquerena in the Spell & Trap Zone to banish I:P Masquerena and stop its Special Summon.

Luo Wen Chin finished 1st in “26th NTU Cup” which had 57 participants.

Shaddoll Fusion in the Side Deck could function as a Soul Release when used in combination with Naelshaddoll Ariel. Shaddoll Fusion would be used to Fusion Summon El Shaddoll Apkallone by using Naelshaddoll Ariel and Shaddoll Beast as Fusion Materials. Then all 3 Shaddoll Monster Effects would go on the Chain, and since all 3 are Optional Trigger Effects, you could arrange them to protect the more important effects. For example, if the opponent has Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess on the field, then you may opt for Chain 1 El Shaddoll Apkallone effect, Chain 2 Naelshaddoll Ariel effect, and Chain 3 Shaddoll Beast effect. The opponent’s Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess would only be able to activate on Chain 4 to negate Shaddoll Beast effect, thus ensuring Naelshaddoll Ariel effect would banish cards from the opponent’s graveyard, then El Shaddoll Apkallone effect would negate Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess.

However, since El Shaddoll Apkallone is Special Summoned, this would also allow the opponent to activate Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames graveyard effect in the same Chain, and thus would avoid being banished by Naelshaddoll Ariel. This still accomplish the purpose of forcing out Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames effect pre-emptively.

AG went 5-2 and finished 2nd in “9th MSCS 3v3 Team Tournament” which had 20 teams (60 participants).

Ritual Beast has gained new support cards from Terminal World and has been making a splash in the metagame alongside Infernoid and Ice Barrier.

Spiritual Beast Tamer Lara and Ritual Beast Inheritance Special Summons a Ritual Beast monster or adds a Ritual Beast monster from deck to hand respectively, improving the consistency of Ritual Beast. Ritual Beast Ulti-Nochiudrago is a new Ritual Beast Fusion Monster that protects your other Ritual Beast monsters from being targeted by the opponent. Ritual Beast Ulti-Reirautari is a new Ritual Beast Link Monster that could salvage a Ritual Beast monster from the graveyard, gives an additional Normal Summon, and provides a disruption that banishes 1 of your Ritual Beast card and 1 opponent card.

Ritual Beast is also well positioned to shutdown Fire King and Snake-Eye by running Dimension Shifter and Dimensional Fissure in the Main Deck.

绿豆爽 finished 1st in “Huoguoyang Card Store 2v2 Team Tournament” which had 30 teams (60 participants).

While Anti-Spell Fragrance effect is applying, Novox, the Voiceless Voice Disciple effect could still be activated to place Barrier of the Voiceless Voice from deck face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone. The relevant ruling is: While the effect of “Anti-Spell Fragrance” is applying, if I Normal Summon a “The Weather Painter Snow”, can I activate its effect that places a “The Weather” Spell/Trap Card from my Deck face-up in my Spell & Trap Zone?.

Note that this is different from Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior and Metaverse, which specifically has “activate” instead of “place” written in their text. This difference caused them to be affected by Anti-Spell Fragrance and thus would not be able to choose the option to activate a True Draco Continuous Spell or Field Spell on the field.

Kai Havertz (凯.哈弗茨) finished 1st in “Hanekawa Card Store New Year’s Day Tournament” which had 48 participants.

Fire King takes a dominating lead in the preliminary week, having almost 3 times more tops than Branded in the second spot.

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• 2023-12-31 | Lord of Dragon Card Shop Tournament
• 2023-12-31 | Huoguoyang Card Store 2v2 Team Tournament
• 2023-12-31 | Lingke Card Store New Year’s Day
• 2023-12-31 | Xi’an Yu-Gi-Oh! Annual Tournament Gonglizhiwang Cup
• 2023-12-31 | Kupinchaowan New Year’s Eve Tournament
• 2023-12-31 | Duel’S-park (Belated?) Store Opening Celebration Year-End 3v3 Team Tournament (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C)
• 2023-12-31 | 9th MSCS 3v3 Team Tournament (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C)
• 2023-12-30 | 4th Ochikage CS (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2023-12-30 | 248th Taiyo CS
• 2023-12-30 | Cosmos TCG Cijiuyingxin (Out with the Old, In with the New) Cup
• 2023-12-30 | Liuwuzhimen Card Store 2024.1 New Year’s Day Tournament
• 2023-12-30 | Haikou Champion Card Store OCG January New Limit Regulation Tournament
• 2023-12-30 | Xinglugu Card Store New Year’s Day Tournament Shengshang Cup
• 2023-12-30 | Hanekawa Card Store New Year’s Day Tournament
• 2023-12-30 | Xinghang Card Store Tournament
• 2023-12-30 | 26th National Taiwan University (NTU) Cup
• 2023-12-27 | 162nd Next Play Cup