OCG 2024.01 Metagame Report #2

Welcome to Week #2 of the OCG 2024.01 format.

This report tabulates 111 top-performing decks from 22 tournaments that were held in Japan, China Mainland, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam during 12 – 14 January 2024.

Update: Revised with additional data from “2nd Reido CS in Ashikaga (3v3 Team Tournament)” and “Battle City Vietnam 2024 Team A Plus”.

• 39 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King
• 9 Voiceless Voice
• 8 Salamangreat
• 6 Rescue-ACE (3 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Rescue-ACE, 2 Sinful Spoils Rescue-ACE, 1 Horus Sinful Spoils Rescue-ACE)
• 5 Grass Branded
• 5 Snake-Eye
• 4 Infernoid (2 Grass Horus Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Infernoid, 2 Grass Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Infernoid)
• 3 Floowandereeze
• 3 Labrynth (2 Labrynth, 1 Unchained Labrynth)
• 3 Runick
• 2 Adamancipator (1 Fossil Vernusylph Adamancipator, 1 Vernusylph Adamancipator)
• 2 Grass Branded Dogmatika Magistus Shaddoll
• 2 Supreme King Magician
• 2 Vanquish Soul
• 1 Dragon Link
• 1 Exosister
• 1 Grass Nightmare Archfiends Earthbound Release FTK
• 1 Horus Centur-Ion
• 1 Horus Fur Hire
• 1 Ice Barrier
• 1 Mathmech
• 1 Mannadium
• 1 Mikanko Phantom Knights
• 1 Purrely
• 1 Ritual Beast
• 1 Sinful Spoils Mikanko Infernoble Knight
• 1 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Bamboo Sword World Chalice Horus Naturia
• 1 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Evolzar Nemleria
• 1 Sky Striker
• 1 Spright Tri-Brigade
• 1 Supreme King Odd-Eyes Performapal
• 1 Vaylantz

This week saw players cutting Anti-Spell Fragrance from the Side Deck for Solemn Strike.

In the Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King mirror match, many players will side in a large amount of ‘hand traps’ when going second. This often results in the combo being disrupted and be unable to reach the ideal setup. Without a proper setup, Anti-Spell Fragrance does little to disrupt the opponent, especially if they open with Snake-Eye Ash. The post siding game would be a battle of attrition where both players are throwing ‘hand traps’ at each other, until one side runs out of disruptions and the other is able to pull off the full combo.

In a battle of attrition, Solemn Strike is a much better card to play since it could disrupt Snake-Eye Ash. Not only does Solemn Strike negate Snake-Eye Ash ① effect, it would also destroy Snake-Eye Ash and thus the opponent would not be able to follow up with Snake-Eye Ash ② effect to bring out Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon.

Raito (ライト) went 8-1 and finished 1st in “32nd RAM Cup Individual Tournament (Omori Venue)” which had 75 participants.

Jekyll@KOP (杰基尔@KOP) recounted in his tournament report (决斗者大陆1月14日ocg积分赛 肃声冠军) that he played against 5 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King decks in the tournament and won all of them. He shared his siding strategy against the Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King match-up.

When going first,
Side Out: 3 Maxx “C”
Side In: 3 Summon Limit

When going second,
Side Out: 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, 2 Called by the Grave
Side In: 2 Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, 1 Droll & Lock Bird, 2 Cosmic Cyclone

If he had played Super Polymerization in Game 1, then he would side them out in Game 2. In place he would side in Evenly Matched and Triple Tactics Thrust.

Jekyll@KOP (杰基尔@KOP) went 8-0-1 and finished 1st in “Duelist Land Ranking Tournament” which had 71 participants.

Joyul (조율) and his teammates ran 2 Burning Draw in their Side Deck as a tech against Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King.

When going second, Burning Draw could be activated by targeting the opponent’s Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess or Amphibious Swarmship Amblowhale to draw 4 cards. This would ideally draw into Change of Heart to take control of the opponent’s Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, or Cosmic Cyclone to banish the opponent’s Fire King Island and trigger its effect to destroy all opponent’s monsters on the field.

Unfortunately, Burning Draw, Change of Heart and Soul Release all have the same weakness of being stopped by Anti-Spell Fragrance. The current understanding is to max out quality ‘hand traps’ as much as possible when going second to disrupt the opponent, and these cards are only filled in due to a lack of better options. Ideally with enough ‘hands traps’ disrupting the opponent, they would be unable to go for game with Anti-Spell Fragrance up, and by surviving the turn, you would be able to play the Spells you set on your next turn. There is also the possibility that the opponent does not open with Anti-Spell Fragrance.

Joyul (조율) went 6-0-1 and finished 1st in “HSCS 3v3 Team Tournament” which had 22 teams (66 participants).

All 6 Rescue-ACE decks that topped this week are running 1 REINFORCE! in the Main Deck.

Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King relies on Monster Effects to board clear and REINFORCE! could make the targeted Rescue-ACE monster become unaffected by your opponent’s monster effects for the rest of the turn. When REINFORCE! is used on a large monster such as Rescue-ACE Turbulence, Fire King would have difficulty breaking through. Even if Salamangreat Raging Phoenix could gain a huge amount of ATK, REINFORCE! would also prevent that Rescue-ACE monster from being destroyed by battle once.

REINFORCE! graveyard effect is also useful for setting the recently limited EMERGENCY! from graveyard to Spell & Trap Zone during the opponent’s End Phase, so that EMERGENCY! could be used as a follow-up play on your next turn.

jori went 7-1 and finished 1st in “22nd Wayo CS (3v3 Team Tournament)” which had 36 teams (108 participants).

Fire King dominates for a third consecutive week, taking 4 times as many tops as Voiceless Voice in the second spot.

The current strategy against Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King is to run a large amount of ‘hand traps’ in the deck, and hopefully force the game into a battle of attrition. In a simplified game state, Anti-Spell Fragrance becomes less impactful and might even backfire on the opponent.

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• 2024-01-14 | 1st Ringo CS
• 2024-01-14 | 2nd Joukamachi CS (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B | 5 – 8th: A, B, C, D)
• 2024-01-14 | 32nd Kinta CS (Individual Tournament・Koyasai)
• 2024-01-14 | 2nd Reonan Cup Individual Tournament
• 2024-01-14 | 32nd RAM Cup Individual Tournament (Omori Venue) (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B | 5 – 8th: A, B, C, D)
• 2024-01-14 | 254th Taiyo CS (2v2 Team Tournament)
• 2024-01-14 | Black Luster Soldier (Normal Monster) Tournament Taipei A
• 2024-01-14 | Duelist Land Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-14 | HSCS 3v3 Team Tournament
• 2024-01-14 | Battle City Vietnam 2024 Team A Plus
• 2024-01-13 | 2nd Reido CS in Ashikaga (3v3 Team Tournament) (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C)
• 2024-01-13 | 31st Kinta CS (Individual Tournament・Kinensai)
• 2024-01-13 | 22nd Wayo CS (3v3 Team Tournament) (1st: A, B, C | 2nd: A, B, C | 3rd: A, B, C | 4th: A, B, C)
• 2024-01-13 | Cosmos TCG Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | Lord of Dragon Card Shop Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | Liuwuzhimen Card Store Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | Top Deck Vis Ranking Tournament BuyNow Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | Huoguoyang Card Store Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | Shuanghun Card Store Annual Tournament (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)
• 2024-01-13 | Illusion Legion Ranking Tournament
• 2024-01-13 | 1923CS with Karami Team Tournament
• 2024-01-12 | Delight CS (1st | 2nd | 3 – 4th: A, B)