OCG 2024.01 Metagame Report #9

Welcome to Week #9 of the OCG 2024.01 format.

This report tabulates 152 top-performing decks from 20 tournaments that were held in Japan, China Mainland, South Korea and Vietnam during 1 – 3 March 2024.

Update: Revised with additional data from “Xinghui Card Store New Semester Cup”, “Battle City Vietnam Spring 2024 HDA” and “Battle City Vietnam Spring 2024 Legendary”.

• 43 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King
• 24 Snake-Eye (23 Snake-Eyes, 1 Horus Snake-Eye)
• 17 Tenpai Dragon
• 17 Voiceless Voice
• 8 Branded (5 Grass Branded, 3 Branded)
• 4 Chimera
• 4 Mathmech Code Talker
• 3 Centur-Ion
• 3 Runick
• 3 Sky Striker (2 Sky Striker, 1 Spellbook Sky Striker)
• 2 Floowandereeze
• 2 Ritual Beast
• 2 Salamangreat
• 2 Melodious Supreme King
• 2 Unchained
• 1 Chaos Thunder Dragon
• 1 Dinosaur
• 1 Drytron
• 1 Grass Raidraptor
• 1 Grass Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Infernoid
• 1 Grass Superheavy Samurai Adventurer Synchron
• 1 Horus
• 1 Horus Orcust
• 1 Labrynth
• 1 Melodious Mathmech
• 1 Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Rescue-ACE
• 1 Spright Tri-Brigade
• 1 Superheavy Samurai Dracoslayer
• 1 Superheavy Samurai Symphonic Warrior Zefra
• 1 Tenpai Dragon Dragunity
• 1 Traptrix

As the metagame trends towards ‘hand trap’ heavy builds, Triple Tactics Talent and Triple Tactics Thrust becomes much easier to activate, and are seeing a rise in usage. More players are running Triple Tactics Talent directly in the Main Deck as it is strong against Fire King and Snake-Eye decks.

Dimensional Barrier, The Black Goat Laughs and Appointer of the Red Lotus are some options that could be played in the Side Deck to complement Triple Tactics Thrust.

Benson Lu “奶味藍” went 13-3 and finished 5 – 8th in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” which had 1200 participants.

While Fire King could chain with Fire King High Avatar Kirin ① effect to dodge Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence, Snake-Eye might be dead in the water if their Snake-Eye Ash gets negated, especially if they had already used Bonfire or Original Sinful Spoils – Snake-Eye.

Qunqing’s solution to this problem is to run 3 Parallel eXceed in the Main Deck and 1 Infernal Flame Banshee in the Extra Deck. When Snake-Eye Ash is negated, it can be used to Link Summon Linkuriboh, then Parallel eXceed could be Special Summoned from hand. Parallel eXceed would Special Summon another Parallel eXceed from deck and both becomes Level 4, allowing them to be used to Xyz Summon Infernal Flame Banshee. Infernal Flame Banshee effect is activated to add Snake-Eyes Poplar from deck to hand, and Snake-Eyes Poplar effect would Special Summon itself from hand. Parallel eXceed is functionally a second copy of Bonfire that could be played in the same turn.

During “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” Semi-Final Game 2 (淘汰赛半决赛 蛇眼vs蛇眼), Qunqing managed to pull off a pretty cool play. After using Infernal Flame Banshee ① effect, he then used Infernal Flame Banshee and Snake-Eyes Poplar to Link Summon S:P Little Knight. S:P Little Knight ① effect is used to banish Infernal Flame Banshee from the graveyard. This triggers Infernal Flame Banshee ② effect to Special Summon itself from banished, providing a body to Link Summon Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess.

Qunqing has a good write up about his deck: 大巧不工——1月表ocg蛇眼简介.

This Parallel eXceed Snake-Eye build has also seen play in the TCG. Shunping Xu piloted this Snake-Eye build in the “Undisputed UDS Championship” and “Team YCS Las Vegas 2024”. Shunping has two good videos about his deck: 【Road to World 2024】Ep: 5 – UUDS & YCS Las Vegas and 【Road to World 2024】Ep: 6 – THE COMBOS.

Qunqing@DUT (群青@DUT) finished 1st in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” which had 1200 participants.

The best performing Tenpai Dragon deck in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” that made Top 16 took a board breaking approach, running Santa Claws, Forbidden Droplet, Super Polymerization, Raigeki, Lightning Storm and Harpie’s Feather Duster in the Main Deck.

However, the board breaking build has a problem when it comes to Game 2 and 3. After the Tenpai Dragon player wins a game, the opponent can choose to go first or second for the next game, but the choice is only announced after side decking. This makes it very tricky to Side Deck for the Tenpai Dragon player. The Tenpai Dragon player could anticipate that the opponent would choose to go second and side in Heat Wave, only to find out later that the opponent has chosen to go first and they would be facing down Dimensional Barrier.

This side decking mind game is something to think about when deck building for Tenpai Dragon. The ‘hand trap’ build has it easier since ‘hand traps’ are acceptable no matter going first or second.

Third Rate Duelist (三流决斗者) finished 9 – 16th in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” which had 1200 participants.

During “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” Final Game 2 (淘汰赛决赛 肃声vs蛇眼), the Snake-Eye player Normal Summoned Snake-Eyes Poplar and activated its effect on Chain 1. This triggers both Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect and Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect. As Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice effect has to be chained directly to the opponent’s card or effect, the Voiceless Voice player activated Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect on Chain 2, and Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect on Chain 3.

However, this is an improper sequencing. Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect is a Spell Speed 1 activated effect, while Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect is a Spell Speed 2 Quick Effect. This means that Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect has priority to go onto the Chain first before Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect, and Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect cannot be activated after Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect.

In this scenario, the Voiceless Voice player could only choose to activate either Sauravis, Dragon Sage of the Voiceless Voice ② effect or Blessing of the Voiceless Voice ② effect as Chain 2.

xL@ooo went 13-2-3 and finished 2nd in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” which had 1200 participants.

The current format remains the same with Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King, Snake-Eye, Tenpai Dragon and Voiceless Voice at the top.

Snake-Eye has been on a steady increase, overtaking Tenpai Dragon. Compared to Sinful Spoils Snake-Eye Fire King, Snake-Eye runs more Level 1 Snake-Eye monsters and thus is much better at setting up Rank 1 Lyrilusc – Assembled Nightingale or Kikinagashi Fucho. Three Tenpai Dragon players that made the Top 16 or Top 32 in “China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special” were all defeated by Snake-Eye opponents.

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• 2024-03-03 | China City Tournament 2023 Shanghai Special
• 2024-03-03 | 1st Tsukumo Kani Cup (1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th)
• 2024-03-03 | Inspiration Code Cards Ranking Tournament
• 2024-03-03 | Xinghui Card Store New Semester Cup
• 2024-03-03 | 1923CS Individual Tournament
• 2024-03-03 | HSCS 3v3 Team Tournament
• 2024-03-03 | J.Clover Tournament
• 2024-03-03 | Battle City Vietnam Spring 2024 HDA
• 2024-03-03 | Battle City Vietnam Spring 2024 Legendary
• 2024-03-02 | 10th Suji CS 3v3 Team Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Top Deck Vis Store Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Lord of Dragon Card Shop Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Champion Card Games Ranking Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Liuwuzhimen Card Store Weekly Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Xinghang Card Store Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | Evening Star Cards Ranking Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | HSCS 3v3 Team Tournament
• 2024-03-02 | 40th TTZ CS
• 2024-03-01 | 1923CS Individual Tournament
• 2024-03-01 | Hwa Seo Keu CS with HSCS 3v3 Team Tournament