OCG 2025.04 Metagame (1 Apr – 30 Jun 2025)

The early OCG 2025.04 metagame was shaped by the three themes from Deck-Build Pack: Justice Hunters, Dracotail, Yummy and K9. The OCG 2025.04 Limit Regulation dealt another blow to Ryzeal as they fell off from top contenders, whereas Maliss managed to hang on.

But the release of Duelist Advance brought about a shift in the metagame and a new challenger rose up to the top.

Compiled from a total of 1739 top-placing decks from 302 competitive tournaments held in Japan, China Mainland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam, here is the final metagame breakdown of the OCG 2025.04 format.

• 357 Vanquish Soul (328 K9 Vanquish Soul, 29 Vanquish Soul)
• 345 Yummy (319 Yummy, 11 Primite Yummy, 7 Fiendsmith Yummy, 3 Snake-Eye Yummy, 1 Fiendsmith Primite Yummy, 1 Fiendsmith Snake-Eye Yummy, 1 Millennium Yummy, 1 Superheavy Samurai Yummy, 1 Tri-Brigade Yummy)
• 229 Dracotail (76 Dracotail, 75 Magistus Dracotail, 35 Primite Dracotail, 21 K9 Dracotail, 9 Fiendsmith K9 Dracotail, 5 Branded Dracotail, 4 Regenesis Dragontail, 3 Fiendsmith Dracotail, 1 Vaylantz Dracotail)
• 215 Maliss
• 92 K9 Crystron
• 75 Sky Striker (71 Sky Striker, 4 Trickstar Sky Striker)
• 57 K9 (55 K9, 1 Melodious K9, 1 Spider K9)
• 56 White Forest (46 White Forest, 3 Fiendsmith White Forest, 3 Toy White Forest, 1 Fiendsmith Toy White Forest, 1 Magistus White Forest, 1 Regenesis White Forest, 1 Snake-Eye White Forest)
• 40 Lunalight
• 39 Primite Blue-Eyes
• 25 Orcust (19 Orcust, 2 Grass Cyber Dragon Orcust, 2 K9 Orcust, 1 Horus Orcust, 1 Millennium Gem-Knight Fiendsmith Orcust)
• 25 Ryzeal (19 Onomat Ryzeal, 5 Ryzeal, 1 Regenesis Ryzeal)
• 15 Branded (9 Grass Dracotail Branded, 2 Branded, 2 Dracotail Branded, 2 Grass Branded)
• 12 Gem-Knight (6 Gem-Knight, 6 Fiendsmith Gem-Knight)
• 10 Purrely (5 Purrely, 5 Yummy Purrely)
• 9 Artmage (8 Artmage, 1 Azamina Artmage)
• 9 Atlantean
• 9 Memento (8 Memento, 1 K9 Memento)
• 8 Labrynth
• 8 Tenpai Dragon (7 Tenpai Dragon, 1 Sky Striker Tenpai Dragon)
• 7 Fiendsmith Evil★Twin
• 7 Onomat Utopic
• 4 Fire King (2 Fire King, 2 Azamina Snake-Eye Fire King)
• 4 K9 Cyber Dragon
• 4 Maliss Code Talker
• 4 Shark
• 4 Voiceless Voice (3 Voiceless Voice, 1 Regenesis Voiceless Voice)
• 3 Azamina
• 3 Fiendsmith Centur-Ion
• 3 Fiendsmith Unchained
• 3 Mathmech @Ignister
• 3 Regenesis (1 Dogmatika Regenesis, 1 Dogmatika White Forest Regenesis, 1 Regenesis)
• 3 Ryu-Ge (2 Ryu-Ge, 1 Voiceless Voice Ryu-Ge)
• 2 Code Talker Mathmech
• 2 Dragon Ruler (1 Armed Dragon Dragon Ruler, 1 Tenpai Dragon Dragon Ruler)
• 2 Fiendsmith K9 Trickstar
• 2 Flame Swordsman Infernoble Knight
• 2 Grass Infernoid
• 2 Heraldic Beast (1 Onomat Heraldic Beast, 1 Ryzeal Heraldic Beast)
• 2 Horus Gimmick Puppet
• 2 Mikanko
• 2 Monarch (1 Monarch, 1 Grass Fiendsmith Monarch)
• 2 Morganite
• 2 Salamangreat
• 1 Ancient Gear
• 1 Argostars
• 1 Centur-Ion Dragon Link
• 1 Eldlich
• 1 Fiendsmith Rescue-ACE
• 1 Fiendsmith Yubel
• 1 Grass Diabell Azamina
• 1 Grass Fiendsmith Paleozoic
• 1 Grass Horus Gem-Knight Fiendsmith Tearlaments
• 1 Grass Millennium Superheavy Samurai K9 Adamancipator
• 1 HERO
• 1 Jurrac
• 1 K9 Performapal
• 1 K9 Superheavy Samurai
• 1 Magistus Exosister
• 1 Melodious
• 1 P.U.N.K.
• 1 Ragnaraika Aroma Sunavalon Rikka
• 1 Raidraptor FTK
• 1 Red Dragon Archfiend
• 1 Rescue-ACE
• 1 Rescue-ACE Fire King
• 1 Runick
• 1 Runick Fiendsmith Magical Musket
• 1 Ryzeal Primite Fiendsmith
• 1 Super Quant
• 1 Supreme King Z-ARC Magician
• 1 Tachyon
• 1 Traptrix
• 1 Vaylantz

Vanquish Soul was initially overlooked on the release weekend of Duelist Advance, but would quickly take over the metagame in the following weeks. There was also an even split of Vanquish Soul builds with and without the K9 package in the earlier weeks, but by Week #9 it was all K9 Vanquish Soul making the top cuts.

The addition of Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue and Vanquish Soul, Start! were a major boost to Vanquish Soul, and propelled Vanquish Soul to the top deck of the format.

Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue could be Special Summoned from hand on either player’s Main Phase by revealing a 1 other “Vanquish Soul” monster in hand, allowing it to become a disruption even when the opponent goes first. Revealing EARTH & DARK monsters would be 1 disruption by taking control of 1 monster the opponent controls with the lowest ATK until the End Phase. Revealing FIRE & DARK monsters would be 2 disruptions by Special Summoning Vanquish Soul Razen from deck, which in turn would fetch Vanquish Soul Caesar Valius. Vanquish Soul Razen could destroy all other monsters in its column, and Vanquish Soul Caesar Valius could destroy 1 card.

Vanquish Soul, Start! also turned Vanquish Soul Dr. Mad Love into a starter, increasing the consistency of Vanquish Soul, and also provides an easier method to access Vanquish Soul Snow Devil from the deck.

The K9 package complements Vanquish Soul. K9 monsters are EARTH and DARK Attributes, and could be revealed for the activation of Vanquish Soul effects. One of the problems that Vanquish Soul had was having to withhold some monsters in hand to maintain the appropriate Attributes for reveals, resulting in a weaker opening board. K9 solved this problem as K9 – #66a Jokull, K9 – #66b Lantern and K9 – 17 “Ripper” are able to search for K9 cards. K9 could setup a strong board, and still replenish the hand with K9 monsters for reveals. K9 – #66a Jokull ② effect could also Special Summon Level 5 Vanquish Soul Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue and Vanquish Soul Jiaolong from hand.

OCG 2025.04 → OCG 2025.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Number 67: Pair-a-Dice Smasher 3 → 0

Number 67: Pair-a-Dice Smasher is mainly used by K9 Vanquish Soul as a backup plan when the opponent drops Maxx “C” or Mulcharmy. Losing Number 67: Pair-a-Dice Smasher does not affect K9 Vanquish Soul’s overall strategy, but forces them to have a proper game plan instead of cheesing out a win.

At the start of the format, Dracotail is one of the decks to beat, resulting in many Yummy builds opting for Piri Reis Map. Although Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones is a great starter as it could go into Cupsie★Yummy Way without using the Normal Summon, the “Sky Striker Ace Token” is vulnerable to being bounced by Dracotail Altharion ① effect. Normal Summoning Cupsie☆Yummy and then using its ② effect to add Yummy☆Surprise from deck to hand plays around the opponent’s Dracotail Altharion as Yummy☆Surprise could function as an extender. Thus using Piri Reis Map to add Cupsie☆Yummy from deck to hand became the dominant strategy.

After the release of Duelist Advance, the format experienced a shift whereby K9 Vanquish Soul displaced Dracotail. Piri Reis Map effect halves your LP becomes a liability as Vanquish Soul could easily deal 4000 damage by using Vanquish Soul Heavy Borger ② effect to deal 1500 damage twice over two turns, and then finish up with Vanquish Soul Snow Devil to deal the remaining 400 + 600 damage. With the decline of Dracotail, Yummy could safely switch back to running Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones as their secondary starter.

In the latter half of the format, Yummy was the only other deck that could stand toe-to-toe with K9 Vanquish Soul. One of the advantage that Yummy had was that they do not have effects that activate in hand or graveyard, and thus would not play into the opponent’s K9. Yummy would also optimize their builds against K9 Vanquish Soul, cutting out all low impact monster ‘hand traps’, running only high impact Maxx “C” and Mulcharmy, and running Trap ‘hand traps’ such as Dominus Purge and Songs of the Dominators.

Dracotail had a strong performance at the start of the format, but declined with the appearance of K9 Vanquish Soul. Dracotail had the advantage of being able to play during the opponent’s turn even when the opponent is going first by using Dracotail Fymena ① effect to Fusion Summon during the opponent’s Main Phase. However, this advantage is no longer unique with the release of Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue.

K9 is also extremely advantageous into Dracotail as Dracotail has to trigger their graveyard effect to generate card advantage by setting Dracotail Spell/Trap from deck. This would enable the opponent’s K9 – #17 Izuna to Special Summon itself from hand, and then send K9 – #ØØ Lupus from deck to graveyard. K9 – #ØØ Lupus would Special Summon itself from the graveyard, and then using its ② effect to Xyz Summon K9 – #ØØ “Hound”. If the opponent only has 1 Set Spell/Trap, then K9 – #ØØ “Hound” could banish it during the Standby Phase. Otherwise K9 – #ØØ “Hound” could attack and then be used to Xyz Summon Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder in Main Phase 2, whose effect could clear the opponent’s board. Having K9 – #ØØ Lupus as Xyz Material makes K9 – #ØØ “Hound” and Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder untargetable.

Many players that were on Dracotail eventually made the switch to K9 Vanquish Soul as they have a similar playstyle of playing during the opponent’s turn, but K9 Vanquish Soul is much more resilient and does not have any silver bullet such as Retaliating “C” against it.

Maliss opened strong early in the format, but slowly declines as the format goes on. Maliss has difficulty going second against the setup that K9 Vanquish Soul and Yummy are putting up.

Artifact Lancea is a silver bullet against Maliss. Dracotail could retrieve Artifact Lancea from the graveyard with Dracotail Altharion ① effect, and could effectively lock out Maliss from banishing for multiple turns.

The decline of Maliss late in the format saw some players cutting Artifact Lancea from the Side Deck, which in turn allowed Maliss to occasionally sneak in a win.

OCG 2025.04 → OCG 2025.07 Limit Regulation changes:

• Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess 3 → 0

Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess has been a pivotal setup play for Maliss as it forces the opponent to activate Nibiru, the Primal Being earlier in the play, but Maliss could still follow up with Maliss in Underground. Without Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, the opponent could now hold Nibiru, the Primal Being to strike at a later point where Maliss has committed more plays and is much harder to recover from.

The overall tally has Vanquish Soul and Yummy at very similar count, 357 Vanquish Soul to 345 Yummy. However, this includes Week #1 to #3 which was before the release of Duelist Advance. If we count only Week #4 to #13, Vanquish Soul stands at 356 while Yummy drops to 248, a much more telling difference. The line chart shows the same result, Vanquish Soul stands above the rest at the top for 9 consecutive weeks from Week #5 to Week #13.