Spell/Trap Destruction in OCG 2016.04
As the metagame slows down in the OCG 2016.04 format, we see the re-emergence of trap-heavy control decks such as Qliphort.
By analysing 132 decks with Top 8 or better results from 17 Japanese tournaments played in the new OCG 2016.04 format, we will attempt to observe the trend, evaluate the preferences that the players have in Spell/Trap destruction cards, and the subsequent choices for negating Spell/Trap destruction cards.
Spell/Trap Destruction
| Harpie’s Feather Duster | Twin Twisters | Mystical Space Typhoon | Galaxy Cyclone | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Burning Abyss (42) | 42 | 39 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Blue-Eyes (27) | 27 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Qliphort (17) | 15 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Monarch (10) | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The current metagame is now dominated by Burning Abyss (31.8%), Blue-Eyes (20.5%), Qliphort (12.9%) and Monarch (7.6%).
Based on data tabulated in the table above, we can see that Burning Abyss, Blue-Eyes, and Monarch decks are running 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster and 3 Twin Twisters.
Qliphort decks are running 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster and 2 or 3 Mystical Space Typhoon.
Twin Twisters is now the preferred Spell/Trap destruction card to run, and the dominant decks are running the full 3 copies.
While having the ability to take out up to 2 Spell/Trap cards gives it a strong advantage over the other single-targeting Spell/Trap destruction cards, the main advantage that makes Twin Twisters the preferred choice is the discard.
Twin Twisters provides an avenue to discard, and this helps Burning Abyss, Blue-Eyes, and Monarch to get their engine started.
Decks that are unable to take advantage of the discard (i.e. Qliphort) would prefer Mystical Space Typhoon instead.
Negating Spell/Trap Destruction
With most decks running 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster and 3 Twin Twisters, Starlight Road might seem like a good choice, but that is not the case.
Starlight Road used to be a power card, often winning games on its own. However, decks are now switching away from mass monster destruction effects like Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute, but running Storming Mirror Force and Rippling Mirror Force instead.
This meant that Starlight Road has much lesser targets to hit, making it a poor choice in the current format.
On the other hand, The Huge Revolution is Over is rising in popularity, much due to its versatility.
In addition to being able to negate Harpie’s Feather Duster and Twin Twisters, The Huge Revolution is Over also counters Diamond Dire Wolf and The Phantom Knights of Break Sword. This is rather significant as the latter is seeing quite a lot of play in the popular Speedroid Phantom Knights Burning Abyss deck.
The choice is obvious for Qliphort players – Starlight Road is much less desirable if you cannot special summon Stardust Dragon while having a Qliphort in your Pendulum Zone.
Magic Drain experienced a surge in play, largely due to the popularity of Speedroid Phantom Knights Burning Abyss.
Speedroid Phantom Knights Burning Abyss runs an average of 7 or 8 Spell cards, making Magic Drain an extremely effective Spell negation card against it.
While the opponent can play around Starlight Road or The Huge Revolution is Over by choosing only 1 target for Twin Twisters, the same trick doesn’t work on Magic Drain.
Conclusion
The current top decks in the metagame are mostly running 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster and 3 Twin Twisters.
For trap-heavy control decks, the preference now is to run 0 or 1 The Huge Revolution is Over and 2 or 3 Magic Drain.
