"Bird Invasion!" - Week 1 Nov 2021 Metagame Report + Floowandereeze Combo

Hi Everyone! Arcknight here. We are now on week 1 of Nov 2021 and today, I'm going to share our weekly Metagame report + a combo at the end. Without further ado, here it is:

Dates Covered: Nov 6-7

Tournaments: Toy Shogun Weekly Ranking, FT Duel Grounds

Deck Breakdown: 24

Week 4 Oct 2021 Metagame Report - Toy Shogun

Hi everyone! Arcknight here. 

Sharing the metagame report for Week 4 of October 2021 at Toy Shogun - Philippines from Oct 30-31 including the first Official Sanctioned Tournament held on Sunday. 

New Product Release: 

Battle of Chaos ( Delayed in some Asian Regions )

Deck Breakdown ( Winning Bracket Exclusive )

Total: 16 Winners

"The End is Near!" - Week 4 NOV 2021 Metagame OCG Report + Upcoming Banlist Speculations

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here. It's the 4th week of November and we're featuring yet another compilation of metagame happenings now featuring 4 different OCG tournament venues in the Philippines. Without further ado, here's the breakdown:

New product: 

Duelist Pack 26: Duelist of the Abyss

Let's get started!

"The Golden Supremacy!" - Week 3 of Nov Metagame Report OCG + The End of Engines!?

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here reporting for our week 3 November 2021 Metagame Report OCG of the Philippines. Like last week, we'll still cover 3 major tournament areas and the topping lists breakdown. Without further ado, here is our chart! 

New Product release:

Duelist Pack 26: Duelist of the Abyss

Let's dive in below! 

Deck Breakdown: (21 Topping decks out of 94 overall)

Tournament Venues: Toy Shogun, Hyuray Trading & FT Duel Grounds 

Decks: 

5 Edlich (4 Mono, 1 Brave Enforcer)

4 Floowandereeze 

3 Swordsoul (1 Mono, 2 Tenyi)

2 Nordic

1 Altergeist

1 Subterror

1 Shaddol Invoke

1 Virtual World

1 True Draco Brave Enforcer

1 Phantom Knight Brave Enforcer

1 Good Stuff Brave Token Tenyi

Eldlich

This is the list piloted by Ryan Zennyx of Toy Shogun last Sunday, 11/21. Eldlich has been one of the staple decks this format that has been very consistent in top 4 of the meta. One of the reasons is because it can adapt well with the help of the floodgate cards that it can main with little to no drawback. 

Inspector Boarder, a well known stun card in Extreme Force back in 2017 and is never reprinted in OCG, was seen added on this list which helps to ensure that your Edlixir of Scarlet Sanguine and Pot of Extravagance (If Inspect Boarder was present previously on the field) won't be halted by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. Floowandereeze has seen a major impact recently and Inspector Boarder is an easy win against Floowandereeze due to it being reliant on monster effects almost similar to how Skill Drain can impact the field (but worse and with a big 2000 body). Inspector Boarder can also help in baiting negation and will force the opponent to use their resources just to get rid of it allowing the Eldlich player to overwhelm the opponent by freely resolving their cards once the counters have been baited.

Swordsoul

This is the list piloted by Bip-Bip Ducut, a seasoned OCG player in PH who won 1st place twice using this build. 

According to him, one of the major weaknesses of Swordsoul is the inability to make a follow-up after the first Swordsoul summon has been negated or there are floodgates standing in the way like Skill Drain or Summon Limit. He found success by piloting the Tenyi engine which helped bait stuff and also helps in removing problematic floodgates or boss monsters. This also helped him open to more extra deck options and removal to overwhelm the opponent. 

Floowandereeze

This is the build piloted by Julius Bautista of Toy Shogun successful in acing 3 different rank categories. Floowandereeze is the deck that has been very popular both in OCG and TCG due to how versatile it is in terms of strategy ranging from having an easy access to floodgate, negation and removal without the need to special summon.

One of the major weaknesses of Floowandereeze x Empen is when opponent summons monsters in defense position,thus, rendering its floodgate effect useless. Hence, we saw that Final Attack Orders has been added as a tech on this deck. 

With Final Attack Orders face-up, all monsters on the field are forced to be in Attack position thus, strengthening Floowandereeze X Empen ability to control. The battle position cannot change either and Floowandereeze X Empen can usually win battle with its ATK/DEF altering effect (that is not even once per turn).

Summary:

On the 3rd week of November, we saw that less players are utilizing the Brave Token and DPE engine. We have a month or less til we get the official January OCG 2022 Banlist and people are starting to predict that engines may be affected as normally, engines are touched after the 2 forbidden lists it survived in theory. As a result, players are exploring other viable options as early as now to check which decks can work 'just in case' a format reset happens. ( Or maybe they sold the engines as a preventive measure? )

This week's list has been overtaken by Edlich as a strong contender and proved that stun can still overwhelm the meta with the right tech cards and strategy. As we travel towards December, we might either see a permanent switch for exploration or people using their Brave Token/Enforcer related decks for its final arah. As we're not yet in that phase, the upcoming banlist remains a mystery and we know that Konami has always been quite unpredictable especially in OCG. 

Whatever happens, make sure that you're prepared and ready as we welcome a new chapter. Deck change or change strategy - that's something that we'll have to watch out for in the next metagame report!

For deck lists, be sure to check the following:

RespectYGO FB Page - click here

Toy Shogun FB Page - click here

Hyuray Trading FB Page - click here

Thank you so much for reading today's article! I appreciate your support! 'Til next Monday!

~Arcknight

"Rogue Surprise!" - Week 2 Nov 2021 OCG Metagame Report + Deck Profile

Heyyyyyy RespectYGOers! Arcknight here, reporting this week's results. Huge shout out to our RespectYGOers who followed and subscribed to our Facebook and Youtube Channel - you guys are amazing! With popular demand,  this time, we are now covering 3 different OCG communities in the Philippines. Let's find out what this week's tech cards and strategies are but before that, let's check our pie chart and deck breakdown!

Tournament Venues ( Toy Shogun, FT Duel Grounds and Hyuray Trading )

Dates Covered: Nov 13-14 ( Topping deck lists)

Deck Breakdown: 20

3 Floowandereeze

2 Eldlich

2 True Draco

2 Phantom Knight (Brave Enforcer, Raidraptor)

1 Altergeist

1 Danger Gren Maju

1 Myutant

1 Cyber Dragon

1 Dual Avatar Invoked

1 Drytron

1 Tri-Brigade

1 Dark Magician Enforcer

1 Monarch

1 Hero

1 The Agents

1 Brave Token ( Good Stuff)

Let's dig in this week's deck profiles below! 

"The Last Stand!" | Week 2 - Dec 2021 OCG Metagame Report + January 2022 Banlist Review

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here and welcome to our Metagame Report covering the top 22 players out of 60 participants on week 2 of Dec 2021. This is the last week tournament before any banlist announcements (which happened yesterday). Yesterday was pretty earth shattering and aside from the usual metagame chart and deck profile, I'll also do a quick January 2022 Banlist reaction. Without further ado, here's last week's chart:

New Products: 

None ( SD43 Delay )

Let's begin!

RaVen's Cup 2023: Duelists Assemble OCG Metagame Report 6.17.23

Hello everyone! Today, I'm going to share the metagame report of the recently concluded RaVen's Cup 2023: Duelists Assemble local tournament event held on June 17, 2023 at ToyHubFest, Starmall San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, Philippines with 18 participants. 

Special thanks to RaVen's Play Center, Starmall San Jose del Monte, and MalCon: The Malolos Hobbies and Toy Convention in making this event possible. 

Initial Deck Distribution

Let's get started!

Duel Connect 2022 | OCG Metagame Report + Decklists

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here. Today, I'm going to share the metagame report of the recently held meet-up event in partnership with Toy Shogun and FT Duel Groundz called Duel Connect 2022. 

Below are the deck distribution, top 8 decklists as well as exciting things that happened in this event!

Event: Duel Connect 2022

Date: 11/27/22

Venue: Toy Shogun (Forest Hills, Novaliches, QC, PH)

Format: Swiss OCG (Cut to top 8)

Players: 23

Deck Distribution

"Rex Rampage!" - Week 3 Jan 2022 Metagame Report

Hey everyone! Arcknight here and I'm back after a very long break. We'll cover the 21 topping lists out of 40 participants in our chart. This week is the official release (arrival) of Dimension Force in the Philippines and a lot of interesting cards have been tried as well. 

Last week is also the official release of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel in all platforms except iOS and Android and this is exciting as this ignites a lot of seasoned, new and even returning players to play the game we love. We'll have a separate discussion on what I think of Master Duel and hopefully, I can also do some quick gameplay recaps and deck list discussion soon. 

For now, here is our chart: 

New Product: Dimension Force (DIFO)

Let's go!

What's the best way to counter "Tearlaments"?

 Hey there! Today, I'm going to share some strategies that I do to counter one of the decks to beat this format which is no other than Tearlaments. I hope that this compilation article help in a way especially now that it has arrived in TCG.

Tearlaments happens to be one of my go to decks this format due to its versatility and ability to bring out overwhelming boards that normally starts with a 1 card combo. Playing the deck allows you to be familiar with its strengths and also weaknesses so I'll try to share what I have learned after piloting this deck since its release in OCG.

Overview

Tearlaments is a new archetype released in Power of the Elements that focuses on spamming fusion monsters when Tearlaments are sent to the GY by card effect. While the strategy involves a little bit of RNG factor (unless you are successful in using Tearlaments Reinoheart), this is not an issue if you are using the EARTH Fairy engine also known as the Ishizu Engine. 

While fusion summoning is almost free if you milled Tearlament cards, it is also one of its major weaknesses as the three fusion enablers namely Tearlaments Merrli, Tearlaments Havnis and Tearlaments Scheiren need to hit the GY and also use itself as one of the materials to perform the fusion summoning. Hence, you would want to prevent that from happening as much as possible.

Here are some strategies that you can do to tame this deck:

Limit their Graveyard access

Dimensional Shifter became popular than ever due to its versatility of being played going first or second....if your deck can also handle it of course. It ensures that you can stun a grave-reliant deck for at least two turns which is pretty game breaking in today's metagame. Abyss Dweller is also a good rank 4 that can instantly shut down graveyard effects of the opponent which gives you an upperhand especially on mirror matches.

Decks like Spright, Exosister and Floowandereeze can easily main or side this card with ease which is bad news against Tearlaments player. Dimensional Fissure is also a good card going first and even second to prevent Tearlaments from doing their plays on your turn. This also helps you avoid popular hand traps like Effect Veiler, Maxx "C" and Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit from standing in your way. 

Prevent the fusion enablers

If your deck can't handle losing your GY or you want something that is more interactive, you would want to prevent the fusion enablers instead. Remember, Tearlaments Merrli, Tearlaments Havnis and Tearlaments Scheiren need to return themselves to the bottom of the deck in order to perform the fusion summon so if you can prevent that from happening then you can easily control thIS deck. 

Necrovalley can shutdown their fusion strategy as it it negates any effect that would move cards from the GY to a different place. Silent Graveyard on the other hand is a quick play spell card that negates effect that activates in the GY for the turn. This also prevents the Ishizu engine from milling further. 

Cards like D.D Crow, Skull Meister and Called by the Grave can banish or negate the enablers that can fusion summon. 

Play decks that can counter Tearlaments

Floowandereeze has Barrier Statue of Stormwinds that prevents special summon of non-WIND monsters. Exosisters as an archetype interacts everytime a card is moved to a different place from the GY. Byssted is designed to counter the Tearlaments fusion enablers. Heroes got access to Masked Hero Dark Law as a walking Macro Cosmos. Spright received a new trap called Spright Double Cross that can mess with your opponent's GY. Lastly, the Ishizu engine itself has ways to control the opponent's GY. 

Prevent the fusion summoning

There are also cards that prevents access to extra deck or the ability to fusion summon at all. Shadow Imprisoning Mirror works like a Skill Drain for DARK monsters that can work on the field or in the GY. Artifact Scythe paired with Artifact Sanctum can halt a player's Extra Deck summon for the entire turn. 

Dimensional Barrier prevents Fusion Summon and negates Fusion monster effects on the field for that turn. Ghost Reaper and Winter Cherries can banish Tearlaments Kitkallos which is already a good move to slow down a Tearlaments player. Non-Fusion Area prevents fusion summoning. Different Dimension Ground is a harder to counter Macro Cosmos that works for the entire turn. 

Summary

As you can see, there's a myriad of ways to counter Tearalaments and it all boils down to which strategy is the most consistent. Of course, you don't want to over side as you still want to see your combo pieces in your first five. When siding, always consider if you're going first or second because there are side deck strategy that works best on the turn you are on. What about you? What do you think is the best way to counter Tearlaments?

Arcknight

Here are the Top 10 MUST-HAVE cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel!

Hey everyone! Welcome to our very first article in February. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has been a very popular game since its release and it really caught the attention of existing, returning and new playerbase. While Master Duel has a great feature to dismantle unwanted cards and craft the cards you need with ease, with less exposure to the current OCG/TCG metagame, there's high probability that the crafted SRs and URs will turn into waste by getting cards that either doesn't benefit your deck's strategy or has little to no impact in the competitive scene. Which is why today, we're going to share the top 10 must-have cards whether you are just starting to play the game we love or if you want a baseline to build almost any deck!

Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Maxx "C", Infinite Impermanence, Called by the Grave

Here are the top 10 cards (In no particular order)

How effective is "Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion" in this format? | Strategy Discussion

One of the reliable ways to deal with the opponent's plays is by using hand traps. Unlike regular traps set on the field or field negations, hand traps are quite unpredictable as they dwell in the player's hand cards...hidden..until the perfect timing arrives. In today's metagame, a lot of effects involve moving cards from the graveyard to a different place, and there is a perfect "haunted mansion" that is ready to cater guests. (*Door screeches*)

Does that ring a "Belle"? Well, well...allow me to introduce you to "Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion."  Enter the mansion and let's begin discussing. (*Thunder*)

Will "Fiendsmith" refine the Meta soon? | New Archetype Discussion

Greetings! Today, I'm going to talk about the newest theme revealed in INFINITE FORBIDDEN called "Demonsmith" / "Fiendsmith." It's a LIGHT Fiend theme composed of 8 cards on its upcoming debut and this archetype has a great potential!

Will this refine the metagame or will it start off as an....engine to something else? Buckle your seatbelts and let's dive in!

"Answered Prayers?" - New "Silenforc"/"Voiceless Voice" card review (LEDE)

Hiya! Arcknight here. I'm so glad that my work deliverables today are complete which means I can finally react on the two new "Silenforc" / "Voiceless Voice" cards in LEGACY OF DESTRUCTION! 

Will these cards see play in the future "Silenforc" builds? Are these cards really what the theme is lacking? Let's analyze everything in this new article!

"1st Week, Last Chance!" Week 1 Dec 2021 OCG Metagame report + How to prepare for Albaz before it STRIKES

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here reporting this week's meta game report covering 4 different OCG tournament venues and OTS in the Philippines.

"New month, new chapter", this is normally heard when a month starts but not for OCG players who are a month away (or 1 week away ) from the reveals of the January OCG 2022 Forbidden & Limited List. December is the month where PH OTS are holding their Duelist Cup qualifiers and while that is still ongoing, we'll first cover the 16 topping lists out of 40 HC from 6 different tournaments combined from Dec 4-5, 2021:

Let's dive in!

10 Yu-Gi-Oh! Decks you need to try that aren't Maxx "C" magnet

In the meta most especially in OCG and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, we anticipate that you'll play against a myriad of handtraps you can ever imagine and in today's Metagame, going second without any disruptions against opponent plays could mean game over. Clearly, determining who goes first and second in the first game may predict your fate. 

While handtraps are our go to cards to control the pace of opponent's plays, you wouldn't want to experience the same destiny especially when your opponent would gain card advantage and that is through Maxx "C". 

Similar to Nibiru, the Primal Being, Maxx "C" puts pressure the moment it's used. Looking at the effect, it doesn't do anything to affect the field you are trying to establish but the creepy part is if you do, the player who resolved it would gain a lot of card advantage which would eventually make your established field futile. We always have a choice though either you take the challenge or you end your special summoning. Most of the time, it's always the latter choice....until I discovered, choosing decks that do not instantly get affected by Maxx "C". 

You saw that right! Today, we're going to list 10 decks/archetypes that can stand a chance even with roaches around. (And we'll sort it backwards 'cause why not) 

"Is this for Real?!" - Top 4 OCG Nordic Deck Profile Analysis + 2-Card Combo Tutorial!

Hey RespectYGOers! Arcknight here and Odin told me that you're looking for something, the Nordic Deck Profile that topped in our metagame report here. Due to insisting public demand, I will present to you it's deck profile and also a 2-card combo using Nordic! Before this treat, let's have an overview of what Nordic is as an archetype and how did it even managed to land on top 4!

Let's begin!