Welcome back to Common Charity Patch Notes! It's been a while since we last did a Patch Notes article, so today we'll be covering a lot of sets, plus the new banlist and its implications.
Join us as we revisit this wonderful format. Once again we have a lot to talk about, including but not limited to Photon Hypernova, Structure Deck: Beware of Traptrix, Cyberstorm Access, and more.
Special thanks to the Common Charity Discord server as always for helping out with these. Check them out here!
Phantastic Potential Picks
Photon Hypernova brought with us some new toys to play with in the format, notably Chaos support which makes for a decent aggressive shell that likes to manipulate and recycle LIGHT/DARK monsters with Shell of Chaos and Core of Chaos leading the charge. The addition of Bystial Baldrake is also a great fit for the deck, acting as a powerful hand trap against popular decks such as Tenyi, Lunalight, and Predaplant, a free summon, and additional disruption all in one neat package.
The ever-crafty Ninjas recruited two new members in their ranks: Jioh the Gravity Ninja and Yaguramaru the Armor Ninja. The former gives the deck an incredibly versatile bomb, flipping down up to two face-up monsters on the field. This is useful for resetting your own Ninjas, and it can punish opponents by stopping them in their tracks - and thanks to Jioh, they cannot be flipped back up. This ninja further sabotages the opponent by destroying one of their cards if a monster is flipped face-up. An amazing addition to the deck for sure, especially due to how accessible he is. The new fusion on the other hand makes for some great spot removal, which is always welcome.
Other strategies like Abyss Actors and Galaxy get a couple more playable cards that make them more coherent! Galaxy Hundred and Abyss Actor - Super Producer in particular stand out from the bunch. This might be their big ticket to finally break into the CC format!
Dyna Mondo is a versatile Link-2 for Ritual-based decks and is enjoying its spot in Megalith's Extra Deck for now, it brings a lot thanks to its removal + Special Summon combo.
The Trixiest of Traps
Being the latest Structure Deck in the TCG, Beware of Traptrix offers quite a lot of treats for Common Charity players to enjoy. The most noteworthy of course is the introduction of a new deck proper into the format, Traptrix! While some of the old Traptrix and Trap Hole commons did exist beforehand, it wasn't until SDBT that they finally became a competent strategy. A considerable part of this is thanks to the reprinting of Traptrix Sera as a common. Arguably one of the best Link 1s the game has ever seen, she and her Insect/Plant friends are ready to go toe-to-toe with the big dogs of the format!
While the deck isn't as strong or fast as its current TCG version, the deck has just enough tools to work in the Common Charity Format, with cards like Parallel eXceed and The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine at your disposal. Gravedigger's Trap Hole and Terrifying Trap Hole Nightmare make their CC debut in this SD and are useful 1-ofs for the strategy.
Sauge de Fleur, Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall, and Mekk-Knight Blue Sky are pretty beefy generic threats that can slot in a wide array of decks, with the latter two being potential slot-ins into Traptrix, for example. Purple is an evasive beatstick that generates a lot of value over the course of a duel, and Blue Sky can be set up for some nasty adds if used properly.
Sauge has some cute interactions Fairy Tail - Luna, as you are able to return her to the hand before she gets destroyed by Sauge, while still getting rid of the opponent's card!
Last but certainly not least, the classic sweepers Raigeki and Harpie's Feather Duster finally join the format and are definitely power spells to keep in mind. They're sure to see guaranteed Main or Side Deck play, as there are not a lot of easy ways to stop them.
Accessing Cyberstorm Commons
Cyberstorm Access brings a couple of modest additions into the format, notably the new Superheavy Samurai monsters, making it a great engine in Symphonic lists.
Sakitama is the best Level 4 extender by far and it enables a lot of easy R4NK access. Nemrelia doesn't have its ace monster, but its big beat sticks are at least worth experimenting with and it gets some further support in the next set to bring it all together.
Gunkan Suship Catch-of-the-Day is an interesting consistency boost to our beloved food archetype, and the trend of all of its members being common continues, rejoice!
The common cards that are part of the Branded lore can serve as decent options for decks that are making use of Fallen of Albaz. Trap Tracks is a Trap Trick side-grade that may be worth it in strategies that can really make use of destroying your own cards, such as Unchained. Golden Cloud Beast - Malong works well with Dogmatika Punishment, giving you a very solid 2-for-1 thanks to its versatile bounce effect. This is especially notable when Elder Entity N'tss is not available in the format.
Last but not least, don't forget to access the Cyberstorm with the likes of Cyberse Sage and Firewall Phantom bolstering CC Cyberse decks.
Forbidden and Limited List Update - June 5, 2023
The Forbidden and Limited List update for the TCG also affects some CC strategies, so let's take a look!
Superheavy Samurai suffers a massive hit due to its dominating presence in the TCG and as a result, Superheavy Samurai Scarecrow has been banned!
This might be the end of SHS as a deck over in Common Charity, but the possibility of it being a Synchro engine for other Machine decks is still on the table. Speaking of which, the unlimiting of Genex Ally Birdman is great for Symphonics when paired with DJJ access.
The limiting of Naturia Sacred Tree dampens the deck's grind game by quite a bit, but it's not entirely down for the count as Naturia Camellia can still dump engine pieces like Naturia Mole Cricket without any issue. Still, this does mean you have to make your initial Tree search worth it.
Losing Appointer of the Red Lotus is sad for many decks who liked its power in Games 2 and 3 when going first, but it is ultimately for the best. It was a powerhouse even in Common Charity, sniping specialized generics that could've outed your setup. Players will have to look into other going-first power cards moving forward.
Branded Expulsion and Blackwing - Steam the Cloak aren't as notorious as they were over in Advanced, so their banning/return respectively aren't too impactful for the format.
All in all it's a pretty mild list, as most of the top dogs in the metagame remain the same.
OTS Tournament Pack 21 + 22 and GX - Duelist of Shadows!
OTS 21 provides us with Curtain Raiser for Abyss Actors, a couple of Galaxy cards, Network and Time-Space Trap Hole for Traptrix, and some love to Gishkis with their best ritual spell being available, Gishki Aquamirror. Super Polymerization gets a fun new target in the form ofMudragon of the Swamp!
Strangely enough for OTS 22, the Portuguese exclusives added to the setlist were all previously common before, so there are not a lot of new cards from this batch this time around. Still, there are some goodies to be enjoyed from this set.
Herald of the Abyss is a promising side-grade for Psychic Eraser Laser and can even be better in some cases, as it doesn't give the opponent a big swing in Life Points and it denies floating or GY effects of the sent monster. The only downside would be if you're dealing with multiple monsters of the same Type, but another upside is that it bypasses monsters that are unaffected by card effects! Quite the handy staple to have in the format, and is a solid going second tool overall.
Evoltile Najasho and Evo-Force will be nice once we get further support for the Evols in Duelist Nexus, but right now there's just not enough to work with.
Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles is a welcome new addition to the format and finally gives Igknight, Infernoble, and other Synchro-based brews a strong build-around and a payoff all in one. It helps that Roland and most of the INK support have also been previously common from past reprints.
The Speed Duel Box isn't too noteworthy aside from Cerulean Skyfire, enabling possible Sacred Beast and or Hamon turbo strategies to finally come to their own now backed up with some sweet Spell negation!
Conclusion
That wraps up our look into what's new in Common Charity! Join us for the next edition of patch notes, while we look at products such as Duelist Nexus and the 2023 Mega Tins: Dueling Heroes! Until next time folks, Renren out!
