The 2022 Yu-Gi-Oh! European Championships is to be held this week in Antwerp, Belgium. Not only that, Common Charity will finally have its first official event in the venue! Because of that, it might be a good idea to get familiar or to experiment with other decks aside from the big guns.
We're sure to get more players in the format and traction thanks to this! In collaboration with the Common Charity Discord, we'll be going over some tips in order to prepare for the format and the event. Such as offbeat but solid decks and some legal specifications! Special thanks to OzoneTCG and Yugipedia for helping make this article possible.
Commit to the Commons
Quite fitting with the format's name, only cards with an existing Common printing can be used, with some exceptions. However, for the side event in Euros, you will have to use the actual common print of cards you wish to play. For example, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is legal in the format thanks to the Soulburner print, but you have to use that version. DUDE, DUPO, MAGO, etc prints aren't allowed. In the case of cards with multiple common printings, all of them are legal to be used. Rokket Revolt or OTS Red Reboot? That's quite fine. This decision was implemented by Konami, so we don't have a say about it. It's imperative to keep in mind if you plan to participate in the side event.
Speaking of those exceptions, Duel Terminal Normal Parallel Rare / Duel Terminal Technology Common cards are not allowed. For all intents and purposes, they look quite similar to Commons but they are not legal to be played. Luckily, most of the cards that are in this rarity have actual commons, so better to stick with those.
On the other hand, the exclusive OTS Portuguese commons are fair play. A good number of them are integral to several decks such as Scrap ( Scrapyard + Scrap Chimera ) and Fabled ( Fabled Ragin + Fabled Grimro ), but they're not as easy to come by. Still, if you can find them at a fair price, it'll allow you to actually play those decks at the event.
Common Ground
Here are just a couple of decks you might expect to see at the event. We've mostly gone over them in full detail before in the previous article, so here's a quick rundown. Knowing is half the battle, and this may help in adjusting your Side Deck to account for them. I would also recommend either maining or siding Threatening Roar if you aren't already, as it's a massive momentum swing due to how this format operates.
Lunalight is one of the strongest picks around, even getting Lunalight Tiger unbanned sweetens the deal. Gouki isn't the meta-defining force it was expected to be, but it is still the deck most people flock to when they think Common Charity. Aside from that, Predaplant is a threat and a half due to the boons that Dimension Force gave them such as Predaplant Byblisp and Predaplanning. Similar to Swordsoul over in the TCG, Tenyi is a reliable strategy that can run a lot of power cards to find its way through. Melffy got some new toys to play with in Power of the Elements, so keep an eye out for the little critters!
Scrap is popular for its simplicity and effectiveness as a control deck, boasting a ton of consistency thanks to cards like Pátio de Restolhos and Scrap Raptor. Scrap Dragon is actually quite formidable in a simplified gamestate, which the deck aims to reach. Fabled is a rare sight in all honestly, but it is one of the most explosive decks around. Still, nothing quite scarier than their big synchro boards augmented with Gravity Collapse to seal the deal.
Uncommon but not Unviable!
Want to try out something that's not the big 5? We'll be recommending some decks that might not be talked about or played as much, but are still competent and can go toe to toe with the very best of the Common Charity metagame. Let's get right to it!
U.A
U.A. is an aggressive and underrated blind second strategy that aims to end games as quickly as possible. As discussed in the last Patch Notes article, the introduction of Pot of Extravagance into the format breathed some new decks into the format. Luigi was able to take these athletes into an impressive second-place finish at the 7th CCC tournament!
U.A. has an array of useful Spells and Traps to outmatch the competition and it retains an all-star lineup, despite missing key control tools such as U.A. Midfielder, U.A. Perfect Ace, and U.A. Blockbacker). U.A. Signing Deal allows you to access any member of the deck and gives you reliable ways to see U.A. Player Manager, which holds everything together. You can even return the summoned Manager back to the hand with any U.A and then its effect triggers to Special Summon itself! From there, you can pick whether or not to get rid of a threat or neutralize an opponent's field full of monsters. Stadium gives you more names to work with and boosts your field by quite a bit. U.A. Powered Jersey is the deck's finishing tool. Paired with U.A. Dreadnought Dunker, it can often spell the end of the ball game if it connects once or twice. Last but not least, U.A. Penalty Box can fetch any U.A. Spell you might need at the time while doubling up as a fallback option in case you can't quite OTK the opponent.
Luigi's list ran Fallen of Albaz as a way to pitch Penalty Box into the GY while forcing the opponent to waste their responses on it. A small Tenyi Spirit - Vishuda package can be considered as an alternative. Night Beam can be subbed out for Cosmic Cyclone depending on preference. Lastly, Red Reboot is a good option to play as the deck hates running into Threatening Roar.
F.A
Here we have a sample F.A. list by Asu who bubbled in the recent CCC events. This deck is actually quite a formidable midrange deck, focused on turboing out F.A. Motorhome Transport and grinding with its resources. When paired with the various Prix Field Spells, Motorhome becomes a difficult threat to remove and can often walk away with the game! Even if your opponent plays cards such as Kaijus to get rid of it, as long as you don't get OTK'd you can still recover. This is because of cards like F.A. Test Run and F.A. Auto Navigator which give you a decent grind game. Speaking of which, the former also acts as non-targeting disruption that's hard to answer.
Your main deck cars are no slouches either! F.A. Hang On Mach can shut down many GY-reliant strategies and cut opponents off of their resources. F.A. Whip Crosser is a lot more specialized, but it can give top-tier decks such as Lunalight and Predaplant a run for their money. Did I mention that F.A. City Grand Prix also makes them untargetable?
The other members can pull their weight in decently, often being used to help make Motorhome easier. F.A. Dark Dragster in particular can be nasty with its removal effect. F.A. Shining Star GT isn't something that comes up every game, but his monster effect negation is handy against floatier decks. As you can see, the list isn't maining F.A. Dead Heat. Asu notes that it can absolutely clutch several matchups, but is better relegated to the side as it can be a liability. Not a bad card by any means, however. One more upside is that a lot of your cards have a ton of text and bonus effects sprinkled in, which can catch opponents off guard. There's a hand rip somewhere? What do you mean I have to pay LP to do something?
Trickstar
Dabson - 1st Place CCC7
Dabson brought an interesting version of Trickstar Stun to win the entirety of CCC7! Trickstar's foundation is quite solid on its own already, as it has a good amount of utility and pressure to it thanks to the burn damage. Trickstar Light Stage is infamous for being a powerhouse of a Field Spell and it makes a name for itself over in Common Charity, where backrow cards are a lot more prominent. While this is all well and good, it's the two engines he brought that really tie everything together. He opted not to play into the deck's Burn gimmick, which rewarded him as that version has always been unreliable at best.
Trickstar Candina has the right mix of Type, Attribute, and Level to facilitate Ties of the Brethren strategies! Another factor that helps is the fact that Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring isn't as omnipresent in the format. It still exists of course, but his deck has several ways to bait it, including the Trickstar cards and Pot of Extravagance. Because of this, you get good odds to resolve that card and bring out both Honest and Barrier Statue of the Heavens! In the case of LIGHT decks, there's Aurora Paragon! A little unorthodox, but Paragon's downside doesn't kick in if you negate the summon, which is why he was on triple Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment.
Ostinato has been theorized before in the format but it hasn't really done all that much. It shines quite bright here, as it gives the deck some extra pushing power for going second, strong GY hate (triple banish? yes please!), and a formidable protection lock with the Melodious monsters you bring back after Schuberta the Melodious Maestra eats it in the End Phase.
Conclusion
That's all the time we have for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this read and have learned more about Common Charity. Even if you aren't going to Euros, this likely means we're going to see more Common Charity events in the future so no worries! Until next time, Renren out! Make sure to check out the CC Discord server as well.
