TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown
Deck Breakdown:
- 6 Prank-Kids Adventurer (2 Destiny HERO Prank-Kids Adventurer)
- 3 Dragon Link (2 Adventurer Dragon Link)
- 3 Drytron (1 Drytron Destiny HERO Megalith, 1 Drytron Destiny HERO, 1 Drytron Megalith)
- 3 Eldlich (2 Cyberse Eldlich Adventurer)
- 3 Virtual World (2 Virtual World Adventurer)
- 2 Phantom Knights Destiny HERO Adventurer
- 2 Adventurer Synchro Good Stuff
- 2 Floowandereeze
- 2 Tenyi Swordsoul Link
- 1 Plunder Patroll Adventurer
- 1 Sky Striker Adventurer
- 1 Adventurer Tenyi Wyrm
- 1 D/D
- 1 Earth Machine Toolbox
- 1 Mekk-Knight
Deck Highlights
Floowandereeze
Hanko Chow placed Top 4 at the February Remote Duel YCS after an 8-2 record in Swiss with his Floowandereeze deck.
For this event, Hanko chose to play a fairly standard Floowandereeze list. Floowandereeze is a deck that has been making occasional appearances in the Top Cuts of many different events during the BODE meta. With BACH now legal, Floowandereeze also received a new Quick-Play spell that boosts both their consistency and their ability to dodge disruption. This makes the deck quite formidable due to their unique playstyle apart from the other meta decks.
Floowandereeze and the Advent of Adventure and Book of Moon are 2 Quick-Play spells that Hanko both ran at 3. Both cards help the deck dodge effect negation, while each offering their own utilities. Advent, as already mentioned, is a card that greatly improves the deck's consistency. This is great since one of the previous problems of the deck was always getting to your key monsters. Book of Moon on the other hand is a solid defensive card. It's great for protecting your Barrier Statue which many decks have trouble dealing with. When going 2nd, Book can also force out threats such as Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer or Wandering Gryphon Rider.
Another one of the deck's greatest assets is Dimension Shifter. While playing Shifter does weaken the deck's consistency, it's just too powerful of a card not to play. With many of the strongest decks heavily relying on the GY, resolving Shifter will make many decks pass their turns. Furthermore, Shifter also prevents the use of certain hand traps that must be sent to the GY for cost. Droll & Lock Bird comes to mind here as it's one of the strongest hand traps against Floowandereeze.
In the Side Deck, we can also see 3 copies of Harpie's Feather Storm. Feather Storm was a popular card in the BODE meta that Tri-Brigade variants would often utilize. It's also a very oppressive card that has very little counterplay. Because of that, it often will make the opponent pass their turn if it goes uncontested. Additionally, Feather Storm also has a floating effect if it's destroyed by an opponent's card effect. This means if your opponent happens to destroy it with something like Twin Twisters or Lightning Storm, it can get even more value by searching a Harpie's Feather Duster afterwards.
Sky Striker Adventurer
Amit Deol placed Top 4 at the February Remote Duel YCS after a 7-2-1 record in Swiss with his Sky Striker Adventurer deck.
For this event, Amit chose to play a Sky Striker deck featuring the new Adventurer package. The Adventurer package is great as it provides two things Striker decks really want; fast setup and more pushing power. For setup, Rite of Aramesir is a strong opener that helps the deck quickly develop. It can setup 3 spells in the GY quite easily by using the effects of Fateful Adventure to discard a spell in your hand and Predaplant Verte Anaconda's effect to mill Fusion Destiny.
As for pushing power, the Adventurer package makes it a lot easier for the deck to summon Link-2+ monsters. Rite alone provides 2 monsters which makes it very easy to summon Verte. Water Enchantress of the Temple also contributes to this and makes it easier to summon Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians. This gives the deck easier accessibility to the non-Striker part of the Extra Deck without the need of their spell cards.
Amit also chose to play 3 copies of Summon Limit in his Main Deck. Summon Limit is a floodgate that is great at slowing down the pace of the game. It works especially well with DPE since DPE can remove a monster essentially giving your opponent only 1 monster per turn. This makes it very easy for the deck to grind down its opponents if Summon Limit isn't quickly dealt with.
In the Side Deck, we can also see 2 copies of Mind Drain. Mind Drain is a continuous trap that we haven't seen for some time now. While many players consider it too slow, it does prevent the use of hand traps which is quite useful.. Additionally, Mind Drain is also good against the Adventurer package as it prevents the summon of Wandering Gryphon Rider and Water Enchantress. This makes Mind Drain quite good as both hand traps and the Adventurer package are very popular.
Virtual World Adventurer
Ernest Schulze placed Top 16 at the February Remote Duel YCS after a 9-1 record in swiss with his Virtual World Adventurer deck.
For this event, Ernest chose to play a Virtual World deck featuring the new Adventurer package. Virtual World is one of the best users of the new Adventurer cards, as they're not really affected by Rite of Aramesir's condition. Furthermore, the Adventurer package also makes the deck stronger overall by protecting the deck's combo and giving it more pushing power.
One of the biggest assets of the Adventurer package is its ability to let you start with an omni-negate before starting your combo. This is invaluable as Virtual World is very prone to hand traps such as Nibiru, the Primal Being if they can't get out their effect negations within 5 summons. Wandering Gryphon Rider is also a Level 7 which lets the deck easily Synchro into Baronne de Fleur as it plays many Level 3 Tuners.
The Adventurer package also works well with the Magician package that Ernest also chose to play. Magicians' Souls synergizes well with the deck, as it's not only an extender but also can also cycle cards. Illusion of Chaos is also useful here for cycling cards that you want to keep in your deck. Examples of this can be Deskbot 001 or Fateful Adventure, which both come out naturally in your combo. Similarly, you can return your Virtual World Spells and Traps back to your deck if you happen to draw too many or need to mill them for a Virtual World effect.
Ernest also chose to play the Crystron Halqifibrax combo as Virtual World is one of the best facilitators of it. This combo can also supply additional utility, getting you to the Virtual World engine if you don't see any Virtual World cards. This is done by using Cupid Pitch's effect, which can search both Virtual World Mai-Hime - Lulu or Virtual World Kirin - Lili. This means even if you don't have access to the Virtual World portion of the deck, Halqifibrax can get you there as long as you can summon it.
D/D
Pakawat Parmonsut placed Top 8 at the February Remote Duel YCS after an 8-2 record in swiss with his D/D deck.
For this event, Pak chose to play a D/D deck featuring the new support from BACH. Historically, D/D has always been considered one of the hardest decks to play due to its complex nature. It's an archetype that encompasses nearly every summoning method and has long list of complicated combos. Because of this, D/D is both a difficult deck to play and play against. In Pak's case, he chose to play a D/D variant that focuses more on XYZs and summoning D/D/D Abyss King Gilgamesh. This variant has the advantage of being more consistent and having better recovery than its alternatives. Additionally, this variant can also utilize the new support from BACH quite well.
Piri Reis Map is one of the starter cards that we see at 3 in Pak's list. Map is a searcher that primarily searches for D/D Savant Kepler but can also search for Go! - D/D/D Divine Zero King Rage if the situation calls for it. This makes Map very valuable as it gives you access to 2 of the best monsters in the deck. Rage can also be especially good as summoning it early can render your opponent's hand traps useless.
Pak's build also plays a high hand trap count with 12 present in the Main Deck. Since D/D is a deck that can combo using only 1 or 2 cards, playing this many hand traps is possible. This gives the deck an easier time going 2nd as they won't have to try and play through a fully established board. Furthermore, hand traps also have value when going 1st as they can act as a solid fallback plan. For example, if the opponent manages to resolve Forbidden Droplet on their turn, at least you can still use your hand traps to disrupt them.
The new D/D cards from BACH are also great and can't be fully appreciated in just a short recap. These new cards provide another layer of depth to an already complicated archetype. While we can't review everything here, it's worth mentioning that these new additions are definitely big contributors to the success of the deck.
Conclusion
The Top 32 of the February Remote Duel YCS features many different decks with 15 unique deck types. Out of the Top 16 decks, 10 were playing the Adventurer package (62.5%). This is a testament to how strong the Adventurer cards are, as they're present in over half of the Top Cut.
Decks that are able to play a large number of hand traps have also seen success at this event. This may be due to the large number of combo decks currently present in the meta. Opening Nibiru with another hand trap is especially strong as it can often heavily disrupt an opponent's play.
Many decks have also been including less S/T removal in their builds due to the low presence of Trap decks. The majority of these decks also Main Deck a lot of dead cards against them which can lead to a resurgence of Trap decks later on.
References
Week of February 21st – February 28th, 2022
Tournaments:
February 26th – 27th
