TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 10 Kashtira
• 6 Superheavy Samurai
• 4 Labyrnth
• 4 Branded
• 2 Mathmech (1 Firewall Mathmech)
• 2 Purrely
• 3 Other (Mannadium, P.U.N.K. Gold Pride, Floowandereeze)

Deck Highlights

Superheavy Samurai

Superheavy Samurai - Denny Vu (1st Place - Lubbock WCQ Regionals)

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Denny Vu took 1st place at the Lubbock WCQ Regionals with Superheavy Samurai.

Superheavy Samurai is the newest contender in the CYAC meta and combines some of the older Superheavy Samurai cards with the new support from Cyberstorm Access to form a powerful combo deck. The main objective of the deck is to abuse Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer; a monster with a non-OPT search effect to continuously gather resources and build a board. Once you have Soulpiercer, there are a bunch of different lines you can go into which results in a board usually comprising of a mix of Baronne de Fleur, Therion "King" Regulus, Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi, and/or Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess. This makes the deck quite powerful if you're going 2nd with nothing to break their board or stop them from comboing off. 

The main starting lines of the combo include getting to Soulpiercer and then getting it off the field to start your engine. This is generally pretty easy as most of your Superheavy Samurai monsters have effects that can search for it. Afterwards, you'd link it off for Superheavy Samurai Scarecrow and proceed to Synchro climb using Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon and/or Link climb using Qliphort Genius which will also search for Regulus sometime during the combo. 

The deck can also play a ton of hand traps since it only needs 1 card to start their combo. In Denny's build, he played 15 hand traps along with Jizukiru, the Star Destroying Kaiju; letting him hopefully disrupt his opponent enough so that he could play when going 2nd. Most builds of Superheavy Samurai also play Infinitrack Tunneller which will provide a draw 2 once the combo is over. Tunneller's condition is also pretty easy to fulfill since all the Superheavy Samurai monsters happen to be Earth Machines. This also pairs nicely with the heavy hand trap count as they can provide additional disruption incase the opponent is able to deal with the board. 

The deck's biggest weaknesses is perhaps their reliance on the GY, searching and their inability to play Spells and Traps. Because the deck uses the GY to combo, cards such as Dimension Shifter have started creeping back into popularity to stop the deck from setting up. Droll & Lock Bird is also seeing more play and stops the deck from continuously searching. And while these can be countered by PSY-Framegear Gamma, if the opponent waits until after you have a monster to use either hand trap, it can be difficult to continue your combo. Floodgates and backrow can also pose a problem as the deck doesn't have too many answers to deal with them. And while we do see cards such as Sauge de Fleur and Predaplant Spider Orchid in the Side Deck, they sometimes may not be enough especially if your opponent opens with a well-timed Gozen Match or Rivalry of Warlords. 

Purrely

Purrely - Dinh Khang Pham (2nd Place - Monchengladbach WCQ Regionals)

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Dinh Khang Pham placed 2nd at the Monchengladbach WCQ Regional with Purrely.

Purrely's main strategy revolves around stacking a bunch of XYZ materials under a single monster and then controlling the game from there. Each of the Purrely Quick-Play spells has a benefical base effect along with offering you the option to discard a card to summon a Purrely monster from the deck. In addition to this, they also provide Purrely XYZ monsters that has them as material an additional effect. This means that every Purrely Quick-Play spell is not only a starter and extender, but also a valuable XYZ material.

Purrely's game plan is pretty simple. You play some spells, summon a Purrely monster to get more spells, and eventually transition into an Expurrely Noir with a bunch of materials on it. Noir can be difficult to deal with, as if it has 5+ materials, it's unaffected by the opponent's activated effects. It also has a nice non-OPT disruption which lets you detach 2 materials to spin one of the cards on your opponent's field or in their GY to the bottom of their deck. This means there's only a handful of ways to get rid of it that don't involve tributing it for a Kaiju or Kurikara Divincarnate. 

While Noir is strong, it's definitely not the only threat that Purrely has. Epurrely Plump and Epurrely Beauty are pretty good in their own right as they can negate the effects of an opponent's monster, steal their S/Ts from the GY to take them as XYZ materials, and temporarily banish monsters from the field. This lets them set up for another notable card in the Extra Deck; Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder. Zeus of course is a card that needs no introduction as one of the most powerful XYZ monsters in the game. And with a deck that revolves around stacking XYZ materials, a Zeus with anywhere between 2 to 4 activations goes pretty far in stopping the opponent from developing. 

Purrely can also play a pretty decent amount of hand traps since almost every other card can get you to a Purrely monster. Hand traps also synergize with the effect of Purrely Sleepy Memory quite well as it lets you draw them during your opponent's standby phase for additional disruption. This can also be comboed with Purrelyeap!? which can provide you even more draws if you choose to XYZ climb with it during the opponent's standby phase.

Purrely's main weakness is they center a lot of their power onto a single monster. This makes them vulnerable to cards such as Kaijus, Kurikara Divincarnate (if they choose to use the monster's effect), and Santa Claws (which has recently been gaining popularity). And while the deck does have good recovery through My Friend Purrely and Purrely Sleepy Memory, it doesn't really matter if your opponent is able to kill you that turn. 

Firewall Mathmech

Firewall Mathmech - Kyle Waterbury (1st Place - Portland WCQ Regionals)

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Kyle Waterbury took 1st place at the Portland WCQ Regionals with Firewall Mathmech.

Mathmech was a meta deck not too long ago and was pretty well known due to the power of Mathmech Circular. Now with the new Firewall support from Cyberstorm Access, Mathmech is back with some new tools in their Cyberse toolkit. 

The main new cards the deck has acquired since their last appearance in the meta are Firewall Defenser, Cyberse Desavewurm, and Firewall Dragon Darkfluid - Neo Tempest Terahertz. Defenser is one of the new starters for the deck and helps facilitate the 1-card combo that ends on Terahertz and Mathmech Superfactorial. Terahertz is a new boss monster that generates enormous pressure while letting you mill a Cyberse monster from your Main or Extra Deck. This lets you setup the Desavewurm which acts as a S/T negation while you control a Link-4 or higher Cyberse monster. 

The deck still also follows the old Mathmech plan of creating vulnerabilities in your opponent's plan to setup its own lethal attack. With Accesscode Talker and Update Jammer still as powerful as always, it's not uncommon to see a game decided on Turn 2 if the opponent does not have enough defenses. Additionally, Terahertz even further drives this point home as usually an 8000+ ATK monster that can make multiple attacks on monsters. This means if Terahertz survives a turn on the field, the opponent probably won't be surviving the next. 

We can also see Small World in the deck as a way to add more consistency. Small World is great for turning almost any monster in the deck into a Defenser through the Santa Claws bridge. This helps ensure that you'll almost always see either Defenser or Circular to start your combo. Additionally, if you already have all the pieces for your combo, Small World can be used to add an extender such as Parallel eXceed or a hand trap.

Mathmech's main problem is their heavy reliance on the GY. With both Terahertz and Superfactorial gaining their power from the GY, cards such as Dimension Shifter and Bystials can easily ruin your day. This can make it difficult to play against decks like Kashtira and Bystial Branded as they both have ways to stop cards from ending up in your GY.

Kashtira

Kashtira - Luke Frangella (1st Place - Knoxville WCQ Regionals)

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Luke Frangella took 1st place at the Knoxville WCQ Regionals with Kashtira.

Kashtira was one of the most dominant decks in the last meta and continues to put up strong showings in this one. The deck is still very consistent and also has a decent matchup against almost everything. The main changes to the deck since the last meta is the return of Dimension Shifter and Droll & Lock Bird which now takes up some of the slots that cards that were good in the mirror match once did. These cards help combat the power of Superheavy Samurai which have been very popular during the early weeks of this meta.

We can again see Knightmare Corruptor Iblee in the Side Deck as one of the strongest going 1st cards in the meta. Iblee is a difficult card to deal with as it locks out not only most of your engine tools but Side Deck tools as well. This makes it a powerful side against almost every deck this meta aside from Mathmech.

We can also see Anti-Spell Fragrance in the Side Deck as a powerful floodgate against most of the meta. Spell Fragrance forces Purrely to fire off all their spells immediately while locking out their non-Quick-Play spells for the turn. Additionally, it also prevents Superheavy Samurai from setting scales, and all the utility/power spells against Mathmech, Branded variants, and in the mirror. 

Lastly, we can also see 3 copies of Trickstar Reincarnation. Reincarnation is a trap that pairs nicely with Kashtira Arise-Heart and Droll & Lock Bird. With almost every deck searching multiple times a turn, Reincarnation can be used to hit essential combo pieces or 1-ofs out of the hand and into the banished pile. Furthermore, Reincarnation is also great for either triggering Droll or to rip the opponent's hand after Droll has already resolved. This can catch the opponent off-guard especially if don't have Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring or have already used it earlier in the turn.

Conclusion

Droll & Lock Bird makes a definitive return to the meta as most players are playing it as a tool to counter Superheavy Samurai and slow down everything else. Along with Droll, PSY-Framegear Gamma is also creeping its way back into decklists as a way to punish opponents for using a hand trap early. Many players are also playing Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon as a way to transition a Gamma into a Baronne de Fleur.

Kurikara Divincarnate along with Kaijus are also seeing more Main Deck play as a way to deal with Expurrely Noir. Most decks have trouble dealing with a really big Expurrely Noir and have decided to play Main Deck answers so they don't straight up lose to it. Some Purrely players are playing Vanity's Fiend to counter this since Purrely doesn't usually need their normal summon and always have a monster for tribute fodder.  

With 4 main contenders for the strongest deck, it'll be interesting to see which decks perform at YCS Philadelphia and if any decks receive any hits on the next Forbidden & Limited list. Will we even get a list before the NAWCQ in Raleigh? Or will this be the meta we'll be sticking with until Duelist Nexus. Who knows? Yu-Gi-Oh is if anything, often unpredictable. With that being said, with so many decks performing at Regionals and Nationals across the TCG, I'm definitely excited to see what will rise and what will fall at Philly. 

References

May 6th, 2023

• Portland WCQ Regionals

May 13th, 2023

• Lubbock WCQ Regionals

May 14th, 2023

• Knoxville WCQ Regionals
• Monchengladbach WCQ Regionals