TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 24 Branded Despia 
• 19 Tenyi Swordsoul
• 9 Floowandereeze
• 7 Eldlich Variants
• 6 Tri-Brigade Variants
• 4 Dragon Link (2 Pure, 2 Adventurer)
• 4 Therion (2 Sunavalon, 2 P.U.N.K.)
• 3 ABC Therion
• 3 Sky Striker
• 2 @Ignister
• 2 D/D/D
• 2 Drytron
• 2 Virtual World
• 2 Mekk-Knight
• 12 Others (Destiny HERO, Dinmorphia, Infernoble, Pendulum, etc.)

New Products

May 17th, 2022 - New Forbidden & Limited List Changes

May 19th, 2022 - Dimension Force

Deck Highlights

Branded Despia

Solomon Page came 1st place at the Northampton Regionals with his Branded Despia deck.

For this event, Solomon chose to play Branded Despia. Branded Despia was already a strong deck in the last format and has gotten even stronger with the recent changes. With new support out of DIFO and many of their competitors getting the axe on the most recent Forbidden & Limited List, Branded Despia is poised to be one of the most dominant decks of the format. 

For the most part, Branded Despia follows the same plan as they did last format. It still plays the same standard engine, the Frightfur package, and some of the more popular non-engine cards. And while they did receive a few new cards in DIFO, only a few lists are playing them. In Solomon's case, he chose to play both Branded Banishment and Alba-Lenatus the Abyss Dragon.

Banishment is a new Trap card that's great for reviving your fusions and even stronger when you can apply the 2nd part of its effect. It's also especially strong in the mirror match where it can wipe your opponent's entire board if they aren't careful. 

Alba-Lenatus is a Fusion monster that adds a new threat to the Albaz arsenal. It requires Fallen of Albaz and 1+ Dragon monster(s) to summon and is unique in the sense that it can be "contact fused" using monsters from either side of the field. This makes it a good Super Polymerization target in the mirror match and against Dragon Link. Furthermore, because you can summon it this way, be on the lookout for players setting Albaz before using it to summon Alba-Lenatus.

We can also see 1 copy of Change of Heart in the Main Deck. Change is a powerful Spell that just came off the Forbidden & Limited List after many years. It's great for baiting out disruptions or taking an opponent's monster if they can't negate it. This is good in many matchups and can be especially strong in the mirror match where it can steal Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon.

ABC Adventurer Therion

Michael Sirot came 2nd place at the Richmond Regionals with his ABC Adventurer Therion deck.

For this event, Michael chose to play ABCs featuring the new Therion cards from DIFO. ABCs is an older archetype that revolves around Union Machines monsters and summoning ABC-Dragon Buster. It's strong in the sense that their monsters float very well and aren't once per turn but often criticized for being inconsistent. However, with the release of the Therion archetype, ABCs gain both an extender and a negate which makes the deck much better.

For the Therion package, Michael chose to play 3 copies of Therion Discolosseum and 2 copies of Therion "King" Regulus. Discolosseum is Therion's Field Spell that also doubles as their searcher. It also has 2 additional utility effects that can come in handy if your monsters are battling a lot. Regulus is Therion's boss monster that's also a negate and an extender in this deck. The great thing about Regulus is that since it has no restrictions, the ABC piece you equip to summon it can also summon itself. This makes Regulus great for accessing an ABC piece that you need. Furthermore, because Regulus can send itself for the cost of its own effect, it can dodge cards like Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence. This gives the deck another layer of protection that doubles as a way of making your combos stronger and more consistent.

Tenyi Swordsoul

Loa Strandberg came 1st place and won the Sweden National Championships with his Tenyi Swordsoul deck.

For this event, Loa chose to go with a fairly standard Swordsoul list. Similarly to Branded Despia, Swordsoul was already a strong deck in the last format that got even stronger due to many of its competitors getting nerfed. While the deck did lose access to Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon, it was also given some compensation by getting Pot of Desires back to 2. This was great as the Auroradon combo was starting to phase out anyways and being able to replace a potential brick (Deskbot 001) with Desires is definitely a plus.

Overall, Swordsoul's strategies hasn't really changed for a while now. The main differences now is that the hand trap lineup is more skewed towards dealing with the GY due to the current meta. Additionally, with more space in the Extra Deck due to losing out on the Auroradon package, there are a few options to consider. In Loa's case, he chose to play a 3rd copy of Monk of the Tenyi and Lyna the Light Charmer, Lustrous. Lyna is an easy-to-summon Link 2 that can revive both Baxia and Chi Xiao in the mirror. It can also be used to crash into an opponent's monster to search for Incredible Ecclesia, the Virtuous if necessary.

We can also see Anti-Spell Fragrance and Dimensional Barrier in the Side Deck. Both of these cards are floodgates that have become popular Side options in Swordsoul over the past few months. Anti-Spell is a floodgate that helps cement your board in a meta where there is a ton of strong power Spells. It's especially strong against Branded Despia but is also good against Floowandereeze and other meta decks. Barrier is also a floodgate that's great for decks that rely on non-Link monsters. Again, Branded Despia comes to mind here but this also strong in the mirror.

Cyber Angel Drytron

Barron Wolter came 1st place at the Dallas Regionals with his Drytron deck.

For this event, Barron chose to play a Drytron deck that focuses on summoning and protecting Vanity's Ruler. While playing Vanity's Ruler isn't a new idea for Drytron, being able to protect it naturally is. Barron does this by playing a small Magikey package that uses Magikey Mechmusket - Batosbuster and Magikey Unlocking. This helps protect his field from S/T negations such as Dark Ruler no More and Forbidden Droplet. And since it's so difficult to play under Vanity's Ruler, a swift turn 2 victory would not be uncommon.

Barron also chose to play no hand traps aside from the searchable Herald of Orange Light and Artifact Lancea. Orange Light is powerful as it acts as an Anti-Hand trap that you can get to your hand using Cyber Angel Benten early in your combo. This helps you play through cards like Droll & Lock Bird as well as Nibiru. Lancea, on the other hand is a good blocker that has utility in many different matchups. It's decent against both Swordsoul and Floowandereeze and it could always block the use of Pot of Prosperity and Allure of Darkness.

We can also see 3 copies of Mystic Mine in the Side Deck. Mine is strong in Drytron when you need time to gather your resources while preventing your opponent from killing you. It's also not really respected as most decks wouldn't side backrow removal against a combo deck such as Drytron. This also works well with the 3 Evenly Matched that's also in the Side Deck as if you have them together, one of them will usually go through. 

Conclusion

With the new Forbidden & Limited List changes and the release of DIFO, we can see a lot of changes to the meta. Prank-Kids has pretty much completely dropped from the meta as losing their Link-1 was too big of a hit. Branded Despia and Swordsoul also became even more popular as 2 of the biggest "winners" of these changes.

Without Predaplant Verte Anaconda, most decks have dropped the Destiny HERO package completely. The only deck that does still play Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer is HEROs which still have relatively easy access to it.

Outside of Branded Despia and Swordsoul, the meta is quite diverse with a lot of decks and engines viable. Eldlich variants, Tri-Brigade variants and Dragon Link all seem pretty decent with no real hits to them. 

The Adventurer package is also still here and in full strength with none of their cards present on the new list. Although they aren't really great in Branded Despia or Swordsoul, it wouldn't be surprising to see a new Therion P.U.N.K. Adventurer combo deck come out of the woodwork. 

With all this being said, we've definitely had an interesting start to the DIFO format. With YCS Hartford coming up, it'll be interesting to see which decks and engines perform and what is just all hype.

References

• Richmond WCQ Regionals
• Las Vegas WCQ Regionals
• Pasadena WCQ Regionals
• Hamilton WCQ Regionals
• Fort Worth WCQ Regionals
• Moncton WCQ Regionals
• Edmonton WCQ Regionals
• Billings WCQ Regionals
• Louisville WCQ Regionals
• Northampton WCQ Regionals
• Herzliya WCQ Regionals
• Bosnia WCQ Regionals
• Minneapolis WCQ Regionals
• Portland WCQ Regionals
• Ridgeland WCQ Regionals

May 21st - May 22nd, 2022

• Ireland Nationals
• Sweden Nationals
• Bolivia Nationals
• Austria Nationals
• Spain Nationals
• Ecuador Nationals
• El Salvador Nationals