TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 9 Unchained
• 6 Dragon Link
• 5 Purrely
• 4 Kashtira
• 2 Floowandereeze
• 1 Spright
• 1 Infernoble Knight
• 1 Rescue-ACE
• 1 Mannadium
• 1 Branded Despia
• 1 Labrynth

Deck Highlights

Unchained

Unchained - Jesse Kotton (1st Place - YCS Vancouver 2023)

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Jesse Kotton took 1st place and became the Champion of YCS Vancouver with Unchained.

With a new format comes a new top deck, and Unchained is definitely looking like it right now. With 3 new monsters from Duelist Nexus, Unchained was catapulted from a rogue deck to the most represented deck in the Top Cut. What happened to make it so strong? Let's take a look. 

First, let's talk about Unchained Soul of Sharvara and Unchained Soul of Shyama. These 2 new monsters add a bit of consistency to the deck, while also acting as enablers to destroy your Unchained S/Ts. Sharvara is the 3-of which is not only a Quick Effect extender but also leaves behind an Unchained S/T if it's sent to the GY. This gives it great utility as it can also trigger during the opponent's turn to provide some additional pressure and follow-up. Shyama is also good as it has some destruction utility and can also summon itself from the GY by destroying a Fiend or set card you control. This makes it great for converting your Unchained S/Ts into monsters while removing troublesome backrow and/or floodgates. Unchained Soul Lord of Yama is also worth mentioning as the deck's new Link monster. It provides some amazing utility as it searches upon summon and acts as another extender while it's in your GY. 

The deck also plays a small D/D/D package with Dark Contract with the Gate and D/D/D Vice King Requiem. This small engine has many uses from letting you easily summon a Rank 6 XYZ to giving you access to D/D/D Deviser King Deus Machinex. This provides the deck with some easy pressure as well as access to D/D/D Wave High King Caesar ; a solid XYZ as it's a strong summon blocker that will also acquire King Requiem's inherited effect to help break boards if necessary. 

We can also see 3 copies of Triple Tactics Thrust and Book of Eclipse in the Main Deck. Thrust is a great option in this deck as it could search for the Unchained S/Ts as well as Jesse's choice of utility spells in the form of Harpie's Feather Duster and Triple Tactics Talent. Additionally, we can also see Thrust's influence in the Side Deck with 1 copy each of Change of Heart, Herald of the Abyss, Evenly Matched, Destructive Daruma Karma Cannon, and Dimensional Barrier. Eclipse is also great as it's one of the strongest non-engine cards in this format. It's great when going 1st as a defensive tool and just as good going 2nd to break boards. While it's never great to let your opponent draw cards, the argument is usually that the extra tempo it gives you will be worth more than a few free draws. 

Purrely

Purrely - Christopher Leblanc (Top 4 - YCS Vancouver 2023)

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Christopher Leblanc placed Top 4 at YCS Vancouver with Purrely.

Purrely hasn't changed too much since its last major appearance at the NAWCQ. The deck's ratios mainly stayed the same and only a few adjustments were made to combat the current meta.

For starters, we can see 3 copies of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Nibiru, the Primal Being in the Main Deck. Hand traps are always great in Purrely as you can draw them during the opponent's turn with Purrely Sleepy Memory and these are probably the strongest ones right now. Ash is always great as it has great coverage; hitting engine cards and Pot of Prosperity. And Nibiru, the Primal Being is great against Dragon Link and Unchained. 

Crossout Designator is also an interesting choice that adds some interesting utility to the deck. It's great in the mirror for contesting their Purrely spells, and it's also good in general with almost every deck playing Pot of Prosperity. Crossout can also be used to push through Infinite Impermanence, which quite popular as one of the only hand traps that don't get punished by Triple Tactics Talent. In Games 2 & 3, Crossout can also be used to counter Dimensional Barrier which can just end your turn if you aren't prepared for it.

We can also see 3 copies of Bystial Druiswurm and Grave of the Super Ancient Organism in the Side Deck. Druiswurm is a good disruption tool against the Light & Dark decks such as Dragon Link, Tearlaments, Unchained, Furniture Labrynth, and Fusion decks. Grave is a powerful floodgate that's great against Kashtira and Fusion decks as it stops them from developing their board. This also provides a bit of a counterweight against Dimensional Barrier as you'll at least have some sort of protection if you get hit by it. 

Bystial Dragon Link

Bystial Dragon Link - Ryan Yu (Top 32 - YCS Vancouver 2023)

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Ryan Yu placed Top 32 at YCS Vancouver with Bystial Dragon Link.

Bystial Dragon Link is another deck that has stayed mainly the same for a while now. The Bystial monsters are quite good this meta as there are quite a few more Light & Dark decks with Kashtira's decline in popularity. In Ryan's case, he plays a pretty standard Dragon Link list where most of his innovations are found in the Side Deck.

At a glance, Ryan's Side Deck looks like it's for 2 things; the mirror match, and Purrely. Cards such as Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay are great against decks that Link summon as they provide you with a body and cycles your hand. This makes it great against decks such as Dragon Link and Unchained as they both Link summon quite frequently with a lot of Unchained effects also targetting.

We can also see the Ultimate Slayer & Evil★Twin's Trouble Sunny package. This is primarily for dealing with troublesome Link monsters such as Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres, and Unchained Soul of Rage while also netting you an additional removal in the process. Slayer also has some utility against Synchro monsters such as Baronne de Fleur as you can shuffle the monster you send back into the deck with Chaos Space. Additionally, Slayer also isn't an OPT; meaning they won't clog if you happen to see multiple of them.

Herald of the Abyss and Xyz Encore are also found in the Side Deck as strong cards to have against Purrely. As both of these cards get around Expurrely Noir's protection effect, it's great for dealing with it without triggering Stray Purrely Street and My Friend Purrely. Encore is also especially good as it's a Quick-Play spell that can be activated in the Draw Phase. This lets you hit the opponent's XYZ monster before they are able to draw off of Purrely Sleepy Memory. 

Overall, Ryan's deck follows the deck building theory of using your Side Deck to deal with what you have trouble against and use your Main Deck to deal with everything else. This is pretty evident in the way the deck was built as you have the Bystial package to deal with most of the other meta decks and Nibiru, the Primal Being, and Book of Moon to deal with Kashtira. Then in Games 2 & 3, it's easy to side out cards respective to what you're playing against.

Conclusion

With the September Forbidden & Limited list just dropping, we can see hits to Kashtira's ceiling and Dragon Link. Losing Kashtira Arise-Heart will mean Kashtira will have a much harder time contesting resourcing decks and will probably start to bottom out of the meta. While they do still have Dimension Shifter, Arise-Heart was arguably their best card and one of their main combative tools against the majority of the meta. Dragon Link also takes a hit losing 2 Chaos Space and 2 Bystial Magnamhut; lowering their consistency and a bit of their follow-up. This means getting disrupted now hurts a lot more as you'll less reliably have recovery tools and options to continue play. 

Unchained and Purrely are doing well and have taken the top spots this meta. The tools that Unchained got in Duelist Nexus really help as they're now a lot more consistent and can play through so much disruption. Purrely remains rather unchanged since the NAWCQ but still retains a lot of the strength it had and poses a difficult problem for the rest of the meta to solve. 

Spright and Runick variants have also started to phase out of the meta as they aren't so strong against Unchained. Runick Fountain is much harder to keep up with Unchained having so many tools to deal with it and the deck also not having many answers to Expurrely Noir. 

Labrynth, Rescue-ACE, Mannadium, Infernoble, and Branded Chimera are also doing well; all being able to sneak into the Top Cut. These decks have been suppressed by Kashtira and Dimension Shifter but with that being a much weaker option now, we should be seeing more of these types of decks going into the next format. 

Overall, the meta is still pretty wide right now with many players looking to Unchained as the deck to beat. But with Kashtira pretty much exiting the format, the door is still open for anything to contest a very volatile meta.

References

September 9th - 10th, 2023

• YCS Vancouver 2023