TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 8 Kashtira
• 4 Naturia Runick
• 4 Spright
• 1 Branded Despia
• 1 Swordsoul
• 1 Tearlaments
• 1 Dragon Link
• 1 Plunder Patroll
• 1 Labyrnth
• 1 Salamangreat
• 1 Eldlich
• 1 Floowandereeze
• 1 Marincess
• 1 Traptrix
• 5 Unknown

Deck Highlights

Spright Adventure

Spright Adventurer - Nestor Huanacuni (2nd Place - YCS Lima)

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Nestor Nuanacuni took 2nd place at YCS Lima with Spright Adventure!

From being regarded as one of the weakest meta decks of the format to taking both 1st and 2nd place at YCS Lima, Spright is back with some new tools in their arsenal. For this event, Nestor opted to play the Adventurer engine; giving him some additional pushing power and disruption through Wandering Gryphon Rider. Rite of Aramesir also provides a potential extender, letting the deck summon a Link-2 even if their initial summon is disrupted. 

With Spright being so consistent, Nestor was also able to fit in 15 hand traps and a set of Book of Eclipse. Hand Traps in general are pretty strong with Nibiru, the Primal Being being especially strong if it can catch an opponent off guard. Eclipse is also obviously good for most matchups and is especially useful against Kashtira.

We can also see 2 copies of Capshell and 1 copy of Spright Double Cross in the Main Deck. Capshell works well with the Adventurer engine as it's a normal summon that doesn't activate its effect on the field. This lets it cycle itself when it's linked off, which is great considering the deck is mostly comprised of extenders and/or disruption. Double Cross is also a powerful trap that is mostly used (as the name suggests) to take an opponent's monster. This makes getting over the Spright end board considerably more difficult since if you try to beat over their monsters, they can use Double Cross to steal your attacker.

Salamangreat

Salamangreat Adventurer - Jose Castillo (Top 4 - YCS Lima)

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Jose Castillo placed Top 4 at YCS Lima with Salamangreat.

The trend of old meta decks resurfacing at YCS Lima continues, this time, with Salamangreat! Similarly to Spright, Salamangreat is another deck that can facilitate the Adventurer engine quite well. The Adventurer engine is arguably even better in Salamangreat as it can help them Link climb with Link Spider while pretty much never conflicting with their engine. Wandering Gryphon Rider is also useful here, preventing the deck from getting hit by Nibiru, the Primal Being, which has recently been rising in popularity.

Another similarity Salamangreat has to Spright is their ability to play a ton of hand traps. With Salamangreat also being a very consistent deck, the deck can pretty much always end on Decode Talker Heatsoul as long as they see 1 or 2 Cyberse monsters. We can also notice that Jose's build doesn't play Salamangreat Rage, Salamangreat Roar, and Salamangreat Heatleo. This lets Jose see more live cards when going 2nd which can be more effective than a dead trap card.

Therefore, Jose's deck is more like a Heatsoul control deck that uses the Salamangreat engine rather than the traditional Salamangreat decks we're used to seeing. The main idea here is to use Heatsoul to generate meaningful advantage while you look for an opportunity to kill the opponent with Accesscode Talker. The deck also plays 3 copies of Micro Coder as an extender and as a way to search Cynet Conflict.This makes holding against the deck quite difficult since summoning Accesscode Talker is so easy and it'll often be protected by both Wandering Gryphon Rider and Cynet Conflict. 

Plunder Patroll Runick

Plunder Patroll Runick - Michel Verissimo (Top 8 - YCS Lima)

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Michel Verissimo placed Top 8 at YCS Lima with Plunder Patroll Runick.

Plunder Patroll Runick is a midrange deck that has a surprisingly good matchup against Kashtira. The main idea of the deck is to use Plunder Patrollship Jord to generate a Token for the opponent and then to gain advantage off of it. This can be done using a variety of methods but is most commonly accomplished through the use of Blackbeard, the Plunder Patroll Captain to tag into Plunder Patrollship Lys. Blackbeard will then draw a card while Lys functions as a negate that can resummon Blackbeard later for even more advantage. This lets the deck run away with the game pretty quickly if you don't have an immediate answer to their combo.

Additionally, Michel also plays 3 copies of Rivalry of Warlords. Rivalry is a powerful floodgate in general but is even more powerful when you can forcibly give your opponent a monster with an awkward type. With Jord being able to summon a Fiend monster for the opponent, most decks will struggle to play as it won't be easy for them to remove the token from the field. This combo is especially deadly against Kashtira where the Token even without Rivalry is very difficult to deal with. With the addition of Kaijus, this combo can easily disrupt the opponent for multiple turns if they can't get rid of the monster you give them. Kaijus also provide some nice board breaking capabilities going 2nd against many of the decks that like to end on a single monster and pass (Kashtira, Labrynth, Marincess, etc.).

The Runick engine helps even further disrupt the opponent with a variety of crippling effects. This engine also functions as a group of extenders; by letting you use Hugin the Runick Wings to quickly Synchro into Jord. Runick Fountain is also especially good as a way for you to gain even more advantage while cycling through your deck. With the deck's main combo letting you see 5-6 new cards if uninterrupted, digging for Rivalry becomes a real threat and win condition for the deck. But even if you don't see Rivalry, seeing any of the Kaiju cards are also fine as they'll assist you in breaking the opponent's board if needed.

Conclusion

YCS Lima was definitely exciting with a bunch of variety in the Top 32. With many old contenders returning to the meta, it'll be interesting to see if Kashtira can regain some of its dominance going into the 250th YCSs. 

Dimensional Barrier and Evenly Matched have regained a ton of popularity as good catch-all Side Deck cards in the current meta. Barrier has utility against most of the top decks and is especially powerful against Branded Despia. Evenly on the other hand is great as a lot of the decks this meta don't always have S/T negates. This has also made the Adventure engine more popular as the decks that can play it can use Wandering Gryphon Rider to block it. 

Nibiru, the Primal Being has also found its way back into the meta; acting as a punisher for any deck that chooses to extend recklessly. This has led many decks to play more cautiously which also happens to make boards easier to break. 

References

Week of March 10th - March 17th, 2023

Tournaments:

March 11th - 12th, 2023

• YCS Lima 2023