<!-- x-tinymce/html -->

TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 29 Spright (7 Adventurer, 3 Live Twin, 3 P.U.N.K.)
• 22 Tearlaments (14 Danger!, 1 Branded, 1 Spright)
• 6 Floowandereeze
• 2 Rikka Sunavalon
• 1 Altergeist (Mystic Mine)
• 1 Mathmech (Adventurer)
• 1 Sky STriker
• 1 Dragon Link (Adventurer)
• 1 Eldlich

Deck Highlights

Rikka Sunavalon

Sunavalon Rikka - Marcus Patel (1st place - European Championships) 

3

1

2

1

3

1

1

3

2

2

3

3

2

1

3

3

1

3

3

1

Extra Deck

1

1

2

1

1

2

1

1

1

3

1

Side Deck

1

1

1

3

3

3

3

Marcus Patel took 1st place and won the European Championships with Rikka Sunavalon.

Rikka Sunavalon or Plant Toolbox is a midrange deck that focuses on controlling the field and presenting their opponents with multiple challenges. Although the deck has been around for a while, their 2 new cards from POTE is what really pushed them over the edge. Their new field spell; Rikka Konkon, adds a lot of consistency to the deck while also providing a powerful utility disruption. Rikka Princess on the other hand, is a free extender that also provides disruption from the hand or GY. These 2 cards work very well with each other as when Konkon is on the field, Princess can tribute an opponent's monsters for its effect. This combo is also quite consistent as all the Rikka cards are easily searchable.

The Sunavalon engine is also important as it's how the deck sets up so quickly. With any Sunseed monster or Unexpected Dai equating to at least 3 monsters; the deck can easily build its board through the use of a single card. This combo also conveniently gains LP through the effect of Sunavalon Dryas which turns on your Aromaseraphy Jasmine. This gives you a way to access the Rikka portion of the deck and the scary combo mentioned above.

Marcus also chose to play very minimal hand traps with only 3 copies of Infinite Impermanence in his deck. He did however, choose to play cards such as Mystic Mine, Triple Tactics Talent, Dark Ruler No More, and Rivalry of Warlords. These cards are all pretty self explanatory as they help stall the game, as well as break and control boards. Mine is especially powerful as it helps you stall the game until you draw a board breaker or just win the game outright. It can also be semi-controlled as you can turn it off by playing Konkon over it if you'd like.

Danger! Tearlaments

Danger Tearlaments - Zio Mundry (2nd place - European Championships)

2

2

3

1

3

2

1

3

3

1

1

3

3

3

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

3

2

Extra Deck

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Side Deck

3

1

1

3

1

3

3

Zio Mundry got 2nd place at the European Championships with Danger Tearlaments.

For this event, Zio chose to play the Danger variant of Tearlaments. The Danger engine works well with Tearlaments as their monsters can help trigger Tearlaments' GY effects. They also provide additional extenders to the deck with Danger! Bigfoot! also offering some removal as well. Additionally, the Danger engine helps supplement the cost of Super Polymerization (also triggering their effects). This build is also able to play Dark Grepher which helps trigger both your Danger and Tearlaments effects. Grepher can also discard a Level 5 or higher Danger to special summon itself and trigger its effect in the process. One common line is discarding Danger! Nessie! to summon Grepher and then search for another Danger to be discarded off Grepher's effect. Because of this, Zio also chose to play Reinforcement of the Army as it can search for Grepher as well as Tearlaments Reinoheart.

Another highlight of this build is the variety of Link monsters found in the Extra Deck. While most Tearlaments decks play very few Links, Zio chose to play 6, with half of them being Link 4s. This is possible due to the Danger engine giving the deck some additional extenders to help link climb. This gives the deck a variety of new threats that most Tearlaments builds are not able to play. For example, Curious, the Lightsworn Dominion is an innocent looking card that mills a card upon summon. While this may look harmless, this can trigger any Tearlaments effect, or setup a Fairy Tail - Snow or Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher in the GY. This makes it a great card to go into before summoning a Link 4.

Speaking of Link 4s, Zio also chose to play Topologic Bomber Dragon, and Topologic Zeroboros. These monsters both combo well with Snow and Orochi; letting you clear the opponent's field multiple times in one turn. Zeroboros is also especially good here as it can get quite big through the use of both Snow and Orochi as well as Pot of Desires. This gives the deck some more board control tools as well as some added OTK pressure.

Zio also chose to play 1 copy of Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder. Zeus is a good follow-up to Abyss Dweller as it'll clear the board without letting your opponent trigger their GY effects. This is very powerful against other Tearlament variants as it makes it harder for them to recover and re-build a board.

Altergeist Mystic Mine

Mystic Mine Altergeist - Lars Junginger (Top 4 European Championships)

1

3

2

3

3

1

2

3

3

3

1

3

2

1

2

2

1

3

1

Extra Deck

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

3

1

1

1

1

1

Side Deck

3

3

1

1

3

1

3

Lars Junginger got Top 4 at the European Championships with Altergeist Mystic Mine.

For this event, Lars went with a rather unexpected choice: Altergeist. Altergeist was a popular meta deck back in 2018~2019 and was known for its capabilities as a control deck. Now in 2022, Lars added the Mystic Mine package and Lava Golem to help him deal with the modern meta.

Mystic Mine is definitely one of the most controversial cards of modern Yu-Gi-Oh and Lars chose to play with  "8" of them. In addition to the base 3 copies of Mine, Lars also plays 3 copies of Demise of the Land, 1 Terraforming, and 1 Metaverse. In addition to this, Lars also plays 3 copies of Pot of Prosperity and Pot of Duality. This makes it very likely that you'll see a copy (or multiple copies) of Mine on your first turn. After resolving Mine, the deck is able to play at their pace and control the game from there. The deck also plays 2 copies of Solemn Judgment as a way to protect Mine as well as being a powerful trap in general. This comes in handy against Spright a lot since they usually only play 1 Spright Smashers as their out to Mine. 

To further ensure Mine resolves successfully, Lars also plays 3 copies of Lava Golem and the PSY-Framegear Gamma package. Lava Golem is of course great for breaking boards as it could be used to remove troublesome monsters from the field. Gamma is a strong hand trap in general that also helps make sure your Mine resolves. This comes in handy when you're activating Mine on your own turn and your opponent has a monster effect to prevent it from resolving. Gamma also has the added benefit of banishing itself along with PSY-Frame Driver during the End Phase to leave your field free of monsters.

Evil Twin Spright

Evil Twin Spright - Matteo Giugni (Top 4 - European Championships)

3

2

3

3

1

3

1

3

1

1

2

1

1

3

3

3

1

3

3

Extra Deck

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

3

2

1

Side Deck

1

3

1

3

1

2

1

2

1

Matteo Giugni also placed Top 4 at the European Championships with Evil Twin Spright.

For this event, Matteo chose to play the Evil Twin variant of Spright. The Evil Twin engine compliments the Spright deck quite well as it includes a good amount of Level 2 and Link 2 monsters. It also provides some additional utilities which the popular alternative engine (Deep Sea Diva) does not. For example, one of the benefits of playing the Evil Twin package is the consistent advantage the Link 2s generate. With Evil★Twin Ki-sikil giving a draw and Evil★Twin Lil-la providing a pop, it's easy to quickly overwhelm the opponent if they don't have an immediate answer. Furthermore, these monsters also provide free fuel for your Spright Red and Spright Carrot since they can summon back their partner once per turn for free. Matteo takes advantage of this even further by also choosing to play 3 copies of Enemy Controller. Controller can be used to tribute off a monster to serve as a powerful disruption when going first. It's also not bad going second as it can be used with your Evil Twins to bait out disruptions and take one of your opponent's important monsters. This can be especially useful in the mirror match as it can be used to take Spright Elf without letting it revive Toadally Awesome as Controller tributed off your only monster as a cost. Elf can then use its effect for you to revive your monster and then proceed play from there.

Matteo also chose to play Number 29: Mannequin Cat and Knightmare Cerberus in his Extra Deck. Cat is good for going 2nd as it can usually tutor out a missing combo piece while providing you a monster to attack. The monster that it gives your opponent is also fine as it can serve as an attack fodder for your Cat so you can later summon Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder. Cerberus is also a nice card as it provides removal in a deck that has some issues getting over big monsters. It's also nice that Cerberus is a Fiend monster which lets you summon it when the Evil Twin restriction is active.

Conclusion

Overall, the European Championships as a tournament filled with cool decks, great games, and exciting moments. With 4 unique decks in the Top 4, this format really is full of surprises with decks that no one expected making a comeback. While Spright does still look quite strong, it's nice to know that it definitely has competition.

One thing that has been pretty evident in the Top 4 (if it wasn't clear already) is the power of Mystic Mine. With half of the Top 4 building their decks around it and the other half playing the top meta choices of the format, I would personally expect this card to not stick around for much longer. It's also worth noting that Triple Tactics Talent is making a resurgance in the format due to the heavy presence of monster effects. 

With the European Championships coming to a close and YCS Rio on the way, it'll be interesting to see if the top decks of this event will be able to hold their position moving forward. Since decks like Altergeist and Rikka Plants have taken everyone by surprise here, many players will probably be preparing for them to not get caught again. However, one thing is clear, no matter what tournament you're playing at, you better be prepared for Mystic Mine.

References

Week of August 19th - August 26th, 2022

Tournaments:

August 20th - 21st, 2022

• European Championships 2022