Hi there everyone, it's Renren! There won't be a Metagame Snapshot this month, but we are providing two Tournament/Metagame reports to compensate. With that out of the way, how about we continue from where Blue Rain left off and talk about some of the wilder strategies that managed to perform quite well coming into both the North American and European World Championship Qualifier as the format comes to a close? Without further ado, let's dive into these interesting choices between the slew of Kashtiras and Runick Sprights.
Deck Highlights
Bystial Mannadium
Bystial Mannadium featuring Assault Synchron managed an impressive Top 32 finish at the NAWCQ, piloted by Quinton Brown. Bystials may seem a bit strange due to their poor Kashtira matchup, but they line up extremely well against everything else that the format has to offer, often acting as powerful hand traps to disrupt the opponent's LIGHT/DARK-based strategies and their high card quality to boot can give Mannadium an extra leg up against tougher matchups.
The Bystial Lubellion is quite the hand trap magnet, as it can pop off incredibly hard when uninterrupted. Because Mannadium naturally runs Bystial Dis Pater anyway, the inclusion of a heavier Bystial package fits like a glove. In any case, Branded Regained gives the deck some incredible grind and additional resilience against board breakers, as it can revive a Dis Pater sleeping in the GY to interrupt the opponent's plays, aside from its usual duties of extending with banished monsters. Assault in combination with Bystials is able to access multiple high-level Synchros, leading to quite formidable boards. Druiswurm is quite capable of punching holes through boards as well, such as the popular one with Knightmare Gryphon Evil Twin Runick Spright likes to put up. Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying can also ravage through opponent's boards and serve as an extremely difficult-to-answer interruption when combined with Bystials.
Quinton noted that Droll & Lock Bird is definitely an issue for the strategy, as with most of the current top decks right now, but similar to Bystial Dragon Link, the power of Bystial Magnamhut being able to add back from the GY gives you some reprieve against the devastating hand trap. The Kashtira matchup can be challenging but most, or if not all his non-engine serves to take care and eliminate the threat of Kashtira Arise-Heart. Last but not least, the deck isn't too hampered by Dimension Shifter which Kashtira likes to use as a powerful blowout card. Mannadium is still a rogue strategy that only has a few premier tops here and there, but the deck is slated to get even better with the release of its support cards from Duelist Nexus. It's also flexible in what supporting engines it can use. We'll have to wait and see if it becomes more prominent in the upcoming months.
Gold Pride
Andrew Hadfield got Top 64 at the NAWCQ with Pure Gold Pride! This is quite a shocker, as the majority of the successful builds of the deck so far have relied on the P.U.N.K. engine to increase their ceiling and powerful plays. He has a few valid reasons for forgoing them though, which I'll explain in a bit. First is that he wanted to respect both Dimension Shifter and Kashtira Arise-Heart, as Kashtira is still the best deck of the format going into the event, and Shifter is very problematic for certain P.U.N.K. plays, as you either need to send to the GY or revive and banish things from it. Not only that, but dropping the P.U.N.K. cards gave him more room for a bigger Gold Pride engine and extra slots for defensive cards. While people's consensus on whether or not a big P.U.N.K. package, a small one, or none at all is optimal in GP, all of them have their merits.
Since Ze Amin isn't here, Tour Guide From the Underworld makes for a captivating Normal Summon that gets you to Gold Pride - Chariot Carrie, which in turn unlocks everything the deck wants to do in terms of its plays. Even if it gets stopped, most extenders still get you to your Rank 3 monsters or some Synchro plays. Since the Gold Pride archetype needs to be at a lower LP than the opponent to perform optimally, the various tech cards help a lot in that regard. Cosmic Cyclone is a very strong card going first or second right now, Ready Fusion is a superb extender, and even Emergency Teleport can occasionally summon Dr. Frankenderp which not only lowers your life but gets you a free card off the top of your deck!
The deck is surprisingly strong, as it has a solid grind game mixed with layered interruptions due to the strength of cards like Gold Pride - Roller Baller fusing into Gold Pride - Pin Baller, Gold Pride - Star Leon, and Gold Pride - Start Your Engines! 's effects to destroy monsters, and Gold Pride - Nytro Head giving a token which can heavily grief Kashtira players. Leon can also occasionally Synchro into Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier for an extremely nasty surprise. When going second, the deck usually opts for a Zeus line with Number 49: Fortune Tune or can go for a Psychic End Punisher push if the situation calls for it. Lastly, Adamancipator Risen - Dragite slots in well due to Carrie being WATER, and the 3 copies of Nibiru occasionally letting you pull off the removal effect.
Mistaken Arrest was his experimental side card which had mixed results in the tournament. All in all, GP is a competent rogue strategy that will get even better in the future, as OCG's Pit Crew will most likely provide it with some powerful support down the line.
Branded Despia
Veteran player Luka Forjan took a groundbreaking version of Branded Despia to the EUWCQ and it proved effective, netting him a Top 64 finish. His fellow teammate Ben Kreutzkamp also brought a similar list to the German Nationals with good results. Upon first glance, it's definitely not your usual Branded list and one can argue it does a lot of things right. Let's hear his reasonings as to why the deck was built like this.
Luka heavily disliked the standard Branded lists that were popular, describing them as "Youtube combo decks" with 20 good cards and an obscene amount of bricks, as well as barely any capability of going second. The high brick count often results in the deck losing to itself, despite its supposed solid consistency. He decided to trim all the fat such as Branded Retribution, both Bystials, Mercourier, Kitt, Duality, etc., and incorporate the forgotten Frightfur Patchwork engine back into the mix, as it is one of the most potent tools the deck has access to which has been seemingly forgotten in favor of shinier new toys such as Nadir Servant. Patchwork gives you a lot of room to play against Ash Blossom, and nets you powerful untargetable Guardian Chimera plays to decimate your opponent's board and refill your hand, matching well against Kashtira and Runick strategies.
Despian Tragedy and Albion the Shrouded Dragon are maxed out, as they work very well with what the deck wants to do and aren't true bricks compared to the other Branded pieces ran, at least according to Luka. Pot of Desires and Allure of Darkness gives you a surprising amount of push. He mentions that unless the board is truly unbreakable or if you're up against an FTK, the deck has pretty good odds of succeeding even going second. Gimmick Puppet Nightmare also isn't used here, as there's not much reliable setup in his list for it. Even Fallen of Albaz is slightly more reliable here at breaking boards due to the emphasis on going second compared to traditional builds.
It's honestly a refreshing take on the deck, and it'll be interesting to see if Patchwork will continue its European renaissance coming into the new format. Branded as a whole is currently outside of the Top 3 and hasn't been performing as well due to the metagame being quite unkind to it, as the format comes to a close.
Conclusion
Nationals season was definitely a wild ride, and we also had a banlist in the middle of it which didn't overly impact Kashtira's usage in the metagame. DUNE is just around the corner and the 2023 Yu-Gi-Oh World Championships is in August, so it'll be exciting to see which decks will perform given the joint banlist crippling most of the powerful strategies in the format. It's very likely that an unexpected contender will take the crown. TCG Meta Snapshots will return in August, once the dust settles. Until next time folks, Renren out!
