The 15th Official Tournament Store Pack (OTS) has just been released and has been getting mixed opinions from the community. This is due to the weird card selection. Let's check out what were the hits and the misses in this set.
There are 25 cards in the set with three Ultimate Rares as the supposed chase cards, eight Super Rares, and the rest of the cards are common. All cards will be looked over one way or another in this article!
Without any further ado, time for analysis!
You can check out the full setlist here!
Main Deck Goodies
The great Main Deck reprints of the OTS 15 pack are as follows:
Shaddoll Dragon starts us off strong, being the last of the Shaddolls to not receive a foil printing. It still sees play in the deck as a decent way to help clear backrow and is a pretty flexible monster all around. Definitely one of the better reprints. Dragon helps in building long and potent SEGOC chains with the likes of Construct, Squamata, and Wendi. It is a welcome 1-of in most, if not all Shaddoll variants.
Dogmatika Punishment is a stellar reprint and is arguably one of the strongest Normal Traps printed in the game's history. Not only is it able to clear off monsters, but the Extra Deck send also goes a long way! N'tss for the double pop, Apkallone for Ariel shenanigans, Toad for WATER recursion, Titaniklad to keep the resources flowing, the world is your oyster. This is possibly one of the best reprints out of the set, no questions asked.
Noctovision Dragon is one of the best extenders available for Dragon Link, having a lot of valuable traits. The effect to summon itself when a DARK Dragon is Special Summoned is the best one, meaning it is almost always live. In addition, it helps to SEGOC effects like Striker Dragon or Collapserpent/Wyverburster, making them harder to stop. It even gives you a free draw too! Lastly, the GY effect helps in shielding your searchable power traps such as Dragonmaid Tidying.
Extra Deck Treasures
Here are the Extra Deck stars:
Zoodiac Boarbow is certainly a common sight nowadays and is what enables Zoo variants to thrive. With its direct attacking, this card is able to help you go into AA Zeus with multiple materials. This is an extremely strong board breaker and board preventer at the same time! All in all, a well-deserved rarity upgrade for its duty.
Barricadeborg Blocker is another appreciated printing, especially as this one missed out on getting a big foil rarity upgrade in the 2020 Mega-Tins. Blocker continues to be a fine generic DARK Link-2 monster that can even serve as a generic way to discard, regardless if you had a valid card to add during the end of the turn! Its protection effect is also decent and comes up sometimes. A good OTS reprint, no doubt.
Infernoble Knight Captain Roland, while a bit late to the OTS party as INK is a little bit worse for wear, that doesn't mean they're completely out! The deck is still functional and this Captain is a core member. Easier ways to get to Emperor Charles is a huge boon, and acting as a way to trigger his pop effect on the opponent's turn goes a long way. People are also currently trying to solve the deck, as Halq can still lead to "full combo." Speaking of which...
Crystron Halqifibrax is an influential piece in the game ever since release. This Link-2's presence is not to be understated, even though one could say it's not at its full power anymore. It still allows easy Link climbing for most decks, and opens a ton of different routes unlike any other. Whether be it for simple Selene into Accesscode Talker pushes, Auroradon combos, or Accel Synchro plays, it all starts from this one.
Mildly Okay
Not terrible but not excellent either, these ones lead the middle of the pack.
Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon isn't exactly at the front of the meta or anything, but it's an okay reprint. Break Sword, Raider's Knight, or Rusty Bardiche could've been the star of the show, but this unit is fairly playable enough in PK decks. It's also going to look quite sick, which can appeal to some audiences.
Proxy F Magician is a generic Link 2 that'll eventually be a lot more useful than it seems! The Linkross ban does hurt it significantly, as it lost its main combo lines. Right now, it doesn't have a home but might see a future one. Admittedly, they should've given the Super to Splash Mage or Cyberse Wicckid. Those two are a lot more relevant and way more usable overall in Cyberse decks.
Amorphactor Pain, the Imagination Dracoverlord was getting rather expensive as a Ritual thanks to the Dryton hype, though turn skip never really caught on in the meta scene. This could be a sign that they're changing it to be similar to the OCG text. However, only time will tell. Over there in the OCG, this nasty Ritual's effect doesn't activate, making it harder to stop.
Windwitch - Ice Bell gets a fitting rarity downgrade which fits the others, and the new WW support in Blazing Vortex makes the deck a bit better as its own thing, though the new Synchro isn't all too great.
Tri-Wight is okay, albeit there are no notable decks that can make use of it at the moment.
A Warning
Some of these cards do definitely have an audience and a few aren't necessarily even bad, just that they can be considered wasted reprint slots. One could argue that these cards could've been placed in some other side set. With all warnings out of the way, time to dive into the not-so-great stuff of OTS 15. In the end, this is just an opinion piece and you are allowed to like or use these cards however you please.
Disappointment Pile
Mahaama the Fairy Dragon is not a good card whatsoever, a clunky version of the battle hand traps that is mostly just for cheese isn't really going to cut it. Not only that, the card is a TCG exclusive and was released as a common in Phantom Rage. That's an absolute waste! It could've gone into another expensive card that needed a reprint, but we get this. Thanks.
The same applies to the vampire duo of Domain and Shadow. While they aren't bad cards, and their reprints are possibly due to the small vampire stuff we're getting in GOTP, it's still not great. Not to mention, both have high rarity prints that are cheap and look a lot sleeker. That's a double bummer right there.
Rank-Up-Magic - The Seventh One doesn't really have much merit either, and if it did, the other RUMS far outclass it. To add salt to the wound, this card just had a printing in Maximum Gold in PGR rarity.
Amorphous Persona is a pretty underwhelming Field Spell, and Amorphages don't really work as a functional deck. Quite the disappointing choice overall.
Gryphon Wing is there for the meme factor and eats up another valuable slot.
D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation is an insanely powerful and wonderful Equip Spell for Isolde / Warrior strategies, so what's the deal? OTS 15 could've been the saving grace for this legendary card, but no. The Super Rare equip in this set is Cross Over, which is a big gimmick in general.
Melffy Mommy is an underwhelming (but cute) boss monster for its own Deck. It takes way too many resources to get going and the payoff is very mediocre. Joyous and Forest, the two other Xyz in the deck actually do a good job at advancing your plays.
Nostalgia Curse
The Original Armed Dragons are not good and have very little reason to be printed here. Yes, there's support in Blazing Vortex, but the modern iterations don't use these. They're not really all that old, and their prices are not wallet breaking either. Not to mention, Armed Dragon Level 10 is possibly the worst Ultimate Rare in OTS history. Objectively, if you go back and check all the released Ultis in the 15 sets of OTS, they have all been playable to some degree. Even Toon Kingdom, as painful as that is to admit. Dark Requiem gets a pass. It's playable and has some okay moments, this card doesn't.
If you like these cards being in this OTS, that's fine. However, it lowers the overall set quality of the Tournament Pack in general.
On the other hand, one could see this as a marketing strategy and a nudge at the community, but when the main way of getting these packs is competing at Remote Duel events, that's a big problem right there. OTS Packs tend to be either given as entrance or prizes and getting stuff like these is a real issue. The state of the game is in a strange spot due to the pandemic, and this doesn't help at all. OTS 13 and 14 didn't have these many issues with their card choices, and a bit more thought has been put into them.
At the end of the day, all we can hope for is that this isn't a sign of things to come regarding the future of other OTS editions. After all, these packs are a great way to get relevant meta/rogue cards some much-needed foil upgrades, reprints, or help expensive cards to have their prices lowered.
Conclusion
And there you have it folks, OTS 15! Some okay hits, a lot of misses and other disappointing choices. Feel free to let me know which cards you liked out of the selection, and if you also dislike what they did to D.D.R.
