TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown
Deck Breakdown:
- 6 Branded Despia
- 4 Floowandereeze
- 3 Rose Dragon Adventurer Destiny HERO
- 2 Prank-Kids Adventurer
- 1 Sky Striker
- 1 Phantom Knights Adventurer Destiny HERO
- 1 Madolche
- 1 Virtual World
- 1 Tenyi Swordsoul
- 1 Sky Striker
- 1 Drytron Branded Megalith
- 1 Earth Machine Toolbox
- 1 D/D/D
Deck Highlights
Branded Despia
Marcus Brink took 1st place at the Carta Magica Regional with his Branded Despia deck.
For this event, Marcus chose to play the Branded Despia deck featuring the new support from the Albaz Structure Deck. Despia is a deck that has received a lot of hype in the past few months as one of the top contenders for this format. With them finally getting their support, it'll be interesting to see whether or not they can mimic their dominance in the OCG.
Despia is a Fusion deck that uses a variety of spells to summon powerful Fusion monsters. Their strongest card, is the new Branded Fusion which lets them fuse from the deck. Similarly to Invoked, the deck has many ways to get this card through various means. This makes the deck quite consistent and capable of running a respectable number of hand traps. Furthermore, the deck is also able to take advantage of powerful fusion tools such as The Light - Hex-Sealed Fusion and the Frightfur Patchwork package.
The deck's Fusion monsters is what makes them so strong. Their newest addition, Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon, has a non-targeting banish effect that also furthers your development. Additionally, if it leaves the field due to an opponent's card, it also destroys all of the opponent's monsters during the End Phase. This makes the card difficult to deal with as it'll have an impact regardless if it sticks to the field. The deck can also play other powerful fusions such as Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and Guardian Chimera. Dragoon of course, is an infamous card in its own right and Chimera is a solid utility option.
Madolche
Ben Smallen placed Top 4 at the Denver Regionals with his Madolche deck.
For this event, Ben chose to compete with an old but familiar deck; Madolche. Madolche is a mid-range deck that has both control and OTK options. In Ben's case, he chose to play more high-impact control cards to help him set the pace of the game. This is also supported by his consistency cards to help him dig for these powerful cards.
For high-impact cards, Ben plays a few of them. To start, we have 3 copies of Nibiru, the Primal Being and Dimension Shifter. Both of these hand traps are strong as they act as big blowout cards. Nibiru helps keep combo decks in check while Shifter is great for preventing most decks from playing. These cards also have synergy with Madolche as they can both contribute to their strategy.
We can also see 1 copy of Dinowrestler Pankratops in the Main Deck along with 3 copies of Gozen Match. Pankratops is a strong going 2nd card that can also be searched through Small World. Gozen is a powerful floodgate that's strong against a majority of the meta. With most decks not Main Decking backrow removal, it can be a potential win condition if it resolves.
For consistency, Ben chose to play 3 copies of Small World and Pot of Prosperity. Small World is a flexible card in Madolche as the archetype features a lot of bridges. This lets Small World search for almost anything, including your high-impact hand traps. Prosperity is also great as it's one of the best consistency cards of the format. Unlike Small World, Prosperity also lets you "search" for S/Ts which is useful considering Ben plays Gozen Match.
Adamancipator Destiny HERO
Sam Parrish placed Top 4 at the Greenville Regionals with Adamancipator.
For this event, Sam chose to play Adamancipators featuring the Destiny HERO package. Adamancipator is a combo deck that focuses on building powerful boards with multiple disruptions. It was previously a top tier deck in early 2020 before losing Block Dragon to the ban list.
While Sam did run a relatively standard Adamancipator list, there are a few things to note. For one, the inclusion of Rock Band Xenoguitar gives the deck a stronger mid-late game due to its effect to salvage a Rock from your GY. This makes it great during turn 2 or 3 where you can recycle a miner if the game persists. Adamancipator Crystal - Dragite is also ran at 2 where it's usually a 1-of. Sam noted in his deck profile that he likes 2 Dragites as it's one of the best cards to excavate and he wants to see it. We can also see Small World here to boost the consistency of the deck as it can link almost any Rock monster to a miner. Since the deck revolves around seeing the miners, Small World is definitely worth playing.
Something else we don't see very often this format is a non-Trap deck playing almost no hand traps in the Main Deck. While we do see Nibiru, the Primal Being, it's more prominent as a bridge for Small World than an actual disruption. This is quite surprising as most decks this format play a large number of hand traps to try and prevent their opponent from playing. This means if the deck was to go 2nd, you'd need to have enough firepower and/or see Forbidden Droplet to be able to push through most modern boards.
Note: Side Deck not included.
Sky Striker
Michael Colangelo placed Top 8 at the Edison Regionals with Sky Striker.
For this event, Michael chose to play Pure Sky Striker. This is a variant of Striker that's very uncommon this format. While the majority of Striker builds now incorporate the Adventurer and/or Destiny HERO package, Michael chose to play neither. Instead, he chose to play a build featuring many going 2nd cards alongside 3 copies of Mystic Mine.
For starters, we can see 3 copies of Cosmic Cyclone and Lightning Storm in the Main Deck. While Cosmic may seem like a weird card to Main, it is playable in most matchups. With the Adventurer package being so popular, Cosmic can at least usually hit Fateful Adventure or Dracoback. With Dracoback being one of the most popular outs to Mystic Mine, hitting it with Cosmic ensures your Mine stays active for as long as possible. Lightning Storm is a strong going 2nd card that can usually catch an opponent off-guard in Game 1. While its value against backrow decks has been diminished a bit due to the release of Lord of the Heavenly Prison, it's still a powerful card when it resolves and can at the very least bait a negate.
We can also see 3 copies of Mystic Mine lurking in the Main Deck. Mine is an infamous card that's very powerful in going 2nd Striker. With so many ways for the deck to bait negates and disruptions, Mine can usually enter the field uncontested. Afterwards, it's easy for Striker to control the pace of the game and decide when to go for their Accesscode Talker push or just grind their opponent's out.
Conclusion
This week's article is a little different as we're checking out some of the more off-meta picks that have been doing well at official events. While the Adventurer and Destiny HERO packages are still very prominent, some decks can still manage to perform well without them. While these may not be the strongest or most consistent decks, it is worth noting that they can place well on occasion.
Small World is also worth mentioning as it's quickly becoming one of the top consistency cards for specific decks. With searching a key card being so important, Small World is a solid option for any deck that really needs to see a specific card or wanting more flexibility.
